Recently I was reading an exhortation Joan Boney wrote concerning those sent by Moses to spy out the land which God had promised to the children of Israel.
The spies saw that the land was very good, but most of them brought an evil report. Rather than focusing on the fact that God said HE would give the land to HIS people, they focused on how strong the inhabitants of the land were and how impossible it seemed for them to overcome them.
Only Caleb and Joshua believed that God was able to bring them into the land which HE had promised to them. They were ready to go up at once to possess the land.
Numbers 13:25-33 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers 14:6-9 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
If the Lord delight in us, then HE will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.
==
While reading this account and the exhortation that we must focus on what God has said rather than on how impossible the matter might seem to us, I was reminded of God moving me into a "land" HE had for me although it looked impossible at the time.
I had earned a master's of education degree with an emphasis in counseling psychology. While working on this degree, I had worked at a small counseling center. By the time I got the degree, I found I hated doing this type of work and quit. I didn't have any idea of what type of work I wanted to do, but I knew I couldn't do this.
A few years later I was working as a secretary in the Trust Department at a bank. My manager was an attorney and certified public accountant, so he was assigned the more interesting clients. For about two years I enjoyed doing this work, but then found myself becoming bored.
I talked with God about how bored I was with my job and asked if there was any other type of work I could do that would be interesting to me.
Not long after this, my manager asked me to begin using the personal computers (PC's) which had been given to our department. This was in the mid 1980's and none of the secretaries working in the department knew much about PC's. One of the PC's had never been taken out of the box!
I told my boss I would be glad to do this, but that I didn't know anything about PC's. I asked if I could take some classes to learn how to do this, and he agreed. He and I reviewed computer-related classes available at the local community college and agreed on 2 classes for me to take. One of these classes was called "Basic". We thought this sounded perfect for me since I needed a "basic" understanding of computers.
But on the first night of class, the instructor explained what would be covered in this class, saying that we would be taught the programming language called "Basic". He then began talking about computer programming.
As he talked, I immediately knew very strongly that programming would be interesting to me and that it "fit" me perfectly.
As I drove home from that first class, I kept thanking God and saying "This is it! This is it!" ... this is a type of work I would enjoy. This was the answer to my prayer!
Here I was in my 30's, ready to go back to college to work toward an entirely new career with no background whatsoever in this type of work.
But it was very strongly in me that this was the way God had for me, that this was the answer to my prayer. And if this was the way God had for me, HE would work it out.
I immediately proceeded to apply myself to learning how to program, and loved it! As soon as I completed the Basic programming class, I enrolled in a class for another programming language, one which I had been told was used by many businesses. I greatly enjoyed that class as well!
It looked as though it would take me a couple years to get a computer programming degree. I began talking with God about how much I wanted to program as soon as possible, asking if there was some way I could do this without first getting a degree in computer programming.
I was given an idea to send a letter to software-related businesses in the city where I lived, telling of my great interest in programming, of the programming classes I had already taken, of my background, and that I would like to begin programming as soon as possible.
Of the many letters I sent, only one small company offered me a job. The job allowed me to program part-time and be a secretary part-time. I was delighted, happy to get to program, even part-time. This job also gave me some programming work experience, not just classroom exercises.
But this small company was not financially stable. After working there for several months and having already been laid off once for a short time when the company declared bankruptcy, the technical lead told me that the company would probably soon go into bankruptcy for a second time, and that I would likely be the first to lose my job since I was so new in programming.
I turned to God, asking what to do. Not only was it frightening to not have a job, but going to job interviews had always been so hard for me and I really dreaded having to do this.
Also, it had only been about a year since I had sent letters to all those software businesses, and only one had responded, the one now having financial problems.
How should I go about finding a company that would hire me as a programmer?
About that time a catalog of classes being offered on various subjects in the community came in the mail. I was glancing through the catalog when a 2-night class in how to interview for jobs stood out to me. I prayed and felt I should enroll in the class.
Not only was the class very helpful to me in preparing for an interview, but the instructor told me that FedEx was looking for entry level programmers. She gave me the name and contact information for a woman at FedEx who knew about these jobs.
I called this woman right away and told her my background and how much I like programming. She said if I would send her my resume that she would make copies of it and put it on the desk of each manager looking for an entry-level programmer. I quickly sent my resume to her.
Not long after this, I received a telephone call from a manager at FedEx. He told me that my resume had come across his desk. He said that none of the other managers were interested in me, but that he was and would give me an interview.
I wasn't nervous during the interview as had been the case at other times. However, I didn't correctly answer some of the technical questions. (When I later told the technical lead at the small company how I had answered one of the questions, he said "Well, I hope you weren't counting on getting that job!" )
What a surprise when the FedEx manager offered me a job!
I believe that God had given me favor with this manager, putting in his heart to hire me.
After working at FedEx for awhile, this manager and I were talking one day. I asked him why he hired me, a person who didn't have a programming degree, had very little programming work experience, and didn't answer some of the technical interview questions correctly.
He smiled and said "Ah, Pam. I could tell from your resume that you were pretty smart and a hard worker. And we don't do rocket science here. But I did have to get a little creative when writing the letter of justification for hiring you." Incredible!
One other interesting thing ...
Not long after I was hired by FedEx, a woman I worked with there was shocked to learn that I didn't have a programming degree. She said she knew of a woman who had a computer degree and lots of programming experience and had been trying to get a job at FedEx for a while but without success.
It was so clear that all of this was worked out by God for me, bringing me into the "land" HE had for me (computer programming) and had put so strongly in my heart.
I worked as a programmer at FedEx for 23 years until I retired.
*****