If you were unemployed, spent a year waiting to get a job and finally got your first offer, would you do anything that could jeopardize that offer, assuming everything about the offer seemed perfectly fine? Well, that’s exactly what I did. I took a step of faith by raising the issue of keeping the Sabbath just before I signed, and the offer was pulled. The testimony is in what happened next.
Once upon a time, after spending almost a year looking for a job after my MBA, I finally got my first offer. This was to join the leadership programme of a global company based in Singapore that would have taken me to many countries over the next twelve months with an almost guaranteed full time role somewhere in the world. Sounds exciting right? At this stage, I was already tired of job hunting so I was naturally very excited to receive my first offer, which was also an FX-paying contract.
Over the past year during my waiting season, I had learnt about keeping the Sabbath faithfully and developed a sense of renewed joy and peace in keeping it faithfully. I had found a new community in Church and the Sabbath had taken a whole new meaning in my life. I had reached a stage in my spiritual life where I did not want a job to deprive me of this new found joy and peace. Therefore, before I signed the contract, I mentioned to the HR and hiring managers that I keep the Sabbath between Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and that my hope was that this is something they would be able to respect if I accepted their offer. They said that they needed to think about it.
That conversation happened on a Friday. I became so scared of losing the offer. Remember, after spending almost a year trying to get a job, this was my first offer, and I had just taken a risk (scratch that…a step of faith) by mentioning the Sabbath at this crucial juncture. I remember doing a dry fast and praying all through that weekend. Sadly, they came back on Monday to say that they couldn’t guarantee my keeping of the Sabbath and immediately pulled the offer. I was so dejected and low but I took strength in God’s word and promises, and chose to see this as a test of my faithfulness.
Guess what happened next?