Thursday, July 17, 2008

Part 3: Back to Work

For Part 1 click here
For Part 2 click here

When Jason came back home we began to rebuild trust and things became good again. We went to Vegas and we went on a cruise to the Caribbean. It was like a second honeymoon.

I found a great new job working at a skilled nursing facility in Sun City. Even though two of the RNs that I worked with were Christians, I was very vocal about my paganism. Sally and I actually had turned our essential oil products into a nice little cottage business and sold enough homemade soaps, lotions and incense to give us money to support our hobby. I read tarot cards for other nurses and CNAs on my breaks. It was great fun!

After I had been there for a year, the management decided to change the RNs to 12 hour shifts and I couldn't do this due to daycare issues so I took a job across the street at an HMO clinic. The Nurse Manager and I got along great. She was interested in a lot of the same things that I was. It seemed like a good move. One of the part time RNs there taught me how to spin my own yarn with spindles and wool and another RN there taught me how to knit.

Early the next year one of the part time RNs left and we began to use registry nurses. That is when I met "Hannah". I liked her and offered to read her horoscope and tarot cards. She said that she wasn't interested in that, but she really liked the homemade soaps that Sally and I made. In February she was working with one of the other nurses in the treatment room and I heard her telling a beautiful story of a queen named Esther and how this was related to a holiday called Purim. When I went into the break room during her lunch time I saw her reading the Bible.

One day when I was working the triage phone I saw some books sitting on the desk next to me and I asked her about them. She said that they were a really great series, but that she didn't think that I'd be interested in them because they were Christian fiction. She told me that she had brought them for another nurse, but she wasn't there today. I picked up the first book, Left Behind, and read the back cover. Hmm, it did seem like an interesting plot. I told her that I would read it. After all, I was nothing if not open minded. So she loaned the first 2 books to me.

I did read the first book. When I got to the end I was intrigued. I decided that if a bunch of people disappeared off the face of the earth I would become a Christian. But every time I thought of trusting Christ.... just the name of Jesus gave me a terrible sick feeling inside. How could I become a Christian if I couldn't even think of Christ without that sinking feeling in my gut?!

The next day I talked to Hannah at work and told her what I had been thinking. She said that there was a spiritual fight going on within me. That Satan didn't want to let go of me. Even if I thought that what I had been doing was harmless "White Magic", it had opened a door for evil to enter my life. I went home that night and prayed for the first time in a long time.

8 comments:

Heather said...

I love the turn this story is taking. Keep going!!

Katie Kermeen Swisher said...

I am totally sucked in to your story! I can't wait to hear what happened next...

Maybe this is something we Christian bloggers can do - blog our love story with Jesus. Wouldn't that be neat?

Keep it up...I'm looking forward to the next installment!

Jennifer said...

As usual, very interesting! It's great you know how to spin--I knit too and would love to spin my own yarn!!

Ronda's Rants said...

It is very interesting! I wish she had been reading the Bible though instead of that fictional series...I am very intrigued about why you felt Jesus made you sick...I will admit that some Christians make me sick (Ha!Ha!) but never Jesus. I am totally engrossed in your faith journey. Thank you for sharing.

KWolfAK said...

Ronda - from what Hannah was saying, that sick feeling was this spiritual war that was going on within me. She told me that her husband experienced the same feelings before he accepted Christ. I had been doing the witchcraft for 3 years at that point and Satan was really having his way in my life. I think that the fictional book series seemed non-threatening to me and I probably wouldn't have picked up a Bible at that point in my journey.

Unknown said...

I have to follow you on this...wishing you all the best!!

Anonymous said...

uh oh....I see a miracle coming. God works in mysterious way and he does like to gather his lost sheep back! I'm liking this Hannah!!! She seems like a good Christian...following God and bring back the flock without being pushy.....

Flower said...

Hearing this story unfold is so powerful. You are going to be blessed by it!!