Fresh out of my training, I started a new job with much anticipation. After getting over feeling nervous, I caught onto my new routine.

I couldn’t have asked for better colleagues.  Since I was the youngest one on the team, they obliged every time I needed help and took me under their wing. We had such great rapport that ten years later, they still feel like family.

But we haven’t worked together for ten years.

Four years after I worked with that team, I took a similar position elsewhere so that I could get some loans paid off.  I remember telling my colleagues (by then close friends) with tears that I would be leaving.  I was heartbroken, but deep down I knew I was making the right choice.

It was different at the new place.  I was the oldest one. This meant that the roles were slightly reversed and new colleagues were reaching out to me for guidance.  I kinda missed being the baby.

Slowly, though, I began to blossom with the change.  New challenges were being presented, and instead of punting it off to the more experienced ones, it was up to me to figure things out.

I even took on a leadership role, which would have been less likely at the previous location, given I didn’t have seniority there.

Without a doubt, the new place turned out to be better for me.  I was gently pulled out of my comfort zone and started to slowly develop into a leader. It was an uncomfortable process but a necessary one.

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to walk the streets with Jesus? I imagine looking into his gentle eyes and following behind him as he healed lame men and played with little children.

But, here I am in 2020 and Jesus isn’t walking the Earth.

Before His betrayal and death, Jesus tells his disciples in John 16 that He will eventually be going back to be with His Father.  He knows that His absence will bring them grief.  Guess what, though!

Listen to what He says, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7 (NIV)

“…it is for your good….”

While Jesus was walking the streets here, He could only be in one place at a time.  The Holy Spirit, though, would be omnipresent and enter the hearts of those who believed on and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

As you know, once Jesus ascended, the disciples were propelled into leadership roles.  And it was done through the Holy Spirit who was living in EACH of them.

As He is with each of us. Whatever challenge you are facing, whether at work or at home, don’t be intimated.  With God’s guidance, it will propel you into the leader you were meant to be.

~Elizabeth (Betsy)

*Photo of me searching for my first job!