Extraordinary Victory

 The day started with my husband and I drinking coffee together in the dining room when we see his parents wandering around in the yard?!   There had been some conflict over the cat and they were over making sure the cat was ok. I joked to my father in-law how my life was boring compared to his life. Then my day happened?  

Like seriously I'm such a weird person.  Things happen in the most bizarre fashion.  I'm either on the hill top or hidden away in a cave, there never seems to be a normal in between.  God is so at work in my life.  Turning my heart and my life towards his purposes, so I'm choosing to roll with it.  Listen for his voice and hear him in the everyday.

So I was heading out on my normal weekly job hunt/check-in.  For those of you who don't normally read this blog, I've been looking for paid work for about 2 years.  Believe me I knew getting married and moving countries and changing careers would be hard work, but it's been tremendously more difficult with the backdrop of a recession.  I'm literally 2 years into my new life here and starting to loose my cool.  Let alone trying to live in CA on one part-time salary has been a challenge.

Really I'm a very chilled out person, I think I've got decent endurance, but then I've always been successful in my workplace.  Perhaps it has been one of those defining things I've clinged onto idolatrously.  I'm not sure.

 I head out in the car (that I get to use once a week) I got across town and pulled over to text my sweet husband.  The car would not start.  It kept ticking over and I assumed it was the battery.  There was going to be a tight crunch with time as he was off to work and I didn't have anyone to jump the car, let alone know anyone who could figure out if I needed a new battery or find out exactly what was wrong.  I sat in the car, in the heat - I couldn't open the doors as there was a lot of traffic and the windows are stupidly electric (I've always hated electric windows).  I stood outside and got stared at. I thought how this was going to be another financial ding and how I might loose out on a  job because I didn't make it very far on my excursion for the day.  Then I stopped and remembered to ask God what he was up to, what was he teaching me, or at least try and go with the flow and see what he was going to do.

My husband showed up and jumped the car and headed off to work.  In lieu were his father and a friend, two sweet old guys!  They figured out exactly what was wrong and how to fix it.  In fact I even got to see how you can tell if a car battery needs replacing.  They are made up of 6 cells of fluid and if the fluid is bad in one or more cells the whole battery needs to be replaced.  Sometimes the battery is fine and it's just the charging mechanism of the car or a bad connection of wires that can be easily adjust ( I've done the later before myself).  I really enjoyed finding out that this guys 60 yr old wife was a car racer!  Also he can trace his ancestors back to England and so merrily I prattled on about my homeland, to a happy listener.

My father in-law smiled at me and said 'Your day is getting interesting'.

I had to laugh, I had requested interest in my day and it came.  While they were fixing up the car, my mother in-law swung by and took me to get a drink.  I really didn't know at this point how much it was all going to cost ( remember I've never done this in America before).  I'm so grateful my in-laws were there.  I would have been pretty much stranded with no one to call and no idea of the best place to get a battery or where to start.  

Eventually everything was sorted I gratefully picked up the car but realized my timeline was severely delayed.  I'd promised to visit a friend who has a new baby, so I decided to go there first.  We spent a few hours catching up and I listened to her birth stories and looked at photographs whilst I shared my latest news, that I had been invited to join the music therapy program at the local hospital.  

When I eventually left I was physically feeling exhausted, I had to go home at least for half an hour and eat and drink something.  So home I went, checked some emails and was about call in on a job when the phone rang.

It was an employer calling to offer me a job!!!!!  Whoop!! Whoop!!  I was so ecstatic I obviously accepted and after the phone call screamed and jumped up and down for a good ten minutes.  I know some of you know what this feels like, especially if you've been out of work for a long time.  I honestly want to hug the manager!  I'm so grateful that someone is giving me a chance!  The best part is I did it myself.  I didn't get an in from a family member or friend (although I'm grateful for those too), it was just really really cool to win, to actually be the person chosen out of all the applicants based on my abilities and career history and interview etc...it is a good feeling, but really because I think The Lord has an adventurous purpose for me being there, ultimately it all leads back to Him and his plan.  It feels good knowing I pursued what I felt he spoke to me about and he brought it to pass.

I know it's God's grace and I promise not to get puffed up, as I know it will be hard going from working at home to an early start professional workplace.  It was just 2 years of rejection was starting to take it's toll and it was worse when a friend or family member tried to help me get a job and I was rejected, it affected them and me and on one occasion a relationship.  The person thought I had done something really bad to not get the job they had recommended me for (when in fact the person hiring had someone else in mind altogether and was just interviewing me as some sort of courtesy).

You maybe amazed by the lack of compassion people have and comments made to me over the last two years, perhaps I'm just lazy, if I really wanted a job I'd get one.  Others talked about how they could never stay at home not doing anything (when they made good money in decent jobs someone else had helped them get).  In an economy that is so bad, in a  region that really doesn't have enough jobs for the population, it shocked me how unkind some people have been (not just to me, but to the poor and homeless, families living in motels).  For some reason we think we are superior because we do things the 'right way', guess what folks, you and I are not superior than one another or our fellow man.  It's Gods grace on our lives that we have anything, skills, abilities, jobs, careers, families, knowledge of the Lord.  Yes work with what you've been given but ultimately the Lord overseas us and our puny ways.  We are truly not as amazing as we think we are.  In Christ alone we are sons and daughters of the living God!

I'm so excited to get all my work gear, my documents processed, my name badge, meet my colleagues, have work clothes.  All of it, seriously, talking to clients and customers, engaging with the public and doing a great job.  I'm super excited to work again.  Have the fragrance of Christ out there in the world, not just cultivating it in my sweet home.

This means I'm putting my book publishing career on hold for a little while.  It's good, it means I can come back to scripts with fresh vision and motivation.  I can test the consumer temperature, really see what people are spending money on, what people are interested in.  What is the pulse of the times.  It's still a goal of mine, but the financial input from this new job means I'll have more to save and invest into publishing.  Maybe this will lead to more open doors.

So I'm trying to go with the flow, be grateful, even for the things that seem uncomfortable or not what was in the plan for the day or week or month.

I have a lot of people to thank too: My blog/email friends who have inspired me to create and take time to reflect, help me oragnise my home and keep sane in solitude.  My new church family who have been like an oasis in a dessert.  Really good, kind,sincere, authentic people.  Our two pastors who have been really kind towards us.  I'm thankful to my family, for praying and for my husband supporting me in love, my journey to employment has been his too.