Yes. I have officially resigned from my amazing job with my amazing company. My last day is February 6. I’ve managed to tell some people, but it’s still going to come as a surprise to others.
So the big question is, Why?
When you’re young, it’s hard to look back over your life and see God working. He’s there. That’s undeniable. But you haven’t lived enough to be able to put the pieces together and see His hand working in your circumstances. You have to get a little older before you can do that.
Because He does. He’s involved in every aspect of our lives, and He can make something beautiful out of the moments you think are unredeemable. And even if you think every decision you make for Him is taking you in the exact opposite direction you want to go, one day you’ll wake up and find yourself teetering on the edge of your dreams. And you’ll have no idea how you got there. You were just following God, doing your best to keep in step with Him, and then you opened your eyes, and the desire of your heart is right in front of you.
Today’s verse is Psalm 138:8.
The Lord will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me.
God has plans for us, you know. And He’s working them out one day at a time. I’m a planner, so I like to know what’s coming. But God doesn’t always let us in on that part of His plan. We just have to follow Him and live the way He’s told us. See, He’s been working in my life since I was a very little girl, preparing me for this moment since before I even knew what I wanted.
I wrote my first novel when I was 11 years old. I’ve been a writer since before I knew it was a possible career field. When I graduated from college and there were no writing jobs available, I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I did what I could and ended up in a library, where I honed my web managing skills.
Little did I know that was the very skill I needed to get my next job—the job I’ve been at since March 2010. I started out as a Web Content Specialist, but it was pretty obvious soon that my writing skills were far superior to my web knowledge. So the company created a position for me—Creative Writer. It had a lot of responsibility. A lot of pressure. I learned so much about marketing, about advertising, about copywriting and legal responsibility. And plumbing, of course. I learned more about plumbing than I ever thought I would want to know.
March 2015 would have been my five-year anniversary. I had planned to work at this position for ten years. Well, God had a different plan.
About a year go, He started poking me. Hard. Trust me, He’d say. And I did. I increased my giving. I volunteered more time. But He still kept telling me that I wasn’t trusting Him enough, that I wasn’t trusting Him with everything. I did everything I could think of that would cause me to put myself in His hands—everything except walk away from my job. And that’s what He was calling me to do.
Seriously? Walk away from the best job I’d ever had? Where I get to make a living as a writer? Scratch that. Where I make a good living as a writer? You may not realize this, but writing doesn’t really pay very well in normal circumstances. Walking away from a great job with good people and awesome benefits and retirement and Keurig machines—that’s just crazy!
Every argument I had, the answer was the same: Just trust me.
So maybe I’m crazy. But that’s what I’m doing.
I will work my last day at my current job on February 6, and from there, I’m going to write. I don’t know what I’m going to write at this point, but I know who I’m going to write for—my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I’m going to trust that He will provide for me.
God has had a plan for me since before I existed, and He’s been working it out slowly. He’s given me the friends and the connections I have for this. He’s given me the education and the job experience I have for this. He’s given me the skills and the talent and the gifts for this. He’s been preparing me for this my entire life, and it’s time I stopped dragging my feet.
He wants me to trust Him? I will. With everything. My future, my dreams, my life. And we’ll see what happens.
Is God asking you to trust Him today? Maybe He’s not calling you to quit your job. Maybe He is. Whatever He’s asking you to do, do it. He’s worth trusting. My experience with God is that He never does things the way you expect. His way is always better.
For anybody wondering, even though I will no longer be “gainfully employed” after February 6, AlwaysPeachy will continue, Monday through Friday, for anyone who wants to read it. And if anyone is interested in having me come speak for their church or Bible study or knitting club, I’d be glad to do so. I work for coffee. 😉
Always Peachy 