…All Around The Town

There’s the group of ladies and the one older guy…chatting about finding a daddy-long-legs nest in one of the lady’s basements…do they know? There’s the heavy-set nurse that’s always on her cell-phone, talking loudly about private family matters. Everyone’s trying hard not to overhear, but not quite succeeding…she’s oblivious. How about the still very-pregnant Asian woman, or the large well-dressed man who’s always listing to and ‘wheeling’ through his IPod…are they aware? This is the well-dressed, well-groomed man who always wears sunglasses and carries the trendy coffee thermos’s last time he’ll ride the bus. Does this micro-community, these bus denizens realize this? No, I’m sure they don’t…furthermore, would they care if they did? Not very much, if at all.

As I’ve sat there over the past several months, in my tie, observing them through the security of my sunglasses, I’ve come to realize that even though we don’t know each other’s names or anything else about each other for that matter, we do take notice when someone new starts riding or when someone that you’ve come to expect to show up every morning, no longer does.

When I started at Mayo, I knew it was a temporary position that was back-filling for a person who was expecting. The contract called for me to be here through the end of October. Through out the months that I’ve been here, I’ve been very up-front with them that if at all possible, I would love to have my contract extended and eventually come on-board permanently. The people I’ve worked with here in telecommunications are exceptional! They are friendly, helpful and fun. Carole (my Mayo supervisor) is very professional, but leads her people with an easy grace…simply put, she cares. Three weeks ago, the executive director of the agency Lisa works for came to her and told her that the agency’s computer and network person, after 10 + years of service, turned in his two week notice and wanted to know if I might be interested in the position. Now, there were some items to consider and none of them really made the task of deciding any easier…this position, in essence, would BE the IT group for the organization and where I have a lot of experience in IT, I honestly haven’t had a lot of server or network experience…this is a non-profit organization and the director was up-front with me about their inability to be competitive in the salary area of what a typical systems administrator would make…Having a job here as opposed to Rochester would save us about $2500 annually in gas, wear and tear on the car and two hours out of my day that I could use spending time with my family…Staying at Mayo would provide better salary range and over-all benefits…all of this was floating around in my head and I even attempted to sit down and logically draw out the pros and cons, but how do you weight salary against family time? All the justification in the world won’t matter when your son or daughter looks at you with hurt and disappointment in their eyes, wondering why you, for the 100th time, missed yet another event. Throwing all of that to the side, we brought it to God in prayer. I was honest with them and told them that my training and experience with servers and network support was very lite, but I also pointed out that taking a lower salary didn’t shake me. They knew they couldn’t afford to pay someone with the full experience and training the going rate and I knew given some training and time I would be able to help them. It seemed like a win-win situation. Two days later, the person I was filling in for came in and announced that starting the next Friday, she will be coming back half days…that prompted a whole flurry of activity from me going in and asking about their plans for me to contacting my consulting group and letting them know and asking about my contract! Carole told me that she needed to sit down and discuss things with her supervisor, that they were happy with me and they needed to determine if they could justify keeping me around, but that Steve was on vacation and the following week, she would also be on vacation. So, for the last two weeks we’ve been waiting on and listening to the Lord and as each day went by, we continually felt all of this was no coincidence, that once again, God had orchestrated all of it and in His time-signature. I let them know that I wouldn’t be available until October and set up an interview for next week. My consulting firm assured me that although Mayo wouldn’t have to, they planned on keeping me to the end of my contract (October 31st). So naturally, when I talked to Carole this past Tuesday afternoon and found out that Friday (today) would be my last day, I had a few moments of panic! But I quickly remembered what God had put in motion nearly three weeks earlier…that He was and IS in control. By no means do I have the job locked up, (the interview is this coming Monday morning) but I have peace about it and the confidence that whatever may come, is by His design.

Jeremiah 29:11 ‘”For I KNOW the plans I have for you,“ declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope AND a future”.

Philippians 1:6 ‘being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’
Today at approximately 5:15pm; I will board the route 17 bus for the last time and as I sit there, waiting for the bus to transport me to where I parked my car, the bus will be filled with the chatter of weekend plans, work issues and family matters…no one else is aware this will be the last time, but me. Come Monday morning, will anyone notice that I’m not there? Will it matter? I can’t help but wonder; what sort of impact have I had on my fellow commuters? Probably not much…if any at all; not that I’m being cynical, but neither time, nor opportunity presented itself to really have any impact. And I’m certainly not filled with self-importance, but you really just have to wonder…

So, good-bye loud-talking cell-phone lady, good-bye IPod dude, good-bye cackling, chatty ladies, good-bye Asian woman, I pray you deliver a healthy baby! Good-bye student with the attitude, life really isn’t that bad! Good-bye Darryl the maintenance guy and good-bye George…keep on telling them to ‘move on back…’

~ V