Pastor Isaac recommended this one because it goes so well with our series on Jonah!  Thank you Casey Bralla for sharing!

 

“Whooped Upside the Head”

One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 16:9: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” As a stubborn engineer, and a late-in-life convert to Christianity, I’ve often needed God to “whoop me upside the head” to make His presence and desires known to me. This is the story of one of those times.

I always like to plan my future and I can easily imagine God chuckling and saying, “Sure kid, make your plans. Let me know how that works out for ya.” About 10 years ago, I had lost my job. No problem, I thought, this has happened to me before. I had a good resume and I generally interview well. My strengths were pretty visible, while my weaknesses were harder to see. I expected to be out of work for about 30 – 60 days. But as I tried to find work, nothing clicked. In one case, I thought I had aced the interview, but then got feedback that “3 of the 5 people you spoke to didn’t like you.” Ugh! This went on for months.

My neighbor called me one day and said the school she worked at was looking for bus drivers. Would I be interested until I found permanent employment? It was a school for “troubled” kids who hadn’t fit in at regular public school. With the understanding that I could quit as soon as I found work, I took the job, which luckily did not require a CDL. I started picking up a school van every morning, and driving the 45 minutes from Avondale, PA to Morgantown. There I picked up Bill (not his real name) at his home. He’d pile into the van with his book bags and we’d drive the 45 minutes to school. In the afternoon, I’d pick him up at school and take him back home.

Bill was a bright 12-year-old who’s persistent behavioral problems had led to him being enrolled in this “special” school. He was the oldest of four kids in a family that obviously loved him. His mother was a Physician’s Assistant. His father worked in law enforcement for the state. He had an extended network of aunts and uncles he saw regularly.

Unlike most of the other van drivers for this school, I only had a single passenger. Bill and I had about 90 minutes alone together each day and we found ourselves just talking. I quickly noticed the unhealthy nature of his interests. He often talked about guns, swords, and knives, and fights, and things 12 year-olds shouldn’t be obsessed with. Alone in the van, I’d listen and give him my full attention.

As the school year dragged on, we got to know each other pretty well. My job search continued to stall, so each day we’d talk in the van. I don’t know much about 12 year-olds, so I mostly listened to him and asked questions. But I noticed something strange happening. As the year progressed, his talk was less and less about guns and knives, and started turning to things like Star Wars and what he’d like to do that summer. He was starting to talk more like a regular kid. He still had occasional behavioral issues, but they seemed less severe to me than before.

In retrospect, I think that all Bill needed was simply an adult to listen to him and demonstrate that he was important to them. Bill wasn’t “fixed”, but he was a little better, a little more adjusted, a little more able to handle life’s stresses than he had been when I first met him.

Near the end of the school year, I had an interview with a company in Malvern, PA that went pretty well. They told me there was just one other guy I needed to talk to, and he was on vacation. Could I come back to speak with him another day? On the last day of school, I want back and spoke with that one guy. Five minutes later, the HR Manager entered the room with a letter offering me a job that paid well and was a good fit for my skills. I stayed in that job for five years until I retired.

God had whooped me upside the head again! I got a job on the last day of school. My assignment driving Bill to school had ended, and on that exact same day I had found a good job. Even a stubborn prove-it-to-me engineer like me realized that either: 1) This was a (literally!) incredible coincidence, or; 2) God was real and was “establishing my steps.” My training in industrial statistics had taught me that coincidences do happen, but that they are rare. Occam’s Razor says that the simplest explanation is the one most likely to be true. God had demonstrated to me that He was real. He had delayed me from getting a job so He could use me to make one kid’s life just a little bit better. And what better joy can any old man hope for than to help a 12 year-old get on with life!