[Note from the author] I’d like to start with a disclaimer. I’m really not that good at this part, so if I say something that makes you roll your eyes and say to yourself “no way does he do that,” you’re probably right. But I’m trying to. Even in the presence of Christ himself, people took time to change. That is, the people who wanted to change did, eventually. The people who wanted Christ to change them left disappointed. [End note from the author]
There comes a point in every man’s career where he has to make a choice between work and family. Sometimes the choice is made for you. Those are the cases where if you don’t choose work your family starves while living in a cardboard box. The sacrifices you have to make to keep your family fed, clothed, and housed are between you, your spouse, and God. But those are not the choices I want to talk about today.
The choices that concern me right now are the ones where you’re living reasonably comfortably (not driving a Lexus but not walking barefoot to work) and have the opportunity to make more money at a nominal cost. The trouble is that the “nominal cost” is an extra ten or twenty hours away from your family each week. Time is the unspoken cost for every step taken up the ladder of corporate America.
I was recently offered a promotion which I politely declined. I ran the numbers in my head. Compared the money to the time commitment, spent some time praying, and decided that the promotion was too costly. The time lost with my wife, friends, and church would have been too much to justify. Frankly, I was scared I’d end up divorced and alone. That sounds a bit extreme coming from a man who is newly and happily married, but the only rational outcome of sacrificing the relationships in my life for money is that I will one day have money but no relationships. It might take twenty years, but the result is pretty well locked in.
So I didn’t take the job. Now I have a new boss who wants me to do things his way. That’s his right. He is, after all, the boss. But that doesn’t mean I like it. There’s a part of me that views us (my boss and me) as equals. You see, he has the job I once turned down. Unfortunately for that confused part of me, we’re not actually equals. He really is the boss. I really am his employee.
So there’s the first hurdle for my quest to make the world a better place. Because I’ve decided that Christ, family, and friends must come before work (with the stipulation I can support my family in that order) I have to deal with being an underling at work. That means that even if I don’t agree with my boss, I get to do what he wants me to do anyway. Not only that, I have to do it with a humble, generous attitude.
That’s real sticker for me. That attitude. Following orders is one thing. Following those orders with humility and a smile is something else entire. And that’s the important part. It’s not enough to go through the motions. If I really want to make the world a better place, I need to start with work: my attitude and my performance.
Which brings me to the end of this post and the start of the next one. Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Practical Fallout of Non-standard Life Values: Revolutionary Evangelism
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