the parable of the workers revisited

at my job, besides being house-pappy to 8 teenage boys, there are various and sundry other duties we have to fulfill on a daily basis. when i first started here, my "other duties as assigned by supervisor" (the default catch-all at the end of every job descripition at every place i've ever worked at, including union jobs) was to run transportation, which involves getting kids where they need to be when they need to be there. of course it involved DRIVING, which was just icing on the cake for me. so it sort of blows my mind that just about everyone else who has ever done this job hates it. as time went by and they realized i could be better utilized doing maintenance projects, i was taken off of transportation.

recently due to unique circumstances, i was re-assigned (temporarily) to transportation, and of course, i'm lovin it! even on the worst day of the week for appointments, its the easiest job i've ever had in my life, and i just eat it up. so as i was tooling around in the great outdoors the other day, i got to thinking about why some folks will do everything in their power to avoid something that they knew they were going to have to do when they signed up for the job. i get especially amused by pro athletes, who make obscene amounts of money to play games, and then they want to re-negotiate a legal and binding contract to get even more obscene amounts of money for having a good time, and for only a few months out of the year at that. if ed superstar signed a 5 year contract to play catch with the quarterback for 20 mil, great for him and his agent. then bob superduperstar signs for 35 mil and then it hits the fan and ed refuses to show up for mini camp unless his contract is re-negotiated. i say, more power to bob and HIS agent for making a better deal. ed, in 5 years, its your turn again.

so after feeling all self-righteous for about a minute, because after all, i have way more morals than people like ed, i remember back to when i was in seminary and working maintenance at a hospital in new orleans. we were helping a doctor move from one office to another, and we spent the entire shift lugging exam tables and boxes of files from one building to the next. because i was taking night classes, i had to leave about an hour early, and one of the guys from the next shift took over for me. the next day, the doc gave us all 20 bucks for helping him (even though we were all on the clock), including the guy that worked for an hour after i left. man, did that fly all over me! i worked 7 hours, and he worked 1 hour, and we both got a jackson for our troubles.
then it dawned on me what a bozo i was being. in the first place, i was already being paid by the hospital to do the job i was doing. in the second place, it was the doctor's money, and he could do whatever he wanted with it. some folks wouldnt see it that way, and i'm no beacon of virtue for figuring it out either. it was only because of the conviction of God's Holy Spirit, and He used scripture i had hidden in my heart to convict me with. in matthew 20, Jesus told the story of the workers in the vineyard, and while the point He was making wasnt so much about wages as it was about the sovereignty and grace of the Father, the principle still applies. as a child of God, He will meet my needs as i seek His kingdom. and if He provides for my needs, and someone else's needs AND wants are provided to them, what is that to me??

in my sunday morning Bible study we talked about being content. i'm not always a big fan of that word, because sometimes it conveys COMPLACENCY, but really those are 2 different words entirely. whereas contentment is satisfaction with what God has blessed me with, complacency is satisfaction with what i've done for myself, often at my own peril. as i live my life for Him daily, i desire more contentment and less complacency.