Interactions With God #120

It has been 6 years since I last wrote down and posted an Interaction With God. To be honest, I just got discouraged. I have still been in the wilderness, with way too many false hopes of it ending soon. God's testing must get harder, much like exercises in order for our faith muscles to grow. It isn't fun, but it is necessary to become the best God can make you.

So, nothing big happened on my birthday in 2011. But not long after, my family and I were invited to a dinner get together with a past coworker/friend from Hewlett Packard. He left HP a bit before I got laid off and started a consulting company that would partner with HP. In early 2012, Satyapal invited me to come into his office and meet with him and his brother. 

I correctly suspected that they wanted to hire me to do sales work for their company, called  iDeliver. While in the meeting, they did ask if I would be interested. 

I had sold software training services for years, but had barely sold software, especially to the scale that the HP software would sell for. As a partner, Satyapal's company could resell the HP Testing software, offer consulting services and support, including training. I felt it was a bit over my head so I offered to do the job for a great deal less than I had been making, on the agreement that they would help me learn rather than ride me for any potential slow start. They agreed and I started in late January.

The job started of decent enough, I liked working with the team. At that time, all of them were from India, but having already being friends with Satyapal, it wasn't much of a culture shock. 

Satyapal was a nice enough guy it seemed. He would chat with me a bunch and go on and on about stories of people in and from India. He explained over and over how lying to get what you want in their culture was common. He prided himself on how he would use certain clever tactics to catch lies from Indian potentials in interviews. 

I did find it facinating as he would explain how and why they would create a false work and education history. What I didn't realize for months was each time Satyapal was telling me about the commonality of lies within his country of origin, that he was doing so to me as I worked for him. This made working for him really difficult.

As the stress of realizing that he had been lying to me increased, I also struggled with the job as Satyapal would not help me and instead took over everything I started. I was becoming extremely frustrated.

As tension increased, Satyapal decided I could work from home most of the week. Sometime in late 2012 while working from my kitchen table, I took a break and pulled out my bible to read for a few minutes.

At this point I had been reading the book daily for many years due to that vow I made at a Bill Gothard seminar. 

When I read Scripture, I rarely pick and choose. I like to read whole books front to back as it works better to gain understanding from the context. I only say this to show how completely unlikely that this interaction was to happen "naturally".

Timing is a really clear sign that God is in control, not just of my decisions, but also the decisions of others. Coincidences often show this. I do not believe anything happens by chance...no not anything. 

I had been reading the book of Isaiah for a few weeks or so as I generally only get through one or two chapters a day. At the time of this reading, I was in the book of Isaiah, chapter 40.

I am classic ADHD so I have a hard time reading normally. With the stress of the current events, I had a conservative talk radio station on as well as a pair of small headphones playing worship music while I read the chapter. Yes, oddly enough, it does help me focus on what I am reading.

Eventually, I got to Isaiah 40:31 "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

There is nothing odd about that, and the passage is very encouraging for a child of God when they are struggling like I was. Yes, it was encouraging, but not just because of the verse. As I got to the verse in my reading, at the exact time, and I mean exact, there was a commercial playing on the radio station where the announcer on the commercial quoted that same verse. 

Yes, that is impressive, and you could say "Well, what an interesting coincidence." But that is not all. You see at the exact same time...word for word, I do not exaggerate, the worship song I was also listening to, sang the exact verse!

Three in one moment. Word for word as I read. The odds of this are way beyond just "happening". I realized it immediately as I completed the passage. God spoke. I heard.

Isaiah 40:31 - But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Yes, He still promises to be there for His. He will give us strength, and He WILL complete His work.

Hmm, timing. God is God, I am His, and as disappointing and frustrating as life can be, I have nothing to be concerned about. I will win, because He is the one competing.

God will never lose.

Never.

Started going to Authentic. Met Jacob.  Ben & Christine moved to Dallas. Got friends now.