Surprise Bible verse determining next move

A year ago at this time, I was dealing with the aftermath of what I thought was my departure from the journalism industry.

For those of you who witnessed it firsthand, it was not a particularly sunny chapter in my life. There was a lot of resentment, a healthy dose of anger, an abundance of frustration and a ton of uncertainty as to what was next for me.

This past winter, I landed a job at Pacific Life. To say there has been a steep learning curve trying to figure out 401K's, IRA's and the difference between non-qualified and qualified money (don't ask . . . I've been there nine months and I'm still not sure) would be an understatement of epic proportions.

In spite of the unfamiliarity with things, I have learned a lot and feel like I'm getting more comfortable with what I am doing now. I had some opportunities to get back into the media field this spring and summer, but didn't give them more than the cursory glance because I felt that this was where I was supposed to be at this point in my life.

I joined a new church near my apartment this summer, and they have a Tuesday evening "class" that talks a lot about God's purpose and how we can use His guidance in our lives. The group meets for dinner at the church every Tuesday, we have a lecture and some discussion time, and recently we had an overnight retreat that was equal parts informative and relaxing.

During that retreat, I was thumbing through the back part of my Bible and came upon a section that cross-referenced certain verses with certain attributes such as dependability, kindness and patience.

There was one, though, that caught my eye. It was one for creativity, and it referred to 1 Timothy 4:14, which states:

"Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on the hands of presbytery."

I read this sentence, and it stopped me in my tracks. I read it again. I read it a third time. And then I closed the Bible and asked myself, "What does this mean?"

I began to think about the 20-plus years I've been involved in the media, both print and broadcast. I thought about the Friday nights walking the sidelines taking football pictures, and the weekday afternoons at WJAG when I did my sports talk show. I thought about Nebraska Wrestling Illustrated, and I thought about the long hours and the time on the road and all the things that made the job a real pain in the backside.

And for most of that weekend, I couldn't stop thinking about 1 Timothy 4:14 and what it said. I prayed about it and asked God to give me a sign as to whether or not this is leading somewhere. And, if so, where are we going with this? I continued to think about this and pray about it and talked with one of my pastors at church about it.

Then, the other day, something really strange happened. I was sitting at lunch talking with a co-worker about nothing in particular, when the idea jumped into my head that I needed to call a friend of mine who is a newspaper publisher here in Nebraska. No specific reason to talk to him, other than that I hadn't talked with him in over a year. So I called him and we chatted for about 15 minutes. I caught him up on what was going on with me, and he caught me up with what was going on with his newspaper. During the course of the conversation, he mentioned that his sports editor had left (which is a story in and of itself) and he was trying to piece things together with a photographer and some interns.

I didn't ask anything more about the situation, but when we said our good-byes I wondered if this wasn't God's way of telling me that I need to follow the words of 1 Timothy 4:14. I've asked Him to guide me on what I should do with this, and I'm going to let that be what determines where we go from here. I don't know if it means somebody is going to come to me with a chance to be a sports editor or an on-air radio personality or something else, but I think it's an avenue that is coming around the bend.

Until then, though, I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing with Pacific Life and my freelancing and wait for God to tell me what's on deck for me. As I look back on the past several years of my life, I know there have been opportunities that have come up where I was either in the right place at the right time or had the right people making the right recommendations to those who were able to get the most out of my creative abilities. Wherever this next step goes, I feel I'll be ready for it.