“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust God
In April 2018, I spent much of my time praying for my dad as he was faced with a major crossroad in his life. He worked an executive operations position that entailed him overseeing multiple stores on the East Coast and also in Canada. His position was being restructured and in order to keep his job he would have to work based out of Seattle. The problem was that my family lived in Virginia for the past 17 years, and we weren’t going to drop everything we had in Virginia and start new.
While all signs pointed to moving on from the job, consider the fact that this was a job he had faithfully worked his way up to, starting as a security officer for the same company. This was also a job that paid very, very good money, and a job that he loved and admired. The intimidation factor of being a 51-year-old entering the job market for the first time in 20 years certainly didn’t help either. He had known about the transition for a long time coming. In fact during the last few months that he was at the job, he had basically been Seattle based, returning home for the weekends and flying out each week – which was only a small step up from the routine traveling he did for the job. Although it was no easy decision, and he didn’t want to leave, he trusted God and decided to move on from the job.
Fast forward a few months later and I found myself driving my dad to urgent care after he experienced a chest pain that showed no signs of stopping, despite taking multiple medications. I’ll never forget the feeling of my heart sinking in my chest as an urgent care worker sought me ought in the waiting room and proceeded to tell me my dad was having a heart attack and they’d be transporting him to an emergency room for surgery.
After a successful surgery, the nurse monitoring my dad explained how the heart attack was caused from a combination of stress and the collective toll that all those hours of travel took on my dad’s body. She explained that if my dad had still been working his previous job, he’d likely be dead.
Fast forward again to present day, my dad is healthy and well. He’s also a month into his new job working regional security for a great company, with great pay, benefits, and most importantly, he’s here in Virginia with the rest of our family.
We’re often told to trust God, but we don’t actually think about what that means until we’re really faced with adversity, or we’re forced to concede the fact that life is really out of our control. What seemed like a burden in our limited view, was actually a blessing — a blessing that saved my dad’s life.
Trust God and lean not on your own understanding, even when you’re faced with uncertainty that pushes you out of your comfort zone.
— TJ Davis
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