New Job

Alex got a new job this year.

When God called Alex to work full time teaching at Owens, I had other plans. They did not involve him working 2 jobs for years. It has been difficult to feel like he is always stretched and missing so much. However, he continues to teach part time, because it is what he has been called to do. And I have felt very blessed that I can be home with my kids because he works two jobs.

What really has been most difficult about this, though, is that his full time job was so miserable. It started out as an incredible place to work. And over several years of relational problems in the management, it continued to progress downhill, until it became a toxic and abusive environment. It got almost laughably bad.

It was such a struggle for Alex to go every day to a job where everyone was yelled at, cussed out, blame was thrown around haphazardly, and common sense and reason had completely abandoned the building. Pay, hours and benefits were cut, and you started to wonder how it could get worse before the whole place would just combust. It was hard for him to go there every day, knowing he had been called to something else. We kept praying to see if God had a reason for him being there, but there seemed to be no opportunity for him to benefit anyone there.

He applied for some other jobs, and the results were bizarre and discouraging. Then one day, an old friend of his called him out of the blue and asked him to come work for him. Alex went in for an interview with no expectations, and told them that God had called him to work full time at Owens. He told them he could not promise them any amount of time at their company. He was totally honest. They offered him the job anyway, but could not give him health benefits for 90 days. That did not work for us, as I was a month away from giving birth.

After I had the baby, they called again and offered him the job. He started negotiating with them, but their initial offer was way below what he needed to make for us to afford the switch. He did not hear from them for a while, so he assumed it was another dead end.

As I was coming back to my job as children's pastor from my maternity leave, things were not quite right. I knew I was spread too thin and missing important things both at my job and with my kids. I asked God to fix it, and he told me that I did not need a title and a paycheck to do what he had called me to do. I could still serve and do all the parts of my job that he had called me into, without having a paid position that required more than that of me. It was amazing! Problem was, while I didn't need my paycheck to do God's calling, I did need it to pay our bills. I talked to Alex and told him I wanted to step down from my job. He took a deep breath, said it sounded like God, but there was no way we could cut my income from our budget. So, we agreed to start praying about how this was going to work. An hour later, Alex's friend called him back with a higher offer that, get this, to the dollar matched the difference of my income.

Not only that, Alex has now been working there for over 6 months, and it is a wonderful job! He is treated with a lot of respect, making great friends, and gaining all kinds of fascinating experience in a new area of his field. It is an incredibly satisfying experience to have God provide in the interim. To have everything we need and more, while we wait.