When my dad walked through the door of my head shop and offered his unsolicited advice, I paid close attention to what he said, and I can still remember his words:

“You should sell this shop… and get yourself a 9-to-5 job, and enjoy your family.”

Looking for Guidance 40 Years Ago

A short time later, in another conversation with my dad, he suggested I call my previous employer to see if I could get my old job back. However, if I followed this new advice I would have to admit to my former boss that I made a mistake when he gave me the “it’s us or your head shop” ultimatum. And now that I needed a job, I doubted he would give me one… I didn’t want to face him, or the possibility of being rejected, so I didn’t do it.

Instead I looked through the classified ads and found the Bible-selling job. It paid well — if you sold the product. But the sales manager consistently dropped us off in poor neighborhoods to sell these expensive Bibles to people who really couldn’t afford them. I had some conflicts with the tactics, and ended up talking more about what was in the Bible than about selling or buying a Bible. It wasn’t long before I knew I needed to make a change.

I went back to searching help-wanted ads in the classified section of the newspaper. I sent my resume to numerous places. But nothing seemed to work.

A short while later I had a conversation about my job-search struggles with the friend who had prayed for us and who visited me in my head shop one night. Just like my dad, he asked if I had talked to my former employer. I told him the same thing I told my dad: “He’d never take me back after the way I left…”

I continued to struggle for weeks and eventually called an employment agency. They sounded optimistic, but they needed a letter of recommendation. I was stuck. The only way I could get a letter of recommendation would be to call my old boss. So I finally did.

When I called and asked him if he would consider writing a letter of recommendation for me, he said, “You’re not asking to come back to work here?” I told him I didn’t think that was an option, and he asked, “Didn’t you like working here?” I told him I liked it very much, and then he asked me to meet with him that afternoon.

I was humbled a bit. He offered me a job a couple of notches down on the ladder. Basically I had to start all over again in the same position I had when I originally joined the company. But I was hungry, so I took the job. Within six months I was back to the position I had attained before I’d left, only with a higher salary.

I could have saved a lot of time, frustration, and trouble if I had just listened to my dad and my friend, and not thought I knew best.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…     – Proverbs 3:5