I am looking for new employment. I have my resume online in several places. I have checked the boxes to say that I will take contract, temporary and part time work.
Recently I got 5 emails from different recruiters. All on the same day. All for the same job. I also got phone calls from 2 more recruiters about the same job, on the same day.
This job was a lucrative one for the recruiters. It was a 24-month contract and the pay would be excellent for a qualified applicant. I mention a few of the necessary qualifications on my resume so that is why I got so many emails.
Recruiters are finding it difficult to earn money too, so they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and reach as many people as possible. I’m sure that each of them did searches on the different job sites and sent out mass emails to see if they could attract a qualified applicant.
Somewhere around 500 to more than a 1000 people will apply for this job. So many qualified people are out of work right now.
I got excited when I read the first email and then realized I didn’t have the needed experience in all areas. This was experience I am in the process of learning but it wouldn’t help at this point.
For the recruiters who persisted and who called me, I had to explain that I didn’t have the necessary experience for the position. Usually they are grateful so they don’t waste time trying to fill a position with an unqualified applicant.
I have had recruiters who would try to talk the employer into hiring me anyway, without the necessary experience. None of us would be happy at that point. Finding a job is important but finding one where you can meet the employer’s expectations and he can meet your expectations is more important.
I thought about so many recruiters, who don’t know my experience, or me trying to fit me into a place. They are thinking, oh, there is a job, who can I get to fill it? Using this method, I will only find a job by accident. It reminded me of how sometimes I try to use someone’s experience with God in my life.
I read a book and I get excited at how God worked for this person. God is awesome! He is big! He can do anything. But then I get off track and concentrate on how this happened. I want to set it up with steps 1 to 7. I start out thrilled with step 1 but I don’t get more than halfway before I am crying out, what’s wrong?
Don’t misunderstand me. I think that it is important to hear other stories about God. They provide encouragement and a greater understanding of how God works. But my relationship with God is not based on how he treated other people. It isn’t important that I act and do everything that someone else did. I am taking it wrong.
I need to stop and realize that this is a one and one relationship. I can’t learn JavaScript by listening to someone else talk about how they fixed something. I need to learn the principles and spending time actually using JavaScript.
In the same way, I cannot learn to trust God by doing the same things someone else did. I have to listen to God myself. I have to trust God myself. I have to struggle through the hard days myself and know that he is there for me.
When we go to God and ask him to teach us trust, he will guide into truth and show us how. We might find an idea in a book but ultimately it is God and his word that we follow. As Paul once said, you are not of Apollo or of Paul, but you are of Christ Jesus. Being in a good church is important but only if we spend the time individually striving to grow closer to God on a daily basis. Being in a supportive small group or network is important but only if we find God’s strength for ourselves and share that with the group.
In the same way it is best to work with someone individually to find a job, we have to work with God individually, on a day-by-day basis, so that we can grow in Him. It is still a one on one relationship with God. We can’t do it without him.
And when we go to God and rely on just him, we discover that he has thrown open his door to us. We are standing where we always wanted to be. We are in the wide-open spaces of God’s grace and glory. We are standing tall and shouting our praise.
Romans 5:1-5 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide-open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
