Arkinsaw Ra-zor-backs Go!

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. That's God talking, in Jeremiah 29, from The Message. I think that I've heard/read that so many times that I'm almost desensitized to it. But, as I was telling someone the other day about my first job, I remembered how true that word is. Getting my first job was one example of how God's plan was very different from mine; but of course His was better.

I graduated college with a B.A. in French. MY plan was to teach high school students. MY plan was to live 'at home' for a while, save some money, eventually get married and live happily ever after. After Part 1 of MY plan didn't pan out, and no French teaching positions opened locally, I sought employment in the corporate world. I said that I'd take just about any position, as long as I didn't have to relocate, and as long as it wasn't in sales.

About three weeks later, I was packed up, and on my way to Little Rock, Arkansas, to train for my new job... in sales. I actually had to look on a map to even see where it was, and what's a Razorback, anyway? It wasn't what I'd planned, but I thought it would somehow work out.

After four months of working in a tie plant (as in railroad cross tie), and many weeks of travel around the country for more training and field experience, I 'd learned LOTS about the pressure treated wood industry, and ... I was ready for my first assignment as one of the first two women hired by Koppers Co., Inc. as a sales rep for Pressure Treated Lumber Products. While it was my hope to be assigned to an office at company headquarters in Pittsburgh, I said I'd take an assignment anywhere, as long as it wasn't Houston, TX.

So, as I was moving into my new apartment in Houston, TX, in February 1974, I was thinking maybe MY plan wasn't coming together. Still with me?? No one was more surprised than I that I quickly grew to love living and working in Houston. In fact, I got very 'full' of myself, my independence, and my fun social life. Maybe God's plan was alright!

Until, my stay in Houston was cut short by an unexpected need for a sales rep in Nashua, NH, and they picked me. And, I hated Nashua, NH. Whereas I had lots of friends in warm, friendly Houston, I was hard-pressed to connect with anyone even near my age in cold, unfriendly Nashua. And it looked like I'd be there a while. I was alone. I felt abandoned. I was unhappy. I was exactly where God wanted me.

There I turned to spiritual things and prayed, a lot. I began to read the Bible. And late one night, the apartment I hated became the altar where I turned my life, and my plan, over to Jesus Christ. I discovered that He was right there with me, and that He had been actively participating in every aspect of my life. In an instant, like a movie on fast rewind, I saw how He had orchestrated the previous 11 months to bring me right to that moment, when I was ready to see with new eyes, and to embrace a personal relationship with Him. His plan for me was good, in so many ways. And it still is.

And Hey!...among other things, I got to experience an Arkansas Razorback football game... nothing can compare to being surrounded by 50,000 people relentlessly callin' the hogs... "Pigs! Soooooooooey!"

Jeremiah 29 continues..."When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed.