Jesus at Work... in More Obvious Ways than Usual

I am very excited right now. For one thing, last week, just before Thanksgiving, Jesus gave me two jobs - not just one. I have a part-time job that starts any day now, and a full-time job that will begin on December 10th. 

But that's not the only reason I'm excited. I'm also excited because of the way that both of them - especially the full-time position - came about. What happened so clearly demonstrates that Jesus is at work. Jesus is at work (working) even at work (in our careers and vocations). What Jesus did to provide me with my full-time position reveals His hand more clearly than what He did to provide me with my part-time position, and I'd like to share the story with you. 

I don't remember what Sunday it was that I introduced myself to someone who was visiting our church for the first time, but it was within the last couple of months - whenever she first started to attend the Gathering. I haven't known Anna any longer than that. And yet Jesus has already used her to greatly encourage me and help me find work. 

After meeting, Anna and I ran into each other a couple of times in a couple of different places. We'd see each other at Walmart, or at Panera Bread, and I feel like we ran into each other somewhere else, too. One of the times that we encountered each other we decided to take a little time to get to know a bit more about each other. And I shared with Anna that I was looking for work. 

Anna's job used to involve helping people to pursue jobs. She would help them with their resumes, with interview preparations, etc. So she asked whether she could have my resume, suggesting that she might have some connections who would want to see it. We had this conversation on Wednesday, November 7th - I know the date because my emails show that I thanked her for the conversation that day, even though I didn't end up sending my resume to her until Saturday the 10th. 

Saturday, November 10th, was also the day that Anna told me (actually, before I sent my resume to her) that she had seen on the news that a local company was planning to hire upwards of 200 people. She thought of me when she saw the news and recommended that I look into it. Which I did. And then she offered to revise my resume a bit. Which I accepted. She said she would email it back when she was done. 

In the meantime, I went online to find out more about this company Anna had recommended that I look into. Not only were they hiring, but they were having an Interview Day on Tuesday, November 13th - just three days later. And to register for the Interview Day, they wanted applicants to submit resumes. I wasn't sure what to do. I knew that Anna had volunteered to re-work my resume, and I really wanted to submit the updated version she would produce. But at the same time, she was doing the revision just to help out. I didn't really feel comfortable going back to a friend I had only met recently and saying, "Hey, I know that you barely know me and you've already gone way above and beyond anything that I would expect of a new friend, but would you mind getting that resume done within, say, the next two hours so that I can submit it with my application?" So I started to revise my resume myself, keeping in mind some of the ideas that Anna and I had already talked about. 

My revisions were a waste of time. I hadn't gotten very far into them when Anna's revised version hit my email inbox. The revised resume was a thing of beauty (at least to a nerd like me). Once again, my new friend had exceeded expectations. So I was able to submit the revised resume with my application on Saturday and get an interview slot set up for Tuesday. And then Anna offered to conduct a mock interview with me the next day after church. By the end of the mock interview, I was feeling much better about being prepared for the Interview Day - and also for any other job pursuits I might have ahead of me. I was not anywhere close to thinking that this would be the conclusion of my job hunting.

So then came Tuesday. The Interview Day started off with a tour of the company facilities, including their on-site food court, gymnasium, and basketball court (and people were even playing basketball, so I assumed that it wasn't just for show - unless all the guys on the court were models hired to convince prospective employees that they would actually get the chance to play basketball on their work breaks). No company is perfect, but this was definitely looking like a place where I might enjoy working. 

But then something amazing happened. Seriously amazing. The tour guide said something that caught me totally off guard and convinced me that this was where Jesus wanted me to work: "I have found that this is a really great place to build friendships. Some of my closest friends are people I have met since coming to work here." 

And now you're thinking I'm loony. Why would I think that this was amazing? I mean, it's a nice thought. But something that convinced me that Jesus wanted me to work here? … Just wait, you're going to think I'm even loonier in a minute, and I don't even care, because what I'll tell you is the truth whether you believe it or not. But first of all, even on the surface, I loved what she said because I love to be with people. I love to build friendships. I love to get to know people, to spend time with people, to enjoy life with people. So what she said would have encouraged me to keep pursuing the job just for these reasons. It definitely told me that this opportunity had the possibility of becoming a place where I was really comfortable. Still, that's not what convinced me that Jesus had been planning for me to work here. 

So here goes. What convinced me was that I recognized what she said. I'm not talking about deja vu. I'm talking about recognition. I had heard her say it before, somewhere between two weeks and two months earlier. In a dream. 

Yes, I'm serious. I don't have many dreams, and when I do, they're usually pretty lame and unimpressive (don't just take my word for it - ask people who know me whether they've ever heard me talk about a dream that was actually interesting). I never assume that my dreams mean anything. But I remember this dream, because when I woke up from this dream where a lady said exactly what I heard on the company tour, I felt just about positive that Jesus had just showed me where I was going to work. I felt so positive about it that I literally prayed this prayer when I woke up: "Jesus, did you just show me where I'm going to work? If that's where I'm going to work, then why didn't you give me the company name? If you had given me the company name, I could print off my resume and go knock on their door and get the job!"

But Jesus hadn't given me a company name. So I kept quiet about my dream and didn't tell anyone. After all, maybe I'd just had too many no-bakes the night before, and maybe they'd created a strange impression in my heart's response to the dream. I decided to put it out of my mind and just prayed to Jesus that, if my dream ended up being fulfilled, I would recognize its fulfillment and follow His lead from there. 

And then my dream was fulfilled right in front of my eyes. At this company that I hadn't even heard about until three days before. Before I had been through a single interview. I felt like looking around and asking whether anyone else had noticed that Jesus had just tapped me on the shoulder and said, "This is it. Get ready to go back to work." I had the sense that my interviews could be total fails and I would still end up with the job. 

But my interview that day was not a total fail. It was brief, and it went really well. Before I left the building, I had been scheduled for a second interview to be held three days later that same week, on Friday, November 16th - before even a full week could pass since being told about this company for the first time. 

I started to tell people at this point that I thought Jesus would be giving me the job. I admitted that Jesus might have other plans, despite the dream. Maybe He was just trying to show me that He knew my every step before I had even taken a step, and that He was walking with me through the whole process. That was an encouraging thought, too. But I was fairly certain that He would be giving me this job, and I wanted Him to receive the honor if I did end up with this new position because of how He was working the whole thing out for me. So I decided to put myself out there a bit and began to tell some people about my dream and how, because of its fulfillment, I thought that Jesus was going to have me hired with this company. That way I would have witnesses who could verify that I wasn't making the dream thing up after getting hired. If you're one of the people who leans toward questioning whether I'm telling the truth about this dream stuff, contact me and I'll give you the names and contact information of a few of these people I talked to so that you can verify it for yourself. If you doubt my story after that, I guess you'll just have to decide that I'm part of a group of people devoted to stooping to deliberate lies, conspiracy and deception - whatever it takes to make Jesus look good. Believe that if you want, I guess. If that ends up being your perspective, I honestly don't know what else I can say to you except to beg you not to assume things like that about me and my friends. We love Jesus, but that doesn't mean that we want to promote His honor through lies and distortions. Why didn't I tell non-Christians? Honestly, probably because of stupidity and fear. Stupidity, because it would obviously have verified my story more fully if I had gone ahead and done that and so I was stupid not to, and fear, because I didn't want to face the possibility that my faith would be mocked if the job didn't come through - even though I felt 99% positive that this was Jesus' job for me. So yeah, stupidity and fear. Stupid fear. Shoulda told a non-Christian or two. I'm kicking myself on this one. I have a number of non-Christians in my life who I believe will vouch for my character as a truth-teller, if you want to at least check into that, but none who can vouch for this particular dream story. 

So I had this interview coming up on Friday. I was excited. I took the preparation materials the company gave me and studied up. And Jesus did some of His own work, too. 

When I got there on Friday, I discovered that I would actually have two interviews. One of the questions I was hoping would not come up was the question, "So, why the career change?" I mean, my resume showed that all of my education was focused on ministry (bachelor's degree in pastoral ministries, master's degree in theology) and that my last two jobs were ministry positions. So I knew that it was a question that I would likely be asked, but I didn't want it to come up because the most honest answer was to tell my interviewers about the changes in my life over the past couple of years - about how my wife turned away from our faith and was now leaving me and I didn't feel right about being in the ministry because of these changes. And I didn't want to talk about those things because I didn't want to look like I was trying to win pity points or anything like that. But, of course, the question came up. And one of my interviews took a totally unexpected turn. 

Since I don't know whether my interviewer would want me posting his name on my blog, we'll call him Sam Johnson. The interview was comfortable and going well. He asked the question I didn't want him to ask, I answered honestly with the truth about my life's changes, and the interview went on normally for a little bit. And then he stopped and said, "This is probably going to go down in history as my most challenging interview ever."

My heart stopped for a second. "Challenging" is not the term I would like to hear someone using to describe my interview with him. At the same time, he wasn't telling someone else that the interview was challenging. He was telling me. I took that as a good sign, but I still had to ask:

"Challenging how?"

His response was even more startling: "Are you sure your name isn't Sam Johnson?" At this point, I'm thinking What on earth is going on here? He continues, "… because I feel like I'm interviewing myself." And he pauses. I didn't know what else to say, so I kind of joked and said, "Well, that's good. You're hired." 

Why did he say this? Well, it turned out that we shared a good number of similarities in our life experiences. He was also a believer. He had also been in ministry. His wife had also left him. He had also pursued a career change. The interview was challenging because he identified too closely with me. And since he had been a good fit for the company, it was hard for him to conclude anything other than that I would be a good fit, too. 

And I couldn't help it. I was sitting there in amazement, recognizing just one more way that Jesus had arranged everything so that I would end up with this particular position at this particular company at this particular time. 

I had another interview that day, and it wasn't astonishing or anything. It wasn't with someone who identified so closely with me, and I don't even remember whether our interview included a discussion of my recent life experiences. So between this other interview and the first one that I had on Tuesday, I know that two of my three interviewers didn't face the challenge of identifying too closely with me. And yet Jesus gave me favor in their eyes, too. This interview concluded simply with my interviewer saying, "I think you will be a good fit here," and then me agreeing. 

And that was it. From then until I heard back from the company, it was just a matter of waiting to hear whether I would be hired or not. I told more friends about the dream. I told people about the interviewer who identified with me so strongly. I told them about how smoothly everything had gone. And I told them that I expected to be offered the job soon specifically because I believed that Jesus wanted it for me. 

I didn't have to wait long. On Tuesday, November 20th, the company's HR personnel called to offer me the position. 

The position that was pointed out to me a week and a half earlier,

at a company that I didn't know about, 

by a friend Jesus put into my life only within the last couple of months,

who generously revised my resume,

and who conducted a mock interview with me, 

confirmed by Jesus 

through a dream fulfilled and 

through an interview from heaven.

The only thing that makes sense is for me to step back in amazement and say, "Jesus, thank you. You are good to me."