Well, I am writing this while I am still reeling from the conversation I just had with one of my co-workers who, quite frankly I have not talked to in quite some time by my choice. I just crossed three lines with her that I have never crossed with a female co-worker - ever. I just hugged her twice, cried like a baby with her on a 747 we were fixing an electrical problem on, and she flashed me her belly along with her bra and half her breasts right there in front of two other female employees so she could show me her scars. Now, in this current work environment, most any one of those three would get you fired. And Jeone has gotten people fired for that kind of stuff - before her mighty change of heart. The women in this work environment can call the shots - and HR does it. Usually, there are no questions asked and you are face to face with the guard at the gate handing your badge in.....
It takes a boatload for me to get offended - and Jeone managed to do it. I was mostly offended by what she had to say about the "Morons" one day about 18 months ago. At the time, I was talking about her planned surgery for gastric bypass - not the lapband, the other one - she said its really safe; 99%. Knowing that she was not particularly into God, I asked her if she was ready to meet her Maker if she fell into the 1% range. She said she did not believe in that non-sense and then started going off about how she is surrounded by Mormons (Morons). Apparently, she unwittingly bought a 2 acre parcel as part of a 20 acre piece that papa mormon had bought and divided up to give each of his 8 kids a piece of. One of the kids had marriage trouble and had to sell - right smack in the middle of the rest of the clan. Jeone bought the land not knowing she was walking into casserole, green jello, Book of Mormon "hell". So, right there at her desk 18 months ago, she starts going off on how she can't stand them and started listing why they were delusional (like all other believers - but letting me know how bad the Mormons were in particular). I was kind of embarrassed knowing that many of the other leads in the area knew of my religious affiliation. So, not being one to let a funny situation go to waste, I joined in talking about how they have too many wives, a bunch of cultists, brainwashed - the usual insults and innuendos.... She even vented about how her daughter had gone off and joined the "cult" - she was not happy about that one. After I overplayed my side of the whole thing, she caught on and goes, "What? Are you one of those??". I just smiled and said, yup.... I was smiling on the outside, but grieving/hurting on the inside. She and I had a brother/sister type relationship - and she was crass and funny and rude and reminded my of my older sister, Christine. We got along quite well, but that one kind of was too much for me. To make matters worse, she kind of threw me under the bus the next day in a management meeting which elicited a personal visit by a manager to my desk. When it looked like I was going under, I then asked if this had anything to do with Jeone the previous day. My manager then chewed on me for bringing up religion of any sort in the workplace. It started to get ugly - he had just walked one of my (Muslim) co-workers to the door for kind of similar stuff. I had defended the Muslim and let my manager know I did not like how that went down - and things were deteriorating with this new manager and I. I wondered if I would get the non-expense paid vacation.
Here is a previous post in response to that:
http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com/2011/11/they-will-thirst-after-blood-of-every.html
I did offer one of those prayers at that point - I can read the writing on the wall. It was pretty clear at that point.
So fast forward to today - God does work in mysterious ways. I had years ago identified Jeone as one of God's elect - I just knew He needed to break her hard outer shell down - like we all have; to get to our soft chewy middle where we can be pliant and molded like clay into the people He needs us to be. We can choose to be humble; or we can be humbled by external forces and factors. I had no idea when I asked if she was ready to meet her maker if she were among the 1% where things go wrong. Well, it did. She was clinically dead three times over the course of several months when stomach lining stitches gave away and had the scars to show where they had cut her open and irrigated her abdominal cavity. I point blanked her an hour ago - "Did you have a NDE while you were 'gone'?". She ignored me - I know she did, she would not dare let me know at that point, though. We had not cried together and bonded at that point. She did then get emotional and talked about how the stress of it all killed her husband - he had a heart attack and recovered from the first one. The second one killed him - she found him out under the willow tree in the front yard. I think God still had to increase the pain factor until she was pliant enough and willing to listen and learn of His ways. She then lost her mother and then her best friend - the co-worker that got my Muslim friend fired within a matter of months of each other. It was devastating to her - she had done the bypass surgery so she could lose the weight and get healthy so she and her husband could retire and fish together.
So, I shared my "Dallin dream" - and here is the kicker. She then opened up in front of all of her subordinates that she believes in life after death and was bearing testimony that her husband came to her room door in the night, looked at her intently, smiled and then left. That a few weeks after she died - we cried together and hugged again and I was off. My tears were a little bitter remembering my own trauma, but mostly gratitude that God loves each of His children enough to allow them to pass through the hard things to allow them to be able to be in His presence. He truly is mighty to save - physically, for sure; but most importantly, to save us spiritually. If given enough time to get this done (time is short), I would like to sit in proxy for her husband to seal them together for time and all eternity. There is more to this story - she is an elect and God will pluck his elect from their bad situations. Hers was an oppressive Catholic upbringing - and God will apply salve to all the wounds and make it right. I have seen it in my own life and life of my wife who has suffered terribly at the hands of her abusing step-father.
God truly does work miracles - all I can say is to be careful what you ask for. In some ways, He will send the blessings in such a torrent that the flash flood can be overwhelming.
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