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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 7:33:33 GMT -6
This testimony I want to share is a bit lengthy. There is quite a bit of detail in here that, although I do not wish to recount and relive is necessary to paint the picture properly. I hope you will follow along with me as I share how God has restored my life back to Him. I was almost immediately into a fiery a trial and test of my faith. He led me and walked with me all the way, blessing me in so many ways, drawing me to Himself in ways words cannot describe. 1 Pet 4:12-13 "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
Sharing this has been a long time coming and I believe needed as someone will be blessed to hear how faithful He really is even when we are not faithful! 2Tim 4:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
First feel I need to provide some (brief) backstories. I became a Christian in 1994, and attended a bible believing, Pentecostal/Charismatic church for about 7-8 years. There were a lot of things I was taught and learned that were great and helped nurture me in the Lord, however there were many things that were not, but that is another story for another time. There were some circumstances that occurred where I left the church and eventually both my (first) wife and I began to slide away from God altogether. A few years later we found ourselves separated and eventually divorced. Looking back, I see this scripture as absolutely describing the condition of my heart at that time “Matt 19:8 Jesus answered, “It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but it was not this way from the beginning.” My heart grew cold and hardened, towards everything except self. This trend of “self-first” in my life continued for many years (roughly 12-13). I walked after my own desires and lust of my flesh, living in sin and debauchery, hating people and seeking vengeance on those who I felt deserved it. I was a single parent, dating, sharing custody of my daughter. I suppose the only thing(s) I had in my life that provided any stability were my little girl and new girlfriend (who is now my wife).
(As I write this story of a piece of my life…I am ashamed of myself, my actions and poor decisions – thanks be to God for His unending love & mercy!)
During this time, I became employed at a company working for the same manager since September 2008. Things there started out slowly but were going well. My manager (Dave) and I had started at the company about 1 week apart and over the years his confidence in me & my abilities grew and grew. In fact, in 2013 I was offered a position at another company and had accepted it; however, Dave was able to match the job offer and said “I cant run the department without you”, imagine how inflated my ego was! Side bar – that company where I accepted the offer is now going out of business. The next few years here with Dave led to more promotions, money, trust within the organization. I was living the high life! My ego was so inflated, my head couldn’t fit through the door any longer. At times I looked in the mirror thinking I needed to pinch myself thinking “a guy without a college degree, could be successful in this world!”
In April 2016 another opportunity came around, where I went to a new company for an interview. This interview went very well, so well that I explained to my fiancée that I knew I had this job and we were going to be able to have the income we needed to purchase a home together and begin our lives together. I was very excited…then came the reality and the twist where God stepped in. I blamed them for being cheap, not wanting to pay me the money I asked for, it was their loss! Truly He was in change and is in charge but looking back I can see where He really began to move in my life for a purpose. I did not get the job offer I thought I had already locked up. (I am humbled writing this as God is soooo great)
It was a beautiful day in late June 2016 where Dave called a department meeting. His message was one no one expected or wanted to hear. The job I had interviewed for, was now his! He resigned, accepting the position at the company that passed on me just about six weeks earlier.
(continued...)
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 7:34:07 GMT -6
Well my swollen head and carnal confidence came right to the forefront “I’ll now be promoted to run the entire department” I thought to myself. The rest of the team all had the same sentiment, looking to me for direction and guidance in this time of tumult where the leadership void needed to be filled. Even one of the folks (Danielle) on the west coast called me saying “Mike you have my vote to run the department”. Wow, it was a no brainer…or so I thought.
The next morning Dave came to me saying “the decision being made is not what I recommended” and that was all he would or could offer me. Confused I racked my head wondering what this meant. The following day the COO called a department meeting, appointing Danielle (the same person who called me) as the new ‘interim’ head. The air came out of the room. Everyone was confused, especially me. The entire group was troubled. Danielle was with the company roughly two years, and had no where near the experience, knowledge or responsibility I had. The COO said, “a new VP of Operations is starting in a week, she’ll straighten out the rest when she begins”. There was a lot of dialogue in the department, trying to figure out what was going on. This continued for weeks and when the new VP of Ops began, I took the opportunity to make my case for interviewing for this position. I requested that the job be posted and that anyone wanting the role to be able to apply for it, it seemed fair to me.
I was previously tasked by the COO to visit our CA offices and what a time to do so. I would promote my reasons for being the department head and ensure that during the transition things would remain smooth and we were working to improve things in all areas. My psyche was fragile, mind confused, heartbroken. Upon my arrival to CA I rented a car. When I turned on the vehicle SiriusXM radio was on, it was a Christian station. Now I don’t recall the song, but while driving from the airport to the office that morning I chose to leave this song playing and began to talk to God. My petition was brief and something like “I don’t even deserve to talk to You, but I need your help”…that was it nothing more but tears and self-pity after that.
Over the course of the next several weeks or so I tried to figure out what happened. I was confused, hurt, thinking someone was jeopardizing my career, it was weird. During this time, I was interacting with the new department head quite a bit, in fact daily. This added to my frustration over the situation as I knew what needed to be done and she was asking me how to do it. Those in the NJ home office (where I was located) compounded this by trying to encourage me with words like “why is she contacting you for help, isn’t she running the department…” This only added to my stress, hurt and confusion. I thought Danielle & I had a great working relationship. She would come to me for advice before this change and now after this change as well, so I would trust her commentary until one day in August she said “Mike I have to tell you, Dave lied to you. He recommended me for the job not you. I don’t know why he did that to you, I’m sorry…maybe he wanted to just sever ties with you” I was floored, hurt, and began to cry. Someone I looked up to and worked so closely with for years lied to me and like that? For what, what did he have to gain? I consulted with a few folks in my office and they made matters worse by speculating. I wrote him in an email exchange trying to get the full story from him. Ultimately, he said “Mike we have worked together for almost 8 years, if you don’t know how I operate than I’m not sure what else to tell you.” I finally decided to leave him alone, there was nothing more he could do. I was devastated but had to begin to accept the situation and although I didn’t directly blame him I believed what she told me about what was said. I was not getting this job and had to begin to learn to work with my new manager. I thanked her for telling me this and said let’s do this, I’m with you. However, what I didn’t know was which person was lying to me. Dave indicated he had about a three-minute discussion with COO, in which he barely had time to give his advice on who should run the department, while my new manager told me she was recommended. What do I do? During this time I was watching the news regularly and seeing the debates for upcoming election, there was “fake news” being touted and the unrighteous acts of the president at the time. The news was indicating a certain woman would win the election troubling my soul even more. I had little idea what was true and what wasn’t anymore. The world around me and my own life were in turmoil and nothing was making sense. My entire world was upside down now. It was still late in August and I said “I’m going to pull out my bible and dust it off, maybe I’ll read it.” I did that, pulled it out and dusted it off, but didn’t open it.
Concurrent with this time I was searching for a job. I had my resume professionally written, I needed to escape but absolutely nothing was materializing for me.
(continued...)
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 8:16:14 GMT -6
In mid-September, early October things with Danielle started to take a downward slide. Her attitude towards me became more and more condescending. She was in the NJ office September and had a meeting where she had asked me to do something. What she asked I was not in agreement with but said to her I would do it. The next morning, she approached me just before her flight back to CA and said “you probably hate my guts…” I responded with “I don’t hate anyone, and how I feel or not has nothing to do with anything”. She insisted “you hate my guts because you don’t want to do what I asked you” I said, “I don’t agree with what you’ve asked but I will do what you ask, how I feel (about you) is irrelevant”.
I was caught off guard by this line of questioning. Why does this matter I thought? Why does she care what I think or feel about her?
About a week later she asked if I had handled what she asked me to do. My response was that the only thing I recalled from our discussion was she told me that I hated her guts. I apologized for not completing this task yet and would handle it soon. The response I received was a full-page email telling me that I was “self-righteous, had no value to the company and that I should find a new job somewhere else…” among other things. I thought ‘this is exactly what I needed! This proves that she is unfit to lead. Something I felt I already knew but now had evidence of such, and with it I went to the HR department. After a couple interactions with HR, they urged me to bring this to the VP of Operations as a courtesy and try to resolve outside of HR. I wasn’t thrilled but accepted this and scheduled a meeting.
During my meeting I presented the situation (of the email) and the VP stated, “I am aware of the email”. Wait what? Its been over a week, I had to approach you with an email that you knew about, and you’ve said absolutely nothing to me about how wrong this was? I really began to feel like my life was in some twilight zone! Her recommendation was that the three of us have a meeting to review it and she felt Danielle owed me an apology however she couldn’t force that from her.
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 8:21:04 GMT -6
Many of you don’t know me outside of this medium, but one other aspect of my life is that I have been involved with exercising since the age of 15. For many many years I was into the bodybuilding scene and have always been fascinated with strong men and their ability to lift massive amounts of weight. My daughter being a YouTube fan, was watching something one evening and I asked her how it worked on the TV. Could I search and watch anything? In an effort to break from the news later that night I searched for a certain person who was dubbed as a real-life hulk. Man! this Russian guy was actually built hulk like, so I found a video or two then upon exit I saw a video by Steve Cicciolanti titled “you’ll never read Revelation the same again” or something like that. I was scared…I looked at the dusted off bible that I hadn’t opened yet and back to the screen. I thought “what could this mean, what is it I hadn’t read about in the times I’ve read years before”. I decided to watch - GOD IS TRULY AWESOME!!! Thank you Lord!
This video changed my mind, that right I repented of who I was and decided to begin walking with the Lord again - and it gets worse before it gets better! (continued...)
My faith I the Lord began to increase exponentially. I was hungry for Him as after watching this video I realized that Jesus was in fact going to be returning to this planet soon and very soon. The bible was real and a verse from there was literally going to happen in the next 10 months or so. If God could accept the Israelites for all the harlotry they did to Him, He could love me still too. I finally began to read that bible!!
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 8:39:08 GMT -6
One of the most important things that could have happened to me occurred a few weeks after this. I was standing in my apartment kitchen (no one else around that day) and I asked God what was going on. It was November 10, 2016 and I recorded what I believe I heard in my heart that day on an electronic post-it note in my phone which I still have to this day.
EDIT - back pay meant that I should have been promoted in July, with increase in salary
Well this didn’t exactly sit well with how I thought this should go. I thought that she should be let go and justice served. Who writes a full-page email to someone attacking them personally and walks away scott free?
About two weeks later (late November 2016) was my annual performance review. In all years past everything about my reviews was that Mike is doing great, does great, is reliable and consistent. This year all of that was missing. This year, Mike doesn’t write email well, Mike is not consistent, does not complete assignments on time and so on. No examples of poor performance, were provided. All of the write up was opinionated and lacking any evidence, but was accepted by HR and management. The review requires signature and comments. Before signing off on this I wrote a many page dialogue refuting every point with documented performance and follow through, including several examples of praise from others in the organization during this short time of July through November.
About two weeks later (in fact I think it was on my birthday) a discussion was held with the HR department, it was someone new in the department who seemed to have a … how can I say this without judging her…she was a company woman I guess is the nicest way. Most people who knew her (HR lady) said things like “I would not trust her ever…” you get the idea (I hope). This dialogue with the two of them did not go well as we reviewed the performance document. Every item reviewed the HR person became more and more aggressive towards me saying things like “she said you didn’t you job Mike, you didn’t do your job” with no examples necessary I began see how God was warning me of what was to come with a simple prompting and post-it note became something I kept close to my heart.
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 8:59:22 GMT -6
Things quieted down for the next few weeks during the holidays or so I thought. On the morning of Friday January 13th, 2017 I was in a meeting for about two hours. I hadn’t brought my phone with me as I did not want distractions when in meetings. I returned to my desk to find about 6 missed calls and several texts from my sister saying “call daddy as soon as you gets this”. I called my dad wondering what this was about, fear was in my heart. When dad answered he said “hey Michael – (your brother) Frankie passed away this morning”. I fell to the ground and began to cry, “What happened?!” My brother had an extensive medical history all the way back to age 9. He wasn’t expected to live more than a few years but somehow managed to make it to 51. He was the catalyst for my family, Gods instrument through much suffering led several to Christ through his life. I ran back to my desk, grabbed my things, sat down in my chair dumbfounded, confused and crying. I got in my car to head to my moms to be with the family all the way thanking the Lord for preparing my heart for this moment by restoring me back to Him. I recall saying “God you knew that I wouldn’t be able to handle this on my own, you have been bringing me through this for this moment, thank you for caring for me and allowing back into Your family.” After spending time with family, I returned back to work Monday January 23. On Wednesday February 1st, I was called to HR and informed my position in the company was eliminated.
I received 17 weeks pay, plus vacation in lieu (9 days), plus was qualified/eligible for my annual bonus. These amounts exceeded the “back pay”. Because Feb 1st was in a pay cycle, I received a (2 week) paycheck Feb 10th plus one more (Feb 24) and the entire month qualified for unemployment.
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 9:19:25 GMT -6
I walked out of the building that day remembering my post-it note and feeling complete peace. My thoughts, my heart and my words were “I’m not worried, God is in control”. I almost coulndt believe what I felt. I wasn’t worried, concerned, saddened fretful anything like that. Instead I said let’s see what You’ll do here Lord. Over the course of the next few days I still was in awe of the calm and faith I had. I really don’t think the faith was mine, but the Holy Spirit in me.
I texted my former boss (Dave) the following day letting him know what transpired. He called me later that day saying he knew someone looking for a person with my qualifications. That person called me within a day and although in MA, and I couldn’t entertain this further I began to further realize that Dave never said the things I was told he said.
Two weeks later on Valentines Day I had a voice mail from Dave saying “Mike, I can bring you on-board over here as a consultant on a project. I have so much work to do, I’ll never get to it.” I began to work with Dave again February 26th, further confirming that “I would lose my job, get all the back pay and have a new job almost immediately”
Isnt God just beyond amazing! too good to be true.
My story continues – with the temporary position I had to go through the difficult part even more as I was on temporary assignment. The role I had was for three months, I began to waiver at times worrying but reminded that “He will NEVER leave me nor forsake me”. I went to Dave in my last week of the three months (June 2017) and said my three months is up next week (while you are on vacation) anything you want me to clean up before I’m done. He said “we cant let that happen”. Within a day he said we got another three month extension approved, then in September 2017 I was brought on full-time. The kicker to all of this is I am receiving the same salary as before. God is faithful folks!
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Post by mike on Jul 1, 2019 9:20:11 GMT -6
Further to this, with the way the payments came to me, I was able to bank the "back pay". This extra income provided what my finacee and I needed to purchase our home together. Although we had to wait until I was a full time employee to obtain a mortgage, it was all in Gods timing. We decided to honor the Lord and were married prior to moving into our home and are approaching two years with our home and married life. thank you Jesus for being faithful to us, when we dont deserve any of it!
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Post by sawdy on Jul 1, 2019 12:24:50 GMT -6
Thank you for sharing! Praise the Lord that he was with you and that you knew he was with you when your brother passed away.
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Post by Natalie on Jul 1, 2019 12:33:52 GMT -6
Thank you, Mike, for sharing that with us. God is so good and faithful.
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Post by kjs on Jul 1, 2019 12:34:25 GMT -6
Thank you for sharing your story with us!
In my opinion, God has "worked many miracles" in our lives .... and while they may not be huge like feeding 5000 or walking on water ... they are still huge for the individuals involved.
I wish more people from this site -- would take the time to give honor and praise to God -- for the "miracles" that God has orchestrated in their lives.....
AND PLEASE share more when you have time.......
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2019 12:47:21 GMT -6
Thank you mike for sharing your impressive story with us! Very encouraging. All honor and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ who cares for you and your family. |
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