Pam Padgett ... teacher
A few years after starting to work as computer programmer, I was
given my first large project to lead. A small group of us worked for
several months on the project. Although we had encountered problems
along the way, the system we were developing had gone through two tests
successfully and was about to go through the third and final test.
Then I was told by the people who had given requirements for the system
that some new functionality needed to be added. I reminded them that we
had discussed this functionality some months before and they had said
it was not critical and could be added later. They told me that
although that is what they thought at the time, they had now determined
the system was unusable without this. I quickly thought of what it
would take to add this functionality, and told them it would take at
least a few months to add it. They said the project would just need to
be delayed.
Having worked so hard on this project for several months and thinking we
had everything ready, it was very disheartening to receive this news. I
went back to my desk and considered if there was any way to add this
functionality in perhaps a few weeks, but it was clear to me it would
take months. Although I'm sure I turned to God with my disappointment, I
don't think it occurred to me to ask if there was another way to add the needed functionality.
But that night I was awakened from sleep "knowing" how to add this
functionality with just a few lines of code. These few lines of code
caused the system to do something I had never done before and had never
seen any other programmers do, but it seemed that it should work. I
went to work early the next day and in less than 30 minutes had added
this code on a test computer. The new functionality worked
beautifully! But what would happen when it ran on the main computers
with many other applications? Having never seen anything like this
done before, and having no way to test this with all the other
applications, I was concerned. Then I had the thought to ask the tech
lead about this. I asked if she saw any problems with adding the type
of code I had added. She said she didn't see any problem with it, but
couldn't imagine why anyone would want to do such a thing. When I
explained the new functionality and how this new code provided that, she
sounded amazed as she heard this and realized how this could work. And it did.
I believe God gave me this way to add the functionality as I slept.
So simple, yet non-typical, and it worked beautifully with no
problems of any kind.
Before that day I don't think I had ever thought of God considering such small details as exact lines of programming code. But this clearly showed me that God knows all things and is able to help us no matter what we are dealing with.