Parallel Jobs

Roman Sutton had been a banker for fifteen years when the bank by which he was employed suddenly closed its doors, leaving him jobless.  Being that Roman was a married man with three children, he found himself feeling desperate to obtain new employment.  He started out exclusively applying for jobs with local banks, but quickly began to explore other opportunities in the financial industry when he found no promising banking leads.  The first period without a paycheck passed and Roman and his family immediately felt the effects as they made the first withdrawal from their savings account in order to complete their grocery shopping for the week.  A second savings account withdrawal became necessary when his youngest son David wrecked his bike and required stitches in his elbow.  After a third withdrawal was made to cover the next month’s mortgage payment, Roman really began to feel the stress. 

      As he lie awake one night, feeling especially anxious and considering the resources that were available to him, Roman recalled that his father had told him just before he passed that he should always turn to God in his times of trouble.  Roman had not attended church since he had moved out of his parent’s house at the age of eighteen, so he quickly scrambled from his bed, dashed down the stairs, and logged onto his computer.  A quick Google search revealed that there were no fewer than twenty churches within the ten mile radius of his home.  He copied down the address of a Baptist church that was apparently on the route that he had taken to work every weekday for the past fifteen years, but that he had never noticed before. He then resolved himself to stop by the church the following morning to seek spiritual counsel for his predicament and then returned to his bed and quickly found sleep.   

    A shrill scream awoke Roman before the sun rose the next morning.  He sprang from his bed and darted down the stairs, noticing that all of his children’s beds were empty as he dashed down the hall.  He searched the main level of the home and found no one.  Beginning to panic, he ran to the kitchen window to get a view of the backyard.  Just as he spotted the kids, another shrill scream filled the air.  The blood curdling sound seemed to be coming from his twelve year old daughter, Bonnie.  He ran the back door, slid on his house slippers, and proceeded outside.  He quickly spotted the source of Bonnie’s dismay.  It appeared that his two boys, seven year old David and his nine year old brother Aaron, had captured a rabbit and given it to their Basset Hound, Damien.  The result was a stomach churning scene right out of Stephen King novel.  The boys stood by pointing and laughing, while Bonnie continued to scream and looked unsteady on her feet. 

    Roman quickly gathered the children and ushered them inside.  He then returned to the scene to retrieve the rabbit from his dog.  After cleaning up the mess the best that he could, he returned to the house to address the children.  In the meantime, his wife, Melanie had awoken and was cooking breakfast.  Bonnie had fervently related the story to her so she pulled Roman to the side and whispered to him,

“You are going to have to do something with these boys.”

“Torturing their sister like this is simply unacceptable,” she continued. 

He messaged his temples with one hand and replied, “I will, but first I have an errand to run.  Have them eat breakfast and then go spray down the patio until I get back.”  He kissed his wife on the forehead and then went upstairs to shower, shave, and dress.  He left the house twenty minutes later and headed for the church. 

    The church building was located just off of Trimble Road, the main street that he had traveled for so many years while commuting back and forth for work.  He timidly entered the building and walked down the main hall.  He found what he presumed to be the doors to the sanctuary locked.  He continued down the hall and quickly found a door standing open exposing a very humble office housing an even more humble office desk.  Behind the desk sat a young man in his late twenties to early thirties. 

“Um, excuse me,” said Roman as he rapped gently on the door. 

The young man looked up and smiled very politely. 

“Hello sir.  How can I help you,” he inquired.

“Um, I’m looking for a priest, I guess,” Roman stammered.

The young man chuckled.

“You won’t find any priests here.  This is a Baptist church.  I am the pastor though.  Is there anything that I can help you with?” 

Roman attempted to conceal the shock that that undoubtedly marked his face.  He could not believe that this young man, this kid, was the pastor of a church.  He clumsily clenched and shook the outstretched hand of the “pastor” who had stood and stepped from behind the desk.

“Well,” started Roman sheepishly, “You seem a little young, but I guess if you are the pastor you must have your sense about you.  I have a bit of dilemma and I was hoping to get some spiritually led advice about how to deal with it.” 

“Ok,” the pastor said as he nodded knowingly, “Well, I’m Pastor Derek Walker and I have actually been the pastor here at New Hope Baptist Church for going on seven years.  I know that most people expect pastors to be old and gray, but somebody has to replace those seasoned veterans eventually right?” 

Pastor Walker chuckled again.

“Why don’t you have a seat and let’s see what we can do to help you out today.  What was your name again,” the pastor inquired.

Roman apologized and introduced himself.  The pastor seemed friendly enough and no right-minded congregation would allow such a young man to lead them if he didn’t have his act together, so Roman decided to trust the man with his matters.  He related to Pastor Walker the story of his fifteen year employment with Southern Trust Bank and the subsequent loss of his job.  He filled the pastor in on his efforts to obtain new employment and the struggles that this has caused for his family and himself.  Pastor Walker listened intently as Roman guiltily relayed the story of growing up in church but leaving at his first opportunity.  Roman began to feel more and more comfortable the more he talked and eventually found himself explaining that he was not sure that God could do anything about his current situation, but that he was not sure where else to turn. 

“Well Roman,” Pastor Walker started once Roman was done speaking, “God can do something about this.  You see, God wants to provide for all of His children.  He doesn’t always give us what we want, but He certainly gives us what we need.”

“But I don’t think that I am one of His children,” Roman pondered.

“You can be, if you want to.  Now, that doesn’t mean, that if you become His child you will automatically find a job, or that your life will become easier.  The difference that you will experience immediately is an increase in hope.”

“Well, hope is something that I am definitely missing right now,” Roman said as he lowered his head.  “How do I go about becoming a child of God?  I mean, I remember watching it happen when I was a kid, but I never really understood what was going on.”

“Let me remind you of some of the key points that you probably heard as you were growing up in the church.  First of all, we are all sinners.  Romans 3:23 says that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’  Romans goes on to state in chapter 6 and verse 23 that ‘the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’  But, according to Romans 5:8, ‘God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’  And here is the best part: Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 tell us that ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.’  Verse 13 goes on to say that ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’  So, you see, all you need to do is believe in your heart that Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life, died so that you, and all of mankind, may be saved, and then was raised from the dead.  Do you believe that?”

“Yes,” Roman replied, “I’ve always believed that.”

“Then all you must do is confess it to God.  Would you like to pray right now and do that?”

“Yes, if that makes me His child, then I want to do that right now,” Roman retorted enthusiastically.

The pastor lead Roman in a prayer to accept the gift of salvation and Roman wept.  After a while, he regained his composure and looked back to the pastor.

“Thank you Pastor Walker for reminding me of all of this.  I really appreciate you reintroducing me to God.  But what does all of this mean with regard to employment situation?”

“Well Roman, you need to discuss this with God.  You just professed to Him that you recognize His Son, Jesus Christ, as Lord.  As such, you must give control of your life to Him.  Let Him guide your footsteps and walk with you on the path that He has laid out for you.”

“Pastor, if I may be frank, I really don’t understand all of that.  It sounded like a bunch of religious mumbo-jumbo to me,” Roman replied chuckling.

“Look Roman, just go home and pray.  Then, listen for God’s response.  If you truly believe that He will answer your prayers, then He will.  Again, it may not be in the way that you expect, but He will answer nonetheless.  And His way is always better than ours.”

“And that’s it?”

“Yeah.  Here, give me your contact information so that I can follow up with you and see how things are going,” Pastor Walker said as he handed Roman a pocket sized notebook.

Roman wrote down his address, phone number, and email address, thanked the pastor again and headed home.  On the drive home, his cell phone chimed, indicating that he had a new email.  When he checked it, he saw that it was from Pastor Walker.  “Wow, that was fast,” he exclaimed.

He opened the email and read:

Hello Roman,

Sorry, I forgot to give you this information.  Please take a look at Job 1:4-5 and let me know what you think.

In Christ,

Pastor Walker

    It had been quite some time since Roman had cracked open a Bible, but he did remember that Job was a man who had suffered greatly and, despite his weakness, had maintained his faith.  That seemed to fit his current situation; the suffering piece anyway.  As such, Job seemed like a legitimate place for him to start reading God’s Word.  When he arrived home, Melanie had the children sitting at the dining room table working on homework, so he quietly slipped upstairs to his room.  He opened his closet door and carefully removed a dusty box from the back corner of the top shelf.  He placed the box on a chair and stared at it for a few moments before removing the lid.  The box contained the few personal effects that he had asked to keep from his parent’s home once his father had passed five years earlier.  He had brought the things home with him, placed them in the box, placed the box on the shelf, and had not disturbed it since.  Among the contents, there on the very top, next to the necklace that his mother had worn everyday of her life, for as long as Roman could recall, was his father’s old Bible.  He picked the Bible up and held it to his chest.  A wave of memories came rushing back to him -- memories of his father sitting on the front porch with the old book; reading and laughing, reading and meditating, and, at times, reading and weeping.  With his new found salvation, Roman now had a more profound understanding of these memories and he hoped that his understanding would continue to grow as he delved into the Word himself. 

    He slowly peeled back the cover of the book and searched the table to contents for Job.  Once he found it, he moved his finger across the page until he found the fourth verse of the first chapter and he began to read:

         “4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”

    Roman considered the scripture.  What did it mean?  What was the pastor trying to tell him by pointing him to this particular passage?  As Roman meditated on the words, his mind suddenly flashed back to the events of the early morning.  Was God sending him a message telling him that he needed to intervene on the behalf of his children?  They had their moments, but are they such great sinners that God would lead me to Him and then have me plead for forgiveness on their behalf?  Romans heart grew heavy as he considered this idea.  He glanced back toward the door and then fell to his knees next to the bed.

“Hello God,” he started, “I know that before today, I have not really spent any time talking to you and that makes this even more awkward for me.  I am new to all of this Christianity stuff and really don’t know how this works.  I know though, that this morning I received the salvation so that you so graciously offer and I plan to talk to my family about it, but right now I am coming to you to request forgiveness for my children.  They really are good kids God, they just have moments of wayward decision making from time to time.  But don’t we all?  So, God, I just ask that you forgive them, as you forgave me this morning.  I am far less deserving than they are, so I have no doubt that if you could forgive me and the poor decisions that I have made in my past, then you can certainly forgive them.  God, I love my children and would hate for them to miss out on all that you have to offer.  Please give them another chance.  Thanks.  Amen.”

    As he stood to his feet, Roman noted that he was feeling better already.  He went downstairs and joined his family.  The rest of the day was consumed with a brief chat with the boys about their behavior, which lead right into an explanation of how his morning has transpired.  The entire family was amazed that Roman had gone to a church in search of help.  They were even more shocked at the results of his trip.  The family agreed to start attending New Hope Baptist Church with him in the near future.  Roman calculatedly left out the email that he had received from the pastor.  Roman spent the afternoon applying for seven new jobs.

    The next morning, Roman was again awoken abruptly; this time to a clamorous crash.  Again, as he bolted down the stairs, he noted three empty beds in his children’s bedrooms.  Again, he found no one on the main level of the house.  It was not until he heard the sound of his children arguing that he realized that they were in the garage.  When he opened the door leading from the house to the garage, his heart sunk.  The argument that had been so boisterous a moment ago fell to solemn silence as the gazes of the children nervously fell to the garage floor. 

“How did this happen,” Roman questioned, unable to disguise the disappointment in his voice. 

    As Roman surveyed the results of his 2006 Mazda Miata being driven backward through the unopened garage door, the only response came from Aaron.

“I told her to let me drive,” he stammered sheepishly.

“Go inside and tell your mother that I need her to get up and take you all somewhere.  I don’t care where, just somewhere,” Roman ordered in as calm a voice as he could muster.

    It took Roman the majority of the morning to clean up the mess, contact a company to schedule a garage door replacement, and to calm his nerves.  Melanie took the kids to the park until it was time for school and then went to the library to give Roman time to cool down.  Once he had finished his morning activities, Roman went upstairs to wash up.  As he approached the master bathroom that was attached to his bedroom, he spotted the old Bible lying on the chair next to the window.  He picked it up and turned it over in his hands.  He flipped it open and began to read at the top of the page.  He was looking at the eleventh chapter of the book of Mark.

"And when ye stand praying , forgive , if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

    Maybe that was the problem.  Perhaps God had forgiven his children as he had asked the previous day, but he himself needed to impart some forgiveness.  Roman was convinced that this must be why he had not yet found employment.  He simply had to get his children under control before God would bless him with a new job.  As he had done the day before, Roman fell to his knees next to his bed.

“God, it’s me again.  Thank you for the forgiveness that you have been gracious enough to impart upon my children.  I now realize that I have to do my part and forgive them as well.  God, that is not an easy task for me today, but I want to be obedient to you.  I see now that my disobedience is causing a great strain on my pocketbook.  So, God, I declare to you right now, that I forgive my children, and I ask, in turn, that you once again forgive me.  Amen.”

      Again, Roman felt better after praying.  The rest of the day was peaceful as the children returned from school, finished their homework, and helped their father carry the contents of the garage into the basement until the new garage door could be installed.  The Sutton family sat down to a pleasant dinner and the children shared stories of their days at school.  Melanie and Bonnie cleaned up the dinner mess while Roman and the boys played catch in the backyard.  Roman had insisted on the backyard as he still couldn’t bear to look at his mutilated garage door or the scratches on the trunk of his Miata.  The family retired early that evening.

    The next morning, the sun was up when Roman opened his eyes.  Melanie was not in the bed and the house was quiet.  Roman issued a quick thank you to God and swung his legs off of the bed.  He ambled across the room and grabbed his house slippers.  As he approached the bottom of the stairs his heart began to race as he smelled the unmistakable scent of smoke.  He picked up his pace and headed straight for the kitchen.  He entered the room and gasped.  Bonnie stood wide-eyed next the open oven, as smoke billowed from the flames that licked at the kitchen counter, threatening to spread.  Aaron dashed from the sink with a pot full of water that he clumsily splashed on the fire.  David stood on the kitchen island with his hands over his eyes.  The smoke detector began to shriek.  Roman quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher that hung on the wall just inside the kitchen door and doused the fire.  He silenced the smoke detector and then slumped into a chair at the table, placing his head on his palms, and quietly asked, “Where is your mother?”

“She had to go to the store,” Annie replied timidly, “I was trying to make breakfast to surprise you guys.”

“Please get yourselves a bowl of cereal and then go get ready for school.”

The room remained silent as the children at their bowls of Lucky Charms.  They pushed solemnly passed their mother, carrying a grocery bag, on their way out of the kitchen. 

“What did they do now,” she inquired, looking at Roman who still sat with his head in his hands at the table.

“They almost burned the house down,” Roman replied pointing at the cookie sheet containing blackened pancakes and overflowing with butter.

Roman cleaned up the mess in the kitchen while Melanie took the kids to school.  He then slipped up to his room, located his father’s Bible, and sat down on the edge of the bed.  Again, he flipped open the book and begin to read after uttering a quick prayer for guidance.  In the book of 1 John he read, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

“Of course,” Roman mumbled as a sense of realization came over him.  His children had not yet come to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, so it made perfect sense that his prayers for them were not working.  It occurred to him then that perhaps Pastor Walker had given him the reference to Job so that he could understand the need for his children to follow in his footsteps and commit their lives to Christ.  This now seemed much more logical than his original assumption that he needed to pray for his children to be more righteous.  When Melanie returned from dropping the kids off at school, Roman asked her to sit with him.  He excitedly told his wife what he was thinking and then related to her the Gospel as Pastor Walker had walked him through it a few days earlier.  As Melanie listened, Roman could see the look of understanding begin to shine in her eyes.  When he was done, he asked her the same questions that he had been asked by the pastor and then lead her in a prayer asking for and accepting salvation.  They sat for a while together, shedding tears of joy for their new found salvation. 

    That evening, when the kids had returned from school, completed their homework, and the family had eaten dinner, Roman called a family meeting.  At the meeting, Roman and Melanie began to expand on the little bit of information that they had previously given to the kids regarding Jesus.  The children had lots of questions, and Roman was surprised to be able to answer all of them.  At the conclusion of the meeting all three children gave their lives to Christ.  The Sutton family was filled with joy for the remainder of the evening. 

    The following morning Roman drove to New Hope Baptist Church.  He found Pastor Walker sitting behind his desk in much the same way that he had been when they met a few days earlier. 

“Hey Roman, how are you,” the pastor asked when he looked up from his work and saw Roman standing before him with a smile plastered on his face.  “I had a note on my schedule to give you a call and follow up today.  How is the job hunt going?”

“Well, I’m still looking, but something even better than finding a job has happened pastor,” Roman beamed.

“Really?  Well, have a seat.  Tell me about it.”

    Roman sat and began to recount the events of the last few days.  The pastor shared in the joy with Roman, but all the while a puzzled look marked his face.

“What is pastor,” Roman inquired when he noticed the confusion.

“Well, I’m just wondering Roman, what made you think that you needed to pray for your children’s salvation in the first place.  Was it something that I said?”

“Oh, that was just my misinterpretation of the scripture that you referenced in your email.”

“In my email?  I referenced scripture,” Pastor Walker asked, looking even more baffled than before.

“Yes,” started Roman, now looking just as puzzled as the pastor.  “You asked me to take a look at verses four and five in Job, chapter one.”

“I did,” the pastor asked as he logged into his computer.  “Let’s take a look at that email.”

Roman joined the pastor on the side of his desk from which he could see the computer monitor.  He waited patiently while Pastor Walker logged into his email and searched for the specific message that he had sent to Roman.  He brought the email on to the screen and immediately began to chuckle.

“Oh my,” he exclaimed.  “It seems that you were even more confused by my email than you thought.  And, I’m afraid that is more my fault than yours.”

Roman cocked his head to one side.

“What do you mean,” he asked.

“Well, you see Roman, if you had scrolled down a bit further in my message; I had actually included a hyperlink.  That link is to a list of jobs.”

He clicked on the link and displayed the page for Roman to see.

“What I was asking you to do was to take a look at job number one right here,” Pastor Walker stated as he clicked on the first job listing which was titled “Multiple Positions Available”.  “And then look at jobs four and five here.”  He moved the cursor back and forth between the fourth and fifth listings for “Bank Teller” and “Loan Officer” respectively.  “Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately in light of what you have shared with me this morning, being a pastor, I seem to have used the short hand that would typically be used for a scripture reference.  And, would you look at that, I even capitalized the J in job.”  What were previously chuckles now turned into a full bellied laugh from the pastor.  Roman joined him.

“So I sent you some information for a few job leads that I found and that lead to the personal salvation of your entire family,” Pastor Walker marveled.

“Yep,” replied Roman.  “The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways!”

The two men laughed together for a little while longer.  Roman then went home to apply for the two jobs that he pastor had recommended.  Two days later he was hired as the senior loan officer for a local branch of Wells Fargo.  God sure does have a sense of humor!