Night Falls on Wireless Advocates

In his novel The Last Battle, CS Lewis concludes his Chronicles of Narnia with a dark ending and a glorious new beginning. It has a chapter called "Night Falls on Narnia," in which most of the humans from England that we have met throughout the series are gathered around a door looking through it to the dying land of Narnia. The great Lion Aslan has just called to the giant Father Time, way off in the distance, who blows his massive horn. Stars come shooting out of the sky, and walk through the door as living beings. The inhabitants of Narnia and the surrounding countries come racing up to the door, and with one look at Aslan, either flee in terror or come through to marvel at the wonders around them. Waters rise, and the sun devours the moon. Father Time then squeezes the sun out, and all is blackness and water and ice on the other side of the door. Aslan tells High King Peter to shut the door and lock it, which he does. Queen Lucy and King Tirian mourn the country they have loved and ruled at different times in Narnia's history.

While I don't want to carry the analogy too far, a major part of my life over the past 5+ years has come to an end, and night is falling on Wireless Advocates. While it's nowhere near the apocalyptic end that the old Narnia had in The Last Battle, it has been very tough to watch and experience. Over 1800 employees around the country found out at the beginning of last month that their jobs had abruptly ended. We at national headquarters were given 60 days notice, per the WARN Act, and we were to be employed through February 5. Yesterday, around 65 of us (I forget the exact number, but it was in the 60s) were summoned to a meeting called by the receiver assigned to help liquidate WA's assets. They informed us that they had determined that we were not protected by the WARN Act, and they had decided to let us go. (They are double checking with the King County courts to verify this is appropriate, and they have a contingency plan in the event the courts disagree. Seattle is the county seat of King County.) It caught everyone, including management, by surprise. Wireless Advocates' executives disagreed strongly with their decision and fought it, but the receiver had the final say.

Over the past day that I have had to process this shocking development, close down business affairs, sleep on it, consider where to go from here, I have gone through a lot of emotions. While I always like to remain optimistic, this was a severe blow. There have been tears. I have felt a gamut of emotions, including sadness, anger, fear, and as I continue to process, hope. I do not fault Wireless Advocates, or even Costco, for what has gone down. I appreciate how supportive our management and executive team has been through all of this, and I still could not have asked for a better employer over the past years. They have fought for us, and done everything in their power to make this as painless as possible (though, admittedly, there's only so much they can do). I continue to be amazed and eternally grateful for how helpful and supportive everyone has been, even after many of them lost their own jobs, to help.

To help dispel some rumors I have seen flying around the internet, one article I read stated that Costco was "blindsided" by Wireless Advocates when WA announced they were closing. It was actually Costco's decision not to renew their contract with us. I don't fault Costco for that, as I'm sure they had their reasons, but I definitely don't think WA deserves all the negative press they have been receiving. My theory is that individual Costcos had no warning, so were indeed just as shocked as everyone else to find the WA kiosks were closed. But this decision came from Costco, not WA. Due to declining demand due to COVID and less demand for 5G than expected, WA decided to end their relationship with military bases. There was blindsiding happening, but it was not Wireless Advocates blindsiding Costco. In the interest of remaining as positive as possible, I am not here to point the finger.

I'm not sure how many are left at the national headquarters, but there are a few people remaining who will continue to work on closing down the business.

Yesterday afternoon, I worked on closing things down on my side, filing for unemployment, and preparing for job searching in earnest. I have sent resumes over the past couple weeks, but that has been in addition to responsibilities at work and other things. Like Lucy and Tirian, I am mourning for the home I have known over the past few years.

Back to The Last Battle. The Friends of Narnia are in mourning. As Tirian eloquently puts it, "It were no virtue, but great discourtesy, if we did not mourn." But as they are joined by more friends, including the talking dogs, the Calormene Emeth (Calormen is a country south of Narnia), the eagle Farsight, the donkey Puzzle, the unicorn Jewel, and more, they are repeatedly encouraged to "Come further up and further in!" Flying high overhead, Farsight the Eagle discovers that, though they just witnessed the old Narnia's end, they are now in a much larger and grander version of Narnia. Everyone runs faster than they realized they could and marvels how they aren't tiring out, and at the wonders of the new world around them. A few years ago I painted one of my favorite scenes in the book, when they reach Caldron Pool and find themselves, much to everyone's shock, swimming up the waterfall!

Further Up and Further In!
Steven Sauke, 2012
Acrylic on canvas

They eventually find themselves in the garden where Polly and Digory flew with their friend Fledge the winged horse so many years ago (in The Magician's Nephew). There they are greeted by one of Narnia's greatest heroes, Reepicheep the Mouse. Tirian meets his late father once again, and they see everyone they once knew. Over a nearby lookout, Lucy and her old friend Tumnus the Faun see a new London on a cloud and her late parents waving to them. The final chapter is called "Farewell to Shadowlands." Though I'm not generally big on spoilers, the book ends thus:

“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are–as you used to call it in the Shadowlands–dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

While I am thankfully not dead, Wireless Advocates will soon be. In many ways it already is. Now begins a new adventure. I choose to anticipate the future with wonder, looking forward to it with joy and run with all my might to discover what amazing adventure is about to start.

To all my amazing former colleagues, I say, FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN! Let's do this thing! We haven't scratched the surface of the amazing adventure that is coming! How will Chapter One of your Great Story begin?

Saul Meets His Gilboa

We ended the class with a ghost story from the Bible, which was right at the place we were in the story anyway, and so near Halloween. Since ghost stories need to be told around a campfire, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to have a real campfire in church, I found one on YouTube, and we moved to a darker room. To get the full effect, play the video while you're reading the blog post.

Saul Meets His Gilboa

Have you heard people say that someone met their Waterloo? It means that they lost their last battle. Maybe a president was defeated in an election and never ran again. After defeating enemies over and over, French Emperor Napoleon was defeated for the last time in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This story is about Saul’s Waterloo.

David was young when God rejected Saul as King, but it was probably somewhere around 15 or 20 years more that Saul reigned after that. God gave him lots of chances to turn his life around, but he just couldn’t get over his pride and jealousy.

Samuel had grown old, and while Saul was busy chasing David, his time came to go. After Samuel’s death, he was buried, and the people of Israel mourned for their last judge and prophet, who had anointed their current king and their next one. Saul and Samuel had had their disagreements, but Saul still respected him.

Sometime after the incident with Saul’s spear and water, Saul and his army prepared to fight the Philistines on Mt. Gilboa, and as he watched the enemy getting closer, he could see the Philistine army was terrifying. What could he do? He tried asking God, but got no answer. He tried asking the prophets who were still alive, but still no answer. That left one option, which should not have been an option. Earlier in his reign, Saul had told all the fortunetellers to leave Israel. Now, he decided he needed one, and he found out that the nearest one was in Endor (which was not a forest moon). Even though the Law of Moses included strict commandments against consulting fortunetellers and using witchcraft, King Saul disguised himself and went to Endor.

The woman was scared. Fortunetelling was illegal in Israel, punishable by death! She was afraid this man she didn’t recognize was setting a trap for her after Saul had deported them, but the mysterious man told her she wouldn’t be punished. He just wanted her to call up a dead spirit. So, he told her to call up Samuel. The woman saw Samuel’s spirit coming up, and suddenly she realized the truth. “You’re Saul!” she said. Now she was really scared.

“Don’t worry,” said Saul. “What do you see?”

“I see an old man in a robe,” she said.

Saul was glad to find out that this had worked. Samuel’s ghost didn’t seem too happy about it, though. He wanted to know why Saul had called him up. So Saul explained his problem. “God has left me. The Philistines are threatening us, and I can’t figure out what God wants me to do, no matter where I turn or how hard I try. I’m getting desperate!”

So Samuel gave his last prophecy. “Why are you asking me? God has left you and become your enemy. You refused to obey His commands to completely destroy the Amalekites, so He has taken the Kingdom of Israel away from you and given it to David. Tomorrow, the Philistines will defeat the Israelite army, and you and your sons will be joining me!”

Saul was so shaken that he didn’t want to eat, but he did after the people who were with him convinced him that he needed food.

Meanwhile, Achish, King of Gath, was still very impressed with David. Unfortunately, the other Gittites (people from Gath) didn’t trust David. So Achish sent David back to Israel. When he and his men arrived in Israel, they discovered that the Amalekites had attacked the region where they were. So David did what Saul had refused to do so many years earlier. He led his band of fugitives against the Amalekites and defeated them. Only 400 Amalekites survived.

On Mount Gilboa, Saul led his army against the Philistines. It was a terrible battle. Three of his sons, Princes Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua, were killed. The Philistine archers shot Saul, and he was injured. When his armor bearer refused to obey his order to put him out of his misery, he drew his own sword, and King Saul fell. When the Israelite army found out their King and three Princes had died, they turned tail and ran. Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth survived. When the remaining family learned the news, the nurse Jonathan had hired to take care of his 5-year-old son Mephibosheth picked up the young prince and ran. She was so desperate that she dropped the boy, and he broke bones in his feet. They never healed right, and he had trouble walking for the rest of his life. More about him in a couple weeks.

Meanwhile, David was just getting back to Israel after his victory against the Amalekites, when a messenger ran up to him with a very sad story. According to him, Jonathan had been killed in battle on Mt. Gilboa. The messenger knew that Saul was David’s enemy, so he came up with a lie to try to make David feel better. He said that Saul had been mortally wounded, and had asked him to kill him. This man claimed to have obeyed Saul and killed him. Wrong thing to say to David, who was loyal to the King who was not loyal to him. No matter how Saul had treated David, David knew that Saul had been God’s choice of King, and nobody would get away with killing God’s choice. The messenger didn’t live to retell the tale.

David went from best day ever to worst day ever in a few minutes. He wrote a song and lamented the loss of the great King and Prince. “How the mighty have fallen!” he cried. “Don’t mention this in the Philistine strongholds of Gath or Ashkelon, or they might be happy about it! Let the Mountains of Gilboa be cursed, because Israel’s greatest died there! Saul and Jonathan were admired and loved in life, and they fought bravely. Daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who gave you so much! Jonathan, my brother and best friend, you were very dear to me. How the mighty have fallen!”

So Saul met his Waterloo, and David became King, in extreme grief for his family that he had lost.

Be very careful about your choices. If you make a bad choice, you may not be the only one who suffers for it. Saul’s choices not only cost his own life, but those of his sons, and David lost his dearest friend.