Testimony – Don’t put God in a box

Don’t put God in a box. Why? Because He’s God. That means His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. But as human beings, can we put Him in a box? Yes. This could be because of:

• Lack of faith – Matthew 13:58: “And He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief”

• Sin – Hosea 5:15: “I will go back to my place, until the people admit they are guilty, until they come looking for me. Yes, in their trouble they will try very hard to find me”

• Leaning on our own understanding or operating by what makes sense to us – 1) Exodus 13:17: “God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt”; 2) Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death”

• How our brains work, drawing parallels, assuming that because God moved a particular way in the past means that He’ll move that way again in future – God appeared to both Moses and Elijah at Mt. Sinai; to Moses and the Israelites, His voice was loud as thunder, but to Elijah, it was a still small voice – same venue, same God, different ways

My testimony builds on this last point. In this post, I told you the testimony of how God came through for me with my MBA admission many years ago now. In that experience, one thing I learnt was persistence in knocking, which I believed played a role in helping to secure that admission. Fast forward a couple of years and I was faced with a situation that forced me to look for a new job. There are a couple of testimonies to tell about how God has been leading me since the MBA but I want to focus specifically on what’s related to the title of this post.

So, I suddenly find myself needing to look for a new job because of geopolitical risks that affected my employer. To be clear, I was still employed, which itself is a testimony, as over 90% of my team was laid off but God granted me such favor in the sight of my employers that I was one of the only two people retained on the team. Hallelujah! As the news of the development spread about what had happened at the firm, a few companies reached out to have conversations – another blessing! Additionally, I reached out to a company that I was particularly keen on exploring an opportunity with. Ultimately, this job search process lasted a whole year, with over 50 meetings and discussions but I want to focus on two specific opportunities. Let’s call one Option A (the company I reached out to), and Option B (the company that reached out to me).

With Option A, I had a series of interviews and even did a presentation that I thought went really really well. But eventually and rather surprisingly, they declined to make an offer. Suffice to say, I was very disappointed and sad on receiving the news as I thought I performed quite well through the interviews and had internal champions there. The process with Option A commenced about the same time that Option B reached out to me. But remember that I reached out to Option A, so that’s where my mind really was. I don’t believe words can adequately capture express how sad I was. Nonetheless, I continued having conversations with Option B, as it was a great alternative. When Option A declined to make an offer, Option B became my main option. But they were quite slow and would go quiet for many months, which was quite frustrating. NB: there were some other opportunities being explored but for the sake of this post, I focus only on these two.

After about five months passed since Option A declined, I suddenly mustered the courage to reach out to the team lead to have a coffee. What was I thinking, facing up to the person who declined to hire me? I remembered my MBA admission journey where through persistence in knocking, the door finally opened. I thought that perhaps this is what was needed here again, and God was probably testing me to see if I had learnt the lesson from many years ago. It also required a lot of humility on my part to reach out again. Anyways, I met the gentleman at their offices but guess what, their answer remained the same but I gained some additional context on their reasoning. This left me puzzled. God did it this way before, why isn’t He doing it this way again? Since I had no more cards to play, I had to leave all with Option A in God’s hands.

All the while, Option B remained in the wings. They never said no, but would just go quiet for long periods then reach out again to continue the conversation. Eventually, things gathered momentum very quickly with Option B. They made me an offer, we negotiated the details, they fast tracked my visa process and literally one year to the day that my former employer called us to a room to deliver the unfortunate news, I received the confirmation of my visa approval!

Lessons

• All this humored me as to how specific God seemed to be, showing me again that He’s in charge of the time of my life, even dictating how long I spent searching for a new job. (Coincidentally, when I was looking for a new job after my MBA, it also took one year…hmm…).

• I also learnt that because God moved in a particular way in the past does not mean that He will move that way in future. He is God. He made the bird, but in so many different forms and colors that they are innumerable. Therefore, God can do whatever He wants to do, however He wants, whenever He wants.

• For us, we just need to learn to walk with and trust Him day by day. Things may seem unclear for a period and we may be wondering if we’re making a mistake; but as long as we’re walking with God daily, trust me, everything will work out eventually. Rom 8:28

• Remember that Option B, who eventually hired me, reached out to me as the news of what had happened spread. Basically, though I spent one year with anxiety in my heart, in reality, the answer to my prayer was already there. Further, considering that my previous job was also an answered prayer, I often reminded myself that God knew that the company would face these challenges in future. Thus, for Him to have brought me there, means that He must have had a plan for how to move me on to the next one. And surely, He did! As my employer’s issues began, the solution immediately presented itself, just that I didn’t know the answer to my prayers was already in front of me. This reiterates God’s promise that we should trust in Him with all our hearts, that He’s a good father. It also reminds me of the angels’ statements to Daniel in Daniel 9:23 (The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God) and Daniel 10:12 (Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words). God hears our prayers from the moment we start to pray. We just have to learn to trust Him with the timing, as we are so limited in our understanding; but being God, He sees all things and knows the end from the beginning.

• Ultimately, faced with competing options, I relied on my opportunity assessment sheet to help objectively assess the pros and cons of each option vis-a-vis what really mattered to me in the decsion I was trying to make.

As I write this, I’m still in a maze about some other areas of my life (it’s like I keep moving from one maze to another) but I’m so confident in the God who I serve that He who has begun this good work in me will complete it unto the very end.

When I wrote Principles for waiting on God and dealing with uncertainty a year ago, I made this statement: “I’m currently going through another season of disappointments and this story is still writing itself but I’m hopeful that in due course I’ll be able to tell you all about it.” This is me sharing the story of God’s goodness because He has again brought me through to the other side of a trying season and will bring me to the other side of the current ones. Praise be to God!