Where God Wants Us

Since graduating high school, my son has always had a job. He's worked at fast food places, a factory and for a major satellite radio company, which until recently was his favorite job.

In late 2015, due to unforseen circumstances, we had to pull up stakes and move from our home in VA back to WV and my son had to say goodbye to his friends and the great job he had. He was very upset about it and started looking immediately for another job here at home.

As a year slowly passed, he applied everywhere he could think of, even at the same hospital where I was working. I had talked to recruitment and they assured me that he would be called and more than likely given the position for which he'd applied. He was super happy about that and I saw his spirits begin to lift again. But after a few weeks with no phone call and no explanation from them, he went back into his shell of sadness.

Over the next few months, I watched him become more depressed because as he put it, "I can't even get a job at Taco Bell!". He had applied at ALL of the fast food places here in town, although he didn't want fast food anymore, he just wanted to do something.

My son is a hardworker and not one to stay at home all of the time, so he was growing more sullen with each day that passed and I didn't know how to help him. I felt sorry for him but I didn't want him to see me worry, so I put on my sunshine attitude for him. I told him that something would come up and that those jobs weren't where he was supposed to be and the right one would come along. I did agree, however that it was pretty bad when he couldn't even get a call from a place that begs for help and hires high school kids. But I remained my positive self for my son because that's what moms do. I can't let the feeling of defeat get him down.

I told him to relax and wait to see what happened. He really didn't have a choice because honestly, he had applied everywhere in two towns.

One day I noticed the way he spoke about himself changed. He began to put himself down and say bad things about his abilities or lack thereof as he saw it. I told him sternly to NEVER say bad things about himself again. I have always taught my son to believe in himself and know who he is as a person. I have always instilled in him confidence and I've always spoken blessings and affirmations over him. So when his speech patterns changed, I was surprised.

My son and I are each other's cheerleaders.

When I'm down he picks me up and vice versa, so there was no way I was going to allow his negativity to sink into his spirit and become a part of who he was.

I continued every day to encourage him but wondered what the hold up was, until one day when I got a message from a friend. She told me to tell my son about a certain position that was open in a company and that it seemed a good fit for him. When I told him, his face lit up. He quickly applied and waited. He was called for an interview and then for a test, both of which he passed with flying colors, as they say.

I watched him as he waited for the offer of the job with excitement and I knew that he would be okay.

When he got the call about a week later, he was a new person. Gone was the dark, depressed man I had watched grow sadder for over a year. He was replaced with the positive, upbeat, smiling boy that I had raised to be a believer in himself.

He's been working in tech support for Apple since March and he's been promoted twice and has gotten two raises and makes more now alone than he and I would have made together had he been working at a minimum wage job and I at my hospital job. So, in the end, although waiting was hard for him, it was good.

I explained to him after he got the job that if he'd taken one of the other jobs, he never would have applied with Apple, which means he wouldn't have the position he has now. I told him that sometimes what we think we need is not at all where we are meant to be and that if we just wait, the right thing will come along.

I know the waiting was hard for him and I hated seeing him so down all the time, but God knew what He was doing by keeping my son still until the right time came for him to apply for the right job.

How many times has that happened in your life as well?

How many times have you gotten upset because you wanted something to take place but instead it seemed as if you were stuck in the mud and not moving at all?

I know it's happened for me more times than I can count and it's hard. I am in the process of a major life change and career change, (well, not career change as much as a shift) and it's not the easiest thing to deal with. I've gone from knowing what I was doing in my career and having a clear vision to something completely foreign to me. I've traded my secular books loaded with things that are not supposed to be talked about, much less written about, to now living for God, who demands holiness. THAT is a 180 in terms of life and writing, but a 180 for which I'm thankful.

I know it's hard when you are expecting one thing but you get another. I know the confusion that comes along with veering off of the path you thought you were going down and having to follow another one of which you know very little.

Trust me, this is all new to me, but I pray each time I sit down to blog or write my new book, that the Holy Spirit will take control and allow me to write that which is helpful to others. And all I can do is trust Him with my life like my son had to do. Like we all have to do.

If you are experiencing such a time, thinking that one thing should happen but it's not, then stop where you are and breathe for a moment. Get yourself still and calm down. Pray for guidance, listen to what He says and stay in a positive place.

I know you may be saying, "easier said than done", and I agree. It's hard sometimes when you're in the middle of what you feel is a crisis. Trust me, right now as I type I'm not exactly clear on all of what God is doing in my life either, but I'm trusting Him. And that's what you have to do as well.

I wish we all had a clear path laid out before us, a blueprint of exactly what life will hold from one day to the next, but that's not what God wants for us. That would be walking by sight, by what we can see and there would be no need for God anywhere because we would have it all figured out.

God tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that we walk by faith, and not by sight. He wants us to trust His plan for our lives and when it's not clear to us, just remember that what He is sending our way is best for us, no matter what it is.

I can feel His Presence as I type this right now and the overwhelming sense of comfort in knowing He is God and His ways are above mine. I feel peace as I write this and that is priceless to me.

Allow that same peace and comfort to come into your life too. He will lead you if you let Him. Stop trying to make it happen like my son did, or like I have in the past. Relax and wait on God. In the interim, use that precious time to get closer to Him through prayer and reading His Word.

I promise that what He has in store for you is far greater than what you thought you could ever have. It may not even be what you thought it would be, as in my case, but you'll find that it's a WHOLE lot better and you'll have more peace than you ever thought possible.

Trust Him.

God loves us all.

Much love,

Christy

Helpful verses:

Jeremiah 29:11