My father believed in work. By believed in work
I mean that he thought my brother and I ought to do a lot of it, starting at a
young age. You know - protestant work ethic kind of stuff, absent the goofy
theology. My dad didn't think God would love us more if we got up early on
Saturday morning to work, but he figured it might make God smile to see it.
So, when I hit the ripe old age of 12, it was
time to go to work. My dad printed up business cards, and I went door-to-door in
the neighborhood looking for lawns to mow during the summer. I had five or six
regular lawns that I mowed each week. I charged $3.00 to mow the front and back
yards, edge, and sweep up. I still have a few of those business cards.
So it was that I embarked on a very interesting
and colorful work career. Until I finally got out of seminary and started
getting paid to be a minister, I was, among other things, a janitor, a security
guard, a forklift operator, a warehouseman, a UPS sorter, and a laborer for an
industrial pipe company in Houston. (Think John Travolta's job in Urban Cowboy)
I sold auto parts, I swung a sledgehammer on a road crew one Texas summer, I
delivered and installed televisions, and I even had the classic paper route.
So it is an interesting turn of events for me
to write for
The High Calling, which is a non-profit
organization here in San Antonio whose only purpose is to get this message out
to Christians:
True Christianity is not about what
happens at church on Sunday morning. Christianity (old school Christianity,
mind you) is lived out each day at the High Calling of your daily work.
If you are serious about the Christ journey,
then your life will change, yes even at your nine-to-five. I wrote Bible studies
for The High Calling last year. You can read them
here. It was okay, but not a perfect fit
for me. But in a month or two, I'm going to delve into the eclectic vault of my
weird work history, and I'm going to write about what I find there. All of these
essays will be housed at the new and improved High Calling website.
Look for the first one in a month or so.
Creative writing is about tapping into your
life and mining it for content and stories. This is a part of my life that I
haven't touched yet. I'm really looking forward to this.
rlp
