A Lifetime of Never “Calling It In”

     I overheard one of those 30 second blurbs on NPR’s Morning Edition last week.  It was about a British carpenter named Dave Miller who was retiring at age 64.  Miller had a perfect attendance record at work, not taking a sick day since 1964!  That’s 48 years of getting out of bed, making your lunch, driving to work, and putting in a full day.  Amazing.

         I was flabbergasted by the amount of discipline that would take:  no matter how you feel, no matter what condition your car is in, no matter how much snow falls or lightning flashes—here’s a man who did it anyway.  I can’t help but think that the moral of this story is the sheer of commitment Dave Miller has to the people he works for and the pride he must have in the projects he works on.

         So how would commitment like that translate into our relationship with God?  I don’t think perfect attendance at worship is comparable, after all worship is as much inspiration for our souls as it is a chance to bring glory to God.  I don’t think it’s a perfect parallel to compare it with reading the Bible, or spending time in prayer.  As much as I love the church and as vital as feeding our spirits may be, I think Dave Miller’s call to us is a little bigger than that.

         In Paul’s letter to the followers of Jesus in Colossae he writes, “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. [Colossians 3:17, The Message]  Perfect attendance for Christians is more comparable to submitting every detail in our lives to the Spirit of Jesus.  Our job is not a job, it’s a calling that we pour our best effort into.  Our friendships and families aren’t just for our emotional support, they are the sheep the Great Shepherd has put into our care.  Every off-handed remark, every facebook post, every text and phone call either bear witness to our commitment to love like Jesus or they reveal how far away from that goal we fallen.

         I’m don’t love going to work every day.  I’m sure Dave Miller had days he wished he could be anywhere else other than the work site.  I’m not going to want to focus on the needs of others 24/7—there are too many times when I feel like it ought to be about me.  I’m sure Miller had lots and lots of people encouraging him to indulge himself, that he’d more than earned a “mental health day” or two or three.  
        I’m going to get angry, I’m going to want to be dismissive, I’m going to want to share a tidbit or two of juicy gossip, or sit in smug judgment on someone who has made foolish choices.  I’m going to be sorely tempted to push that send key or dial that phone number or post that snide and sarcastic comment, but then I would be a “no show” in my walk with Jesus. 

It’s very doubtful that I’ve died to self and been resurrected to new life in Christ if I keep resurrecting the old, self-centered me.  The problem with indulging yourself in a sick day here, a personal day there, a ‘it’s-just-too-nice-to-go-into-work-today” every now and then, is that going AWOL becomes easier to do and simpler to justify the next time and the time after that.

         Bottom line is that Dave Miller was at work every day for 48 years because he loved what he was doing, loved who he was working for—because being a committed craftsman and carpenter was just who he was.  The same has go to be true for us or this Jesus thing will never work.  We have got to love being faithful, love whom we are serving, and at some point simply become a new creation—a forgiven, accepting, grace-oriented apprentice of the Master Carpenter.