What To Do In The Waiting by Ella Kimbrel
Have you ever found yourself in a waiting period? Maybe it’s waiting for the next iPhone or the next installment of Avengers. More seriously, maybe it’s waiting for your next career move or promotion. As much as I enjoy a new iPhone or Avengers movies, I’ll be focusing on the latter for this blog segment.
As far back as I remember, I haven’t been good at waiting. When I was 18, I worked at a fast-food restaurant. It was not a glamourous career, but I had higher aspirations. With only a GED at that time in my life, I didn’t have any other options, so I decided I’d learn every position in the restaurant and work my way up to management. Soon I could work anywhere in the restaurant and thought myself quite valuable. I also thought myself ready for management. When the offer of promotion to management didn’t come when I thought it should, I quit.
A year or so later, I was hired as cashier at a local grocery store. On my first day, the store manager asked me if I wanted to learn how to decorate cakes. I said, “Yes!” I transferred to the deli/bakery and learned how to decorate cakes. It was fun, and soon I learned how to do everything in the deli/bakery. I also learned that this was not my future. I decided to go to vocational school. I was going to learn how to type and use a computer. College wasn’t an option for me yet, so I had to do something. What’s interesting about this part of my story is that after one year of working at the grocery store, I was offered a promotion to Assistant Deli Manager. Finally! Here was an offer of a promotion! You know what? I turned it down! After graduating vocational school, I took a job as a receptionist at a nursing home and left the grocery store. I had arrived!
Eventually, I went to college at night while working full time during the day. I was only able to take one or two classes a semester, but I felt I was making progress. I didn’t want to stop with entry level administrative roles. I wanted more, although at the time, I had no idea what more looked like. All I knew was that I was working while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was working in the waiting because I had no idea of God’s future for me.
Fast forward to 2001. I was 33 and had a great job working as an HR Manager for a linen service company. We had relocated to a new city to so that I could take the job. By this time, I had worked in HR for about four years, and I was really enjoying it. After a year of struggles and successes, I thought I was ready for a promotion. I applied for a regional HR position within the organization. I didn’t get it, so I quit, and we moved back home to Lakeland.
I was three months without a job upon returning to Lakeland. Eventually, I was hired as an HR Director with a timeshare company. After a year of working there, I once again found myself in a position of thinking I was ready for a promotion. I applied for an HR role at the company’s corporate office and was interviewed for the job. I didn’t get the promotion. Again. I didn’t quit right away, BUT I did began looking for another job. My husband found a job ad for Harrell’s, and HE submitted my resume. I was scared to death. I had never the been the only HR pro in the office before. I definitely didn’t feel prepared, and I was sure that I wouldn’t get an interview. BUT I DID! And I was hired!
After a few years, I found myself again in this place of waiting. I was so proud of myself for all I had accomplished at Harrell’s. I had been promoted to director after three years, but I was ready for more. I’m sorry to say that I was prideful. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” I was about to fall. Big.
Here’s what happened. I decided that if I wasn’t going to get promoted to Vice President, I should create an Assistant Vice President position and pitch that to my boss. I put together a beautiful binder full of all my accomplishments and what I was planning for the future….my future and the future of HR at Harrell’s. I was just waiting for my annual review to come up.
My boss at the time was a pretty patient guy (he still is). When I presented my idea and handed him my notebook, he didn’t laugh at me, he just looked at me with a face full of questions. But what he said changed my attitude. He said, “Ella, you do the job you want until you get the job you want. You’ll only get the job when you do the job. If you want to be a VP, act like a VP. Do the job of a VP.” Hmmm. I always thought if I worked hard, the job would just come and my employer would teach me how to do the job AFTER I was promoted. I was wrong. I was humbled.
The meeting with my boss was pivotal. I had no idea how to be a VP. And I certainly didn’t want to wait for it. I wanted to quit just like all the other times. And I tried. I looked for other jobs, but God closed every single door. He made it very clear that I was to stay put…and grow. And wait.
So what did I do? I gave my future to God. I stopped trying to force a promotion. I stopped focusing on a promotion and started focusing on serving those around me. I decided that if I couldn’t move upward, I was going to move outward and expand my learning. I went back to school and earned a master’s degree in HR. I achieved HR certification. Most importantly, I poured myself into those all around me…my coworkers and my family. I took the focus off myself and determined to let God lead.
Four years later, I was promoted to VP, and it was a very humbling experience. I give all glory to God for it because if not for God, I would have given up. When I leaned into learning and serving, I grew exponentially. I also learned that with a promotion comes greater responsibility, greater burden and greater service. I was reminded that Romans 8:28 is true: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” And here’s the key for me: I want God’s purpose for my life to prevail, not my purpose.
In the waiting I had to walk away from entitlement, pride and self-focus. Those attitudes never serve anyone well. So, if you find yourself wondering what do in the waiting, don’t give up. Just wait. Pray and move your focus from self to service, from expectation to education, from pride to patience. It’s so cliché I know, but it’s true – let go and let God. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has a great plan for all of us if we’ll just wait on Him. HIS timing is perfect.
May you be encouraged to live life abundantly today and every day, whether you’re in the waiting or the growing, or both. ♥