Surrender – Jordan Howerton Band
In my early 20’s, right out of college, I worked for a small company in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. The owner was a man with a large ego, who created all kinds of drama with the women who worked in the shop. I don’t want to say negative things about him, but suffice to say I did not enjoy working there. With a degree in electrical engineering, I assumed it would be fairly easy to find a better job, so I began to search. After 3 months of searching and submitting resumes, with not so much as a bite, I was frustrated. In my frustration, I reached out to God and began to pray about it.
On a particularly frustrating Monday morning, nearly at my witt’s end, I went to lunch by myself at a local restaurant, where I prayed – and vented – to God about the situation. While I was having lunch that day, a thought popped into my head that perhaps there was a reason God wanted me there. In honest humility, probably for the first time in my life, I surrendered my will for His will. There, in the restaurant, I silently prayed that if there was a reason He wanted me in that job with those people that He would show me the purpose. I specifically remember saying that I was willing to stay if it was His will.
Exactly four days later, on Thursday, I was on a sales call for a small company in the East. I met with the Operations Manager, selling the products that I was being paid to sell. While we were talking, he mentioned that he was looking to hire some engineers. I mentioned that I happened to have my resume with me in the car. He asked me to get it, so I did; he interviewed me, and offered me a job on the spot! I told him that I’d want to give two weeks’ notice before starting, so we agreed on a start date, and I left, elated!
The next morning, I gave my two weeks’ notice. The owner decided I didn’t need two weeks, and told me I was done immediately. He had someone in the company drive me home, since I had a company car. When I got home, I called the man who had offered me the job and told him what happened, and he asked if I could just start the following Monday.
I realized in that instant that my three month wait (which seemed like an eternity at the time, but in retrospect was a vapor) was so much more about getting my heart right with God than it was about finding a perfect job. I had been relying on my own skills to find a job. It wasn’t until I completely surrendered to God that he gave me what I was looking for.
In many of his books, Mark Batterson says that God wants us to get where He wants us to go more than we want to get where we want to go.
I’ve been on a pretty incredible journey. You may think that, having had that surrender – God moment all those years ago would have changed my life forever – and it did! But, in my humanness, there are still times where I forget to completely surrender to God. Let me just tell you that God is still in the miracle business, my friends.. and He is looking for us to surrender so that He can bless us.
This scripture hangs in my bathroom so that I can see it every day. To me, it doesn’t mean that God just gives us everything we want… but when we delight in His perfect timing and perfect plan, our desires align with His desires and He is able to bless us.
You are about to hear some of my incredible journey – that all started when I was able to surrender my will to His will. Wow. what a crazy ride!
Oh, and a shout-out to the Jordon Howerton band, who played worship for the 2016 LIFE conference for the Christian Missionary Alliance church – this song is amazing – it had such an impact on our youth group and leaders while we were there, and I play it often still today – I hope you enjoy it!
Blessings,
SB
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