Resurrection in Everyday Life: A Corporate Business Woman Becomes an Entrepreneur and Proprietor

Resurrection in Everyday Life:

“A Corporate Business Woman Becomes an Entrepreneur and Proprietor”

I write at the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period in which Christian disciples worldwide embrace spiritual disciplines of self-denial and abstinence.  Colloquially, observants “give up something” as they meditate upon Christ’s teachings and engage introspection as means of more greatly acquiring the mind, heart and character of Jesus.  Reminiscent of the biblical scene in which the Lord retreats to the wilderness for purification, preparation and empowerment, disciples perennially adhere to these spiritual practices.  As they wait to commemorate His resurrection, they follow His example.  Lent reminds them that Almighty God graciously grants them divine power to resolve daily adversities and challenges.  Fortunately, resurrection occurs in everyday life.

Routine celebration of the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as an annual religious holiday diminishes its practical and pragmatic significance in a disciple’s daily life.  Resurrection occurs in common experiences such as termination, divorce, health concerns, financial crises, parenting and myriad other challenges.  Agony, anxiety and anger combine to result in human despair sometimes yielding alcoholism, addiction, homelessness and hopelessness.  Mired within indefinable and immeasurable intrapsychic trauma, debilitating and paralyzing depression is an obvious consequence.  Cynicism and bitterness fuel a person’s downward spiral.  It is as if such an afflicted person undergoes an emotional and existential death. As it relates to any resolution of these dilemmas, the recovery community offers hopeful words, “No human power can resolve [this problem].”  Further, “God could and would if He were sought.”  As for practical spirituality during these fierce trials and inexplicable tests, Almighty God recalls a disciple to life through an experiential resurrection.

Attending a panel discussion of a book release, I heard a woman’s story of personal resurrection.  She began her career in corporate America.  The trajectory of her personal and spiritual journey starts with a multiple six-figure salary and fringe benefits; moves to a period of long-term unemployment after her mutually agreed upon departure from her corporate position; lingering in the depths and despair of uncertainty in job hunting; awakening dormant entrepreneurial abilities; and transitioning to proprietorship of a beauty salon.  Despite her high salary, she did own a house or car.  She wore expensive and nice clothes and shoes and carried equally impressive bags.  It happened that her job was adjacent to designer stores on the East side of Manhattan.  Previously, she studied marketing and advertising.  These factors led her to moonlight as an events planner which included assignments in Canada, Caribbean nations and throughout the United States.  As her “hustle” began to commandeer her time and energy, her work performance suffered.  This clash of passion and priority forced her realization that her heart was no longer in her job.  Proactively, she approached her boss.  “This is not working out.”  Her boss responded, “I agree.  What do you want to do?”  After discussion, the boss granted her request for three months of severance pay and approval of unemployment.  Hence, a year’s beginning of contemplation and existential entombment.

Those three hundred and sixty-five days became the hardest year in her life.  Very soon, marketing and coordinating events dried up.  The phone did ring because no one called.  Emails containing proposals did not receive replies.  As her financial landscape became more arid and fruitless, she and her daughter moved back into her mother’s residence.  Her little sister also lived there.  The security of a living space afforded her the latitude to imagine, dream and pursue various entrepreneurial possibilities that awakened opportunities.  As weeks became months, she received a near fatal blow to her pursuit of her ambitions.  Her little sister shared spontaneously, “Mommy always says you are busy with your fantasy businesses.”  That remark from her mother deeply wounded her.  Pausing in front of her laptop screen as she worked, she fought back tears as she thought, “I’m living with this person who does not believe in me.”  Consequently, she made the decision to move out of her mother’s residence and into her own living space.

In a spontaneous moment of meditation, a vison about a salon filled her mind.  She resolves that God gave her this vision to open a hair salon.  Interestingly, she knew nothing about owning, opening and operating a salon.  Drawing upon her cumulative business and corporate experience, she writes a proposal. Seeking investors, she shops her business plan to previous clients whom she helped.  To her great chagrin, these people declined her offer to collaborate.  Sadly, she found a copy of her proposal on the floor of one client’s sport utility vehicle.  Angrily, she took that copy and slammed it on the dashboard instructing the man to read the proposal and respond.  Whereas he would not invest, he shared her plan with a friend who eventually called her.  When they met, he had read the proposal and listened to her pitch.  When she paused, he simply said, “Ok.”  Accustomed to hearing “No,” she initially did not realize that he approved her proposal and was willing to work with her.  They traveled to the site she previously chose for the salon.  There, he again confirmed his decision to invest.  Finally, she realized that he said, “Yes.”  After a sigh of relief and taking a deep breath, she became grateful for her new partner.  She rejoiced for the end of one ordeal as she braced for what would follow.

A recipient of a friend’s good fortune and a smattering of bread crumbs of grace along her path, she finally opens the salon at her previously chosen site.  Early gross revenues of $10,000 per month hinted toward a successful and promising future.  At its height, the salon earned an average of $60,000 monthly.  Incidentally, some of her relatives and friends would not patronize her establishment.  They said her prices were too high.  In time, several circumstances coalesced and compelled the closing of the salon.  However, she did not fall prey to any feelings of failure.  Her journey toward opening the salon, operating and closing it taught her two valuable lessons.  First and foremost, obey God’s call and vision.  Second, the myriad mysteries and experiences of a person’s journey are often preparation for a greater purpose.

This ordeal’s ingredients of angst, anxiety, anger and agony ordinarily would have defeated a person with a lesser character.  They considerably undermined this woman’s confidence for extended periods of time.  Yet, she embraced her existential death as a corporate professional wherein she merely functioned perfunctorily rather than fulfill a more meaningful purpose.  Events management was a fleeting interest; its temporary profitability soon became evident.  As she found inner resilience and listened to God’s voice within rather than the multitude of voices around her, she experiences her personal resurrection.  Retrospectively, she accepts the opening and closing of the salon as an important precursor to her destiny. 

Her parting words of wisdom for the audience was “Obey the vision that God gives you.