By Tangtang, Japan
On April 9, 2017, I came to Japan from China. And on the fourth day, I went to work in a car fitting factory—to mat produced-fittings with grinding tools. The temperature was over 40 Celsius degrees in the workshop with no air conditionings. In summer, I felt hot and tired but I had to work unceasingly. After three months of work, my right hand showed signs of numbness. Although a night’s rest would bring a little relief to my condition, I had to get on with my work the next day. Every day I went through the same routine and I felt so tired of it. Sometimes when I passed through the inspection workshop, I was filled with envy at the easy and comfortable work there. But my reason told me this good turn would not happen to a newcomer as I was.
On a day of early August, I went to my position to start the day’s work as usual. Then the monitor came to tell me that I was transferred to the inspection department from today. His words made me joyful and surprised, as if a big pie from the sky landed upon me exactly. I told myself secretly: I must try my best to do the work well.After getting home from work in the evening, I told a sister excitedly about the change of my job. She said it was God’s blessing and encouraged me to work hard. I earnestly nodded. And I thought back to the past when I kept living in the dust all day. I breathed so much dust every day, and if this continued, my lungs wouldn’t be able to bear it. At the thought of this, I resolved in my heart: I must grasp this chance. Is the job not to check over products for defects? So easy! I will learn quickly.The next day, in order to prove myself to the supervisor and the monitor, I inspected every finished product very, very carefully. As long as I found a slightest imperfection or something I couldn’t be certain of, I would go to consult the old guides. After getting their advice, I continued to work hard. However, little had I dared to hope that when I handed the final inspection team the products that I had inspected, all the products were substandard except those that the old guides taught me to check over; what was more infuriating, the girl of the inspection team simply passed all the substandard products to the supervisor and asked him to teach me. Although he didn’t criticize me directly, I still felt a lot of invisible pressure. To improve the quality and number of the inspected products, I dared not drink water and worked the whole morning without a rest. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but think that the supervisor had called me for working, and if I still couldn’t do well tomorrow, they would immediately transfer me to my former post. I felt more pressure as I thought of it more and more. Then I thought: No, I must work harder than before and do this job well. In this way, they will not transfer me back! I kept pondering how to do the work well in the following days. Unwittingly, I became distant from God and I couldn’t quiet myself in the gathering for I was distracted by my job.I remembered that every time when I met difficulties, my brothers and sisters would find God’s words to help me. Then I told all the problems I encountered to a sister, and she read a passage of God’s words to me, “People spend most of their time living in an unconscious state. They don’t know whether it’s right to rely on God or on themselves. Then most of the time they choose to rely on themselves, to rely on the beneficial conditions and environments around them, as well as the people, events and things around them that are beneficial to them. This is what people are best at. What people are worst at is relying on God and looking to God, because they feel that looking to God is too much bother. They can’t see Him or feel Him, and they feel it is vague and not realistic to do so. So people perform the worst with this lesson, and their entry into it is the shallowest. If you don’t learn how to look to God and rely on God, you will never see the work God does on you, or the guidance and enlightenment He gives to you” (“Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World”).“Oh, the corrupt ones! You must come to rely on Me today; if you do not, today I shall tell you that you will never achieve anything! All shall be in vain and your undertakings shall be worthless!” (“The Thirty-eighth Utterance”).
The sister fellowshiped with me, “God has dominion over all things and all events. Yet as a small creature of God, we always want to rely on ourselves to do this and that—it is a kind of arrogant disposition. We should honor God as the greatest in our hearts. No matter what problems we meet, we should believe in God’s almightiness, and learn to rely on Him and look to Him. Also, there is God’s love for you hidden in the change of your job. God empathized your weakness and knew that your hand became numb for the long-time working, so He raised your monitor up to transfer you to an easy post. If not for God’s love, maybe you would not get this job. So God has blessed us, and we should learn to be grateful to God in everything.”
Then she read another passage of God’s words, “Sometimes, looking to God doesn’t mean speaking clearly when people pray to God for something, or for God to guide them in some way, or for God to protect them; rather it is that, when they encounter some issue, they are able to call on Him sincerely. So, what is God doing there? When someone’s heart stirs, and they have this idea: ‘Oh God, I can’t do this myself, I don’t know how to do it, and I feel weak and negative,’ when these thoughts arise in them, does God not know about it? When these thoughts arise in man, are people’s hearts sincere? When they call on God sincerely in this way, does God assent to help them? Despite the fact that they may not have spoken a word, they show sincerity, and so God assents to help them. When someone encounters an especially thorny difficulty, when they have no one to turn to, when they feel especially helpless, they trust in God as their only hope. What are their prayers like? What is their state of mind? Is it sincere? Do they have any mixed purpose at that time? When you trust God as though He were the last straw that you clutch onto to save your life, when you hope God will help you, only then is your heart sincere. Though you may not have said much, your heart has already stirred. That is, you give your true heart, your sincere heart to God, and God listens. When God listens, He sees your difficulties, and He guides you, enlightens you and helps you” (“Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World”). Through the words of God’s and the sister’s fellowship, I understood that the adjustment of my job was entirely from God’s rule and arrangements. His making me encounter this environment was to let me learn to draw close to Him, rely on Him and experience His love. I should pray to God and rely on Him to experience, and would not do this job by myself for I could do nothing by myself. After knowing God’s intentions, I felt quite blamed. I realized that although I was a believer in God, I had no place for God in my heart so that I still acted by my own ability when something happened to me. Was this not my rebellion against God? Thinking of this, I made up my mind: Although I didn’t do well today, I should obey first. Tomorrow I will rely on God to work and ask God to guide me.
The next day, when doing work I pondered what the sister fellowshiped—to rely on God and look to Him at all times. Then I silently prayed to God in my heart: “The unique Almighty God, You created all things and rule over everything. My life and work are all bestowed by You. Now I’ve been transferred to a new post, and it is because of Your arrangement. You know that my stature is small, and that I don’t know how to experience when encountering the matters, thus putting Your words to the back of my mind, not seeking and relying on You, much less seeing Your love for me. Oh God! Now I come before You sincerely and give myself entirely over into Your hands. Please guide and enlighten me.” After praying, I calmed down slowly. Later, I found that I got more skillful at this job as I went along so that I finished it quickly. Based on my pace of work in former days, these tasks couldn’t be finished until the next day, but I accomplished all the work that afternoon. I didn’t know how I had done, and I could only pray to God unceasingly that I was willing to obey God’s rule and arrangements no matter what results I would get.
That afternoon the girl, who reviewed my work, said to me, “Congratulations! The rate of qualified products inspected by you reaches 100%.” Hearing this news, I felt so excited that several days of strain and pressure were released at once. Thank and praise God! If not for God, I would have still struggled in distress. God guided me to finish this work easily, and allowed me to see His deeds and appreciate His loveliness. From this experience, I felt that when I honored God as the greatest in my heart and relied on Him in everything, I would feel relaxed, peaceful and happy. In the following days, I always reminded myself to come before God to rely on Him and treat this work given by God with a thankful heart. When I treated this work with such an attitude, I got more skillful at my work and did it better and better. Afterward, the supervisor suddenly asked me if I got accustomed to my new job and how my hand pain was. I realized more clearly that such attention was from God for I didn’t tell anyone in the factory that my hand hurt and was numb except my sister. Thank God!
One day, I walked on my way to work when hearing hymns and unexpectedly I heard a song: “From the beginning until today, only man has been capable of conversing with God. That is, among all living things and creatures of God, none but man has been able to converse with God. Man has ears that enable him to hear, and eyes that let him see, he has language, and his own ideas, and free will. He is possessed of all that is required to hear God speak, and understand God’s will, and accept God’s commission, and so God confers all His wishes upon man, wanting to make man a companion who is of the same mind with Him and who can walk with Him. Since He began to manage, God has been waiting for man to give his heart to Him, to let God purify and equip it, to make him satisfactory to God and loved by God, to make him revere God and shun evil. God has ever looked forward to and awaited this outcome” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II”).
I wept as I heard this hymn. As a creature of God, only we can converse with God and know His will. What a great grace and uplifting of God! I only enjoyed all the things bestowed by God every day, but didn’t give my heart to Him and didn’t know how to experience His love. If not for this experience, I wouldn’t know that being close to God and relying on Him was so happy and peaceful. Thinking of this, I prayed to God silently, “God, though my stature is small, I am willing to do my duty well and invest myself fully in pursuing the truth to repay Your love. Thank You for everything You have given me!”
