Interactions with God #60

I had stayed in contact with a co-worker from AT&T named Tom Rogers.  Tom had left AT&T and started working for an insurance company, called Sentry Insurance.  Knowing my tight money situation, he tried to talk me into working there as well. He even got the manager of his office to reach out to me. 

I did talk to the guy, his name was Bob.  I just didn’t think if that would be a good thing for me to do.  I am not a pushy kind of sales guy.  From what I had heard, in that field, being pushy would be necessary in order to succeed.  Nice as he seemed, I told him no.

Weeks later, I had another God dream.  In this dream, I was working for the insurance company.  I had been there for three months and was excited about soon getting paid a lump sum of money. That was pretty much all there was to it, and then I woke up.

I called Tom that morning before I went to work.  I told him about the dream selling insurance.  I figured he would get a kick out of it.  Once I finished, he excitedly began to tell me how their training process worked at Sentry Insurance.

The company would pay a new hire to train for three months, until they got their insurance agents license.  During that time, the new hire would be able to sell insurance, but they could only get commission on everything they sold after finishing the three months.  As he explained the process to me, it did sound exactly like the dream I had.  I told him I would pray about it that day.  I went to work as usual when Dave came to pick me up.

When I got home that night, Martha said that Bob, Tom’s manager, called.  The timing was odd.  I had not talked to him for a month or so and here he was calling the day of the dream.  I don’t believe in coincidences.  God is in control.  When something odd like that happens, I look for His direction in it.  Since I had talked to Tom that morning, it was very possible that he let Bob know that I might be reconsidering.  That of course, would explain his call.  However, if Tom had not said anything, the “coincidence” would have been way too curious.  I called Tom. Tom said that no, he had not told Bob, he had not even seen him all day. 

Hummm, this was interesting.  I really did not want to sell insurance. Yet, God knew the only way I would do so was if He pointed the way.  After talking to Tom, I was rather convinced He just did.  I called Bob back and told him I would interview.

I got the job selling insurance for Sentry Insurance in late 1992.  I was paid a salary for a year.  After that year, the salary decreased drastically each month.  The idea was that the commissions you now earned would replace the salary.  It really wasn’t a bad plan.  I did make decent money for that year.  However, my skill in selling insurance matched my interest in insurance…and therefore, my career in that field was, unfortunately, not going to last.