God is Always One Step Ahead



 

God is Always One Step Ahead

Years ago, when my work place was shifting management positions,  I realized it was time for me take a step away and in a new direction. I was ready, but what and where would my new job be?

 Was I too old to begin all over again? I pondered in my heart. But God had already planted an idea of what that might be. After so many years of working in corporations and for their profits, now I wanted to work and serve God for a higher purpose.

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think (Ephesians 3:20-21NLT).

I checked the help wanted ads of the local paper and there as if highlighted by a yellow marker was a position available which made my heart skip a beat. It was a job for which I had no training or experience.  Yet I knew I must try, it excited me in a way I had not experienced in years.  Imagine, I thought, they call it a job, when I could think of nothing else but an opportunity of a lifetime to tutor children in reading and writing skills.

It took courage to be a fifty plus year old person and shoot for a job in a program designed for young adults either attending or about to enter college. Later on I laughed to discover I was one of the oldest persons to be hired in the Washington Reading Corps state program in our area. But God had a plan and a purpose and I soon found myself whisked up and hired by AmeriCorps.  This window of opportunity was thrown wide open by God and He was way ahead of me every step of the way.

Of all the counties in our state, of all the communities filled with schools around who participated in this program, God chose a particular school, and one very gifted woman just for me. Janie called me the moment she got the memo from AmeriCorps of people available for hire. She then took me under her wing to train me in a special program for struggling readers in first and second grade. I was one of the few in the state to work directly in small groups with the children. I simply couldn’t believe it. “God is always steps ahead of me,” I said to her in delight.

Janie was a woman I had met years before as one as my favorite customers when we owned the Beaver Valley Store. I had no idea what her profession was and now at just this precise time when she needed help in her program, God brought us expectantly together to fill her need. Janie and I were amazed at God’s timing. This would not have been available at any other time, and would not come up again in the future.

In all my years of working, those two years in the program proved to be one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever experienced. I learned a big lesson in the importance of completely surrendering to God. He knew what I needed and where I was needed, even when I didn’t know what to ask for!

"Spread out your petition before God, and then say, "Thy will, not mine, be done." The sweetest lesson I have learned in God's school is to let the Lord choose for me."— Dwight L. Moody

“God is Always One Step Ahead” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© October 6, 2014