On June 8th 2010, the Lord answered our prayers with a job for Skip. (He had been out of work for over 3 months and we were buying a house and planning a wedding on my teacher’s salary and the money he could bring in as a DJ with Virtual Sounds.) To say that I started praying for him a new- new job on June 9th is only a slight exaggeration. I hated his hours in the shop and hated his hours on the road for races even more. I didn’t like his boss. I even griped about the all black uniforms and his greasy fingernails. Skip, on the other hand, enjoyed a lot about the job since he has always loved to travel. It wasn’t until about a year into it that he began to really feel like he could not stay at Robby Gordon Motorsports forever. And if you’ve spent any time with either of us in the last year, it’s likely we’ve asked you if you knew of any job openings.
When we found out that Skip would be leaving for Argentina the day after Christmas, I almost had a break down. We spent a lot of time talking about job options and redoing and re-redoing Skip’s resume. We would hear of leads and they would fall through. People would call on Monday and tell him about a job and by Friday they would call with a never mind. When he left for Argentina, I finally began to use my alone time wisely. For the first time in a year, even though I had been complaining about his job for all that time, I began to really cry out to God about the job situation. When Skip got back from his trip, he told me he had been doing the same thing as he camped out under the stars in the desert. Finally, we were in one accord about the subject. He needed to come off the road. Being in one accord and having another option, however, were two different things.
By the first of February, we had all but given up. No one was calling back. Skip had interviewed with another race team and even felt like he would be offered the job, but they hadn’t called when they said they would either. Finally, the day before Skip was scheduled to travel out west to begin preparation for the 2012 NASCAR season, Wyatt called.
Oddly enough, we met Wyatt in the Dominican Republic last summer; he and Lizzie live in Charlotte and were there on their honeymoon. Skip recognized Lizzie’s southern accent and struck up a conversation poolside. We hit it off, and Skip and Wyatt started hanging out here and there when we got home. This past November over lunch, he told Skip about a possible job opportunity coming open at the first of the year. Wyatt’s family owns Parks Heating and Cooling of Charlotte and the position would be in Service and Repair sales. We got our hopes up, talked excitedly about the job, and learned a few weeks later that there would be no position opening up in January or anytime in the foreseen future. We had literally heard nothing from either of them until that morning, less than 24 hours before Skip hit the road again.
Wyatt called Skip on Monday, February 6th, around 9am and asked if he was still interested in coming to work for him. An hour later, I was doing one last resume revision during my planning period at school and emailing Skip’s resume to Wyatt. Skip met Wyatt and his father for lunch at noon, and by 2pm, he had accepted the job offer and put in his notice at RGM. He traveled that afternoon to Charlotte to fill out paperwork and take a drug test. As we sat down to dinner that night reeling from the day’s events, Skip told me about the interview and the little details of the day. 24 hours prior we had been preparing ourselves for another season of separation as Skip returned to the road.
I can’t help but think that God must’ve been so excited the days leading up to this big day for us. We were praying so diligently for a change and for His will to take place and He had something planned for us that was better than we could’ve imagined. I have an awfully hard time keeping any secrets, but the good ones are the hardest to keep because of the anticipation of making someone’s day. God was about to change our lives and make our days for years to come (we’re still on cloud nine two weeks later), so I think He was stoked. And, I am humbled by this notion. As undeserving as we are, I still think God was a little bit giddy with excitement over answering our prayers. It amazes me sometimes how faithful He is and how He works specifically for us and through us as His children. If you know Skip, you know he is anything from ordinary. He’s never worked “normal” jobs or done much of anything that you could call average. During his interview that day, Mr. Tucker said to Skip, “I never do anything like this, this fast. It’s kind of crazy.” Skip said he was thinking, “That’s funny, this is pretty much how I do everything.” How blessed we are that God makes us so unique and then uses our intricacies to bless us and bring glory to His name.
