Encountering Aliens

I recently found myself willingly taking a job that I normally wouldn’t have applied for.  With the economic dip I’m confident that I’m not the only one who is currently underemployed.  In fact, I realize that having any job at all is a reason to be thankful. And so I am. 

Before I had a job I was complaining about not having a job and not being able to access people.  Which was a hard transition for me having just moved home from Africa where I spent all of my time connecting with people.  The American way of life doesn’t allow much space or time for developing new relationships.  We are just to busy.  I realized that in order to access people I needed to break into the system and get a job. 

After two months of sending more than 40 applications and resumes into cyber space I finally received a call for an interview.  It wasn’t my first choice in jobs or my second or even my 10^th choice, but I was relieved to realize that my resume found it’s way to an actual human being, slightly boosting my confidence in technology.

You know your underemployed when the interviewer carefully reads your resume looks at you with a bewildered look on their face and asks, “Why do you want this job?”  In my head I was thinking, “That’s just it, I don’t want this job.” But I managed to eek out a more acceptable answer about how I liked to clean.  And in spite of being overqualified I was hired.

By this point in my job search I had surrendered to the idea that God is in control and that he would place me in the job that he wanted me to have.  Although in my heart I envisioned a totally different job than the one I was now needing to accept.  I decided I could respond in an arrogant and ungrateful way or I could humbly suck it up and get to work. I chose the latter and it’s made all the difference.  After all when God is in control life becomes a delightful adventure.

I’ve been working now for over a month and I have discovered a whole new world.  I believe that God has placed me in this job to encounter people I wouldn’t normally encounter. I rub shoulders with people from all walks of life and many different nations.  It’s exactly what I was looking for, an evangelistic playground or sorts.

I currently work with Indians from Fiji, Koreans, Chinese, people from Eastern Europe, African Americans, Mexicans, Ethiopians, Tibetans and Caucasians.  On my first day of work the lady training me looked at me and said, “I am an immigrant, I know how to work hard, very hard.”  I think she was implying that I didn’t look like a hard worker.  How do you respond to that?  This immediately sparked my competitive nature and I was determined not to confirm her assumptions.  Then she said something that went straight to my heart.  “Don’t despise this job, this job paid for my four children to go to college.”  Wait a minute, was God was speaking to me through my pagan co-worker? Yup!

As the day progressed my hard working immigrant friend proved to be a good trainer and I quickly caught on to my new assignment.  By the end of the day I think she became a bit more confident in my ability to work hard.  While we worked together I was determined to discover as much about her as possible.  I learned she is an Indian but came from Fiji, the descendant of slaves.  She is naturally intelligent but untrained.  She has been a wife for over 30 years and the mother of four successful children who have advanced college degrees. I learned she was a devout Hindu and fasts twice a week.  By the end of the week we were friends and she even shared her Chai tea recipe with me.  2 bags of Red Label tea per cup, boiled with grated ginger, clove and cinnamon to taste strain and pour in sweetened condensed milk to taste.  Amazing!

Another co-worker of mine is from Ethiopia.  She is married and has a daughter.  Her husband and her were high school sweethearts in Ethiopia. But both of their families left Africa due to war.  She moved to Italy and then Canada with her family where she reconnected with her childhood sweetheart and they were married.  Together they decided to move to the US.  Her husband now has a transport business and she works with me.  Some day she would like to go back Ethiopia to visit because she misses her friends.

 

Last week I met a new friend who is from Mexico.  She came to the United States to study English for a year and then she planned to go back home to graduate with a degree in chemical engineering.   While she was here she met an American guy who was fluent in Spanish and they got married and had a daughter.  Here family was furious because she was supposed to return to finish her degree and start working.  Now her husband and her are separated but she can’t go back to Mexico because they have a shared interest in their daughter.  So for over a year she has been a housekeeper even though she's six months away from graduating with a brilliant future in Mexico.  Things are not always as they appear.

I want to challenge you to walk into work tomorrow with a new goal, and a fresh perspective.   Why has God placed you in the position you are in?  You are a strategic part of His plan to revel himself to people who don’t yet to know him. Who are you there to pray for, influence and befriend?  Your job is not just about paying your bills.  Paying your bills is a bonus or bi-product of your job.

If you are unemployed hang in there, don’t get discouraged.  God has a plan, he is the ultimate headhunter and he has a strategic place for you too.  Don’t be surprised if it looks different than you envisioned.  Trust him he is our provider.

Everyday when I walk into work I enter the mission field.  I am encountering nations and generations of people I wouldn’t have encountered other wise.  The attitude and the way I work helps me earn peoples respect and friendship which allows me to influence them in a way that leads to LIFE.  Work can be a delightful adventure.  

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven. Matthew 5:16

(The Bible has a lot to say about foreigners, strangers, aliens, hired workers and temporary residents here are a few references to get you started: Leviticus 25:6, 23, Jer. 22:3, Ez. 22:29, 47:23, Zach 7:10, Mal. 3:5, Mat. 25:35, 38 and Luke 17:18.)