Odd Jobs

I hear a little old guy talking and as I look up from where I am seated on the floor, I smile and adjust my focus onto him. "You must have a really important job," he said. I kind of chuckeled cause I was litterally on the floor and typically jobs that require rolling around on the floor are not considered all that important. "Yesterday, you were working on that isle over there and today you are on this isle," he continued. "Thought I would stop by and say hi."

Besides making me smile and laugh, the man validated this work that I have been doing. I do not necessarily need validating, but it is very nice when it comes.

Over the last few months I have occupied my time with many jobs (both paid and volunteer): removing wood trim off front porch pillars, planting flowers and container gardening, updating the community resource book for Jubilee House, answering the crisis hotline for victims of sexual assualt, cat sitting, substitute Sunday School teaching, administration and communications for Gateway Conference's Leadership Summit, filling the pulpit, and doing merchandizing work at lots of (some near and some far away) small town pharmacies.

Over the last three weeks, my merchandizing job has kept me particularly busy. This month we have been working a very large catagory in each pharmacy. What had been four or six hour visits to each store grew to ten to fifteen hours in each store this month. I'm very grateful for the work and enjoy it for the most part. Overhearing conversations and observing behavior is sort of like doing an informal study on rural culture.

My mind and attitude are shifting a bit. This work may or may not be all that important, but being who I am in the presence of lots of different people is important. Even crawling around a pharmacy floor, cleaning shelves, organizing products, pricing them and visiting with people....could this be a way to carry out my vocation?

Perhaps you could say that the Lord has been convicting me about the subtle ways past and present that I de-value run of the mill "work." I have unintentionally adopted this idea that working in a church, doing some sort of officially sanctioned ministry is a higher form of serving the Lord than all other jobs. Please excuse me for being wrong!!!

The litmus test of all work, whether it be "secular" or "sacred" is whether we do the work intentionally to serve God. The "what" of the work is not as important as the "how" of the work is.

A scripture to meditate on: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

Vocation or Vacation

Two weeks ago when Will and I were in Lansing, MI, we went to see the Lansing Lugnuts play ball. It is a gorgeous stadium and we were able to park, walk to a wonderful restaurant recommended by Bruce Cromwell. The old train depot was converted into a restaurant called "Clara's". The food was very good and our server was fantastic, not to mention that we were seated up a steep flight of stairs and every time we asked for a beverage refill, he would have to run the stairs. He was in excellent physical condition, clearly, because he was never panting or sweating and remained very cheery through our whole visit.

At the ball game, we found our seats very near the foul post on the first base side of the ball park. Good seats. As we watched the game, I couldn't help but notice that the whole bunch of people around us acted like they knew one another. It was very puzzling! Perhaps we had gotten put in with a group from some kids summer program or a family reunion, I thought.

Soon enough it would become clear what was going on. The announcer was announcing all the special groups that were at the game that night. He said, "we welcome the Knights of Columbus as they come here to support vacations." WOW!!! I didn't know that the Knights of Columbus took such a firm stance in favor of vacations. Myself being very fond of vacations, I thought, oh, how wonderful!! But the reaction of those around me which included a priest was not so pleasant. They said "I cannot believe that he said supporting vacations and not vocations." The lady right next to me said "he cannot even pronounce our bishops name, what is wrong with him?!"

It so happens that we had picked to go to a lugnuts game on the night when the Knights of Columbus was promoting their year long campaign "Year of the Priest." There were tons of priests at the game and at one point, the announcers said, now everybody stand as the "sisters and seminarians" throw out free t-shirts donated by the Knights of Columbus. I stood and yelled my loudest in order to get a t-shirt. I was not successful, though constantly thinking how cool it would be to belted in the head with a t-shirt thrown by a sister with a good arm. I also had the urge to engage one of these priests or seminarians in some theological conversation but I was not able to find one that was not already engaged in some conversation. There was a table with all sorts of literature about the Roman Catholic Church. There was also a booth that seemed to be promoting the priesthood. (Perhaps you should visit the web site of Knights of Columbus and see all of this for yourself at www.kofc.org) I found it odd that they would present it in the same fashion the folks from mastercard do...."come here and see how you can get this thing for free."

As this has been one of the questions that has been bouncing around in my mind over the last few months: "What is vocation?" "Are those who are called to full-time Christian service the ones who have a vocation?" or is it as Dallas Willard once said: "All of us who have heard Jesus invitation to follow and have accepted have simply one vocation: following Jesus!!" He also advocates for those who are occupied doing another job along with doing some sort of ministry should not be called "bi-vocational" rather "tent-makers." What is the meaning of vocation? And does it have any similarity to the other word that so easily swapped with it: "vacation?"

Hiking the "Little Grand Canyon"

A few weeks ago, Will and I didn't have anything scheduled one Saturday so I decided that we would go hiking. We have had this book "Fifty Nature Walks of South Illinois" and had yet to go on any of them. As you may know, I have been getting in excellent shape and wanted to pick something that would be a bit challenging.

We gathered up stuff for lunch and lots of drinks. Basil was outfitted with leash and I attached her treat bag to my pocket. We left home around 8am and traveled south on SH 127 through Murphysboro. We followed the direction in the book and after only a couple minutes of confusion, we arrived at the trail head.

Here is what the copy from wildernet says about the hike: "A 3.6-mile loop trail that has drastic changes in elevation – from 350 to 700 feet at the trail head. In one ¼-mile section the trail rises 300 to 400 feet. The trail follows rocky creek beds, winds next to sheer, majestic bluffs. From the higher elevations there are panoramic views of the canyon, the Big Muddy River bottoms and Fountain Bluff. Interpretive signs explain the geological history."

The part that this copy leaves out is the devastating affect that the inland hurricane of May 5th had on this area. The trail was blocked with down trees. Some trees were not merely down, they had been uprooted. These were large, perhaps 150 year old, 8" in diameter trees. It was sad to see. And it also put us in a sticky situation. After descending the mossy rock creek beds to get to the bottom of the canyon, it seemed most desirable to actually complete the trail verses going back up those mossy rocks.

Basil did absolutely marvelous and constantly wanted to go under down trees instead of over them as her human parents preferred. We navigated through the woods, off the trail, walking along the rock bluffs, and rejoined the trail. We left the trail and rejoined it several times!

A couple of amazing things happened that day. We made it out alive!!!! The other amazing element came in the form of a person: Dan, the plant man. There was a moment when we were first realizing that we were in serious trouble, he suddenly appeared. During our conversation with him, we find out that he is a professor at a university nearby and that his specialty is ferns. Not only that, but he has lead dozens of groups of students on this hike throughout the years. He knows these woods. He helps us get through and then he disappears. No joke, we look up at one point and he is gone. It was very weird! As we were reporting the story to another couple who asked "where our friend went." Will responded, "well he might have been an angel or a ghost because he just disappeared."

We had a great day! The following Sunday, I told part of the story as a sermon illustration (YES, I filled the pulpit and I will blog more about this later). Exiting church, there was a man who grew up very near the little grand canyon and he was very familiar with it. He said: "WOW, you picked that trail as your first from that book and that is probably the most challenging!"