Long Time…. No blog.
Ever have a desperate urge to tell people how you feel and what you’re
going through but life has thrown you a curve ball and you are in the midst of
something that you have no control over and it has you questioning everything?
Well I have. The
reason I haven’t written in so long is because I am on strike from my job as a
lineman at a major telecommunications company.
I feel I can finally write about it because it has been announced that
the company and the unions have come to a tentative deal and they expect the
strike to be settled with us to return to work this week.
First things first. Thank you God, Jesus and the Holy
Spirit! I have been praying for a fair settlement and the reports are that is what
we are getting. Last night, I closed our
recovery meeting in prayer and I included my requests for the strike to end.
The very next day the report that a settlement is in the works has been
released. Thank you for answered prayer,
Lord.
When you go on strike, the pressure starts. The regular
routine is disrupted. The company
canceled my family’s health care on May 1st. Savings had to be used to meet our needs that
normally are covered by my pay check. Your sense of purpose is called into
question. Supposed friends question the
union’s motives and tactics. You wonder
if the company is going to try to break the union. People I used to work with crossed the picket
line a few weeks in. A rumor was
circulated that the company was going to send us a letter telling us to report
to work in 5 days or be terminated.
Our success was anything but guaranteed but I had faith from
the very beginning that God would provide for me and I had nothing to fear. The
way I saw it was that there was corporate greed on one side and working families
asking for dignity on the other. We were
on the side of righteousness. It was
only a matter of time for things to follow God’s perfect will.
These comments might cause some to scoff and say that I
would have lost my faith if things had gone badly for the union; that my faith
is only as good as my good fortune. That’s
not the case.
You see, I believe in God’s plan for my life, but the
thing is, I don’t know specifically what that plan is. So when the strike happened, although I
honestly thought that it would be settled and we would go back to work, I also
decided to be open to the possibility that God may have other plans and that I
should look to be prepared for anything by remaining faithful and abiding in
Christ.
The strike made me question my future in general and
whether or not God was calling me to do something else. The first week I updated my resume. Rethinking your career at soon to be 44 years
old can be somewhat terrifying. The
number one consideration is my family. I
have a wife and kids to support and we are used to a certain lifestyle and
although I might have vague dreams of working for the Lord, I didn’t find
anything that would pay close to what I was making with the company. I didn’t really feel pulled to anything
either so I saved my resume but stopped the job searches.
Go on strike can really mess with your head. Your emotions are in constant flux. You have anxiety about finances, anger at the
company scabs, and listlessness caused by your normal routine being
derailed. So I had to find something to
do that wouldn’t have me obsessing over the strike to the point where I would
be contemplating sabotage or doing violence to scabs. Nice Christian, right?
I also didn’t want to cause my wife and kids
to worry about the strike or to disrupt their normal routines since I would be
home a lot more.
Three years ago had enrolled in Ray Comfort’s Way of the
Master –Online School of Biblical Evangelism. The school entails witnessing
requirements, audio teachings, and 101 online lessons. Previously I had only managed to do about 40
of the online lessons so I decided that I would use my extra time because of
the strike to get all 101 done.
Much to my delight I also discovered the local library
was nearby so I got a library card to feel legit and started frequenting the
place to focus on my goal of completing the 101 lessons. The library quickly became my beloved refuge,
providing me with a place to go and my family with a sense of a normal routine
restored.
I’m happy to report that I
have successfully completed all 101 lessons and only have a few audio teachings
to listen to and I will have met all the requirements for “graduating”.
All those lessons on evangelism really convicted me of
the need to increase my evangelistic efforts to share the gospel. So I have been distributing gospel tracts
like crazy and went out last Monday with my mentor Bob Costello and his
evangelism team to the streets of Hudson to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I have to be intentional in sharing the
gospel more going forward because it really is what the Lord would have us
do.
I often share Matthew 13:45-46, where Jesus said 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking
beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and
sold all that he had and bought it.”, to point out that we should
be willing to give everything to be a part of the kingdom of God and that it is
our honor to serve the one who paid for all our sin and who gives us eternal
life.
If you are not sure of your salvation or have
never given yourself to Christ, I urge you to do so now by saying a simple
prayer to make Christ your Lord and Savior.
I pray that people see this blog and give
themselves to Christ.
In closing, I would say it is such a relief knowing that
the strike is ending but I am so glad that I used the time I had to continue to
prepare myself to serve the Lord more.
So even
if I lost my job and had to struggle to find a way to live, I would continue to
follow the one who saved me. And even
though I am going back to work soon, I will continue to prepare myself and to
remain open to follow the plan that God has for me, as it is revealed to me from
day to day.
