Until God’s cue

“Pearl, i am pleased to let you know that the HR committee has reviewed your terms. As the head of department just like the rest, you need to now consider relocating to the UAE where the Management team will all be based. Your boss is relocating as well. I do take note you will need sometime to revisit our earlier discussion and so while the salary review is immediate, we will have to pay you the gross amount in your home country. As UAE is a tax-free zone, you stand to earn more once you relocate”, said our HR director over a skype call.

Thank fully, we did not have our videos on other wise my not- so- excited face would have given my lack of enthusiasm away. Mum’s cat, Zookerberg was sitting next to my lap top rubbing his body on my elbow as we both listened to our own interests,him at the birds outside.

Isn’t this what the pandemic allowed us to have-small pleasures of working from anywhere? On this day, I was at my folk’s place. Zookerberg’s gaze was fixated on the window in front. He loved sitting lazily on dad’s home office table and would often jerk into action at the appearance of an assuming bird on the window seal, from the tree right outside.

“Thank you”. I replied as I stroked Zookerberg’s white and grey fur coat.

 His soft purr in response to my touch sounded like the mimic of a chirping bird. He often did so as a hunting tactic which always back fired. Poor aiming, I guess and realizing he can’t fit through the window grills.

“I will have to get back to you once I consider the offer. I still have afew personal and family commitments that do not allow me to make the decision right now”. I continued.

There had been afew decisions at the board level in the last quarter of 2020, one of those was to move a whole team from Mauritius to the UAE. At the time, I was enjoying the flexibility of working away from the office. I relished well deserved breaks to be with family. I had even taken up new hobbies including gardening and loved watching my potted flowers bloom.I tried all manner of recipes while also being in virtual meetings-bliss 😊.

I recall a chat with one of the directors afew months before. She could not understand how everyone was jumping at the opportunity to relocate yet I appeared disnterested. Some colleagues even asked if they could relocate in my place.According to her, my not having a family of my own was reason good enough for me to relocate.  So why won’t you Pearl?

On my end,I wasn’t sure how I felt for a reason I could neither understand nor explain.My compromise was that I would get a resident visa but I would choose the periods when I would work from the UAE office. Personal reasons aside,I enjoyed being hands on with teams on ground and the bulk of the work was in the subsidiaries in Africa. I reasoned that I would be more useful being in Africa.

I however decided to pray about it,lest this was God opening a door of opportunity which I was shutting on my own. The more I quieted myself in God, the more restless I became. It was therefore a crystal clear on the decision to make after some weeks. In fact,i felt as if God was warning me not to move to the UAE-that I would lose a lot more than I would gain and be stranded.

Did I not get bashed for my decision! I was accused that in not relocating, i wasn’t allowing my department to grow as I would have had to recruit someone to serve the needs of the local entity,yet I already had an able team. The more the hostile reactions of management I received after making my stand known,the more I understood the push for my relocation was ingenious.

I was the one getting a tax hit! It literally meant that my salary raise was only a figure on paper and not an actual increament. The taxes in my home country wiped out almost the entire raise. It was therefore a puzzle as to why it pained management in my not accepting the offer. In any case, I could do the job wherever I chose to work from-thanks to covid broadening our mindsets on remote working.

Decide early what is important to you. What are you willing to give up to rise up in your career? What are you willing to do also? Are there personal values that you might be tempted to compromise just to get ahead? What is most important to you? Family, peace of mind and good health, making money with a specific goal in mind, your spiritual life,your children?

Inquire of God. Don’t make a move before you have His green light to do so.

An employer may make assumptions when they know just a bit more than they should about your personal life. I believe that remaining a little guarded   often proves useful .You eliminate the risk of them excercising a misplaced right to make a decision for you unilaterally . At this point, I felt money wasn’t a motivation for me to relocate. Time has taught me the value of having a life outside of work,investing in relationships with loved ones.I had to reflect on the offer with alot in mind that would be affected by my choices.

This may sound simplistic but i just couldn’t find reasons convincing enough to make me move. On the contrary, i was also convinced it was about time for me to leave the organization. I didn’t want to make my opportunities difficult if I needed to meet prospective employers in person.

Whatever opportunities come your way talk to God about them. No matter how simple they may be. Not every promotion is in God’s mind for you. Not every job opening is yours to walk into . Sometimes the enemy will open a door and it takes us far from the things that God has purposed for us in a specific season. Take every decision to God.

David is a perfect example of inquiring from God about everything. We should as well because there are specific paths God has ordained for us. He didn’t want to lead himself, to go by his own strength or wisdom. He was always wanting to know God’s mind about everything before taking any steps. David asked even when it seemed obvious on what he was to do.

2 Samuel 2:1-4 reads.2 In the course of time, David inquired of the LORD. “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” he asked.

The LORD said, “Go up”.

David asked, “Where shall I go?”

“To Hebron,” the LORD answered.

So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 3 David also took the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in Hebron and its towns. 4 Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the tribe of Judah.

Prior to this prayer by David, he had been living in exile with Philistines. David had acted like a lunatic while escaping from Saul and so was not a threat to the King of the Philistines who allowed him to live in Ziklag in Philistine territory. In the preceding chapter, David had just received news about the death of Jonathan and his father Saul. In fact together with his army, he mourned their deaths. This however meant that, now was the perfect timing. What he had been waiting for, for years. Having been anointed King by prophet Samuel meant that this was not only it but even the timing it.

Verse 1 says… In the course of time, David inquired of the LORD. “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?”.

In the course of time means that even after the death of Saul, he wasn’t quick to act and it’s after a while that he went back to God. Even when the timing is perfect like it was for David or a golden opportunity has been presented to you, ask God. What is next? Should I do this?  What next step do I make? David was a valiant man, had people looking up to him but he allowed himself to be vulnerable before God for leading. Just like Moses pleading with God, don’t send us from here if your presence is not going with us.

Is it not wonderful how God would speak audibly and right back to David. What if God doesn’t speak back to you immediately as He did to David concerning that matter that you are discussing with Him? I didn’t hear audibly not to relocate to the UAE but I never got peace. I highly regard having international experience.I however didn’t have peace about this one or perhaps the timing was also not right. I decided to turn the offer down.

The moment I reduced my decision on email to the HR director to formalise my feedback, I got such a flood of peace. This is despite knowing all too well that I had short changed myself on the said pay rise and boosting my cv with the experience.I was content as my life was also rich in many other ways.

God speaks in many ways; He may speak by the peace that He gives us or an inner witness. Perhaps it’s an inner knowing or a word of knowledge through someone. It could be a dream-scriptures give us numerous ways God speaks. The surest way is God’s word as He can never contradict what He says in His word. We might be thinking alright, that sounds about right but which verse is so specific as to what we need to hear God about?

Jesus left but Holy spirit was left with us. We can trust Holy Spirit to pray for us in line with what is in God’s mind concerning us and His perfect will.

Romans 8:26-27 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession [g]for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

If you have the gift of being in-filled with the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues if you can. That’s one of the ways we allow Holy spirit to pray for us and through us. Our minds may not understand but we declare mysteries to God.

If we do not have that gift of tongues, we can still seek the mind of God or His perfect will by praying scriptures. Search the word of God for verses that address what you are trusting God for.

Some of my all-time favorite verses that I constantly whispered to God included Psalms 32:8 I will instruct you in the way that you should go, I will counsel you and guide you with my eye.

Isn’t it amazing to read how specific God’s leading can be if we ask? Like David asking God. I have been in exile. Should i back now and where? And God even tells him which specific town to move to. Just like David, we can trust God by the help of the Holy Spirit to also be that specific in His leading us.

Psalms 25:12 Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall [b]He teach in the way He chooses.

Inquire of God in prayer and through His word. That’s one of the ways of committing our ways to the Lord. It builds our trust in Him.He shall bring it to pass as is written in Psalms 37:5.

The real test in inquiring of God is the waiting. Be ready to wait long enough until you hear God speak. Sometimes we do not seem to have all the time to wait or perhaps we are under pressure from others. Yet being patient allows God to speak to us in His own timing ,His terms and not ours. At least we can purpose within us not to move before we have His go ahead. When we train our ears to hear God in the small issues of our lives, we perhaps might not find it so difficult to hear God on the big issues.

Waiting for Him to speak may look odd to others but don’t move until God gives you a  go ahead to do so. It took me 3 months to revert back to the HR director. There was a cost to my waiting for the elusive peace yet I am a testament that one would rather make the right decision than make a hasty, costly and regrettable decision. I think, waiting for God’s que is one of the units in His  school of training 🙆‍♀️.We will however find so much assurance and can rest in the confidence that we heard God speak before stepping out into anything.

While I couldn’t put a finger to the specific issue that took away my peace on the decision to relocate to the UAE, only 6 months later, it all came crushing down. The company lost some huge business and was forced to restructure. We had to down size and let go of the big office in the UAE.

I was then called upon to guide on all the legal processes that came with the changes. These included drafting letters to let go of people at that office. Had I not heard God’s voice through His taking away my peace, I might as well have been drafting my own letter of termination of employment. These were for employees that had packed their entire lives in their home countries,some had agreed with their spouses to step back and leave their jobs and now needed to urgently leave and go back home . Some had changed schools for their children yet after  the three months’ notice issued to them they would have no jobs. Most had sold their personal items back home- basically uprooted their lives and needed to find their way back to start all over. Bitterness with management was palpable- you could see swords raised in farewell emails, goodbye messages to WhatsApp work groups, angry posts on professional platforms to anyone who would care to read.

On my end as I worked quietly and peacefully, I could see the shame written all over my bosses faces for attacking me for my decision. Some seemed at a loss for words and had empty gazes in meetings -like did she know something we did not know?

All my heart could whisper to God was, “thank you for knowing what was ahead and saving me from all that.”

Holy Spirit can lead us in decision making if we let him. Indeed Psalms 25:4  holds true for pearl that

“Show me the right path, O LORD; point out the road for me to follow”.

This is an excerpt from Pearl’s unpublished book (in progress 🙂 )