Keeping the Faith to Endure in Troubled Times: My Personal Testimony Part I

In 2009, I had several major challenges that I faced that really *shook* the core of my faith. One of those things was being affected by the RIF {reduction in workforce} that my company had implemented.

I can remember it like was yesterday... It was a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon and I had just finished my last training session. The location at which I was training was less than an hour away and I was on the way back home. It was going to be a great weekend... That is... until the phone rang...

They wanted me to come by the office which was an hour in the opposite direction in which I was currently traveling... So, I made a U-turn and perhaps one of the longest trips that I had *ever* made in my life...

I knew that it was not going to be good, but somehow I had this assurance that everything was going to be okay. My company had been riffing for the past year and somehow they always managed to do it on a Friday. Their reasoning was that it was statistically proven that lay-offs and terminations were always better to do at the end of the work week. I am not sure as to who was responsible for those stats, however, I was seriously consider finding someone else to do that job... What a way to spoil someone's weekend!!!!!

After what seemed to be a 15 hour drive; I arrived at the office. Inside the HR manager awaited me armed with a severance package and an option to take a lower paying job that I knew that I would not enjoy nearly as much as I loved training. I was devastated! They assured me that it was not performance related and of all the riff's that had taken place that day; I was the only one who had received a counter offer... I immediately thanked God for thank opportunity and listened to the rest of their spill that really sounded like whomp, whomp, whomp to me at the time...

Now my beautiful, sunny day did not seem so sunny and bright now... The weekend that was initially going to be filled with fun, shopping and good food would now become a weekend filled with decisions, decisions and more decisions. They gave me a week to make a final decision.

So after much fasting, praying and seeking spiritual guidance from my leaders I decided to humble myself and take the lower paying job...

{to be continued}