GOD SURELY DOES WORK …!
… IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!
God has a Plan for each of us. I, of course, have no idea what His Plan was/is for your Life, but I DO know what it was/is for mine. You may already know some of the material I will be sharing with you herein, but it is imperative that I include it as background information for me to be able to prove the validity of the our title in my own life. God’s Plan was/is for my Life that I be a Teacher and a Writer. Let’s look at each of these separately and I’ll explain how I know this to be true!
I was accepted for college in December of my Senior Year in High School. I was, in fact, the first one of my Graduating Class to achieve that distinction. So, come the Fall of 1967 I was off to college at STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK in PLATTSBURGH. Four years later I was preparing to graduate and went into the Placement Office where the following conversation took place:
Me: I will be graduating in a couple of months and I was wondering what I will be able to do with my degree?
Them: Well, you can Teach.
Me: (with a small chuckle): Well, yes, I figured that since I majored in Education. What else can I do?
Them: Well, you can Teach.
Me: (with a little larger chuckle): Well, guess I’ll be a Teacher then!
What had transpired during those four years, though unbeknownst to me!, was that God had me professionally trained to pursue what turns out to be my Primary Spiritual Gift – – – Teaching! (Just this year [2020], Dr. Charles Stanley pointed out in one of his sermons that as soon as you become a Christian the Holy Spirit starts grooming you in your Spiritual Gift as well). So, as you can see, Teaching was part of God’s Plan for my Life. As a result, I was a Professional Educator for over 40 years, most of it in Christian Learning Institutions, and have taught Adult Sunday School for the past 35 years and am still doing so in SUNDAY UNIVERSITY at ONE CHURCH SCOTTSDALE.
Now, in the Spring of 1963 my fellow Eighth Graders and I were discussing what our Plans for Life were. When it was my turn to speak I wowed them, and me!, with the following statement: “I’m going to win the Pulitzer Prize.” At that point in time, God put the desire in my heart to be a Writer, per Psalms 37:4 – Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. I became a writer that day, but wouldn’t become a published author for over twenty years more! Since my first article appeared in print I have penned over 500 Magazine Articles; 4 Novels; 12 + Novellas, 8 Non-Fiction Books, and multiple Blogs. I currently am doing GOD’S GOOD NEWS GAZETTE, an online Christian Magazine (www.godsgoodnewsgazette.com) Blogs at a site with the same name; am working on SEVEN Non-Fiction Books, and an additional Novel!
“Well, Floyder,” I can almost hear you thinking, “that is pretty interesting, but I don’t know as I would call it ‘Mysterious.’” To which I would say, “But wait, there’s more!”
We moved to Phoenix from upstate New York in 1976. As we “settled in” we made friends and contacts, of course. One of those individuals for us was a gentleman by the name of John McKeever who was a Branch Manager for VALLEY NATIONAL BANK. We first were Business Associates, but as time went our relationship became more and more like a friendship. During the early 1980s Chris and I decided that perhaps a career change would be in order, and that Banking might be a good field for me to go into. This was partially true because her brother, Roger, was in Banking and was progressing nicely up the promotion ladder.
So, every time I met with John I would say, “John, any chance I can get a job – – I would be happy to start out as a Cashier.” And every time he would say, “Floyd, I can’t start you as a Cashier.” His comments always confused me and frustrated me, as I thought that since I was willing to start at the lowest rung of the ladder he shouldn’t keep saying he couldn’t me hire for that post. The problem was, I was applying Grocery Store jargon to the Banking Profession!
See – – – in the Grocery World, the person who checked you out was a Cashier. However, in Banking, the person who deals directly with the public at the window is a Teller! The Cashier is the individual who checks out the Tellers at the end of each day and is somewhat responsible for the day’s Cash Receipts! What John and I had, as Strother Martin said in COOL HAND LUKE, was “A failure to communicate.”
Now this is where the “Mysterious” part comes in. At no time did John say, “Floyd, you have to work your way up to Cashier,” at which point I could have asked, “Well, what can I start as then?”
Similarly, at no time did I ask, “John, what about me makes you feel you can’t even start me on the lowest rung of the Banking ladder?” at which point he could have said, “Floyd, Cashier is not the lowest rung on the ladder” and we could have gone from there! You see, what God did was disallow those thoughts to come into either of our minds, because HIS Plan for my Life had nothing to do with Banking. His Plan was for me to be a Teacher and an Author!
The GOOD NEWS for today is that when your career doesn’t seem to be going the way you think it should, the reason is pretty apt to be because that’s NOT what God’s Plan for your Life is! Remember, when we give our Heart, and Life, to God it is His to do with what He may, and what He does is none of our business!