Ever since spring semester of college ended a few months back I’ve been on a pursuit of becoming employed so that I could earn money to purchase all the needed gear for The Race. Well here a little over a week ago I found myself in a position where I was absolutely desperate to find work with training camp being three weeks away & I still haven’t been able to purchase the needed necessities (hiking pack, tent, day pack, etc….).
So after being called in to businesses for interviews & days going by without receiving a call back I decided to result to Craigslist. I replied to ads for cleaning crew members in Hoover & Bessemer Alabama, & I even thought about going into telemarketing (if you know me you know this is not my cup of tea).
After a little more time, I came across an ad that read “WANTED: carpet shampooers needed. Compensation: $1200 Bi-Weekly” I felt that I had struck gold! I just knew that by working here for only two weeks would allow me to purchase all my gear for The Race. I quickly replied to the ad & received a call back the next morning (Monday) telling me that there were interview openings that day.
Later on that day around 1:30 P.M, I went through my interview & received a call back the same night saying I had the job & to come in on Wednesday for my first day of the three day training course.
On my first day of training, I was alongside about 15-20 other newly hired individuals. We were educated on the basics of the job: the description, the pay, & the requirements.
The job description called for me & the other employees to be split into teams, ride in company vans (driven by team managers), travel door to door to scheduled appointments, & to show off/try to sell the company’s product. I was told that if I sold a product It would only be extra money on top of the $1200 I would make even if I didn’t sale anything.
Pretty easy right? A quick legal $1200, perhaps more, sign me up!
After three days of training were over, I left feeling satisfied & extremely stoked that I had come across an awesome opportunity such as this one.
This Monday was my first official day on the job, & this was when I found out everything I had been told in the training period was extremely far fetched. There was no guarantee I would make a paycheck even if I worked every single day. I found out that there were super sketchy requirements needed to be met before the 2 week period was up in order for me to receive the $1200 base salary that I was initially promised. I felt really weird about it but I stuck because I knew I needed the money.
The next day I was matched up with my team of 4 people, all who had been working there before me. We drove all around for about 9 hours trying to sale the companies products, & it was not a success (meaning I worked an entire day without earning 1 cent).
However, I was able to do something that will forever be more important than making money will be. I was able to hold hands & pray for one of my teammates. In fact after my team saw me pray for him, I was asked to pray for one of my other coworkers. WOW! In one night, I was able to hold hands with people who were still relatively strangers & pray for them! HOW AWESOME IS GOD?
I left work that night in compete contentment & AWE knowing that God had used me to do exactly what I had asked for earlier as I pulled into the building’s parking lot. The next day (yesterday) as I headed to work at 9.A.M, I asked God for the same exact thing. At this time, my mind is not even focused on work, because at this point I know that this isn’t the job for me but I’m super excited about the opportunity to share Jesus. Later on throughout the day, we made the decision to take a break from driving & stop into one of my teammates church for Wednesday night service & let me just say this, “when God gives confirmation you know it”. Every single thing the Holy Spirit had given me over the past two days to say to all these individuals were the exact same thing the pastor spoke on in the service. All I could do was repeatedly thank God for using me to deliver a message that was obviously meant for the individuals on my team.
On the way back to the office so that we could all return back to our personal vehicles & call the work day to a close, I felt a peace floating throughout everyone that I didn’t feel when I first met them the prior day.
There was not one product sold that day by any of us, but that didn’t matter because I knew at that moment God only sent me amongst these individuals for one reason & that was to be a confirmation in His name for all they had just heard in the service.
I realized that sometimes God puts us in a spot to accomplish a task that is much different from what we may have thought. I initially came to make money but I left not even caring about the fact that I had earned 0 dollars, drove countless miles back & forward to work for almost a week, & that I still wouldn’t be able to purchase my gear like I first thought. Just the fact that I was able to share Jesus was a WIN in my book.
I knew deep inside that it was not meant for me to return the next day so after returning back to the office, I said my goodbyes & I left completely honored to have been used in such a way. There was one thought in my head as I drove home late last night with a grin on my face………..that thought was simply “MISSION COMPLETE”.
