On Tuesday morning, February 3, I was awakened at 6 am by a phone call from my wife Melanie. I was out of town on a trip with my dad, looking forward to a relaxing week together in southern California. Melanie’s distraught voice made me realize something was very wrong. Her message was brief: "I think I’m going to lose my job today." Sure enough, a few hours later she was informed that she was being laid off.
I felt helpless. I also felt like a Class A jerk: here I was 1,500 miles away—on vacation, no less—and where I needed to be was at my wife’s side comforting her and helping her through this scary time. On top of that, I began to realize how difficult it could be for her to find a new job. After all, she worked in the ever-crumbling financial industry. How would we pay our bills? Our budget relied on both of our salaries. Would we have to move out of the house we loved? Would we have to sell a car? Would I need to find a career in the for-profit sector so that we could make ends meet?
The questions swirled around in my head for days, and I truly had no idea what the future was going to look like for the Carters. In addition to the many anxious thoughts and plans, I began praying for God to help Melanie find a new job. It was one of the times in my life where I was truly persistent in prayer.
Ten days later, I got another call from Melanie. "I’ve gotten an offer! I’ll be able to stay in the same company, continue in the same field, and keep the same pay." I couldn’t believe it. God had come through! And so quickly!
I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was all God. Melanie’s years of relationship-building and networking gave her a large pool of people to contact about open positions. Her amazing work ethic and numerous accomplishments made her a highly desirable employee. But at the end of the day, in spite of all those things, it was up to God to determine our future. Many qualified, talented, hard-working people have been unemployed for months, and we knew that was a very real possibility for us. But in His goodness, God chose to come to our rescue and provide for us in exactly the way we had hoped.
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