A Personal Story of Listening for Guidance, Part 2
Ch 8 in Listening for Guidance: A Little Known but Life-Changing Spiritual Practice
I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to lay you off. Not words anyone wants to hear. Not normally, anyhow. The personal story of getting to this point, hearing those words, and what happened in the months that followed, is probably the single best illustration of the impact Listening for Guidance has had on my life.

The Chance to Leave
God had told me: “…I prepare the way for you… to leave Westinghouse.” And five months later, that was exactly what happened.
On November 4, 1994, the VP of Science & Technology announced another round of cost cutting. My boss presented me with two options: leave my administrative position to go back to technical work, or take a layoff.
I had a choice. And that choice gave me a financially prudent way for me to leave Westinghouse.
By taking the layoff, I would be eligible for re-education funds and career counseling. Plus six months of severance pay and COBRA insurance. Or, I could stay with the company and once again do technical work. Of course, I asked God for input that evening.
Father,
I just found out today that my job is in jeopardy. ...The [other position I had applied for, in Florida] may or may not work out, so indeed this may be my opportunity to try something new.
I need some reassurance about the direction I should take if indeed I do get laid off. …
Love, SharonTo my daughter Sharon,
… Think not about where your next paycheck will come from for indeed I am with you always and will take care of you in this time of trouble…
… I will lead you where you must go, as I always do, so fear not and bring good tidings to others with whom you come in contact, that my work and words may be spread to many others in this place.
… apply your logic to study out your options and to clarify in your own mind what you must do to achieve both our purposes.
And with that guidance, I told the boss I’d take the layoff. My last day at Westinghouse was December 31, 1994.
Bringing Good Tidings
Once I made my decision to take the layoff, my boss graciously told me to spend the next month and a half figuring out what I was going to do next. He relieved of my duties for the duration, while still expecting me to show up to my desk every day.
Even in a workforce of a couple thousand people, word of my layoff spread quickly. More than once over that time period, I would be walking through the hall and someone would stop me.
“Wait,” they’d begin. “I heard you were laid off. Why are you smiling?”
“Yes,” I’d confirm. “I’ll only be here through the end of the year.”
Not ready to go all holy roller on them and tell them God had promised to take care of me, I’d just add, “I’m good with it. There’s something else out there for me. I don’t know what it is yet, but I know it’s there.”
In their minds, a smile was not an appropriate response to a layoff. They were expecting to see the face of suffering. Maybe even tears. But I was brimming with a new inner security, an unexpected inner peace.
I’m not sure if my smile and my confidence were what God had in mind by “good tidings,” but I brought them.
Guidance’s Impact
Would I have been a tangled mess of worry had I not begun Listening for Guidance?
No, I don’t think so. My faith would have reassured me that it would be okay. I would have continued to expect that Husband and I would start a business. We had agreed to that plan back in 1982.
But I don’t think I would have been smiling.
Fortunately, through my practice of Listening for Guidance on a regular basis, God led me to focus on the future that was available to me, the future God had promised to me. I had every confidence that better things were just over the horizon.
God (They/Them) had told me They would make it possible for me to leave Westinghouse, within a year. And that’s what happened.
Consequently, when the time was at hand, I displayed a reaction my co-workers found inexplicable.
At the Top of the Lift Hill
The year 1994 had felt like climbing the lift hill of a roller coaster.
Click, click, click, click.
Although, now that I think about it, that was the year I got to go on a business trip to Westinghouse's Sunnyvale, CA location. And Husband joined me for the weekend. And we went to Great America Theme Park on Saturday. And I got to ride the heavily themed Top Gun (later renamed Flight Deck) roller coaster. It was awesome! (Cue the “Danger Zone” theme song.)
Except for Sunnyvale, it was a slog and a struggle to get through those months, unhappy as I was with my situation. But I ended the year at the peak of the lift hill, about to be released from the golden handcuffs of my nearly two-decade corporate career.
The layoff I had first seen as a possibility in 1982 had finally arrived. Had it happened back then, in 1982, it would have been a disappointment, even though I had enough faith not to be worried about my future. At that point, I was still enjoying my technical job.
But now, in 1994, taking a layoff was a moment of joy.
What I didn’t know was what awaited me on the other side of that peak. If you know anything about roller coasters, you can already imagine. I’ll tell you all about it in the next chapter.