Vocations

 Good morning !!

 As I write this, I hear sort of “chunking” noises coming from across the hall.  Not to worry, though.  The plumber is in the restroom on the other side of the wall doing some of what plumbers do in restrooms.  As our building is fifty or so years old, some of the plumbing is no longer what it once was, and is in need of some upgrading and repairing.  He’s doing some of that for us today.

I’ve kind of saved up for him today.  He has three jobs to do in the building, which will probably take him at least until noon or a little later.  I’m not looking forward to the bill, but am appreciative of people like him who have the knowledge and desire to do these kinds of things.  I’m also thinking of people such as mechanics, electricians, HVAC technicians, carpenters, heavy equipment operators, and others who have chosen professions that provide services, fix things, and make life a little better for us all.

It used to be, it seems, that the trades were once looked down upon by those who believed that a university education following high school was the only way to be successful.  “Trade Schools,” as they were called, were often thought of as second-rate places for those who didn’t have the intelligence to get a real education.  But that thinking has changed considerably over the last few decades.  Vocational education is in demand.  Students are offered scholarships.  Graduates can earn a very decent living after a couple of years or less of study and practice.  Some vocational tracks are as short as eight weeks or so, and guarantee interviews with prospective employers for jobs that pay well over forty thousand dollars a year.

Any more, people like Billy, the plumber who is working across the hall, are respected as true professionals, and are often paid accordingly.  These professions are no longer second-rate vocations, reserved for those who couldn’t handle college or university.

As I think about all of this, I am reminded of several things.  First, things change.  Plumbers and mechanics now are respected and admired.  Archie Bunker of the old TV show “All In The Family,” once said, “I like change better when everything stays the same!”  I think most of us would agree with him, but the fact is that change is endemic in the creation.  Nothing ever, ever, remains the same in our universe.

Second, the Good Book says that the laborer is worthy of his hire.  I don’t know about you, but these people are worth every cent they receive.  Not many of us would want to do the work they do.  They often work in dirty and unpleasant environments.  They could easily be injured if they didn’t practice good safety procedures.  They often work long hours in out-of-the-way places.  Many are on call weekends and holidays.  They deserve their pay.

Third, these people keep everything moving.  They keep the world on track.  They are absolutely essential to the well-being of modern societies the world over.  The man across the hall making chunking noises isn’t just some guy fixing a faucet.  He’s part of a greater network of vocational people who work daily to make the world a better place…at least in their corner of it.  Which brings me to the point of it all.

All of us…each one of us…in some way or another has a job to do…a vocation if you will.  We all live in and are part of the greater world order.  We have a responsibility to do what we can to make our corner of the world a better place for our having been here.  We don’t have to be a carpenter or an HVAC technician.  We can be anything…and still do the job.

All of us can show kindness to others.  We can all respect and treat other people with dignity.  We can be generous toward those who may not have the necessities of life.  We can, in short, treat others as we would like to be treated.

And for those of us who call ourselves Christians, we can emulate…we can mirror…Jesus Christ to the world through our lives…what we do…what we say.  We can tell others who wish to hear the Good News of God at work redeeming the creation, calling us to partner with Him.

So, I ask you.  What is your vocation?  No, I’m not speaking of what you do to earn a living.  I’m now talking about what you do to right the wrongs…care for those in need…generously give…making your corner of the world a better place for your having been here.

Let’s get to work.

 

Blessings.

Deep Questions

 I think I’ve told you before that I like to sit out on our back patio when the weather allows, and just watch nature, along with the people who go by on the walking path in the park behind our house.  I especially like to go out in the evening and watch the twilight come and darkness…well, as much darkness as can be had in a city…fall.  Things gradually become more quiet, more subdued, and one feels more closeness, if you will, as darkness invades the day.

We have a decent amount of traffic on the walking path in the park.  Kids on bicycles, people walking for exercise, a few runners, families out for a stroll, people exercising their dogs, and the occasional rider on a horse go by.  During the quieter moments, deer often will come up close to the fence and wander along it because the grass is shorter there…there are no trees in that narrow strip of land, and it is easier for them to navigate to and from food and water.

Squirrels are nesting in trees close by, and sometimes come into the yard for a drink out of the fish pond.  Once in awhile I see a garter or bull snake sauntering along in our back yard, or that of our neighbor.  And the birds are always, it seems, there in some fashion.

Recently, I’ve begun to wonder about the people I see.  I know many of the children, if they live to a normal old age, will probably see the turn of the 22^nd century.  I wonder what life will be like for them then, and in the intervening years.  I see older kids, and wonder how they’re doing in school…what home life is like for them…and how they see the world and their place in it.  I see adults, young and old, and wonder what they think and believe about an afterlife…about God…about their purpose in life and living.

I wonder if the young woman walking with the two-year old will go home a little later to an abusive partner.  I think about whether the teens may have anything illegal on them…weapons, pills, and so on…and what their home life is like.  I have to also wonder how those teens are getting along socially and how well they are maturing into the kind of adults the world needs right now.

These are admittedly deep questions that I can’t answer, and even if I stopped someone and asked, probably wouldn’t get an honest answer.  But I know things can’t be all roses and rainbows for these folks.  It isn’t for me.  It isn’t that way for you.  And it isn’t that way for them either.

We all have issues…physical, emotional, relational, mental…that keep poking at us, reminding us that we are fallible and frail…not in control of our lives nearly as much as we might like to think.

I was reminded of that just today when I read a Facebook post from one of my friends who lives several states away.  She used to live in Wichita where we got acquainted, and for a time worked together, but she moved a few years ago.  Her post said that tomorrow she was going under the knife to have a new pacemaker implanted, as the old one was eleven years old, and it was time for a new one.

This woman is at least 25 years younger than I am, has a busy, full life, family, and friends.  I had no clue when we knew each other in Wichita that she had a pacemaker or had need of one.  Just looking at her posts, one would think that the rainbows and unicorns were dancing all around her and her life.  And at times, that may be true; but there’s that “thing” always in the background that reminds her, and me, that life isn’t perfect.  That there are always thorny places and uncertain times in everyone’s life.  Her pacemaker is a great example of that, because without it, she may well not be alive today, or if she was living today may well be an invalid, unable to work or be as productive and active as she now is.

If you just look around a bit, you’ll see mothers who have miscarried, people who have lost jobs, families in financial crisis, children who are mentally ill, victims of abuse, generationally dysfunctional families, many who are afraid of death and dying, victims of bullying, racial bias, or poverty, those who are despairing of life and contemplating suicide, people with chronic physiological ailments, those who are addicted to pornography, pills, or gambling, along with a host of other societal, human, and life-and-living ailments and issues.  Undoubtedly, you fit in one or more of these kinds of categories.

But I don’t want to leave you in a funk about life and living.  There is hope.  There is relief.  There is blessing.  Look around you.  There is beauty.  There is good.  There is hope.  And those things point to, for those who will accept it, the promise of God made through Jesus the Christ.  The promise that all will be made right.  Death and decay will be no more.

 

I pray that you know the Everlasting God and that you come to Jesus Christ for healing and peace.

 

Blessings,

"If You're Going to Love Someone..."

 Good morning and welcome.  My older son recently sent me an email asking me what I thought of a certain video he had come across.  The video had to do with the by now old WWJD…What Would Jesus Do…thing that was going around some years ago and is brought back to life from time to time.

The thought of the video was that many answer that question in ways they think would be the way of Jesus, but in reality is nothing more than a kind of a self feel-good activity…giving a homeless man a couple of dollars…putting a dollar or two into the Salvation Army Christmas bucket, or the proverbial helping the old lady across the street.

Yes, those things are good things to do, but hardly answer the question of what would Jesus do in that circumstance.

In seeing the video and responding to my son, I was brought back to a video that I had seen some time ago.  It was about a woman who befriended and eventually took in a homeless man into her home.  I did a Thursday Thought about that woman, and am repeating it here because I believe it’s worth considering again, especially in this age of self feel-good generosity.

 

Good morning, and welcome to another Thursday Thought.

Ginger Sprouse is a typical suburban woman living with her husband in an upscale neighborhood in the Houston area.  Some years ago, Steve Hartman with CBS News interviewed Ginger and her husband for one of his “On The Road” segments that airs each Friday at the end of the evening newscast.  The reason for the interview?

Well, it seems that Ginger had always had thoughts of the homeless that she saw regularly that were not kind at all, but rather were condescending and critical.  In the interview, she told Steve Hartman that she often would say demeaning things to them.

“I would say, ‘Why don’t you get a job?  Or, what’s your problem?’  It made me very uncomfortable.  I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I’ve been that way my whole life.”

 Ginger had the same attitude toward the homeless as most of us.  We look on the homeless as somehow less than fully human, less than honorable, less than worthy of the dignity and respect every human is due.

How many of us have said the same thing as Ginger, if not directly to a homeless person, at least we thought that line…”Why don’t you get a job?  What’s your problem?”  It’s so easy for those of us who have managed to stay in the middle class to be critical and condescending toward those who are in poverty or are homeless.  We like to think that we’ve made life good for ourselves, and that anyone else could do the same if they’d only put themselves to the task and work their way out of poverty and off of the street.  We believe that their issue is laziness or a lack of desire to succeed.  We point to all of the social services that are available which our tax dollars pay for, and wonder why they don’t take advantage of them.  We notice their missing teeth, their unkempt appearance and musty body odor and move away from them as much as we can.

 So, why did Hartman interview Ginger Sprouse?  Because she had a change of heart.  She repented of her superior attitude and decided she wanted to do better.  Acting on the decision she made, she befriended a man she had regularly seen on a street corner, first stopping just to talk.  She asked him to tell his story.  His mother, he says, abandoned him when he was yet a child, and he had been in and out of homelessness since that time.  Ginger couldn’t get him out of her mind, and began making regular trips to stop and just visit with him.

 One late fall day when she visited him, she said she decided she couldn’t just leave him there on the street in the cold.  She went home, talked with her husband, went back and invited Victor Hubbard into their home.  And that was the beginning of a new life for Victor.  They helped him get the social services he needed, medical appointments, and all the rest.  Victor now is working two jobs and is a lifelong member of the family.

Ginger’s life, her outlook on life and her perception of people in need changed as well.  In the closing segment of the news piece with Hartman, Ginger says this about her experience.  “Life is messy.  But if you’re going to love other people, you have to be willing to step into their mess.  My whole life I’ve wanted to avoid that, and that’s why I rolled the window up and didn’t look.”

 “If you’re going to love other people, you have to be willing to step into their mess.”  Ginger Sprouse knows what it’s like to step into someone’s mess.  Ginger Sprouse knows what it’s like to get out of her comfort zone.  Ginger Sprouse knows what it’s like to love other people.

We have known for centuries that the God who created us expects us to love others.  The Torah is explicit in the book of Leviticus. 

 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

 At least seven more times in the New Testament, Jesus, Paul the Apostle, and James repeat this command to love others.  And Jesus expanded what it meant to love one’s neighbor by telling the story of the Good Samaritan, who saw to the needs of a man he didn’t know and whose nationality should have been reason enough to ignore his plight.  Nevertheless, he cared for the man as best he could and saw to his needs.  The Samaritan stepped into someone’s mess.

 Are you willing to step into someone’s mess?  Are you willing to have a change of heart?  Are you willing to truly love your neighbor?  You don’t have to take in a homeless person in order to love your neighbor unless you know that is your calling.  There are hundreds of ways you can demonstrate and emulate the love of Jesus.  Your neighbor is hurting.  You can help by stepping into his mess.

 

 That was the previous Thursday Thought.  I leave you with the old question What Would Jesus Do?  Would he have given the homeless man a few dollars or some crackers and peanut butter?  Or would he have done as Ginger Sprouse did…take him into his care, see to his needs, and love him unconditionally for the long haul?

 

 Blessings.

Praying Down the Line

 

“Help us to the right use of our minds…”  That sentence, given in a prayer before a meal 80 or more years ago by my Grandfather, and was heard by a six year old boy who was at the table, prompted that boy to become a Psychiatrist at a time when such a vocation was not well-received by his faith tradition.

Vernon, that six year old boy and my first cousin, became a healer of the mind and was well-known in central Kansas during his career at Prairie View in Newton.  His son Jim recently told me the story of a remarkable answer to prayer in the life of his father.

My guess is that Vernon and my grandfather, Sol, didn’t have a psychiatric career in mind for Vernon when he gave that prayer.  I rather believe he was invoking God’s protection from various kinds of dementias and brain disorders, as one of his sons suffered from some kind of neurological disorder and lived a relatively short life.

Nevertheless, the idea that came to Vernon in his young days as a result of those words was just as much an answer to that prayer as was Sol Plank’s long life…his mind ever sharp until his last day.

As a corollary to this story, I have often wondered how many prayers have been given over the decades, and yes, even centuries, by Godly men and women of old in my ancestry who prayed for their descendants…people they would never know.  And I have to think that one of those descendants is me.  The thought of my ancestors praying for my welfare is humbling to say the least, and brings out a kind of guilt in me because I have not done much of that kind of praying for those who will be descended from me in the coming decades and centuries.

The timeless God who already knows those who will come after me, even though they aren’t a gleam in anyone’s eye right now, hears those kinds of prayers and acts upon them in His time and in His way.  We don’t have a clue what the world will be like in a hundred, two hundred, or five hundred years.  Yet we can pray that those who come after us will be seekers of God, followers of Jesus Christ, and indwelt by the Spirit of God.  We can pray that they will be like Jesus and display His love as they navigate whatever the world offers at that time.  We can pray that they understand that the Kingdom of God is not of this world and is to be sought and cherished more than anything the world has to offer.  We can pray that, like Vernon, they will choose a course in life that heals rather than hurts, unites rather than divides, and helps rather than hinders.

I don’t know what your prayer life is like.  But if it’s like mine, you’re probably stuck in the here and now praying about events, situations, and people in the immediate time.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but I encourage you to expand your thoughts about prayer to include those who will follow you…people you will never meet or know.  If nothing else, pray that they will know God, will know Jesus Christ.  As Paul the great apostle said to the Philippians, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”  I want my descendants to also know Christ in this way.

Thanks for listening today.  May your day be filled with blessing.