Last night at church, my friend Andrew asked me if I was enjoying my retirement. What a question! Of course I am! As I replied I realised how I was giving a personal testimony of how God has been at work in my life.
In answering Andrew, I explained that I wouldn’t have left work two months ago had it not been for a combination of not being happy in my work and through emerging health isssues. These were the two main reasons and this had been against a background of working towards early retirement in any case.
I explained to Andrew how major changes in my life’s direction have often been precipitated by some kind of problem. In other words, I would not readily have made changes without being forced into it through some kind of problem. And yet once the problem had been solved, the changes in my life were so fantastic it could only have been through God’s guiding hand.
Let me give a few examples
In 1997 I was nicely settled into my career within the Probation Service. I had moved area in 1995 to get married at a time when the Service was almost broke, I found myself on a series of fixed term contracts. These were testing times as fixed term contracts do not lend themselves to feeling secure, especially in the financial sense as in those days we had a mortgage to pay. A permanent job came up, a Community Service Project Officer and I confidently applied for it (having done this job well elsewhere).
To my complete shock I didn’t get the job and I was upset and felt I had let Rachel down. And yet God had another job in mind for me. The person who did get the job, Tony, was someone I already knew as a colleague in another team. As he moved into his new job, this then created a vacancy for his old job which I then applied for and was successfully appointed. I had landed a permanent job! This job was in the (then) Intensive Probation Programme; a groupwork based programme of working quite intensively with more serious offenders. I absolutely loved that job, learnt so much and enjoyed it far more than I would have loved the Community Service job. Even Tony later said it was the better job.
Stress leading to promotion
After a few years the job had changed quite a lot and that created a number of issues for me. Professionally I was getting “boxed in” and this was causing a certain amount of stress for me. Eventually in February 2003 I went down with a horrible dose of flu and I took a week off work. During that week I sunk into a deep pit of anxiety and depression, or politely you could call it work related stress. This led to the week’s sick leave being extended to a month; I had never had a Doctor’s sick note in my life before. Something was happening but I wasn’t sure what it was. Through talking it through with Rachel, we agreed the best way of dealing with the problem was either seeking promotion, or getting out of the Service. We gave ourselves two years.
More stress and losing weight
When I returned to work, amazingly in a few weeks I was promoted. This was a fantastic answer to prayer and I knew, for the sake of my family, how I had to get this right. My step into management was a brilliant career move and I absolutely loved it. I had a newly created job which involved a lot of freedom to shape it how I wanted to be.
In 2008 I ran into another period of stress. Once again it was work related and this involved some bullying in a team under me. I took it to heart somewhat, as although I wasn’t directly involved, it was happening “on my watch” and I felt responsible. It became incredibly messy as often personnel issues are and I found myself looking for options. I went to HR for a conversation and helpfully they came up with lots of good ideas but none of them really hit the mark. As I was already putting on a bit of weight and remembered a time in my early twenties when I would go for a run and blast away my problems, so I thought I would do the same again.
I quickly lost 3 stone in weight and by the time I was 50, I was very fit and ready for my first marathon. Since hitting 50 I’ve run a few marathons and got a little faster each time.
Apart from the benefits of improved physical health which running and cycling brings, there are clear mental health benefits too. I found I was able to deal with stress in such an easy way through going for a fast run or bike ride. It helped me solve so many other problems as running especially seems to stimulate my imagination and to think things through. I have been amazed at how I can feel a huge burden, go for a run and then come back with a solution to all the problems. It has worked so many times.
Through all of this
Through all of this I knew God’s guiding hand was there. Often when we pray for answers to problems, we believe we know what the right solution is. And yet I have seen God answer prayers in such a marvellous way. The answers to prayer have been unexpected and have exceeded what I have asked for. And yet we have to be patient and wait for God’s timing and almost to expect the unexpected in terms of the way prayers are answered.
I believe whole heartedly that God’s hand has been at work in my life and continues to do so. Even with this early retirement, it was not when I had necessarily planned to retire and yet through his grace and incredible provision, it has happened.
Has anything like this happened to you? Just leave a comment below….