Lent Devotional – Reliance

I have two short stories about how my faith has come into play in my professional career. I worked for many years at a large software reseller in the DFW area. I loved my job, my team, and my co-workers. I worked hard to make it up the corporate ladder to a Regional Sales Manager role. During the last week of maternity leave with my second child, my mom was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. At the time, she was our daily child caregiver. So, I quit my job to stay at home to take care of her and our two girls. Four years later, my mom’s cancer was gone, we were moving to a new home, and it was time for me to go back to work. So, I prayed and prayed for a part-time, flexible, stay at home job with good pay, where I could be available to pick up my kids after school. This was 23 years ago! At the time, there were very few jobs available with great pay and work from home flexibility. However, I had faith that God would answer my prayer, because I knew that “with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26.  Within a month of us moving to our new home, a friend of mine I knew from church called with a recruiting and human resources opportunity working for a government contractor in Virginia. It was work from home, very flexible hours and paid more than I imagined! God answered my prayer and blessed me with a great opportunity.

Six and half years later, through mergers and acquisitions, I was working for IBM doing the government contractor recruiting. My boss was a jerk, and I hated my job so much I avoided walking by my home office. I was miserable. During Spring Break of that year, I quit my job. I walked out of my office and told my husband, “Well, I just quit, and I am D-O-N-E done”. Jim responded by asking about what my plans were for future employment. I had no idea, but I decided to pray about it. I did about six weeks of research and soul searching. I asked myself what came naturally to me and what I enjoyed. The first idea that came to mind was organization. When I get stressed out, I will go organize a closet or drawer in my home. So, I did more research and found NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals). I am currently on the NAPO board of directors. I started Configuration Connection 12 years ago and have been happily helping businesses and solopreneurs have more time to focus on what really matters by helping them with their time, workflow, team, paper, and digital organization.

Sara Genrich

Configuration Connection, LLC