MY POST-GRADUATION JOB SEARCH began differently than many of my college classmates' did: with prayer and trust. I had direction and passion, but had found at other times during my life that these qualities were put to their best use when I listened for what God had planned for me. And so, after packing up my apartment at school, I headed home, where I spent many weeks praying and trusting that God would lead me to the right job.
One afternoon, I decided to spend some time reading and praying in a Christian Science Reading Room. I loved that the focus of my search had been getting closer to God, and on that particular day I felt this closeness perhaps more than I ever had before. About an hour after I got home, I received a call from an organization that I was interested in working for. I was excited about the job. It was in my field—politics—and seemed like a promising opportunity careerwise. After thinking the offer through and asking God to help direct me, I genuinely felt that taking this job was the right step. It involved furthering a cause I believed in. And I would be in a position to help improve people's lives—the reason I wanted to work in public service to begin with.
But after just a couple of days in the tiny, isolated town where the job was located, I started to question whether or not being there was actually the right thing for me. The lifestyle alone took a lot of getting used to. And having grown up in a city, I found it hard to adjust to the dynamics of a small town.
