Egypt

What a glorious place, huh? I would travel to Egypt in a heartbeat. It’s a beautiful country with a rich history that stems from the beginnings of time. That’s how I see Egypt now.

Back in the days of Moses, it was a different story.

All of the wonders we see today were created under harsh conditions. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, were slaves to the Egyptians toiling over brick and mortar on a daily basis. The working conditions were grievous. I myself am imagining being whipped in the boiling heat of the day. Taskmasters scrutinizing my every move. One false move means the end of my life. Needless to say, things were atrocious for the Israelites.

But God.

God turns things around. He heard their supplication; the cries and moans of His people. He sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of the bondage into the Promised Land. A land flowing with milk and honey.

Egypt is now a symbol of God bringing you out of a problem. It may not be as harsh as slavery, but it’s a situation where you needed deliverance, and God came through.

I’ve had plenty of Egypt situations in my life. That’s life. One such situation I can talk about is my prior job. Now, before I start, this is not a bash session. Someone from that place will undoubtedly read this. This is a story about how God brought me out.

In 2008, I got my first job out of college processing life insurance applications. I was an outspoken 23 year old that loved people. I walked into my job looking to make friends. After all, I Mr. Social Butterfly himself in college. Why should that change? Little did I know, that would not be appreciated in this work environment.

Initially, my then supervisor saw my aptitude and pushed me up the ranks. She relied on me to go to meetings, and help my teammates in the process.  I received two promotions within a year’s timespan. The last promotion I received was a case management position.Things were going very well. So much so that I shirked grad school to see where this career would take me. I loved my job. I enjoyed going to work every day. I enjoyed my co-workers. There were some blips here and there, but overall I was enjoying myself.

Then, I got thrown in the fire.

It was a slow burn at first. I was placed into a position that, in hindsight, needed a great deal of training. As companies go, I was taught the bare minimum basics and sent out for a massive bit of on-the-job training (OJT). Things were still progressing in my case management career. My agents and agencies liked me. I even had a lady try to hook me up with her daughter’s best friend. Bear in mind, I had never met the lady in real life. She just liked my conversation. I guess I got game 😉

Everything was going well, and then I started to make mistakes. These were honest mistakes. They were parts of my job where I was not trained, so I had know way of knowing what needed to be done outside of asking my teammates, team lead, or supervisor. I’m stickler for knowledge, so I asked questions. However, I learned very quickly not to trust certain people. I got hung out to dry time and time again.

That caused me to go into defense mode.

I would explain, explain, explain about different situations trying to tell my supervisor what I was told to do. None of it mattered. The type of business mindset I worked for was about money. They didn’t care who did what, they just needed someone to blame if something went wrong. Since my name is on the case, I get the blame even though I was not the only person working on the case. Make sense, huh?

A VERY long story short, I became defensive and angry. I began to fight back. I was surrounded by people who cared about themselves from upper management on down. I dreaded going to work. I gained weight, and played my xbox loooooong hours into the night to de-stress.

My mouth didn’t help me out either.

When I got tired of the nonsense, I’d let them know. This only served to bury me further. It was already decided I would not move up in the company anymore. My higher-ups put a halt on my career.

Or, so they thought.

I decided to get my Master’s in 2012. God blessed me to complete the program in 2013. After that, the job hunt was on. At this point, I had been tossed around so much I stopped caring. I couldn’t even be angry anymore. I was whatevs. It was go to work and live my life after my 8 hours were finished.

I happened to stumble across my current position. I put in time to research how to tweak my resume. It had been six years since I looked for a job outside of that company. So, I was out of the loop. I researched the company for which iwas applying. Finally, I got my resume and cover letter ready, and sent it off.

Then, I prayed.

After years of feeling stuck, it was time to move. I couldn’t move without God’s permission and His guidance. I asked God to grant me this job, and He did it!

My current job has its ups and downs, but the atmosphere is NOTHING like what I previously encountered. I’m thankful to God that He blessed me.

I make sure not to forget my time in Egypt, though. I learned valuable lessons about work relationships and how to trust God in difficult times.

People will not always like you. They will stab you in the back, and talk about it to your face. They’ll treat you like the diet on the bottom of their shoe. When all of that is going on…..

Trust. God.

He will see you through it!

So, this was probably a long one. I hope I didn’t lose you. Instead of ranting about how wrong people were (yes they were wrong and so was I), I wanted to tell you about the lessons I’ve learned.

God blessed. And I’m thankful for my Egypt.