In response to what I wrote yesterday, a friend of mine shared these words:
"God called those things which were not, as though they were." Sort of like faith, the substance of things hoped for, yet not seen. Four years ago, I walked out of a conference session on 'ACEs.' When I walked into that session, I had NO idea what that acronym - ACEs - even stood for. Today, it's not uncommon for me to use that acronym a hundred or more times a day. ACEs - adverse childhood experiences. I stood in the hallway after that session. I was overwhelmed by what I'd just learned. I stood there - in these feelings - and in a knowing - my life just changed in that room. In a beautiful way, my friend yesterday helped me understand that moment - those feelings. I know today I was standing in a moment of God calling something into life something that was not yet, as if it were. I left that session with my heart on fire for sharing what I'd learned. That information got integrated into everything I do in my professional life. It also changed the lens with which I use to look at my own life - how I tell the story of me. And like I told a group I was training this week - when we start telling the story of me without shame and guilt and judgment, that's when we get better at telling the story of others with a little more grace and understanding. More than once I've called this work I do these days the science of empathy. So Monday of this week, I officially interviewed for a job that was created to support this work I've been doing since I stood in that hallway. At the end of the interview, I was asked if I wanted to ask the interview panel any questions. My boss was on that panel. I choked up and had tears - they caught me off guard really; who cries in a job interview? But I said I don't have any questions, only a thank you. I said, we all want to go into jobs, every day, where we feel like we're making a difference. I told her when she allowed me to follow my passion, when she encouraged it every step of the way, when she fought to have this position created, she gave me the gift of truly feeling like I'm making a difference. All along, she was a very visible representation of God calling into life something that was not - as if it already were. Yesterday, when I got done with a training, I checked my email. There was a message from our HR - a letter - offering me the job. And again, there were tears. But these tears were all for God. Because that letter was from him. That letter was an invisible faith turning visible. That letter was a reminder that when we follow our passions and our hearts, stay true to them, an invisible God is showing up in very real and life altering ways. The timing of it all borders on the miraculous. The financial and spiritual and emotional gift of this job - that letter - to the minute - came right when I needed it. The tears reading that letter - those tears came in knowing that when I was standing in that hallway 4 years ago, overwhelmed with a feeling I couldn't put my finger on - that feeling was an invisible God standing next to me. That feeling was an invisible faith about to be made quite visible. That feeling was an invisible God saying remember this moment. I'm stamping it on your heart. Because one day you're going to look back on this moment and know I had a plan. I had a plan for a day you don't even see coming. I have answers for problems you don't yet know exist. I'm ahead of you on this one, he was saying. But I'm beside you all the way on this journey into the unknown. I know there are people who think I believe in the invisible. I get that. But my God isn't invisible. I read a letter from him yesterday. I know it was dated 4 years ago. And yesterday, it arrived right on time.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
May 2024
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