slammed doors

Darth_Jonas

Future Emperor
Registered
Nov 16, 2005
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right behind you
Um, you know how sometimes when you pray for God to make clear His will? Maybe you haven't, but I sure did. I asked that doors that I'm not supposed to go through be slammed and the ones I supposed to go through be opened and obvious.

Today I got layed off.

I could say a lot of nasty things about EDS, some of the people there, or about the way they do things, but none of that really matters. They are a big company and are "down-sizing" the amount of full-time employees. On the other hand, they are having job fairs for temps as I'm typing this. Because I was employeed at EDS within the last year, I do not qualify to appy as a temp.

In essence, a high school dropout who went and got a GED can get a job that I couldn't be transferred to with almost two years experience under my belt.

Now where's that open door?....
 
Sorry this happened to you man... This sort of thing has happened to me in the past, and it has always lead to bigger and better things in the end... It sometimes took a few months for those "open doors" to reveal themselves, but eventually they did. Hang in there!

What can you do, what would you LIKE to be doing and where do you live? maybe we can help you out.
 
Uh, yeah, some great words of encourage there Spuds...

Sorry about the job Jonas.
What exactly is EDS, and what did you do there?
 
That totally blows. I'm sorry to hear that. I have no useful advice for you, sadly. I've been job hunting for years now with very little success. Sadly it's not what you know, it's who you know.
 
Allow a fellow brother to encourage you, John (that's your name, right?). God always answers prayer. You prayed for closed doors, and He closed a door! That's so cool! Now is the time to get praying for an open one, or maybe it's already there but you're unable to see it. Pray for insight as well.

The most important thing for you to remember is that God has your back. He's not going to let you starve or suffer or anything. Rely on Him in this time, and you'll do just fine. (Note: God's definition of fine might be different from yours, but rest assured, His is better.)

The beautiful thing about this is that you've allowed God to take a stronger hand in your life and the decisions you make. You're like a willing Jonah. God always provided a way for Jonah to get back on mission. He won't let you fall by the wayside.

Do you feel any leadings? Any path tugging at you? Maybe the open door won't be so obvious, maybe it's a path you must forge for yourself.
 
The Roach's Obvious Yet Abstrusely Worded Observation of the Day: most everyone seriously belonging to a 'group' or 'type' as perceived by people on the relative outside fails to understand the collection of ideas those on the outside hold about that group, even though they themselves generally view other 'groups' or 'types' in the same manner.
 
Roach - I am well aware that there is a perceived "type" for Christians. My point was that it IS a stereotype (and as most stereotypes are) is propagated by those in the overall group who are attention-seeking, self-ingratiating, and over-zealous.

I have observed people in different groups who adopt the "type" more and more as they try to force others to acknowledge and identify them as part of that group. This happens a lot with teenagers, but it also happens with insecure adults.

Anyway. There is no "Christian Mould" that we all come out of. We're just people, living our lives, going through the same crap everybody has to go through. We just have a different focus, which spills down and affects everything in our lives.

But we haven't heard from D.J. since he started the thread, and I begin to worry about him. Does anyone have another way to contact him to see if he's ok?
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I have limited access to the internet right now, so I'll only be on about once (maybe twice) a day for a little while. For the record, Scoops, my mortal identity is Jon. Not Jonas, John, Jonathan. Just Jon.

I do have to laugh, though. My wife and I both have a peace about this whole deal. I've honestly tried to get upset about how they layed me off or that I am suddenly unemployeed, but I just can't do it. I feel...... liberated. I don't like not having a job, but I've got plans to be a substitute teacher and my wife is adding me to her insurance. We had an unexpected monetary blessing this week when I got my paycheck for the end of December and the first of January. It had an additional $200 since I worked on official holidays.

Another coincidence is that my wife opened the Bible and randomly opened to Matthew 7:7. I won't rewrite it, but she did that on the morning I found out about losing my job. It would have been literally minutes before I was taken into the office and given the boot.

God has at least one open door for me. I just have to knock on it. I do hope I don't come off as religious. I'm just a man with a little faith in God.
 
scoops said:
The most important thing for you to remember is that God has your back. He's not going to let you starve or suffer or anything. Rely on Him in this time, and you'll do just fine. (Note: God's definition of fine might be different from yours, but rest assured, His is better.)

Um... Churches collapse on their congregations every year. I've never heard a Christian claim that God won't "allow" you to suffer... Just that the suffering is all part of His Glorious and Unknowable plan.

I'm not going to turn this support thread into a religious debate, other than to say that I REALLY hope you don't think that just because you believe in God that He won't allow you to experience suffering, starvation, death or abuse... If so, I fear that you'll end up as one of the bitter, disillusioned people I meet all the time who abandoned God or whatever Higher Power they said they believed in when bad things started happening to them.

OK. sorry - don't mean to thread-jack... Carry on!
 
Obviously that isn't the case, Imago. If that were so...the majority of Catholics wouldn't be in third world countries where they're constantly terrorized by Muslims.
 
Basil: Hmm, what I was trying to say goes beyond just stereotyping the groups or types of people. The outside folks do latch on to stereotypes. The inside folks engage in a sort of group psychology, co-creators of self-contained, synthetic worlds and co-conspirators of their own stereotypes as you alluded to. A strong, illusionary, fake gulf is created between the two sides (also falsely created). That's what I hate. I just hate when people can belong or associate themselves blindly and/or strongly to something yet attack others for belonging or associating blindly to something else in the same abstract ways as they do. Not that I'm accusing anyone here of this. It's just something I dislike and must express. To me it's a very base approach to life.
 
Roach, I don't recommend blindly following anything. We were given discerning minds for a reason.

And Imago, I do know that suffering and trials come with the package of being human. And if God's plan for me is to lose everything, then so be it. Personally, I feel called to do something. I was just comfortable enough at my former job to stay there a long time. I knew it wasn't going to be a fun job and there was no hope of advancement to something better, but it paid the bills (barely) and provided me with insurance. Now I'm actively seeking something. A person who suddenly decides to reject God because life isn't as sweet as they thought it would be if they followed the 10 commandments, went to church every once in a while and maybe even drop a dollar in the offering plate were probably not really Christians in the first place.

God never promised earthly wealth, luxury or the easy life. He just promises to be there and to get you through it. Hardships should make you depend on God even more for peace, hope, and joy. What kind of loyalty and faith does one have if they only believe when their wallet is full?

[gets down off soap box] Whew, I needed to say that.

Things are still good. Bills are all paid for the month, got a little extra from working on work holidays, and overall, life is sweet.
 
Good deal, Jonas. And though our philosophies are different, I think we agree about the issue of money. Too many people are obsessed with the stuff and with working. I'm seriously considering quitting the highest paying job I've had thus far and downgrading to a job that will benefit me in a lot more ways personally (free time, stress levels, etc). Sure, if you have a family and stuff to provide for, you gotta worry about that aspect. But in general, people are too concerned with getting ahead and keeping up and getting the latest and greatest. I'm all for making and keeping things simple, moving closer to the roots of human existence. Given that, I think I'm some kind of anomaly of my generation. I've more or less ignored this whole wired movement. I don't own a cell phone, not plugged in to an iPod, don't have broadband internet, don't play games online. But I'm not completely out of the loop, either. I'm not exactly promoting a regression of society, but more an intimate merger of the technological and the natural. I guess I seek out balance in all things.

As a side note and for the record, if I ever were to make a video game and profit from it, my profits would be directed into making more games on my own terms and granting other likeminded folks the same opportunity. I wouldn't go out buying Ferraris and the like. :p