In July, I noticed 3 postings on LinkedIn from a Fortune 100 corporation in the area (so no relocation would be required). These postings looked like they'd been written just for me. So on a Thursday I figured why not, and applied for them. Monday morning came around and I'd not heard back yet. Just for fun I went looking at that company's full job listings again, and found a fourth position that looked even more written for me than the other three had been. I thought about applying for it, but I had another idea. 21 years earlier, as a senior in college, I had prayed that God would give me only one option. God came through and the answer to that prayer fit me like a glove for almost 2 decades. Then, when I was considering if I should give up that sweat job, I prayed again and God made it clear moving to Kentucky would be a good idea. So once again I thought I'd give God a chance to prove Himself at work in my life and in my career in a wild and crazy way.
I had applied to a Fortune 100 corporation. Their IT department alone had a hundred open positions. I'd applied for 3 of them, and was now eyeing a fourth. But I figured, if God wants me to work here, and if He wants me to have this position (which totally read like it was written just for me), then I don't need to apply for it. I don't need to use my strength and my experience to pursue this job. God will give it to me. To prove it, I'm not even going to tell them I want this position. Instead, God will arrange for them to call me, prompted (humanly speaking) by one or all of the three positions I did apply for, but then they'll tell me "yeah yeah, you applied for these other three, but we've got this other position that's an even better fit for you." Sounds nuts, right? That was the idea.
Guess what. No joke, that same afternoon, I got a phone call. It was a recruiter for this Fortune 100 company. I confirmed for him who I was and he said to me "I know you applied for these three positions, but I've got something for you that I think you'll like even better." You can guess which position it was. Of course it was the exact position I'd found that morning.
So in late July I had a couple interviews for that position, and they went great. The hiring manager wanted me to start ASAP. My wife and I were still thinking it'd be great if I could finish up the summer just being dad, and not have a job to worry about. But I wasn't going to tell my hiring manager I wanted to wait a month (until September) to start. Guess what happened. There were internal complications and they couldn't let me onboard until the day after Labor Day (which is the first Monday in September). So, God gave me the whole summer off just as my wife and I had wanted.
The moral of the story is not "pray to God and He'll give you anything you ask for." What I am telling you I did here was I prayed that God would show Himself at work in my life, and He did. The answer to my prayer was not getting the job, but rather the amazing story of how He chose to give it to me. Next time you have a major life decision, I hope my story here (and 22 years ago and 2 years ago) is a good example for you to give God an opportunity to show Himself at work in your life. I look forward to hearing what that looks like for you someday.