By Liu Qing, Singapore
How time flew! In the blink of an eye, I had been in Singapore for half a year. I had never dared to think that I, someone who only possessed three years of elementary school education, could work abroad. Therefore, I especially cherished the opportunity and decided to work hard so that I could develop steadily in the company.
Unexpectedly, while I was still relishing this joy, my manager told me that I had been assigned to do the count at the counter starting next month. At first, I didn’t know what the count was. Later I learned from one of my workmates that it involved squaring up the accounts each and every month. I was shocked and thought: Isn’t it crazy that they’ve assigned me to do the count? I only have three years of elementary school education and I do not know a single word of English. How can I possibly handle this job? The more I thought about it, the more pressure I felt. I even thought about resigning. However, on second thought, I’m not cultured, I do not speak English, and I’m not that young now, so it’s too hard for me to find another job abroad—I was facing a dilemma.
After pondering deeply, I decided to have a talk with my manager. I said to him: “Sir, I’m not educated, nor do I understand English, so I’m not fit for this job. Could you arrange for someone else to do this job? …” Before I could finish my words, my manager interrupted me: “Well, speak no more. It’s useless to speak to me about this. You were assigned this job by the boss. Since he has arranged for you to do this work, you should just do it.” After saying that, the manager left. As I watched him leave, I thought: I’m finished. Now I’m really finished. It seems that I’ll be fired. At that moment, my mood plummeted to an all-time low. I had no energy to continue to work and just barely made it through the rest of the day.
At night, when we gathered together, I was feeling awful, so a sister put on a hymn of God’s word: “If you believe in God’s rule, you must know that all things, be they good or bad, don’t happen just by chance. It is not that someone doesn’t get on with you or opposes you on purpose; God arranges everything. What does God do it for? What is His final aim? It is not to lay you bare, but to perfect and save. How does God perfect and save you? By showing you your corruption, your nature, your essence, your faults. Know these things, and you will cast them off. Learn how to seize this chance. Know that you must seize it. Don’t lock horns or wrangle, nor try to resist it.”
Hearing this song, my heart felt like a weight had been lifted. I understood that the things we encounter every day, good or bad, are orchestrated and arranged by God. God used this environment to allow me to know my corrupt disposition so that my shortcomings could be improved upon. His intention was to save me. When the manager told me that my job would be doing the count at the counter, I thought I was not capable of doing that because I am not cultured. I felt overwhelmed by this task. As I thought about this, I realized the essence of my nature was too cowardly. When I met difficulties, I always limited myself. I couldn’t meet the challenge, so I chose to avoid it. I only admitted God’s almightiness and sovereignty verbally, but did not have real trust in or reliance on God in my heart. It revealed that I was of little faith. Thank God! I knew God’s will from His words: God is using these situations to perfect my faith. At this time, my pressures eased a lot, and I had faith to rely on God to accept this job as well.
At the end of the month, my manager said to me that I would start doing the count starting from the next month. Hearing this, I was so nervous that my heart began to pound. I thought: I am not literate nor am I educated. Even though I am required to use the computer to do the count, one of the prerequisites for doing so is that one must be educated in using it. Suddenly, I realized that my heart that relied on God was too small when I actually experienced this matter, so I prayed for God to give me more faith and strength.
After praying, I remembered these words of God: “So who gave all living creatures their names? It was Adam, not God. This phrase tells mankind a fact: God gave man intelligence when He created him. That is to say, man’s intelligence came from God. This is a certainty. But why? After God created Adam, did Adam go to school? Did he know how to read? After God made various living creatures, did Adam recognize all these animals? Did God tell him what their names were? Of course, God also did not teach him how to come up with the names of these creatures. That’s the truth! Then how did he know how to give these living creatures their names and what kind of names to give them? This is related to the question of what God added to Adam when He created him. The facts prove that when God created man He had added His intelligence to him.” And then I read this passage of God’s words: “You must have faith that everything is in God’s hands, and that humans are merely coordinating with Him. If you are sincere, God will see it and He will open up all paths for you, making difficulties no longer difficult. You must be confident in this. Therefore, you needn’t worry about anything. As long as you use all your strength and use all your heart, God will not make things difficult for you or force you to do what you’re not capable of. What is fearful is that you say what you do not mean, saying something when you don’t feel it or intend to do it in your heart. If you do this, you will be finished.”
I gave thanks for God’s words giving me faith and strength. From His words, I understood that in the beginning, God created Adam. Though Adam had never been educated at all, he had the ability to name every animal. This was because God gave him the wisdom to do so. God is the source of wisdom and all wisdom comes from God. Though I’m not well educated, as long as I believe in God and rely on Him sincerely, the difficulties I face will be resolved by His leadership and guidance. Nothing is impossible if we rely on God. At that moment, I had gained the resolution and faith to confront this job.
Finally, the time for me to do the count came. I courageously walked up to the counter. My manager smiled after seeing me and said: “Don’t worry. I’ll ask a workmate to teach you.” Hearing his words, I thanked God in my heart. I knew this was God’s domination and arrangement. In a moment, a workmate came with bills in her hand and taught me patiently and carefully how to count and how to classify the bills. Seeing so many bills written in English, I prayed to God in my heart. Thanks to God’s guidance, I gradually learned how to do the count. However, there was one other difficulty: I did not know how to classify the bills. Because the bills were written in English, I couldn’t understand them. At the moment, I remembered I didn’t know how to count at all before, but now I learned how to count through praying to God constantly. So, I believed I could learn how to classify the bills if I relied on God. Thus, I prayed to God sincerely once again.
After that, I took out all of the bills and looked them over. Suddenly, an idea came to my mind: It doesn’t matter that I don’t know English. I can classify the bills by comparing them, for the bills of most companies are different. For example, the size and color of the paper, the places of words on the paper, and so on. Most importantly, every company’s name is different, so I just need to compare the alphabets of the company’s name. If the company’s names on two bills are the same, then they can be classified into the same grouping. This idea was a revelation to me. I compared the old bills and the new bills. Just as I had expected, I was able to quickly classify the bills in this way. I thanked God a lot! I knew this was not due to my abilities, but God’s enlightenment and guidance, and that it was God who gave me the wisdom.
Thank God! Under the leadership of God, I finished the work of the day smoothly. Later, my manager praised me before my workmates for doing a good job and said that I was unlike a person who wasn’t educated. Hearing the manager’s words, I thanked God from the bottom of my heart, and gave all the glory to God. Through my actual experience, I indeed felt the meaning of God’s words: “No matter how great or small their stature is or what their personal environment is like, something that they cannot be without is looking to God and relying on God in all things; this is the greatest wisdom.”