I’m important! The fact that I’m here writing for EDGE and Record and Signs, with thousands of copies of my work to be distributed all over the Pacific, means I’m important. But let me explain.
I had been searching for a career shift for over a year, slowing down my multimedia business and trying to find my place somewhere else in the working world. Always praying for guidance, 12 months trod past
without any hint of “thou-shalt-work-here” revelations coming to my aid.
In the past, I had had a pretty good hit rate of God answering my prayers, as far as leading in my life was concerned. A humbling experience when you experience it. This time, God didn’t seem in a hurry to want to reveal where I should be heading. All I wanted was to be a servant of His and be led to the place of most use
for Him. I know He knows best, so it made sense to let Him lead.
However, after my year (plus some) in the work-force wilderness, I was beginning to wonder if my career was of interest to God at all. Shall I just make my own way and choose what I want?I asked myself. I know my wife was starting to get tired of asking what I was planning on doing and receiving a “no progress” answer each time.
One day, however, it was impressed on me that I should apply to work for the Signs Publishing Company
(just act surprised when you find out if I get the job or not, OK!).
I had been the bulletin editor at my church for three years, where, among many creative spelling decisions, I had enjoyed the opportunity and responsibility of writing to inform and inspire my church family. The thought of being able to spend time preparing these insights—as a job—for the glory of God, started to really dwell
on my heart.
And so I put together a résumé and folio of some of my stories and editorials, and planned to approach the Signs for a position there, somewhere . . . somehow. But less then a week after finishing my folio, I received an email from Meryl, the editorial secretary of RECORD, regarding a bulletin advertisement for an editorial assistant job at RECORD.
You should have seen my eyes light up!
What timing! This is the excuse I need to approach the Signs and show my face, I thought.
Of course, I was then faced with the predicament of whether I should advertise this position in the bulletin I produced, a position I wanted for myself. I did end up placing the ad in that week’s bulletin, but admittedly with a warning attached of spreading unsubstantiated rumours, through the bulletin for the rest of the year,
about anyone who did successfully get the position ahead of me (probably spoken in jest, but we’ll never know).
I applied, was invited for an interview, and not even my frank declaration of my sometimes original spelling prevented my employment a couple of weeks later.
Within a month I had gone from having no idea about my career direction, to finding a place at the Signs. Interestingly enough, the only real experience I thought I could bring to the job was the bulletin position I’d held. Now that was a job I nearly passed up on, but after consulting God in that instance too, I found I was to
say yes. Three years down the track, it has turned out to be a stepping stone in my journey to the Signs.
Right, where was I? I get a little excited sometimes talking about how God finds me important. That’s what I was getting at before. I’m important to God. Without God finding me important enough to have spent some of His busy, universe-ruling time working to guide my life, I wouldn’t have had the privilege of writing this
editorial.
We are all important to God. Yes, we sometimes have to exercise patience in waiting for answers to prayer. But waiting does not necessarily reduce the measure of our importance to Him. And anyway, God knows timing is everything.
Sacrificing His only Son is proof we’re important. No other reasoning can explain why God would let that happen.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).
God didn’t have to do that—even then He didn’t have to include me in His big plan to save the world.
And He doesn’t have to be so concerned about the ordinary things of my life. But somehow He is.
So it seems I am important to God—and so are you!