Miracles: How Many Have You Had?

While reading The Secret today, I came to a section in the book that discussed miracles and being thankful for them. Miracles.

They are the moments when something so amazing and unexplainable happens to you that you are in total awe. It's like walking down the street, finding a beautiful gift wrapped box and finding that the tag on the box says: To: You (fill in your name) From: The Creator. And when moments like these happen, it's like you look around to see if it's for real; you're rubbing your eyes in disbelief as you stare in shock at the gift. Then, you open it, and it was just what you needed at that exact moment in your life.

I've been thinking about the miracles that have happend in my own life.

In 2005, I had had it up to there with my boss's bullying ways.

After working five years as an office manager at his business, he chose to blame me when his front desk was left unstaffed after a new hire left work early on the same day he had excused me to take a personal day. Having obtained his permission to take a personal day at about six that morning, I proceeded with handling the emergency I had taken off of work for and pushed all else from my mind.

I returned to work the next day only to be berated by my boss as he yelled, "I was calling you on your cell phone yesterday. _____ left early yesterday at lunch time, and there was no one to cover the front desk. This can't happen again!"

A knot bunched in my stomach as I looked at his angry face and the fury blazing in his eyes.

"But you gave me permission to take yesterday off. You and I talked about it long before ____ did what she chose to do. What she did has nothing to do with me," I insisted.

"But you're the office manager!" he bellowed. "This is not supposed to happen! You two need to call each other when one of you needs to be out to take care of an emergency. You need to coordinate amongst yourselves so that my front desk is never left unstaffed!"

I couldn't believe my ears.

"But that doesn't make any sense. You already granted me permission to take the day off. There was no need for me to talk to her about my needing to take off for an emergency if I already received permission from you and you are the boss! And furthermore, I've worked for you for five years. This person has been here two months, and you're attacking me because she chose to leave early? If anything, you're issue should be with her."

He was berating me in front of the entire staff, and a few early morning customers, too.

For all the responsibility I was saddled with at that job (payroll, employee benefits, billing, collections, scheduling, tracking outstanding monies owed, writing narratives, training new employees, choosing x-rays and fighting insurance companies for every unpaid penny they owed the boss, working late nights and holidays) I had no privileges and no authority.

I started out earning $11 dollars an hour, and during my tenure, an exemplary job performance yielded me two $1.00 raises, which meant that after five years of working for this man, my compensation consisted of $13.00 an hour, skimpy HMO health benefits, a 30-minute lunch break during which I was expected to answer phones, handle payments, write receipts, and perform other work as needed, and one week of paid vacation. At Christmas I received a bonus check of $100.00.

The job offered no privileges and no incentives to stay.

"You're the office manager!" he exclaimed again as he continued to antagonize me.

"I have so much responsibility here, and no privileges," I responded.

"Your job is your privilege!" he snapped.

"I don't feel like we're seeing eye to eye anymore and I'd like to go ahead and give you my two week notice," I said quietly.

"TWO WEEK NOTICE?! I don't want no two week notice! You make a choice right now! Either you want to stay, OR THERE'S THE FRONT DOOR!!" he screamed, pointing towards the exit. "And you got a mortgage to pay?" he sneered sarcastically, "You make your choice right now!"

Caught offguard, with everyone's eyes staring and waiting to see how I would respond to his challenge, I silently walked to my desk and sat down.

He thought he'd won.

Now let me stop this story here.

I don't have to tell you that this boss was as wrong as two left shoes for the things he said to me and for his habit of antagonizing and berating his employees. I had accepted his mistreatment for far too long. And in that moment, a light switched on, and I decided that enough was enough.

I went in the bathroom. I cried. I talked to the Creator and asked him to show me what to do. I wanted to leave that very second and never work for that person again.

Instead, I calmed myself down and worked through the remainder of the day. I went home that evening, had dinner and slept.

The next day, I went to work and did the payroll.

Afterwards, I politely asked the boss if I could speak with him privately.

Then I politely told him that I had made my choice. I was leaving and I would not be coming back.

As the bully of a boss watched in disbelief, I calmly gathered my things, walked out the front door and into the thick heat of the June morning. I put one foot in front of the other and never looked back.

My mortgage, utility bills, and other cost of living expenses were breathing down my neck, but I heard the call to leave that job behind in favor of bigger and brighter things. So I silenced my fears and listened to that call.

The boss called me four days later, asking me to return to work. He tried to persuade me by saying that he would be willing to pay me for the week I had been out after my resignation, saying that we would just consider it my week of paid vacation. He also agreed to pay me a $.75 cent increase (but he agreed reluctantly, and only after making me promise not to tell any of my co-workers about the raise).

It was during this conversation that I realized that there was nothing to go back for. I had outgrown the job and had no desire to go back to work for him.

So once again, I told him that my answer was "no."

No, I would never work for him again.

"But when did the miracle happen?" you're probably wondering.

It happened days afterwards.

Worried about how I would be able to pay my mortgage and other bills, I talked to the Creator in my prayer time, asking for His help. Asking for him to save me and show me what to do.

I went to my mailbox days later, and absentmindedly removed the envelopes inside. I flipped through the envelopes, reading them one at a time. Junk mail, bill, bill, junk mail...until I flipped to one particular envelope.

It was from my mortgage company.

"Now, what kind of nonsense could this be?", I wondered, as I tore open the envelope. My mortgage wasn't due for another week or so and I had no idea why the company would be contacting me.

To my amazement, I opened the envelope to find a check for nearly $1,000 inside!

Specifically, the check was for something like $989.99, but close enough!

I was speechless. I was dumbstruck. I was overcome with tears of gratitude.

Turns out the check was a refund from my escrow...and it could not have come at a more appropriate time.

Can you say miracle?

I've had other miracles happen to me as well.

Once when I was praying, I was sitting and facing a bedroom window, and murmuring the words of my prayer as I gazed at the indigo night sky. I asked for a sign to answer my question. No sooner had the words left my mouth, when I saw a falling star streak through the dark sky. I was so startled by it, and it happened so fast, that I actually blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes to be sure I had seen what my eyes thought they had seen. There were no fire works. Airplanes don't move that fast, then disappear, and it wasn't a bird.

I saw a falling star.

Another miracle is the fact that I even became a homeowner in the first place.

At the age of 22, I briefly dated a guy who owned his own home. Although our relationship fizzled, I felt inspired to become a homeowner myself after enjoying the time I spent at his place. At the time, I lived in a one-bedroom, shoe-box sized apartment that was prone to bone-chilling drafts in the winter and suffocating heat in the summer, but my mind was made up. I took a homebuying class at a local university, began saving my money, worked with several real estate agents before finally finding one I was compatible with, then finally bought my first home nine months later!

Once I had made up my mind to purchase a home, it happened...nine months later!

Another miracle, involves my father, who had been missing from my life since I was four. When, at 25, I became engaged to be married, I sadly told my mother one evening how much I would love to have my father give me away at my wedding. I had been using the internet to search for him, but my search had been fruitless. Not having seen my father for 21 years at that point, I didn't know whether he was dead or alive.

One night, my mother slid me a scrap of paper with a phone number penciled across it. She casually told me that it was his cell phone number. I eagerly dialed the number and felt my heart threatening to pound through my chest as I anxiously waited for the line to be answered.

A man's groggy voice suddenly spoke.

It was my father.

We were both in disbelief that we were talking to one another after so many years.

A month later, he came to visit my sister and I. He met my fiance; they became fast friends.

Seven months later, he walked me down the aisle on my wedding day.

These are my miracles, and I'm so thankful that I've experienced them.

How many have you had?