I asked God for an internship. He gave me a job.

I’m going to level with you: I have always been a planner. Not knowing my next step made me crazy. Recently, I had to face this feeling head on.

In December, I finished my final semester of college. I’d made the decision to stay on for an extra semester, and I knew this was the right decision—it had come very clearly to me as I’d prayed about it. However, this meant that I graduated in December, and let me tell you, trying to find a job in the middle of the holiday season, not to mention during a global pandemic, is a daunting task. 

During my last semester, I applied for over fifty positions with no positive results. It seemed like there wasn’t a job out there for me—that there wasn’t a need for me. It felt impossible to fight back the feelings of disappointment and hopelessness that hit me every time I got a rejection. 

It felt impossible to fight back the feelings of disappointment and hopelessness that hit me every time I got a rejection.

After countless disappointing emails, I started to feel like my only option was to lower my expectations. I began applying for part-time positions, internships, and even unpaid positions—all with the hopes of at least gaining some experience. 

I knew it was right for me to have a job. I wanted a job not just to have an income, but also to fulfill a purpose, to do something impactful. At the core of my desire for a job was really a desire to serve. This felt like a good motive—a God-based motive. But as it turned out, I still had more spiritual lessons to learn.

At one point during my search, a friend texted me with some ideas she had prayed with when she was in a similar position post-college. One passage she shared with me was from Second Corinthians: “For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality” (II Corinthians 8:12–14).

This idea helped me shift my perspective about my job search. I realized that I wasn’t just praying to understand more clearly that my needs were being met by whatever position opened up for me; I also needed to see that I would be part of meeting the needs of the company that hired me. This was the God-established “equality” that the passage talks about, and I knew it needed to be at the center of my journey to find a job. I actually designed a phone background with this quote on it so I would see it every time I looked at my phone (which is a lot).  

I had finally hit a point where I knew there was work for me somewhere that both supplied my need and would be a blessing for the company. But as I kept searching and nothing seemed to be happening, I became frustrated again. I got caught up in the “me” of the situation—fearing the lack of income and the feeling of purposelessness. But as I continued praying, I woke up again and realized I’d forgotten that my “abundance may be a supply for their want.” This search wasn’t just about me and my needs but about something that would be a mutual blessing. This helped me feel way less stressed about my job search.

This search wasn’t just about me and my needs and wants but about something that would be a mutual blessing.

Once the holiday season was over, I sent an email to the human resources department of a previous employer where I’d interned a few summers before. I asked if they needed an intern in any department. I was willing to do anything—even if it wasn’t within my intended career path. Soon, I received a reply telling me that they didn’t have any internships, but that there was a full-time position being posted the next day that might interest me. When I read the job description, I started to get excited. This position fulfilled so many of my needs: It was remote, and it also challenged me to apply some of my skills to a new field, which I was excited to learn about. It just seemed to fit. 

Within a couple of weeks of that initial email exchange, I had the job. The best part is, the job is in the same department where I had my desk as an intern. The physical space in the office for the department I’d interned for was too full, so my desk had lived in a different department—the department I now work for! 

I couldn’t imagine a better fit for me—and I’m even more grateful to be contributing to an organization I believe in and so support. And for as much of a planner as I am, there’s no way I could have planned that. That was all God.