The Covid-19 pandemic caused an unimagined upheaval in everyone’s life. The lockdowns and restrictions just added to the plight of hardworking employees. Numerous people lost their jobs, businesses and sources of income during the pandemic. Out of about 45 employees in the MNC Sahadev worked at, only about half a dozen employees were asked to continue. One fine evening an email was sent to the majority asking them not to come to work the next day. Fortunately, Sahadev was not one of the employees who received this email. Nonetheless, he was not spared from troubles of his own.
Sahadev was living a smooth sailing life before the pandemic hit India, earning well and living comfortably. Though he was asked to stay on during the pandemic, Sahadev had no confirmation that he wouldn’t face the same fate as his colleagues. Worry and insecurity about his job, and finances became his constant companions. He grew anxious about sustaining his family and his savings for the future.
To make matters worse, soon after, his wife developed a strange skin disease. The doctors were concerned it could be cancer and suggested further investigation. Sahadev’s carefree life had taken a sudden and ugly turn. His wife instructed him to focus on their little children, instead of her and her illness. “I was shattered”, Sahadev recalls. He did not want to go on living without his wife, and remembers his thoughts drifting to the extreme of not continuing to live if his wife, Usha didn’t make it. He was heartbroken, overwhelmed and hopeless, to say the least.
With time and prayer, the words of Psalm 91:7 brought Sahadev peace – ‘A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it (the evils) will not come near you.’ “I trusted in this verse with all my heart”, he recalls as he talks about crying out to God in his desperate time. Jesus responded and began to calm the storms in his life. Sahadev was filled with confidence and assurance about keeping his job even though people were being let go around him. He clung to God’s word and was blessed. A month later his wife’s test results came in and they were given the joyous news that she did not have cancer; medication would help to keep the skin rashes under control and she could return to living a normal life. Not only did Sahadev keep his job, he was even promoted eventually!
From a point in life where he didn’t want to continue living to courageously powering through difficulties, Sahadev and his family give Jesus glory for getting them through a time that was difficult financially, emotionally and physically.
