INTRODUCTION
I had just moved my family across country and found myself without a job. I had researched the role, vetted the manager, and going a well-respected brand with a long track record of great shareholder returns. I moved to a city which was larger and more economically vibrant than the one I left. Never mind that I knew approximately 5 people in the new town when I moved and my teenage children weren’t thrilled with my career plans. It was all going to come together as I stepped out in faith. Only to see the ground I had stepped out on become unsteady under my feet due to a multi-billion dollar international reorganization that I couldn’t have seen coming.
So, I networked like a mad woman attending breakfast meetings, seminar luncheons, and dinner events. I applied to jobs. I sought out groups, advice, and did “all the right things,” to try to bring order and control back into a chaotic and out-of-control situation. Through it all, I was a bundle of stress and anxiety. I continued charging hill feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. God eventually prepared for me a place to land, but I came to the new role weary and wounded, at my own hand.
Years skipped ahead, successes begat successes and opportunities led to opportunities. One role and set of accomplishments leading to the next. Until, the private equity firms that owned the established, industry-leading company I had joined, decided to force a reorganization that had me on the outside looking in. The rug was pulled out from under us, again.
But I was different than the woman who had been unemployed years before. I vowed to do thing differently. My goals for the transition included not only finding a new job, but being a better wife, mother, friend, daughter, and faithful child of God. I saw rightly that God was giving me the rest I refused to take before and I didn’t want to waste a second of it. In addition to selective networking and job hunting, I added spiritual direction and a discipline around prayer and Bible study. This quieted me and left me softer and more pliable for what was ahead.
As I began this transition, I took a former colleague on the invitation to come down to the offices of my former employer for lunch. The offices I had relocated and was so proud to join years ago. I hadn’t been back for all that time. After lunch, I sat in the street-level coffee shop and journaled my gratitude about all that God had been doing in my life, career, and in my family. I committed my job search to His glory. I think took off on a walk towards the shiny headquarters of a company that I was preparing to interview with to pray around the building. As I walked, it started to rain. Not just sprinkle or mist, but it was a full-on downpour. As I worried about my suede dress shoes and calculated how many more blocks I had to travel, I felt like the Lord spoke to me and said, “Don’t worry, my child. You are waterproof.” And to further cement his reassurance, on the train ride home, with my hair and clothes still dripping wet, there was a busker who sang in Jamaican-inspired rhythms the song “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone” and then he segued into Bob Marley’s “every little thing’s gonna be alright.” I just smiled through my tears and knew that despite the storm I was feeling, that I was in good hands. Good hands that created another role for me and brought it all about in His perfect timing, orchestrating another relocation, a gathering of family, and opportunities to serve that would have not been possible.
Through these experiences, I learned three very important lessons:
· God was preparing a place for me.
· God was preparing me for the place.
· And that my preparation was going to be the gating function that slowed down or speeded up the first.
This study is what I wished I had when I embarked on that first job search, where I felt frantic and filled my days with frenetic activity driven by fear. This is meant to prepare you for the place God is creating for you. The title of “Seek First” is a quote from Matthew 6 which reads:
31 “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
You are more than a job seeker. You are a kingdom seeker.
Of course, you should access all the resources, advice, events, and relationships that exist in your field, in your industry, and in your community to identify doors of opportunity that God might wish to open for you. This book won’t give you advice on how to make your resume stand out in an applicant tracking system or the best techniques for networking. Throughout the Bible, God called his people to action. He wants to co-labor and co-create with you to find you the next job opportunity. He knows what you need and is already working things for your good.
This book is about getting you closer and more aligned to the “hiring committee of one” that is our God. The God capable of miracles. The one who can create jobs out of thin air and deliver them to you as a sign of His love. But you should know that you serve a God who is much more concerned with the shape of your soul than the title and logo on your business card. He wants to use this transition to spend time with you and to help you better hear His voice.
God knows that life is all about transitions and they are critical junctures which can build or destroy our faith. It has been said that everyone is either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or about to find themselves in crisis. And even if the change you are going through isn’t dramatic enough to be called a “crisis,” that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting or singe. I pray that this book has arrived at a time when your hands and heart are open and that is an encouragement to you in your journey!
P.S. We have created a community online at [seekfirst website] where you can read victory stories of faith and job hunting success. We invite you to post your own story for publication and to put prayer requests on the prayer wall for others to see and lift up in their own conversations with the God of the universe.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book can be used as a daily or weekly individual devotional or the foundation of a group gathering or study.
Each lesson contains at theme (called a Promise) followed by a short Biblical-based lesson (called a Passage). This lesson is then reinforced in a Practice, borrowed from the spiritual disciplines that have been used for centuries. These might have you take action or think deeply about a topic. And finally, there is a place of reflection in each lesson, called Pause, in which you can journal your prayers, insights, or next steps.