Murphy’s Law? Or…”when one door closes…”

It’s interesting to think about why such events happen in this universe. If you believe in God, or fate, or “Murphy’s Law” than you know what I’m talking about.

A while back, I applied for a job at a company. I got the job. I was hired, had a start date, filled out paperwork,  and even given some shirts with the company logo on them. Then, before I knew it, a better candidate came along and I was un-hired. (Now there’s some debate about the ethics in this…but that’s not really the point. Point is, I didn’t get the job.)  After that, I resorted to staying at home, sort of decided that it was “God’s Plan” because maybe I wasn’t ready to go to work full time and put my kid in childcare. I decided to give up my quest for a career while we’re in England and focus on maybe expanding our family, professional development, and focus on my Women in Aviation Chapter.  I basically just decided one day that I need to stop being so focused on working, and enjoy the time I have off to hang out with my kid, travel, and relax!

Ironically, while I was promoting Women in Aviation, a guy from this same company that didn’t hire me decided that, after meeting me in person, he did, in fact, like me enough to hire me and offered me a better position! In my mind, I thought Kyle was on the waiting list for the child care center for like three months, and I JUST took him off of it, and NOW you want to offer me a job?  Murphy’s Law at its best.

On the flipside…I talk with the guy on the phone about the first interview I had, and how I was un-hired, and he says something along the lines of “isn’t it funny how that works? It’s fate.” Something like that.

After I thought about it, I wondered if this was still part of “God’s plan.” Was my interpretation of “the plan” skewed to begin with? Is this just a funny trick He’s playing on me? Did God let me get un-hired knowing that a better deal would come along? Or did he say no the first time for a reason?

That night, my husband said to me: “Well if you believe everything happens for a reason…this is a good example of it. You obviously weren’t hired the first time so that you could fill this job when it came up- getting paid more, better experience, and possibly the option to work from home.” Which is ideal.

So is this Murphy’s Law? Sounds like it. I was hired, un-hired and soon to be re-hired for a better job, all with the same company.

Is it God’s plan? If you’re a believer, than you know that there is a plan…it’s just a matter of deciphering the code, which we are definitely not very good at. It really makes me wonder about how we interpret His plans, though. At what point is it too far? Is it God’s plan to hide my cereal from me in the morning so that I’ll eat something healthier like eggs? Surely that’s going too far. In reality, my kid took the cereal box out of the cupboard and put it in his dresser. But some people think like that. Is God laughing at me right now because he doesn’t really care whether I work or not, or doesn’t care what job I take? Is he up there thinking, “goodness…she is really overanalyzing this!”

I was reading an email from a group of pilots, some of who have been furloughed lately. One woman said the only way to think about it is “When one door closes, another opens.” This, above all else, speaks the truth. I look back at the past a lot and realize that the opportunities that I’ve had would not have been there at all had everything worked out according to my original plan.

Now if I only knew which door was the right one!