You load sixteen tons...

The problem with clamoring for the top, with climbing the ladder, with competing for that last, best spot, is you never get there but you sure do cause a lot of damage on the way.

So at work there is this challenge to constantly be better than the last guy/gal. We all have it. The Human Resources department calls it the 360 degree evaluation – a competitive assessment of how well you perform against a set of standards and how you rank among your peers competing against the same standards. Everyone is on a bell curve and someone gets that one spot to the far right that says he/she is a 1 in a 9-box rating where lower is better, the star athlete of the office, the one the boss wants to clone.

Now it’s a new year. There are a new set of standards. There’s a new set of competitors all with the same goal. So what does good ol’ Number 1 do this year to top last year? And does he/she even notice numbers 8 and 9 – has anyone seen them around the office?

The whole scenario reminds me of a really bad movie – one of Tom Hanks’ worst movies of all time if the mere thought isn’t sacrilege – Joe vs. the Volcano. In the opening credits Tennessee Ernie Ford is singing in the background while grey workers trudge under a grey sky toward a grey building and all you hear is the clang of the hammer and Tennessee’s durge, “You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”

There comes a time when we have to say “enough is enough.” Sure, God created some of us as lions among a pack of hyenas to go into the world and be leaders. Those people have the skills, the drive, and the blessing to be Mr. Number One all the time. For them it’s God’s grand design. But what about numbers 8 and 9, or the guy/gal who is content just doing his/her work?

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” (Phil 4:11, NIV)

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Tim 6:6-10, NIV)

In all things be content. I find myself revisiting this concept more and more as I get older. I’ve never been one to climb the ladder, not because I wasn’t fond of stepping on the fingers of the next guy or because I didn’t particularly bond with numbers 8 and 9, but because it’s just not in my nature. God didn’t build me that way. He gave me a particular set of skills and the means by which to honor Him through them, but He never intended on my getting to the top. He knows me and He knows the top and I wouldn’t agree. And since we’re all on His schedule, He knew exactly how long it would take me to get with the program – how long He would have to wait until I stopped banging my head on the glass ceiling – how long I would be able to ride the wave of success He built with my skills. He built me for the middle of the bell curve and I’m okay with that. It’s taken me almost 45 years to figure that out, though.

So if you find yourself struggling, swimming against the current, slipping on the sweaty fingers of the next guy, if you just don’t understand why, even though everything you try is better than the next guy, you still can’t reach that top rung – and your fingers hurt, then maybe it’s time to step back and reconsider whether or not you’ve been fine so far running with the lions just because God gave you a tan coat with a fur collar.

Job 36:11 says that “If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.” (NIV) That’s God’s definition of prosperity, not man’s.

I’d rather be in Job 36 then in Job 13, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (I took that out of context, but it makes a great point, don’t you think?)

In all things be content. You just may find joy there too.