And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28 KJV).
My 18 year old son was recently fired from his first job, and I was devastated. I took it much harder than he did. I began to ponder the above verse and to recall many hard times in my life that appeared to be absolutely devastating but God used it for good. My purpose of this post is to encourage those of you who are going through very difficult times. Be faithful to God, and he will see you through. Here is the list:
1) In 1982 I was fired from my first bookkeeping job. Shortly after that I was hired as a temporary employee at IBM at twice the salary.
2) On February 10th, 1983, my brother committed suicide. This caused many of us to seek answers and to seek God. Shortly after this tragedy, two of my other brothers became Christians. I saw God move in ways that I never thought possible.
3) On February 10th, 1985, a girlfriend decided to end the relationship with me. I thought that I was going to marry her. I became very depressed and I began to evaluate where my life was going? Shortly after this I decided to go to Bible College in Southern California where I earned my degree in teaching and eventually met my lovely wife.
4) From 1993-1996, I became very sick. In 1993 my wife was pregnant with our first child, and my sister was dying of leukemia. We were managing an apartment complex in gang infested Long Beach, California. One of our tenants was wanted for armed robbery and attempted murder. When I would go home to the apartment at night, between the screaming, the helicopters, the loud rap music, and all the hassle of managing the complex... all of these things was over the top for me. The stress that year was too much for me to bear, and I became very sick. I saw all sorts of specialist and doctors but no one had a clue what was wrong with me. I was still teaching at the time, and a couch was placed in my room where I would lay down between periods. Through all of this God gave me the strength to continue teaching at the Christian High School. When I would go home at night, I would collapse on the couch. I could only muster enough strength to teach. I could do no more. The flu like symptoms went away after about a year, but the headaches remained. We wanted to leave Southern, California, and so in 1994, I was able to find a teaching job in Oregon even though the economy was lousy and they were laying teachers off due to measure 5 passing in Oregon. I was hired as a math teacher in Riddle, Oregon.
5) In 1996, I was laid off in Riddle Oregon due to measure 5 and budget cuts. Although, there seemed to be some political reasons behind the decisions as well. We also had just bought a house. I applied for teaching positions all over the state, and received four job offers. I eventually took the job that was closest to the coast in a much better area (Tillamook, Oregon) which I have been working for to this day. I also teach at the community college which has given us a great supplemental income. We rented our house in Riddle Oregon and sold it seven years later for about a 50k profit.
6) From 2001-2004, we rented a house with a spectacular ocean view. In 2004 I received an eviction notice from the landlords stating that we have an unlawful pet in the house and that our children are unruly and destroying the property. This is coming from landlords who only visited that house once in three years. And if anyone knows my children, they would have thought that the second part of that comment must be a joke. It was no joke and we had to even take the landlords to court for our deposit. We bought our second house and sold it three years later for about 50k profit. The selling of these two houses made it possible to buy a very nice house in Netarts, Oregon.
7) Our current situation is that my son was fired from his first job working as a custodian at the same school district that I work. Everyday my son would come home from work, and I would ask him how the job went. Did they say anything good or bad? Did they tell you were you need to improve? He said no and sometimes he said that they told him he was doing a good job. One day about two months after he started the job they told him that they wanted to meet with him. During the meeting they discussed with him all of the areas he needs to improve on. He had no clue before this meeting. They told him that they would give him three weeks to improve. They only gave him two before he was fired. During that time he worked hard and would stay longer than they expected to make sure the job was thorough and done right. One time the head janitor said he was doing a good job and would e-mail the principal about how good of a job he was doing. I was very frustrated and angry at what happened and sought some answers but to no avail. They could not tell me anything due to the fact that he is an adult. This whole thing was handled very unprofessionally and I was very angry and sad. I am still waiting to see what the Lord is going to accomplish through this experience.
There have been many other experiences concerning mariage, family issues, finances, etc.
