Ed, my neighbour next door, can be very blunt. The other day I asked Ed if he wanted to work at Walmart. They have been having job fairs presently, looking for workers at our store. I was more than a little surprised when Ed answered my question about a job with a resounding, "Hell no! Why would you think I want a job at Walmart?"
I reminded Ed that he is always telling me that there is no money in farming. "Aren't you forever saying that you are going to get a paying job one of these days?" I asked.
To this, Ed responded I should have remembered he has said clearly that he will only take a job where he starts at the top, with top pay. He is too old to take orders and he is sick of getting minimum wages as a farmer. Ed says, without a hint of humility, after a day on the job they will see his superior qualities and be ready to make him boss.
I told Ed all his years as a self-employed farmer have spoiled him. In the real world, where people work for bosses, the superior qualities of workers tend to get missed. Bosses are able to see inadequacies in workers that they, the workers, never even knew they had.
Ed's response was that that sounded more like a wife than a boss. I told Ed a boss is worse than a wife, more like the teacher who was never satisfied with you no matter how well you did your school work. The teacher always said it could have been done better.
"You make working for a boss sound like being in school - with big pressure to listen, to follow directions and do well, or be ready for blame. It sounds worse than farming," commented Ed.
I asked Ed if he ever thought of the impossible job Jesus took on. He was at the top in heaven, but willingly took on the position of Saviour on earth. The Bible speaks of it this way: "Christ Jesus, Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross."
Most of us would like to be a boss with top pay. We would rather give orders than take them. In the Bible, the mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked him if her sons could sit on his right and left when Jesus began ruling in his kingdom. In response to this, Jesus said to his disciples, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served , but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many."
Mother Teresa said it this way, "Very humble work is where you and I must be. There are very few people who will do the small things. It is not what we do, but how much love (serving) we put into it."
