A Bike ride with Jesus.
Seeing the Headline you might think that I am a big time biker but that isn’t the truth. I love riding bikes but never got a chance to go for a long ride.
Recently my team at office decided go for a short drive after work to a café coffee day which is located some 55 kms away from our office. I was excited about the ride. I fueled up my bike so that it doesn’t stop anywhere, checked my tyre pressure for a smooth ride, had my jacket and helmet ready … with lot of enthusiasm I was geared up my ride. It was a neat highway for a good ride.
Usually bike rides are not that easy. You have to be wide awake and watching. You can come across lot of hindrances, like a speed breaker or a man hole or even potholes on bad roads. If you aren’t careful, you may even lose your life. But this ride on the highway was different. During the ride I realized life is something like a bike ride. You will go through lot of struggles but the point is to hold on to Christ to have a safe ride.
I shall explain you out of personal experience how God really leads you to a better place in your life journey. When you are out for a bike you cannot always expect that road should be smooth without any hindrance. The worst roads are where you may have to slow down ride properly so that you don’t fall off your bike.
I am here to share how my life journey, I came out of college with 7 arrears not knowing what my future is going to be. At that time God blessed me with a call center job. I thanked him for the blessing but a few years of night shifts and it ruins your health. You miss out on many occasions. You are separated from normal world. You sleep when the world works and you work when the rest of the world sleeps. After working for 3.5 years, I needed a break. It is a good to take breaks even during your bike ride to rejuvenate. You will take breaks because you are tired or sleepy or because you feel you are done.
During the ‘break’, I was preparing for MBA and applied in different B-Schools. I didn’t get through any one of them. I was disappointed and asked the Lord for direction. After few months, he leads me to three months School of Mission in Bangalore. I happily quit my job and did my School of Mission, came back home after 3 months looking for job. This time, I was sure that I will take only a day shift job and not a call center work. I was in job search for more than 3 months but nothing clicked. During this time, I get a call from an Investment firm. I just went just for the sake of attending an interview. I didn’t want my parents to worry about me.
The moment I entered that office I felt peace in my heart as if I had already got the job. I cleared my interview and got placed in Bangalore. The firm was an amazing place to work but again it’s was night shift job. I was praying- Lord, I need a day shift. We have a process in most of the companies called IJP (Internal Job Posting) which is; once I complete 18 months with this company I can start look for a different role within the company to grow and move up in my career. I completed my 18 months in September last year and come October, I started applying for different position which I felt would work for me. Nothing happened. I started to feel anxious again. How long am I going to be stuck in this night shift! I remember it was 7th February 2013 afternoon. I was in my room, frustrated, irritated, lost my hope. I was literally shouting at Jesus asking what has he destined for my life… then I finally said- Lord, I surrender. A miracle happened that same day. I logged into my system and I get an email from a unknown employee saying that there is some problem with my profile in IJP site. Whatever I had applied to all those days was not visible to the HR. He deleted my profile on the system and I had to recreate. The next day, I applied for a position software engg. Then few days later, I was called for a face to face interview. They were looking for a person who knew coding and scripting and I have no experience in that field and no idea how to code. I thought that I was not getting this role but I thanked Jesus that he took me till the interview stage. After few hours, the interviewer called me saying that I was technically a nobody since I didn’t know coding but he liked my attitude and will give positive feedback to the manager. After a little while, I get a call from the manager telling me that he had sent an email to the HR accepting me and said that after an half hour I would get a call from the HR. After a few minutes I get a confirmation email from my HR saying that I am selected for the new role software Engineer, I was in awe! Totally surprised and speechless at what God did for me. Within a weeks’ time, he made me attend an interview and helps me get through it too… Praise God!.. That’s how God works. He works in unimaginable ways. He has his own time for everything. The new role functions in the day shift. Man! I was waiting for this for the past 5 years. I can’t imagine how I got a role without any experience of a software engineer. He makes all things beautiful in his time.
Our life is like the bike ride, when you get exhausted on the way you look for a Coffee Day and relax for a while, and maybe you feel this is what you were looking for all the way. But we, as Christians have to continue the ride trusting in Jesus. Our whole life is a something-like-a bike ride with Jesus. You will face a lot of speed breakers, bad roads and what-not but if you are passionate about the ride; whatever barriers may come in the way, Jesus will ride with us to reach the eternity.
