God’s Perfect Timing: Saddleback L.A. Member Finds Purpose While Unemployed

In the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saddleback Los Angeles member John Pearson felt secure in his career in the video game industry. His faith in God, however, wavered at times as he wrestled with questions and doubts. Being let go from his job during the pandemic, John was pushed to deeply pursue the answers about God, faith, and church he had been chasing.

The first few months of unemployment felt like a reprieve for John, as he was able to spend more time with his family and enjoy days filled with rest. Eventually, he started applying for jobs and found himself facing rejection after rejection in a competitive job market. He questioned if God really had a plan for his life and if his life had purpose.

“It really put me into a spiral of, ‘Why are you doing this God?’” he said. “In the past when I had  been out of work, it was only for a short amount of time … you start to doubt yourself.”

It was at that point that John turned to his community at church for support. 

“I was part of the Men’s Night group that they had online,” he said. “I would go there and be able to kind of unload my burdens and look at it from a perspective of, ‘It’s not about what I’ve done, it’s what God is planning to do in my life.”

Aaron “AC” Crumbey, campus pastor at Saddleback L.A., also played a crucial role in guiding John during this season of life. The two met on several occasions to talk through John’s search for a purpose while being unemployed. Pastor AC encouraged him to start serving at church.

“He had come to me and said, ‘Hey, I want you to start a game night for the L.A. campus,’” John said. “I rounded up a few people from the L.A. campus, and I took on the persona of the host character. It was singing and trivia and people were laughing, and they started bringing their families.”

As attendance continued to grow at each online game night, so did John’s fulfillment in life as he saw the hope of Jesus being spread to other people through a ministry he helped launch. 

“The best thing about it was just seeing people be happy in a time that is not happy,” he said. 

One of the most impactful parts of the ministry to John was seeing people who had never been to Saddleback discover the church through game night and start attending weekend services. He began to see how God was using him while he was unemployed and how God was preparing him for the next chapter of his life. 

That chapter of John’s life opened with a job offer one week before his unemployment benefits were due to run out. The timing made him realize that God had been guiding his steps throughout the pandemic. He was able to celebrate God’s provision by sharing the exciting career update with Pastor AC and his community at Saddleback, the people who had walked side by side with him throughout his difficult journey.

“My spiritual family at Saddleback, I couldn’t have done this past year without them,” he said.