by Julie Jaunese
I LOVE my job. I mean it; I truly love going to work each day. Was it always this way?Pretty much, yes, but there was a time when I had a job that was difficult right from the start. In order to understand I need to take you back to July 10, 1984. My husband and I would have a breakfast date every few weeks and then we would go into a store called “Calico Cat” and browse. My husband said he had seen a sign in the window saying “Help Wanted” and he thought I should apply. So July 10, 1984 I began a journey of 15 years of loving every day I went to work at Calico Cat. Times changed though and my daughter had our grandson and moved with him to Jacksonville. I began longing to have a job where I didn’t have to work on the weekends. I prayed to find a job where I could have weekends off so we could visit Jacksonville. One night a friend called and asked if I would be interested in working as a general manager for a business owner. I met with the business owner who assured me I wouldn’t need to work as hard as I was and I would never have to work weekends. Even though the owner said “no weekends” I didn’t feel like this was where God was directing me. I needed to go to Him and ask if this was the job for me. I prayed and prayed and believed then, and still believe now, that God was using this job to move me to a new job, which started in May of 1999.
On my first day of my new job I cried all the way home from work. I was asked to come to the owner’s home and she would show me the ropes before she presented me to the employees in her stores. The first day began with me doing things I really felt were illegal, which is why I had the tears. After I had been there for three months, I was advised to begin praying and asking God to show me something great that I could hang on to that would give me excitement and happiness in this job. And then, three months later I was advised to ask God why he gave me this job. At nine months, after working weekends and many 60 to 70 hours a week, I began praying that God would release me from the job and give me a new job. About two days later the owner and I were working together in the back room of the store and the owner made a comment that was in disagreement with the Bible about the behavior of a single person. I said “Can you show me in the Bible where God said that, because that is in disagreement with His word.” At that exact moment I felt relief. I then knew why I was in that job for 9 months; to deliver that one line, to give the owner an opportunity to listen to God. Two weeks later I worked my last day and began looking for a new job. I finished working that Saturday, took Sunday to rest and then I went to a temp agency.
At the temp agency I was given a test covering Microsoft Word and Excel. I did great on the test for Word but I needed to put together an excel spread sheet following their directions. I put it all together and made it look perfect – I did all of the addition and subtraction in my head and put in the correct answers. When I finished the test and went into my interview, the woman was pleased with the work I had done. I told her that I had done the math myself and I didn’t know any formulas. She didn’t seem alarmed and the next morning I began working my first temp job. I was there for two weeks, and then was going back and forth between different agencies. I was offered jobs at both of the first two places I started, but I didn’t feel like they were where God wanted me. The Tuesday of the next week I went to work in the place where I have worked to this day. I spent 6 weeks as a temp before I became a permanent employee of Moffitt Cancer Center as the administrative assistant in the Rehabilitative Services department. My actual start date was July 10, 2000.
I loved my job at Calico Cat and I managed one of the stores for nearly 15 years before I left, but had I gone directly to Moffitt and began working in an office, I think I would have been like the Israelites, looking backwards. I think God made it more like the book of Job, where He gave me some desires of my heart knowing that when I had the desires fulfilled I would not like them at all. The job at Moffitt has helped me grow – my skills have grown far beyond my wildest dreams. I pray that if you follow God’s hand and then find out you are not happy with the outcome that you will look at what God is teaching you and see it as a blessing. The blessing always comes from doing God’s will, even when it is not easy to do. God has you in his hand and will bless you.
Has God ever given you a green light in a new job and then you wonder why He allowed you to leave a job you loved to take a job you ultimately hated? Share your thoughts and comments below!
Julie Jaunese has been married to her husband Michael for 42 years. She has two daughters and three grandchildren. She works at Moffitt Cancer Center and hosts two women’s small groups, the Yada Book Club and the Fabulous Fems. Mike and Julie have been part of Grace Family Church since it began with 40 people in a house.