God is good! That seems like a true statement, a rather obvious statement maybe, but it is something that we all need to remind ourselves of from time to time. It is very easy in this troubled world to forget this simple statement. That is one of the reasons that, as Christians, we live as part of a community. So that when we forget God’s goodness someone can remind us of it; maybe with a personal testimony of the goodness of God.
I have such a testimony to tell. In September I started to train to become a Maths teacher, knowing that teaching was a worthwhile and stable job. However as time went by I realised that I wasn’t enjoying it. After thinking and praying it over for a week I decided to withdraw from the course. So at the beginning of November I found myself with out a job. This doesn’t sound like a very promising start to a story telling of God’s goodness, does it?
Anyway, concurrent with this lose of my job I was also preparing to take my final exam for my doctorate – so I had plenty to keep me occupied. About a week after I decided to give up the teaching I received an advert for a job at the university I’d attended – a job I was qualified for, in a general sense (it wasn’t in my area of research but close enough that an application wouldn’t be rejected out of hand). I applied for the job which started in January but didn’t hear anything, so I applied for another similar job at a different university. Since then I haven’t seen any other positions at universities which have interested me to apply.
I passed my PhD! This was certainly evidence of God’s work, no way did I deserve to pass. Whilst still trying to work out how on earth I’d passed, I got an email from the second university I’d applied for offering me an interview. A couple of days before I went to the interview I final heard from the university I attended, also offering me an interview, a week later. Through out this time I was praying that God would provide a job for me, that he’d put me where he desired – but that this would also be somewhere local. I attended the first interview and although it went well, I realised that I’d made a few mistakes and I also met the other candidate and found out that his background was actually in the area that they were looking for.
Learning from my mistakes, I went to the second interview a week later. I’d spent more time preparing, and although I was called to go to the interview half an hour earlier than I was expecting – I felt a great peace through out the whole thing. It helped that I new the interviewers, but that doesn’t fully explain how relaxed I felt. Anyway I left the interview knowing that I had done my best and that it was in God’s hands now – whether he preferred me or one of the other candidates in this position.
The next morning I woke up to an informal email – saying that they had offered the job to another candidate with more relevant skills, but it was a close thing. If the other candidate rejected the offer then they would gladly offer the position to me. They would keep me informed. This was a few days before Christmas and I realised that I wouldn’t hear before the new year, at the earliest when the university re-opened. I tied up all the lose ends, cleared my desk and went home for Christmas. I continued to pray that God would, in his mercy,
give me this job, knowing that there was nothing that I could do.
After Christmas and the new year I still hadn’t heard anything more from either of the jobs. So I emailed the place where I’d had the first interview and was told that, as expected, they’d offered the job to the other candidate. It seemed that I’d got neither of these two jobs, so I started looking again for jobs, however nothing really struck my eye. I even signed up for an agency – and have been waiting for them to call me to talk about what opportunities they knew about.
This morning, I woke up to find that I had a missed call from the agency. I called them back – they were busy but would call me back in a bit. Whilst I waited to hear from them I checked my email. It was then that I found out that I had been offered the job at the university I’d attended, the second interview. I found out that the person they had initially offered the job to had turned it down in favour of another position. I accepted the job – in the place I desired.
God heard my persistent prayers, and when it was out of my hands, he gave it to me, as a gift – one I didn’t deserve. God is indeed good! Hallelujah!
I have recently had a holiday in the lake district, a national park known for the beauty of it's surroundings. It inspired me to write the following poem. I hope that you enjoy it and, possibly, that it make you think.
