I was thinking about times in my life when I have received answers to prayers. This one happened in San Jose.
Sharon, Darrell and I moved to San Jose in February 1984. We rented the house across the street from Uncle Joe and Aunt Julie and their family. The rent was an unbelievable $1000/month that we could pay because of what I was making at work at Grinnell Systems and later at Apple Computer Inc.
In 1985 there was a downturn in the economy. This was one of the first downturns I can remember, probably because it affected me so much. I had been working at Apple’s disk drive division developing the communications between the new Macintosh 512 computer and a yet-to-be announced disk drive code-named Nisha which was to be 20 Megabytes in capacity and sell for $1000. Because of the downturn, Apple decided to close our division and Steve Jobs himself came to tell us we were all layed off (April 1985). The severance package was generous, however, and we had enough money for three months as we looked for a job.
I had been working for Apple and that was a pretty good place to list on your resumé but I only had two years of experience in my career and I’d only been working at Apple for 8 or 9 months. Although the economy was down, companies in Silicon Valley were still hiring. I interviewed at 14 companies but received no offers.
In mid July I was getting very concerned. The severance money was almost gone and unless we could get an offer in the next three weeks we would not be able to pay our rent.
My prayers had gone up a level in sincerity and pleading. We did have a choice: we could move back to Utah and stay with my parents and look for a job there or we could tough it out and continue in San Jose. I honestly didn’t know what to do but if we were going back to Utah we needed to make that decision in the next week. I continued to pray for guidance.
On Sunday I was playing the prelude music on the piano for priesthood as I did every Sunday. One of my favorite hymns I used for prelude music was, “How Gentle God’s Commands.” It was not too difficult and it had a good message. I would play it pretty slowly since it was for prelude so I could read the hymn lyrics as I played. As I played I felt something special and I knew I was getting an answer to my prayers. The hymn lyrics seemed to be a direct answer to what I should do! The lyrics read:
How gentle God’s commands!
How kind His precepts are!
Come, cast your burdens on the Lord
And trust His constant care.
Beneath His watchful eye,
His Saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up
Shall guard His children well.
Why should this anxious load
Press down your weary mind?
Haste to your Heav’nly Father’s throne
And sweet refreshment find.
His goodness stands approved,
Unchanged from day to day;
I’ll drop my burden at His feet
And bear a song away.
I had a sweet feeling that everything was going to turn out just fine and that I shouldn’t begin the process of moving back to Utah. I realized then, and can still feel the emotions now, that I had received an answer to prayer.
As it turns out, within a two week period I received not one but two job offers. I picked the one offered by Bob Potter, one of the members of the ward. The crisis was averted and we went on with our lives. One thing was changed however, and that was that I knew God was looking after me and my family personally. As upsetting as that experience was, the knowledge I gained from it made it of great value.