"Sole Survivor" by Rev. Paul J. Bern
Now available in print, digital and audio formats. Offered on Amazon or from our website
Watch the video at http://youtu.be/5Bxi7x0nUc0
Chapter 5
Restoration by God, Driven Away by Man
I finally got out of jail on the night of December 17th,
1999 after an agonizing 4 month wait to get my court case done and over
with. The main thing I remember about that night was how incredibly
cold it was. I had been arrested in early fall near the end of
September, and all I had on were casual slacks and a polo shirt. After
treating myself to a full sit-down dinner at an all-night restaurant
across the street from the jail, I was forced to make my way on foot to
the nearest place that I was sure would be open all night, which was the
community hospital on the suburban east side of Atlanta about 2 or 3
miles away. So off into the freezing cold I went as I hiked over to the
hospital. The two main things that motivated me to get there were the
lack of outer clothing and the fact that I was already a nervous wreck
from having spent those 4 months in jail without the benefit of my
bipolar medication. The clinic there – and it barely qualified as such –
were giving me 2 different medications that I had never heard of. They
did just barely work, but they were a poor substitute for my regularly
prescribed 'meds'. I recall getting to the ER about 3:30 AM that
morning. To make a long story short, I spent the next 13 days at an
inpatient clinic right down the street from the hospital. While I was
there I got stabilized on my regular medications, and I managed to get
back in touch with the district manager where I had been working when
all this mess first started. I had contacted him when I was first
brought to jail, trying to raise some bail money. They could not help me
with that, I was told, but my job would be kept open for me until I was
released. They stayed true to their word and rehired me upon my
release. That Wang Global district manager's name was James Dean. God
bless you, James, wherever you are.
I checked out of the hospital on a blustery Friday afternoon, and I
started back to work the following Monday morning. This gives me pause
with regards to God's eternal mercy, the loving way He chastises us but
then restores us – but not always immediately, because His timing is
always perfect. Did you ever notice that about God? His timing is always
letter-perfect and never too late. Had that gone any other way, when I
got out of jail I could have immediately become homeless, wandering the
streets without a coat when the outside temperature was around 35
degrees, and having lost the new job I had just acquired 5 months
before. Instead, and by the grace of God alone, I had landed on my feet
and I was able to miraculously pick up where I had left off before all
the trouble started. I give Jesus all the credit for my success, and I
give him all my praise, thankfulness, and honor!
I worked that entire year, right up until Christmas time. That's when
they laid us off. But it was the way it was done that bothered me the
most. One day a month or two beforehand, a 15-passenger van pulled up
and parked in front of the office, and these 15 technicians from the
Philippines get out and enter the office conference room. The door gets
shut behind them, and it isn't until the next day that the rest of us
found out they were there as our replacements. The senior techs, and by
this point I was one of them, were instructed to train one of them
apiece. One of them said it was unfair, and he refused to train any of
them, saying he could make his job last at least a week longer by not
having a replacement trained and ready to go. To no one's surprise, he
was fired on the spot, right where he stood, and it didn't seem to
matter to him. To this day I regard this as a good example of what can
and should happen to racists in the workplace.
I spent the next six months searching like crazy for a replacement job.
Unfortunately, the dot-com financial crash was happening right around
this time, and the computer/IT industry had pretty much came to a
standstill. So I did what lots of other technical professionals like
myself were doing at the time: I went back to school to get my Microsoft
certification. I already had my degree, plus an A+ certification and
two Dell certifications, so for me the Microsoft certification made
sense (remember, this was back in 2001). But instead of making me more
marketable like I thought, what few job offers I did have seemed to
evaporate. All together I went for over 14 months without drawing a
paycheck. My saving grace during this time was that I had substantial
savings, otherwise I would surely have been homeless by that time. But
homelessness escaped me when I used the small pickup truck that I owned
at the time to go to work as a private contractor for a courier company.
I had to take a substantial pay cut from the $35.00 per hour I had been
making as a Dell service contractor, but by now my savings balance was
nearly depleted. By dodging homelessness the way I had, I thought I had
dodged a bullet, but I had only delayed the inevitable for a few more
years. I will have more to say on that in the next chapter.
This book is available on-line from the author at www.pcmatl.org/books-and-donations (free shipping, tax deductible) for $12.95.
Or, get it on Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=sole+survivor%3A+one+man%27s+testimony+for+Christ&rh=n%3A154606011%2Ck%3Asole+survivor%3A+one+man%27s+testimony+for+Christ
Get it in audio format at https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daudible&field-keywords=sole+survivor%3A+one+man%27s+testimony+for+Christ&rh=i%3Aaudible%2Ck%3Asole+survivor%3A+one+man%27s+testimony+for+Christ
No comments:
Post a Comment