Our Disappointments are God's Appointments
After graduating from Portland Bible College, I wasn't certain what I was supposed to do next. But I was pretty sure it wasn't working an entry position at Old Country Buffet, the new restaurant opening up. My mom had taken me to Vancouver's Employment Agency to help me find a job, and we had ended up at Old Country Buffet, where an angry-looking red-haired manager handed me an application. After 4 years of hard work and dreams of breaking the bread of the Word, it was anti-climactic and flat out depressing.
Not having any better options, I took the job and accepted my fate. What I didn't expect was to have fun. There is something exciting about launching anything new, and the owners and managers' enthusiasm soon became my own.
I worked days with a wild child named Christy, and along with the rest of the predominantly young staff, she made the job fun and memorable. I was also allowed to improve some systems, which is one of my all-time favorite things to do, though I didn't know it back then.
As life marched on, I eventually went back to school to become a teacher, and held other jobs more related to that goal. My friend and I kept in touch for awhile, but in the absence of Facebook and the internet, that was short-lived.
We got together one last time before I moved to NYC. She had married, and given birth to her first daughter and I was moving away. I had no way of knowing how our paths would eventually cross again.
I spent 10 years in New York City, before deciding to move back to the Pacific Northwest. By then, the internet was up, running and fairly sophisticated and when I found myself looking at schools in Vancouver, I saw my friend, all-grown up and teaching 3rd grade at a happy looking school.
When we re-established contact, she gave her boss my resume, which eventually led to my current teaching position. The entry level job at Old Country Buffet which initially was a great disappointment became the catalyst for future success.
It's a scenario many Biblical characters are familiar with. Joseph's betrayal by his brothers, a particularly cruel disappointment, led to his appointment as "Second in Command" in the nation of Egypt and his gift of leadership saved the nation from starvation. Mary and Martha's disappointment at their Lord's arrival after their brother's death, led to the greatest show of power that had been seen up to that moment in history, Lazarus' resurrection from the grave.
When I was little, I used to get this magazine called "Bread for Children." One month the title was "Our Disappointments are God's Appointments." I have found this to be true. Teaching jobs in this area are highly competitive, and it can be tough just to land an interview. God planned ahead for me, and gave me the contact I would need 16 YEARS before I would need it. What a great Dad.
What disappoints you in life right now? Can you envision it redeemed by God? Have you experienced a false accusation and borne up under it, like Joseph? Could God be up to something? How has God surprised you in the past by redeeming disappointments?
God's ways are not our ways. Sometimes our darkest circumstances are meant to bring glory to God once He turns it for our good.
Photo Credit: By Snade6 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons