Another door appears to be opening up for me. I guess I need to take a peek inside and see what’s behind it.
For the first time in months, I’ll be taking part in an interview about a job Monday afternoon. It’s not the kind of job I’ve been dreaming about or even really imagined myself doing until the past few months, but it’s one of those jobs I could see myself doing if I really put my mind to it.
I have an interview for a sales rep spot at a local car dealership. I haven’t tried to sell anything for a living since the early 1980s when the manager of a record/tape store who became quite familiar with my tastes and knowledge in music kept working on me to go to work for him, leaving a job I’d had as a reporter at a weekly newspaper. He talked me into it, and I tried it out … briefly.
That manager ended up leaving the first week I was there at the record/tape shop. Maybe he had ideas about me being a resident music buff to take his place once he left and he didn’t clue me in to that thought, I don’t know. I do know that the new manager apparently had other ideas, so my job there only lasted a couple more weeks.
Life went on. It ended up taking me over a year to find another job back then — this was during the early ’80s when another big recession was taking place and jobs were scarce back then too — but at least I didn’t have a family to feed and a house to try and hang on to back then.
Life went on. I got back on my feet eventually.
Now, here I am again, over 10 months without a paying job but this time with a family to support and a home to try and hang on to, and any openings across the country that I find that I’m fully qualified for aren’t getting so much as a sniff when I apply for them.
Apparently, it’s fairly easy to land a sales job as long as you’re willing to hustle to make something out of it.
I need to make something happen, and it has to be now.
I got a phone call yesterday from the office of the surgeon who performed an emergency appendectomy on our oldest son shortly before Christmas in 2010, which was just months before our daughter also had to go through an emergency appendectomy which led to a “perfect storm” of big medical bills even after the health insurance company paid its 80% share of the costs, which led to me losing my job just months later.
Yeah, it was a “perfect storm” in life that can test a person’s mettle and their faith.
That phone call yesterday from the surgeon’s office was just seeking even a small payment on our bill. The person doing the calling understands our situation. I made a payment.
As I was reading my debit card number to her over the phone, I had trouble speaking. My voice was quivering, and I had a hard time controlling it. I think the person on the other end of the line could tell. It started just after she told me what our remaining balance would be. A sense of fear and desperation began to run through me. I nearly broke down over the phone.
We need something to happen on the job front, and we need it to happen now. It might not be the solution I’d wanted or anticipated, but a car sales job is something that could happen now and it’s up to me to help decide whether the move is a success or a failure.
I have no idea why this particular door has come before me — after all, it probably won’t fit in with the Sabbath-keeping beliefs I’ve tried to maintain for the past 23 years or so — but it’s there, and I have a feeling I need to see where it leads.
No matter what happens, my faith will always be there. I’ve already talked this option over before with my pastor and friend, and in my mind a thought still rings true: God works in mysterious ways. That faith will always be there in me.
If I end up landing a job after all this time that involves trying to sell cars, a part of me will wonder “why” it seems that any plan for me would involve that. But I’ve been trying to follow “signs” that I hope lead me in the right direction for over a year now, and some of them have seemed rather strange but in the end they seem to have led me to an interesting and perhaps meaningful path. Trying to sell cars? That’s just another one that leaves me scratching my head, but if I don’t see what’s behind that door … well, like I said, we need something to happen to turn our situation around, and we need it now. Maybe someday this move — if it ends up with me actually getting the job and being successful at it — will make some kind of spiritual sense to me.
It’s now that a miracle is needed in my family’s life. I’m not one to give up. In this era of crazy employment situations, where even qualified applicants can’t get a sniff at a job they’ve been building their skills at for years, it’s time to make a stand.
I’m putting all my faith in those beliefs.
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A View From The Middle (Class) 
You’re right that sometimes, even when things come your way that don’t seem to make much sense, they end up working out anyway. I hope this is one of those times for you. 🙂 Best of luck to you!
Thanks Chris! Good to see you back.
I admire your attitude, your faith and your determination. I hope the job comes through. I used to run a small business and I know I would have thought myself blessed to have someone with your kind of world view. Thanks for your playlists. (Do you let potential employers see your blog? If they see what I see, they would hire you on the spot if they had any sense.) Good luck.
Wow, what a compliment! Thanks so much! And you wrote this in time for breaking news: looks like I’m going to be taking that shot at selling cars, with training starting very soon. Plus, I have my music-only blog (outside of this blog) going now and a week into that it appears that I’m getting ads already, or at least in the “testing” stages for ads starting today, so that could mean a little extra income as well. Stay tuned!