The God I STILL Know...

By now, I'm sure that it is not news that Research In Motion, the company I work at, is in the process of laying off 2,000 people. If anyone following my blog posts read how God was leading me over to RIM, and how he stepped in and made things happen in ways that I never could have imagined (you'll find it at The God I Know), the situation would almost make one wonder if God just dropped me off at RIM and drove off to leave me on my own to fend for myself.

Well, guess what... God is not only here, but God has went before me. He has, and still is, preparing me for whatever is to come. How do I know this? Well, how else could one explain being assigned to read Isaiah 55 the day before the press release?

Verses 8-9 read:
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God has bigger plans. He is in control and I gotta leave it all up to Him. Basically, what He said to me through scripture was, "I know what you will be going through next week, and I want you to know that I am still here and I am in charge. You had the faith for Me to lead you to RIM, so you should have no less faith that I will lead you through this and will walk with you"

Does it mean that I will still be working at RIM? Only God knows!
Does it mean that I may be laid off? Only God knows!

Am I afraid? I'd be lying if I said no. Am I going to worry about it? Not this time... God has shown me that He's here. God is leading the way. I refuse to let worry consume me, like I did 20 years ago when I worked for Apple and found myself in the same situation. All worry did was make me sick to my stomach and couldn't function at work for the week that it was happening. When it was all over, I was still at Apple, but I was functionally useless.

So, what I am going to do tomorrow, when I go to work?

I'm going to go to my desk and give it one of the best days I have. I am going to write code with no less passion than when I first started. After all, I still love what I do, and I love where I do it, and nothing in the past few weeks has diminished this. Even more so, I am going to be encouraging and supportive to my fellow team mates. I will do what I must to keep our team functional and productive, because we have a fantastic team. If our team gets affected, I will do what I can to help our team heal quickly so that we can move forward even greater than before. And, most of all, I will praise God for walking with me through this and allowing me to work in what I still believe is one of the best places to work. I will praise God for being with me every step of the way. Even if I can't talk about it at work, I can still demonstrate it. And, as always, I will be grateful to God.

And if the unfortunate does happen and I get laid off, I will still set an example, even if I will be sad. I will be sure to thank them for giving me the opportunity, however short it may have been. Most of all, I will still praise God and know that He is still going before me, just like He did last Sunday, and have faith that He has a larger plan than I could ever imagine. Most of all, I will be grateful to God because this is still the furthest I have ever gone within RIM than ever before, and that is a huge accomplishment!