I closed 2014 on a new journey. After 10 years of traipsing across North America, settling claims in unsettling circumstances, I accepted a positon relatable to the skills I had acquired, but totally different in focus and scope. I was now a field superintendent/inspector for Progress Residential, a group that owns and manages a large portfolio of single-family homes. The pay was decent and I was home most every night.
And that is how 2015 began.
Life was good.
Job, Interrupted
Then, March of 2015 came along. A phone call from my supervisor changed everything. I was all caught up on my field duties, but over on the maintenance side of things, there was an incredible backlog of unresolved issues and open work orders. I was asked to come inside and help sort things out, get people called, get work orders closed, get a grip on what had become an overwhelming situation.
I never went back to the field.
At first, it had me plenty irritated, to the point that I made a couple of phone calls to old comrades and contemplated hitting the adjuster road again.
Meanwhile, I was busy building a model for handling maintenance issues for the 1,100+ homes we managed in Dallas/Fort Worth. Things were coming together and the maintenance techs and I actually began to see daylight. The pending work order count was steadily dropping. We had devised a new workflow that insured the constant influx of work orders would not reach the breaking point for our department again.
Corporate took note and took action. Our model was used to formulate a national gameplan and a new position emerged. I was now Service Manager. A new title and a better pay and bonus schedule resulted from the call that I thought was a slap in the face back in March.
Shows what I know.
New Year, New Beginnings
Today is my last day in this position. After the first of the New Year, I will be moving on to a new company with a better position, better pay, better opportunities.
Talk about accidental progress!
Only, I don’t believe in accidents. I believe in a sovereign God. Sovereignty rules out happenstance. What seems like good or bad fortune to us only seems like it.
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Isaiah 46:9-10
The Long and Winding Road
When I look back at all of the years of my life, I see a journey that, by all human measures, appears to have been “all over the road. I’ve been up, down, in, out, favored, forgotten, victorious, defeated, a shepherd, a sheep, a wandering soul. I have preached to thousands and been a sermon illustration. I have been counselor and counseled.
I’ve never been anywhere that took Him by surprise. I’ve never gone where He did not allow – or rather, appoint.
I am ready to put 2015 to bed with thanksgiving. I am thankful for my new son-in-law Dylan Blevins, who brought love and hope to my daughter Ashley and my grandson Ty. I am thankful for my soon-to-be son-in-law, AJ Haley. He loves my Lacey the way she deserves to be loved and she loves him completely. I am thankful for Edward, a man among men when it comes to sacrificial love.
I am thankful for Donya. She has made every victory more satisfying and every loss less stressful.
I am ready to face with you the unknown, because it is only unknown to us. I am ready because, like the immortal Charles Haddon Spurgeon famously noted…
“God is too wise to be mistaken and too good to be cruel and when you cannot trace his hand, you can always trust His heart.
Happy New Year!