Remember the Summer!

“You know, they’re looking for someone to fill a position _____________,” June told me this summer as we talked about my job browsing. “I wonder if you applied for that position if you wouldn’t get it.”

June (not her real name) knew what she was talking about, because she worked in a similar field to mine.  I wasn’t sure that I wanted that particular position, but it was at least something to think about.  It would be a good job with lots of opportunities. I shared my thoughts with another friend in a similar position.

“You would get that job if you applied,” she said.

A few weeks later, after applying for the position, I was about to grab a bite to eat.  I hadn’t told too many people about my application.  As I walked into the cafeteria, one of my managers saw me and said, “Katrina! Did you hear about the position _________?”

“I did apply for it,” I said.  I was a little shocked that this person also seemed to be suggesting that I pursue the job. Perhaps God does want me to do it, I thought.

There were a few people that I felt certain would not support me applying for that particular position.  Much to my shock, one of them asked me, “Have you considered applying for _________?”

“Actually, I did,” I said again.

This was now the fourth significant person to lend their vote of confidence, and I found myself looking to God in puzzlement.  Did it mean he wanted me in that position?

A few hours after the fourth person approached me, June called me.

“Katrina, I just wanted to let you know that they have selected someone else for the position we talked about,” she said.

“I appreciate you letting me know,” I told her.

I felt calm, and I did appreciate her call.

It was as if I was back in the summer of 2011, shortly after graduating, when I was sure I would get the job at the jail. Oh, I had every human reason to get that job!  A clean record.  Living close by.  Access to the personal phone number of the sheriff.  An interest in troubled people.  Familiarity with the jail from visiting a friend.  An honest and open personality.

Or so I thought.  I never, ever would have expected to fail the lie detector test, or polygraph, and I remember the moment as clearly as if it had been the summer of 2017.

“What was going through your mind when I asked you if you ever used illegal drugs?” the kindly official asked me.

Wired with monitors and sensors and a blood pressure cuff, I could only stare at him from my seat.

“Nothing?”

But he failed me.

Okay God, I thought in disbelief.  I get it.  You don’t want me to work at the jail.  

And what a question to fail me on!  Really.  God must have an outrageous sense of humor.

Now, in the summer of 2017, it was as if I was –again!– in the front row seat watching God manage my job quandary.  It was as if my four colleagues, who knew me well, were a team of people selected by God, moving at his direction.  It was as if he had sent them all to encourage me, just at the proper times, even though they had no idea they were following the orders of an invisible captain.

And yet, it was as if God whispered to me, My thoughts are not your thoughts.  My ways are higher than your ways  or the ways of your four colleagues who thought you were a perfect fit.  Did you think you had every human reason to get that job?  Be glad I don’t base my decisions on human reason.  I see so much more, so much farther.  The time is not right. 

Sometimes we can see God’s hand most clearly in the things he keeps from us!

“Why are you smiling like that?” Marnell asked me when I met him about an hour after June called me.

“Because I’m so happy to know that God is in charge of my job situation,” I said.

I’m sure he was pleasantly surprised.  I like to be in control, and it’s such a struggle for me to give things to God and let them there. Dating, for example, has unleashed a vicious pack of things to worry about it. Thankfully, Marnell patiently and persistently reminds me to keep heading them off to God.
But on this issue?  It’s not such a stretch, because I’ve been here before.  I’ve watched God move in deliberate and unmistakable ways.  I have a ready answer for the worry demon searching for a weakness in my shield of faith.  Remember the summer of 2011, I say, and I am instantly reflecting on the goodness of God.

How well He knows us!  How much He cares!  How creative He is!  How safe we are to leave things in His hands!

And now I have additional line: Remember the summer of 2017!