When Dad was a new husband in the 1950s, it was expected a person would work 20, 30, even 40 unbroken years for the same employer. That may be hard to imagine, today, when people are likely to have six different careers! So, in a real sense, my Dad was a man ahead of his time.
After returning from World War II, Dad explored the medical field. He knew he wanted to be a healer, but found his personal beliefs conflicted with some dearly held by the medical profession. He did his research and decided he wanted to become a Chiropractor. And that is what he did ...
... for not quite a decade.
Then the changes began. The reasons for closing his practice were many, but principally: (1) unlike today, medical doctors considered Chiropractors to be quacks, and (2) when Dad allowed people to pay on a sliding scale based on economic circumstance, his patients paid very little.
Next up was "brick and tile" work. Dad was good at the work; alignment and measurement being central to success. But the money was low.
Later, Dad worked on a riverboat; alternating one month on the boat and one off. The pay was better and sometimes he was the Pilot. This lasted for a while, and was especially useful when he and a farmer friend of ours arranged to alternate their 30/30's. One month Dad was on the boat and our friend ran the dairy. The next month, Dad managed the dairy and our friend worked on the boat. It was a kind of “job share.”
Eventually, Dad moved on to working with a cousin in a start-up printing business. Dad did this work for several years, and was still doing this when I entered college.
Then, my parents moved to Florida. Dad found a job at Wickes Lumber Company, where he worked several years until an on-the-job injury placed him on permanent disability.
Throughout those 30-plus years, while my Dad moved through multiple, unrelated career fields ... my Mom worked for the telephone company, her only employer all those years.
Jobs are an interesting part of who we are. Whatever we do as work in this life —be it the very important work of developing the next generation, or making things, or building places, or selling things, or a myriad of office type occupations— we tend to get what we do all tangled up with who we are.
I am sure that more than once Dad scratched his head and wondered just where all of that was leading, or if it was leading anywhere at all. And I am just as sure he wondered what all those job changes said about him, personally.
Can it come as a surprise that those who came out to hear John the Baptist in this week’s Luke passage were concerned? What impact would this "repentance" have on their lives? For most, the answer was pretty strait forward: share with those in need. But, what about tax collectors and soldiers? Surely, they didn’t qualify for John's baptism. These were among the most reviled occupations in that place and time.
John's answers to them are most interesting, both by what he said and what he didn’t say. What he said, to those soldiers and those tax collectors was "Don't exploit your position." Since tax collectors were considered cheats and thieves, and Soldiers were —charitably— considered bullies, "Don't extort and don't bully" got right to the heart of repentance.
On the other hand, John did not tell them to stop being tax collectors and soldiers ... Whoa.
The implication, when you think about it, is startling. Here was John’s opportunity to tell them, straight up: you folks are in the wrong professions. Instead, John got to the heart of the matter ... and it wasn’t their career choices.
The only way our jobs can define us is if we allow it. They certainly do not determine our relationship to God. In that light, the two different career paths taken by my parents come down to the same thing: the number of jobs or employers comprising your working years are, in the end, not the point.
How we do our work, how we treat others in conducting our business, how we impact others with our industry; these things are paramount.
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A different version of this reflection appeared in December 2012 under the title, Jobs.
PHOTO (The way we were ... WWII Poster): https://www.etsy.com/listing/502644384/ww-ii-patriotic-posters-dont-be-a-job
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Third Sunday of Advent (December 16, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderThird Sunday of Advent (December 16, 2018)bilt.edu//
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
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Join us Friday morning at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. Come at 8:00. Hang out ‘till 9:00-ish. Good food, good folk.
Blessings,
Steve
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