God at Work?

It's funny how we can talk about not confining where God will work, but we don't really ever expect Him to show up in certain arenas of our lives. My work place is like that. While I have enjoyed being a "gift registry consultant" for the last year, I'm tired of the job, and ready to move into something full time that won't require me to work evenings and weekends all the time anymore. My coworkers are a big part of the reason I'm ready to move on - and one in particular. I had a nasty (on her part not mine - I think I managed to hold my tongue quite admirably since I was ready to quit on the spot!) encounter with her on Wednesday evening during my shift, and wasn't looking forward at all to going into work yesterday because I knew I would be with her for six of the eight hours I was working.

In fact, as I headed into work, I was angry, I was dreading being there, I was tempted to be sick and stay home - anything to avoid having to spend time with this one woman. But I'm kind of responsible that way, so sick was out.

I arrived at work and immediately began working on a task that I complete on my own. While I was working I decided to work on my attitude, and began humming or whistling some worship songs. I really wasn't looking for any kind of God encounter, I mostly wanted to focus on the lyrics playing through my head, and was hoping that thinking about something "happy" or "good" like God would improve my mood.

So I'm humming away, stuffing packages for brides, and answering the occasional question from my coworkers or from clients, and suddenly God starts talking. Nothing super profound. The coworker I was struggling with came into the room I was working in to make a phone call and God tells me to pray. Nothing specific, just pray, so I pray a few sentences and go back to the song. This happened a couple different times - God directing me to pray, or pointing out certain lyrics in the songs I was humming.

What caught me as I thought about it after I got home last night was that God honored my desire for a changed attitude, and showed up. It's hard to pray, even a few sentences for someone in your head, when you're totally angry at them. I'm not saying I've fallen in love with this woman - in fact, I'm glad that today at work will be relatively stress free because she has the day off, but my attitude changed and the shift went smoothly. I focused on God, and He showed up, and that surprised me more than anything.

And, as I think about it, my job does provide an awful lot of opportunities to pray. Because every couple we meet with is about to embark on marriage in a society that tells them that it's an outdated institution, or one that is not necessarily permanent. Or there's the lesbian couple we got the email from yesterday who were upset because the cards in which we write messages from the wedding guests to the couple have a man and a woman on the front, and they'd like them to be gender neutral. There's the single mom (about my age) with a five year old son who's a coworker. There's the coworker who lives with her long-time, expects to marry him someday, boyfriend, who's been having problems and fighting with him lately. And so many more. Maybe if I approach my workplace as a place that God might actually want to hang out at it'll make the time I have left until I find a new position more bearable?