What’s Your Job?
 

We all have a job, but along with it comes things we do to fill in the time while we are waiting to do that job.  Recently, while at a major drag race, there was an incident at the end of the track.  I was called over to the wall where the driver asked me to contact his wife and let her know not to worry…he was okay.

While talking to him I heard this voice yelling to get away and to quit taking pictures.  As I didn’t have a camera and was not taking pictures, I thought that this person was talking to someone else.  

To my surprise he was yelling at me.  I told him that I didn’t have a camera, but he just kept telling me to get back to the end of the track and quit taking pictures.  Instead of arguing (it looked as if he was going to explode) I just walked slowly away and stayed at the end of the track till the round was over.

I didn’t see much reason to remain at the end of the track with the restrictions I was under.  I went into the pits to spend time with drivers, crewmembers, policemen, and fire fighters. This gave me the opportunity to connect with people…my real job!  Yet it still bothered me that I was no longer at the end of the track.

That night I dreamt of something that took place decades ago.  I was in a church to hear a famous preacher.  For an illustration he had six people come up on the platform.  He then said, “Let’s start a Fire Department.  These six people will be the firemen who fight the fires, but because we aren’t always fighting fires, they will have other things to do while waiting.”  One person was to wax the truck.  Another was to polish the pole.  The next was to prepare the meals.  Each of the six was given an individual task.

 The town’s actual fire chief was at church and was one of the six on stage.  He became the chief of this hypothetical fire station also.  After going over each of these assignments several times, the speaker went to the fire chief and asked, “What’s your job?”  He responded that it was to wax the truck.  Again the speaker asked. “What’s your job?”   “To wax the truck!”  Again the question was asked and back came the same response.  Finely the speaker exclaimed, “My God man, you’re the Fire Chief.  What’s your job?”  The chief yelled back, “TO WAX THE TRUCK!”

The speaker then asked the next person what their job was and the person replied, “To fight fires.” This was a good illustration of how we all get off track sometime.  This dream really brought home the reality that I had gotten off track on why I was at the track in the first place.

The illustration that I had seen years ago was to illuminate Solomon’s teaching in Ecclesiastes 12:13 which says “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”  What we do in life while we are waiting to do our duty is not as important as doing our duty and we shouldn’t get all upset with the other things when they don’t go the way we think they should.

Dan Laterza