You never know how God will change your perspective on life’s circumstances. You can interpret things one way, but by the time God finishes with you, your understanding of “why” and “what” has completely changed and, of course, with God involved, it’s always for the better. 

In 2016, I was terminated from my job. Losing your job is bad enough, but it’s even worse when you know that even though you worked hard and did your best, it wasn’t enough because you weren’t willing to compromise your morals and “play the game.” 

I’ve never been the type of person to make excuses. I take responsibility for my actions no matter how difficult that may be. So, when I was terminated, although I was devastated and disappointed to say the least, I knew that there was nothing that I did wrong and nothing more that I could have done to keep that job.  I would later find out that me keeping that job was never part of God’s plan for my professional growth. 

God had given me a dream about my termination almost a year before it happened. It happened exactly as it did in my dream, from the people who were there to the way the layout of the office had changed from time that I had the dream. The only aspect of my termination that was not included in the dream was an email that I had received the night before I was terminated.  Without going into detail, the email was basically outlining my setup to be terminated and the people involved. I wasn’t supposed to have received the email, but I later realized that was another way of God trying to prepare me for what was about to happen. 

After losing my job, I was embarrassed and felt like a failure, more to myself than anyone else. I’m a planner and I already had the trajectory of my career (which definitely did not include a termination) all mapped out. So, in my mind, when things didn’t happen as I had planned, I failed. Even if it wasn’t my fault, I’d failed because I let “them” get the best of me. I also felt like I’d failed my family; we’re a two-income household and both incomes were needed. What were we going to do? And we were in this situation because I allowed other people to dictate my future and my destiny. This is what I thought, but I would soon find out just how wrong I was not only in my thinking, but in my focus. 

As the weeks went on, I kept feeling a strong urgency to journal my experience and study God’s word as it relates to work and career. I wanted to know what God had to say about career planning and how I should view my career objectives and goals. The more I studied, the more it became clear to me that my priorities were way off when it came to my career and the way that I viewed work. Instead of putting God first in my career, I was putting both my and the company’s mission first. I wasn’t seeking His guidance as my strategy to a successful career. It was this revelation that not only made me see that it was necessary for me to be released from that job, but more importantly, to be released from the mindset that I was allowing to keep me imprisoned in a job that I knew deep in my heart wasn’t good for me or my career.  I was putting limits on my faith in what God could do and the plans that He had for me in my career. For some reason, it took something like this to guide me to God and ask what He wanted me to do regarding my profession. My focus started to become less about my wants and goals and more about serving Him in the workplace. 

When God released me from my limited thinking and when I accepted His guidance, many doors of opportunity began to open for me that I never thought were possible. I became a best-selling author and speaker. I started a mentoring program and ministry for entry to mid-level professionals that also includes a discipleship program to develop Christ-centered, kingdom-minded professionals so that God is always first in the career guidance offered. I’ve also been blessed with amazing job opportunities and am currently working with an organization where I am afforded the opportunity to bless others using the gifts and skills that God has given me. I’ve had the opportunity to learn from and form relationships with some of the most amazing and gifted people that I know.   

My experience has allowed me to encourage others to share my mission of seeking God first and including Him in a corporate and work culture that often requires that we leave Him out. But most importantly, my relationship with God has grown deeper, my faith in Him is stronger, and He is at the center of every aspect of my life! 

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 

  – Colossians 3:23-24