I have only been on the subway once in my life and that was back in 2005. My wife and I and another couple took a trip to New York City to walk around Times Square during the Christmas season. It was beautiful! However, one of the most sobering moments in my life happened when the subway train stopped at Ground Zero. The gaping holes in the ground were a grim reminder of that horrible event that took place on September 11th. My emotions went from joy and happiness to sorrow and anger. On that cold and windy December day I was reminded at just how bitter this world can be and yet a decade removed from that subway ride we have gone from hopeless to healed.

A friend of mine once said to me that people ride the subway to get from one place to another. I believe life is all about going from place in the journey to another.

In the fall of 2013 I landed an $8 an hour job working at the local Subway. It was not out of choice as much as it was out of necessity. For the past three years leading up to this job I was actually working in my field of “expertise” as a youth/assistant pastor at a local church while I was leading a young adult ministry at another church. But, there was something inside of me that was unsettled and I felt like it was time to make something happen in my life. THE door had yet to open for me and I felt it was high time for it to swing wide open! So, in the spring of 2013, my wife and I made a decision to leave this church to pursue a possible ministry opportunity with another pastor at another church in another state. Basically, we were uprooting to follow a “what if” scenario and we were that desperate to go for it.

The spring/summer of 2013 was all about the pursuit. We were bound and determined to make this happen so we drove to this church, spoke with the people there, passed out resumes and job applications and continued this pattern for most of the summer. It was during this time that I also interviewed at three other churches. It was crazy! Our heads were spinning and we had no earthly idea of what the heavenly plan was but, hey, we were going for it!

It didn’t take us long to figure out that we had made a mistake in resigning from my former church. To be honest with you I had a check in my spirit from the very beginning but I wanted something to happen so bad that I was willing to ignore it for the pursuit. The only job offer that came was a phone call for my wife to come to an interview for a part time substitute teacher position, and we took it to give God a “chance” to work something out. We were that desperate. Over the course of that summer we realized that this door was closing, then door number two closed, then door number three closed, and finally door number four closed. I guess now that I think about it none of those doors closed, they just remained shut and I didn’t have the key to open any of them.

At this time my wife only had a part time job and yet she was neck deep in a masters degree program to obtain her teaching license. Now, I was without a job.

I began working at Subway on a cool, September morning in 2013. It was 6:00am, it was dark, and I was discouraged.

Stop Number 1: God was with me in the darkness.
I hit a real low point in my life during the beginning of this season. I felt like a failure and I felt like less of a man, husband, and father. You have to know that up to this point I had already been through three job layoffs in just a few short years. So, landing in this position wasn’t exactly my idea of moving up in the world. I was depressed, shot-tempered, angry, frustrated, confused, hopeless, discouraged, and I didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. I could not provide for my family and it bothered me, deeply. I had some dark moments in the beginning of this journey but God’s hand reached down like He did with Peter and He began to lift me out of that darkness, slowly, but I was at least getting back up. The thing about getting back up is that you have to get out of the boat and put one foot in front of the other.

Stop Number 2: God is a God of the process.
I often hear people say that God is more concerned with the journey than with the destination. For a destination sort of guy like myself that is not what i want to hear. I’m the guy who stops in Jeremiah 29:11 where it says, “For I know the PLANS…” and ask God, “what ARE the plans?” After He gets done laughing at me God says, “I’m not telling you yet.” What I learned by making these sandwiches was that each one had a process to it. If I made a six inch tuna sub I knew that it took took scoops of tuna. A foot-long took four scoops. If I made a Subway Club I would put down four pieces of ham, two pieces of roast beef, and four pieces of turkey for a foot-long. Bacon was extra and we usually put it in the microwave for sixty seconds for a foot-long and thirty-five seconds for a six inch. Four pieces of bacon on a foot-long and two pieces on a six inch. The thing about Subway is that the customer can see everything that you are doing from the slicing of the selected bread to the bagging of sandwich and everything in between. God doesn’t do that for us so we have to trust that He knows what He is doing even when we can’t see the visible progress. He’s the God of the process. He took six days to create a world for you and I to live in and to enjoy. He will take His time to forge and refine us for the upcoming season.

Stop number 3: God always provides.
During our seasons of job layoffs and not having enough we never skipped our weekly tithe. We never robbed or cheated God out of what was due to Him. I’m proud of that, too. We could have and no one would have known but us but we would have known. We never missed a rent payment. We came close a few times but the money was always there. Sometimes a check would come in the mail from someone who said, “God told me to do this.” Or someone would walk up to us in church and slip something into our hand. We were constantly amazed at how God provided. But yet we were not surprised.

And when it came time for me to leave, fourteen months later, He provided a job for me where I am home during the week and I no longer have to work a second job on the weekends.

During those fourteen months God did a major work in my heart. He did far more than a blog post can do justice to but I hope this was enough to encourage you.

Today, my wife is a full time teacher with her masters degree in hand. I’m working at the local paper. Yet, we both know that THE door has yet to open but this time we will remain where we are until the Lord clearly opens the door and then we’ll fight each other to see which one runs through it first. Actually, we’ll take each others hand, along with our son, and walk through the door TOGETHER.