On Trial in my Workplace

The Lord knew that I needed a job. Soon to be freshly married at the tender age of 20 years, I clearly remember the day of my interview as the rain drizzled across the sidewalk leading up to the single-story hospital.

Months had passed in my employment search without obtaining a single interview for a medical assistant position. Sitting before the manager’s desk with my hands folded now, I answered the pleasant woman’s anticipated questions and prayed that this interview was finally God’s answer to my need.

“What are your strengths? Your weaknesses? What bothered you about your previous job?

As the interview progressed, I felt a growing impression to share my faith with the interviewer. In a fleeting second, I wondered if, by sharing my faith, I risked lowering my prospects in obtaining the job. Be unashamed. With these two words echoing in the corridors of my mind, I took a deep breath.

“What brought you here from New England?”

 “I am marrying a southerner,” I responded, then plunged forward. “I feel certain that God has led me here to Alabama. It is my great desire to live up to His standard of excellence for me as a Christian, and I aim to carry this with me into all my future endeavors.”

The middle-aged woman tucked a blonde curl behind her ear. “Wonderful,” she breathed almost reverently. “I really want this to work out. There is only one more thing I should mention…” She paused to the sound of a gentle clock ticking on the sterile office wall.

“This doctor you would be assisting is single and he likes young women. Would your fiancé be uncomfortable knowing this?”

“Why, he has no reason to doubt my faithfulness,” I said slowly, wondering naively if questions of such a nature were typically discussed with prospective employees.

“Very good,” she rose from her chair. “I will call you within the week to keep you updated.”

I felt my heart strangely drawn to this job. Her description exactly fit all my hopes for schedule and hours with surprisingly low-stress labor. I prayed earnestly for God to rule according to His great power, and to my delight, the manager offered the job to me.

“Who will you be working with?” the pulmonary department’s friendly manager asked as he fitted a mask around my face to complete the day’s orientation.

“Dr. Williams, I believe,” I replied.

The man abruptly chuckled. “Well bless your heart.”

Dr. Williams was a man of short stature in his 50’s with a warm smile and laughing eyes. His keen sense of humor combined with strong political opinions kept the nurse's cage where I worked teeming with interesting thoughts, newspapers, and warm coffee brewing. He whistled a Christmas carol as he strolled the long hallway physical therapy staff dubbed “Purgatory,” for the sake of weary patients scuffling over the waxed floors with walkers.

“Nice to meet you,” he extended a hand.

“Let me take you to see Lesa,” the manager, Evelyn, led me to a glass window where a woman lifted a dark head of thick hair and repositioned her glasses. A certain frankness and sincerity of heart exuded from her presence as she surveyed the slender form of a girl in front of her, all of 5’2.

“I am looking forward to becoming better acquainted,” she said simply, with a faint light of surprise in her eyes.

The beginning days of work seemed simple. Evelyn managed the department kindly, and Lesa carried a soft heart behind a unyieldingly concentrated manner. From time to time, the nurses whispered in hushed tones and the doctor mysteriously disappeared from the office as Lesa whacked her fingers across the smooth office desk, eyeing the clock. In those moments, this honest Baptist lady looked at me wistfully. “Oh Abigail, there are so many things that I wish I could tell you…but I can’t. Not yet.”

I returned her gaze, understanding and clueless at the same time. I felt only thankfulness to have been given this job and contentment to give each day my best.

One weekend, I can still remember the pointed question from a friend. “Have you had any providential opportunities to share your faith at your new work place?”

I paused. To tell her the truth, work had become a routine and nothing stood out in my mind as an area where I had witnessed. I wracked my brain as questions peppered my mind. Why am I not having more opportunities to share? Am I doing something wrong?

Over six months had passed. Moments after I pulled into my desk cubby one morning, I sensed that something was amiss.

"Abigail," Evelyn approached me, "I need to speak with you." I gave her my full attention as always as she sat beside me in the empty nurse's cage. "In a few short months, Dr. Williams will no longer be employed here."

A surprising unsettledness rested over me as I wondered what this would mean.

"You will continue to have a job though," she assured, sensing my question. "The hospital CEO has taken a liking to you, and in his good favor you can be very assured of work.”

Half-stunned, I turned to Lesa. My co-worker appeared visibly shaken, although not completely surprised. A build-up of exasperation automatically seemed to lift from her shoulders as she pulled up a chair nearby.

"I feel like you deserve an explanation for what has happened," Lesa reflected. "Dr. Williams has repeatedly been partner to affairs with multiple young married women after another at this hospital.” Tears spilled from her eyes as her voice broke. “I have prayed, counseled, and pleaded but all to no avail.  Finally, the doctor was placed on probation, and that is why you came on the scene.”

One could hear a pin drop in the next few moments as the outside world suddenly seemed very far away.

"Leadership decided to hire someone to sort of "keep a check" on him – and sort of act as a test to ensure that he would not repeat the same behavior.”

"No one ever breathed a word..." I marveled.

"I thought that surely someone intended to tell you," she explained hastily. "In the early days, I would petition Evelyn in her office and pled your case – how that you needed this job to be something more than a temporary physician’s babysitter position. That you and your husband both depended on it for financial survival.”

Somehow the puzzle pieces of the last months began to slide into place.

“What has happened at this hospital very nearly breaks my heart. When the hiring process began for your position, I told Evelyn to find someone older and unattractive so that we would never have to deal with a repetition from the past. And then you were brought over to my desk – so young and innocent.”

Her eyes looked tender as she paused for a breath. “I marched to the manager’s desk to question her. “Why did you hire someone a young married woman to be introduced into such a catastrophic situation?” Evelyn looked at me firmly and said, ‘This girl’s fidelity to her God is so strong that I know she will not waver.’”

Lesa leaned forward and gazed into my eyes in a moment I will never forget. "Abigail, it was your faith that got you your job."

A thrill of amazement and holy fear struck at my heart’s core in that moment. Innocently I had taken up the routine of work, little realizing that in every moment, my faithfulness to God was being tested. I trembled to recall my hesitancy at the job interview to share my faith, and how close I came to brush away the conviction. What if, out of fear that it would cost me, I had neglected to mention my God?

"The whole hospital was watching you Abigail. Watching you to see what you would do, and how you would respond to the situation you were placed in. God was proved faithful through your witness."

Friend – life may seem to be comprised of a monotonous schedule of daily duties where no one appears to notice. But do not be deceived - for a world is watching. Do not measure an apparent lack of witnessing break-throughs as indicator of how many you have reached for Christ. The testimony of your life is the biggest witness you can give on behalf of Christ.

Many peculiar, unique situations such as mine may never be revealed or told until we reach the gates of eternity when we learn that amidst the routine of life, there were those who saw Christ in us. Nevertheless, let us never forget that God can accomplish great things with humble followers who confess Him before men, and then cement their words with faithfulness. Such a testimony cannot help but be apparent to all of the people in life we touch, though they may watch silently.