Interactions with God #42
February 4, 2015
Interactions with God #42
The job with the Christian radio station didn’t last very long. Even while living with my parents, it was clearly not going to work financially. I ended up getting a job at a Bank in Nashua, NH called Indian Head bank. It was a clerk job as an Equity Credit Loan Processor. It paid $6 an hour. Yes, and this was way better than the radio station!
I found this job through the roommate of a girl I had been dating. I met the girl at the church I was going to. We had only been dating for a few months, when we started having conflict issues. Ok, in short, we just didn’t get along that well. The core of it was that she didn’t like how forceful I could be. Being half Italian, when I get excited, my hands fly and I get louder. She often mistook that increase in volume for yelling. I would laugh (which didn’t help the matter) and say “no, I wasn’t yelling. Trust me if I was yelling, you would know and so would half the state!” Either way, the relationship ended by the end of 1987. But at least I had a better job at the bank.
In the middle of January, a new girl got hired at Indian Head Bank. Her name was Martha. She was in a management training program, so she spent a bit of time in all the various departments. In our department, my manager had her sit with me for a few hours. This girl was gorgeous! She was also really friendly, but she was way out of my league. She moved to another department after our meeting and I figured that was that.
I would keep an eye out for her, popping up from my little cubicle, as she often went to the coffee area that was not too far from me. I must have looked like a goofy gopher. This went on for a week or so. Then while working a bit late one day, my manager called me on the phone. This was odd since I sat maybe 15 feet away from her desk. She asked me to come over. I popped up and there was Martha standing next to Karen, my boss. Karen had this mischievous grin on her face and re-introduced me to the girl. That started a rather long conversation between Martha and myself as Karen just left us to ourselves, still grinning, all the way off the floor.
Now, though I really liked her, dating a non-Christian is not a very wise thing. That may seem barbaric to someone who is not a Christian, but consider the difficulties it could generate. Yea, not just those either… There are also conflicts of faith that can really draw a person away from God. I didn’t want that, I already had enough to deal with. Now, if Martha would become a Christian… Nah, evangelistic dating is a bad idea too…
Strangely enough, Martha actually did seemed interested in me. Now, the girl I had dated prior was also pretty, so I don’t mean to insult her or anyone else I dated prior, it’s just that Martha, well, yes, to me, she was much prettier than all 4 of them. (Yes, that was all I had dated by the time I was 25, so shut up already!). She also had a strong personality. She wasn’t bothered by my loudness at all. She really could hold her own in a discussion. So we talked for hours that night, until the cleaning staff started turning the lights out. I told her about Jesus and many of the things I had seen him do so far. She wasn’t put off at all. We talked all the way out of the building. At the point where we were going to separate to our parked cars, she asked me what I was doing on Friday night.
I was a coward, I would not have asked her out. I just wouldn’t have and not just because of the non-Christian thing. Here was this unsaved gorgeous girl asking me out. I really wanted to, but I knew it was a bad idea. So, I did the next best thing. I said “Well, there is a baptism service on Friday, do you want to go to that?” Yes, she actually agreed. If that wasn’t an act of God, well nothing I had seen so far was either. She got saved that night in January of 1988.
At the baptism service, I talked with her about the baptism, the whys and wherefores, so did several others. When we left, I dropped her off at her apartment and we talked for a few more minutes. She accepted Christ right there. Then I did something strange. I have never done it before and not since. I told her “now, the devil doesn’t want you to believe in this. He will throw thoughts at you, telling you that what you just did was meaningless. He will tell you that nothing happened.” I just said it. Really, didn’t know why at the time. I even thought it was strange after I left.
When Martha got up the next morning, the thought, that I said would happen, hit her square in the eyes. Immediately after it hit her, she remembered what I said. And that my friends, sealed the deal. Well, for her and Jesus Christ anyway. Our relationship, was sealed a little over a year later.