Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Eureka, 2007

"When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land’; 23 for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, 24 that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever."

                                                                                                                                         Joshua 4:21-24

I have decided to write down all the incredible things God has been doing for me even before I acknowledged Him as my Lord. I decided to do this because I recognize this season as a good season to write about His great faithfulness....

EUREKA, 2007

I worked for a technology giant and was doing very well for myself. I got to work on some of the best projects in the company pertaining to my team and all this was working in my favor. But still I wasn't interested in career progression. What I was really interested in is getting married and having babies and having a nice stable career. While the rest of my team was working towards the most coveted promotion, I was aspiring to be a perfect wife and a great mom!

It was around this time that I began reading the Bible (on and off) and was very slowly opening up to all the initiations from God. My friend Pradeep was talking to me about Jesus and how much He loves me. Pradeep began sharing his faith with me two years ago but I never thought of doing anything about it for a very long time. And then, after a series of events, I began to explore the possibility of a God who loves me.

The story I am writing about is quite an incredible display of God's power:

For the first time, I got invited to an important brainstorming session to ideate about making a certain business process cost efficient. Everyone who got invited to these meetings were the thinking class of the company. My team was a highly competitive team and were doubly enthusiastic about bringing new ideas to the drawing board. It was very easy for someone as uncompetitive as me to feel out of place in this room filled with career minded individuals. The first thing I noticed was this girl who once told me she read over 3000 books! Also in this room were a couple of my colleagues who won several awards. My best friend and my boss's blue-eyed boy was in the room too. And as I say this, I'd like to state for the record that Michael being boss's blue-eyed boy was not an unjust favoritism. I had no problem with that because I knew he earned it by being the focused, bright and personable guy he was.

As the meeting began you could sense the tension to the very bone. Everybody was shooting their best suggestions, everybody was at their creative best. And I, I did not have a single smart thing to say. This was a belittling moment for me and wished I'd just melt there... just vanish. And then I called out to the God I was just getting to know. And I said "Jesus, if you brought me into this meeting give me something to say. I feel pretty dumb sitting here with nothing to contribute." I don't remember what triggered the next thought that ran through my head. And I blurted it out aloud. I didn't even allow myself to think it through before saying it. There was silence. My boss said "That's great" and he drew the flowchart on the whiteboard. He liked it, the guy from the strategy planning team liked it and the meeting concluded. The meeting concluded with my idea! It was going to be made into a project to test it's cost effectiveness. I was stumped. My best friend Michael was stumped. People congratulated me as they walked out of the room. Michael remembered this was something we did in the previous company we both worked for. And I remember him exclaiming "that was so neat Plaks. Why didn't I think of it? How did you think about it?" I was still numb and shocked, and I said "I don't know Michael, but I just prayed to Jesus. I asked Him to give me something to say."

Now that slip-of-the-tongue idea went on to become a big project. It got me the promotion I was not working towards, a huge bonus and a major award. It also made me quite famous. I was receiving congratulatory emails from all over. The CEO, himself,  sent me an email telling me how much he appreciated my contribution!!

I want to remember this story when nothing seems to be going my way. I want to be reminded of all the things God is and has done for me and is doing for me and that He will work all things together for me again and again and again and forever....