Trusting the quite, but relentless Voice

In 2013 I resigned from a job I had been in for almost?10 years. While I tried to determine what was next I worked with a friend selling fresh Georgia peaches that summer for the Peach Truck. I wrote a letter to my 3 kids, who were still little at the time (now teenagers),?on the day I accepted a job at Provisions Group. As 2023 approaches many of you are likely considering your next career?move or life change. This was me 10 years ago. Before I began my now 10 years at Provisions where my career has grown far beyond anything I could have imagined 10 years ago. Maybe it resonates with where you are right now:

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Kids, I started loading peaches into the box truck at the storage building at 7:30am on Friday. I worked?on my feet at the Farmer’s Market until 4pm. Then we went back and loaded boxes into the trucks for Saturday’s locations until 6pm.

This is a big change from the office job I've been doing for the last 10 years.

Over 2000 pounds of peaches lifted by hand - every day -?into and out of the truck and then sold by hand.

I was dirty. Tired. Dehydrated. But having a blast.

This morning I woke up at 4:30 and drove to Franklin where I helped unload another truck full of peaches, before driving back south to sell them at the Columbia Farmer’s Market.

This “summer of peaches” has been good for me in so many ways.

Working with my hands each day has reminded me that work is a good thing. No matter how frustrating jobs can be, or how tired you may feel, work is good. To see my hands dirty. To feel a sunburn on my neck. These are literal examples, but you can find comparable things in all settings.

A few days ago I tried to carry three 25lb boxes of peaches at once across the yard at our "office". The top box was over my head, so I couldn’t see where I was going.?I stepped on a rock, turned my ankle, hit the ground and skinned my knees, and sent 75 pounds of peaches flying across the yard. I almost saved it and caught my balance. But not quite.

As I gathered the peaches and put them back into the boxes my friend Bill walked out the door to find me: bloodied, crawling on my hands through the yard, peaches everywhere.

I’m not sure if he laughed first or asked if I was okay first. Friends are allowed both, so we laughed together. I laughed at him once when he fell over a waterfall in Boulder, Colorado (it was a small one).

We gathered the 75 pounds of peaches one by one as we laughed at my skinned knees, the awkward way my legs wobbled like a baby calf as I tried to stop my fall.

Life is full of falls. And sometimes they scatter our?hopes, dreams, and conceptions about ourselves?everywhere. We skin our knees. Twist our ankles.

One day you're making a comfortable salary in an airconditioned building - completely numb and lost, the next you're on your hands and knees picking up hundreds of peaches in the summer heat - and full of joy.

Having people who love you around you – who are willing to laugh at the craziness with you and ask if you’re okay is important and makes it all worthwhile. I’ve learned to talk to people again. Ask about their life. And see myself as someone who just wants to put in the best effort possible regardless of whether or not anyone notices. I want to find ways to encourage others and offer a kind word.

A few men my age have come to me recently and asked about my Leap of Faith. I don’t have good answers for them. I just tell them I was tired of wrestling with not knowing my place in grand scheme of things, and knew it was time to listen to God’s relentless voice in my life that there was more.

You don't know what the 2nd step holds until you take the 1st. God gave us free will – for better or worse. Sometimes it means falling down and making a big mess.

But I also think He opens doors for us. And if we’re willing to walk through them we’ll find happiness in unexpected places.

Good things are happening.

I accepted a new full time job on Friday?(this was Provisions Group)?afternoon that I’m really excited about. I believe the new job, along with my interim time with the Peach Truck, were both what God had in mind when He pushed me and challenged me for so many years to listen to His voice.

It was an awkward stumble and fall when I finally did. But on the way down I found a way to fly.

--Dad

If I fall I’m gonna find a way to fly. – A.L.O.

Chad Nikazy is Executive Vice President of Business Development for Provisions Group, a Franklin TN based IT consulting, project delivery, and recruiting firm - and former "peach evangelist". He resides south of Nashville with his wife and 3 children where he consults with business leaders and job seekers, and shuttles teenagers between practices. Reach out and let's talk about your career or dreams at [email protected]