You see, 17 years ago when I first started looking for a job, I got a job at the school as a cafeteria worker in our local Junior High. I dreaded the job. I felt like I was getting ready to go to prison. As the days before school started got closer, I was dreading it more and more. Then one Sunday, while at church, a friend told me about a job I could get at the company she worked for. It was part time, but she thought I would enjoy it. It was to be a taste tester for a local sensory lab I’d not known existed.
I applied for a job as a panelist, but the office wasn’t hiring panelists at that time. They were hiring staff. I was given an application and asked to do a ten key test to see if I could do the job.
I didn’t do the test well, but got the job because several of the people, including the lady who was doing the hiring, knew how I’d worked at Wal-Mart five years before. There was another woman who was more qualified, but the lady doing the hiring and the other people who knew me from Wal-Mart liked the way I worked the service desk at the retail giant.
I knew that I didn’t get the job on my own merit, but that the Lord had provided an income to help John and me. And so, I began working at 21st Sensory and over the years my job evolved and after several years I was editing reports, I was the tier one IT person before going to our IT service, Springpoint, out of Tulsa.
When we all lost our jobs, I went to the unemployment office to apply for the unemployment I was to receive and began to get checks while I did my casual job searches.
During this time, John and I both were realizing how much we both enjoyed me being home. God was providing in ways that were surprising and we were even able to begin some much needed improvements on our front porch.
Eventually John was introduced to Empower Network. One of his co-workers, Dennis Armstrong, was telling him about it and it intrigued him. He began to research and talk to me about it.
But my reaction to Empower Network was like trying to give a cat a bath.
Every time I watched a video about it I got angry and frustrated with John even considering this. “Isn’t it an MLM? I hate MLMs!”; “I won’t talk to our friends about it! It’s crazy!”; “All these things are scams! No. I don’t want to do it.”
And on and on.
Finally John told me that the main focus is not to make the money but to put oneself into a position of helping others.
This I couldn’t believe. It sounded to me like all it was doing was worshipping the almighty dollar, and everything I saw seemed to confirm that. I looked at the things he wanted me to see and there was nothing that made me want to join, but I told him I would be willing to do the blogging if he did the marketing. So we bought into it.
After a while, and John telling me again that the focus was to help others I finally agreed that we needed to go to Denver to see what this was. So we went to Denver and the result was that we bought all in.
When we returned I was still struggling with this. The biggest reason is because this entire business seems to be leaving our true source of empowerment completely out of the equation. I saw nothing but infomercial mentality and faith in the human monetary system rather than in Almighty God. God is our only source of power, our only source of finances and if we leave him out of our lives, we are living a delusion.
Much of what put me off was the mantra, “seek the power within”; and “look inside to find wisdom”. I can tell you there is no power and no wisdom within ourselves. To look deep within oneself, one will find only darkness and despair. Looking to God is the only answer. He alone is the Light of the World
There’s a song by Clay Crosse called, “I Surrender All”. Part of the words say, “I surrender all, my silent hopes and dreams for the path to follow cost me everything…”
One day, while walking home, I heard the voice of the Lord speaking to me. He reminded me of some of the old Bible stories: Daniel and his three friends, Mordecai and Esther and the little slave girl who belonged to Naaman in 2 Kings 5.
Each of these people worked within a pagan human system whose leaders did not glorify the Lord and these who were servants of the Most High God became quite prosperous (except the little girl; I think she stayed a slave; the Bible doesn’t say). I realized the Lord was telling me that he works through human systems to do his will and that I shouldn’t be afraid.
This was the beginning of my breakthrough which took another step into what I can’t understand. I made a video showing some of downtown Bartlesville, and when I woke up next morning I realized I was actually excited about being in Empower Network.
I thanked the Lord for helping me with this and soon John and I will be posting videos together.
As I was thinking about this video blog I remembered that several years ago, before we ever heard of Empower Network, I knew I would be speaking in public. I didn’t know how or when and I didn’t know what I’d be talking about, except that I knew I would be talking about God’s goodness in our lives. Since that time my husband and I have been involved in many experiences, including speaking in public and joining a team in the making of an indie film based on The Death of Kevin Frye, a novel I wrote.
If you’d like to see what God can do, using Empower Network as His tool, go to
http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=restlesswriter
and watch the video that will explain all that it is.