That’s what you hear at theme parks when you get on thrill rides. Although I haven’t heard anyone say that yet, I am on the thrill ride of my life! I accepted the voluntary separation agreement from Lowe’s. No, I don’t have a job to go to. No, I don’t know where I am going to go. Yes, I do know that the Lord will take care of me and my family.

I kept thinking that I would take the separation agreement as long as I could find a job first (smart thinking, right?). But what I realized is, God doesn’t work that way. He wants TOTAL obedience. He wants us to surrender ALL to Him. I was still depending on me. I was still relying on my own abilities. Its funny, cause I looked for a few jobs before this revelation and there were not that many, and I was getting concerned, thinking that I will be staying at Lowe’s as long as possible since the job market was slim. I got hit on the head with the realization that I hadn’t surrendered all, that I wasn’t totally relying on God and I said, “Okay Lord, job or no job, I am taking the VSP. I am relying on you all the way.” Once the decision was made, it was a relief, excitement, nervousness, all those things. But when I did a job search this afternoon (AFTER the decision) I kid you not, I had at least 100 hits on positions in my field of expertise.

Now starts a new chapter…

So I got up for work yesterday and logged into my email to thin the noise out before actually GOING to work and I came across this little gem…

Lowe’s commitment is to be customers’ first choice for home improvement products, services, and information whenever and wherever they choose to shop. To meet that commitment, we must continue to invest in key initiatives to improve experiences for customers and stay on the leading edge as a home improvement company. (stay with me here.  We’re getting to the good part) We must also constantly review and improve our internal processes and make tough choices about where we allocate our resources.

In 2012, we will evaluate the way we staff and support the multi-channel world in which we compete… blah blah blah blah blah …The first step of the re-engineering process is a reduction in the size of our staff in the US Customer Support Centers (CSCs)… blah blah blah blah blah.

And then I thought, “Hey, I work in one of the Customer Support Centers.” Here we go again, This is how the lay offs at Bank of America started. Don’t get out the tissue box just yet. I got excited, then I calmed down. God has NOT forsaken me yet and to date, He has provided quite well for me and my family. I had gotten the “itch” to move a while back. To be more clear, I believe God had planted the seed of us moving on to something different, something that He has for us for awhile now, and I even shared that with some of my family, but I have a good job and I am “comfortable”. Humans tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Is this the “outside force”? Is this God plucking the feathers out of my comfortable nest to get me to fly? Can I take this as a letter of commitment that God is in control of my life and He is directing me? I’m the one that posted “whenever, wherever” to the Lord at the beginning of the year (see the blog in January)

…Let the games begin!