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 serving under General Patton during World War II, Dad returned home wanting to explore 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 about 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, Dad became a “brickie,” doing brick and tile work for a cousin’s construction business. 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 (30/30). 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 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” long before that was a thing.
Eventually, Dad moved on to working with a different cousin in a start-up printing business. Dad did this work for several years, and was still doing it when I entered college.
Then, my parents moved to Florida. Dad joined Wickes Lumber Company. He worked there well into his 50s, until an on-the-job injury placed him on permanent disability.
Throughout those 3+ decades, while my Dad moved through multiple, unrelated career fields ... my Mom worked for the telephone company, her only employer all that time.
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’m 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. 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 straightforward: 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 (to sum up), "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.
When you think about it, the implication 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 choice.
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: in the end, the number of jobs or employers comprising your working years are 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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PHOTO CREDIT (Allied soldier with French citizen during WWI): https://theconversation.com/amp/as-the-us-entered-world-war-i-american-soldiers-depended-on-foreign-weapons-technology-75034
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Join us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We eat, we talk, we laugh. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place restaurant.
Enjoy the week!
Steve
**Contact me for the Zoom link
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera if you don’t wish to be seen and to mute the microphone if you don’t wish to speak.
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY & THE COMING WEEK
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
Third Sunday of Advent (December 12, 2021)
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