After graduating from a university in Los Angeles, I applied for a job in the Department of Public Health, with an oil company in southern Iran. I had contacted their headquarters in New York City, and was hired after one week. I thought to myself that living in southern Iran would leave enough distance from my family, since they did not accept me as a Christian. However, in my application, I said that I was a Christian. When the application got to Iran, they changed their mind and did not hire me. The oil company contacted me again and informed me that there was no opening for that job. I cried and complained to God, and told him that He never wants anything good for me. I missed my country, and I wanted to go back. After several days of being mad at God, I packed my suitcase and said to Him, “I am going to Iran anyway.” The Lord said to me in an audible voice, “I decide where you go.” The authority of the voice was so great that I began to shake on the inside.

A few weeks later, God spoke to me about advancing my education. I said, “Lord, my visa is expiring, I have no money and I don't need to further my education.” Then, one day as I was standing and praising God along with other Christians at our church, God said to me, “All the oil in Iran belongs to me.” (I was still mad at God that he had changed my plans.) But I retorted, “Sir. The whole planet earth and all the galaxies belong to you. I am tired of financial problems. I am tired of working and going to school. You are not a reasonable God. I want to talk to the second Person of the Trinity - my Jesus, because He knows what suffering is all about. I am mad at you, because you always win.” Needless to say, I obeyed God and went to school again, working full-time and studying full time. For a long time I got only four hours of sleep per night, and I wondered why God didn't permit me to go to Iran. Approximately 2 ? months later, the war between Iran and Iraq broke out. The city in southern Iran, where I had previously been hired, was the first place flattened with bombs, and thousands of people were killed.

Tell me, is God smart or what? His love stopped me from getting killed. Sometimes our disappointments are the greatest blessings, for God alone sees the end from the beginning.