Now that I'm 65, I feel I'm legitimately allowed to consider when to quit my job. Well, it's not as if I've never thought about it before. I just feel more legitimate now 😊
Do you ever think about when to quit? Which do you find harder—to start a job or to quit? I suppose we each quit the same number of times we start a new job. Actually that's not quite true—the difference is the number of jobs still underway, all of which we will surely quit in the days yet to come. So I suppose any job worth starting is worth quitting?!
One way of looking at my job is that I help people keep working when they have reasons to quit. In that sense, my medicare eligibility only gives me new insights about how and why people like me quit! With that in mind, I invite you to join me as I reflect on some good old sayings about work. Another way of looking at my job is that I come alongside people wherever they are at in the international ministry journey, from starting to quitting and beyond!
Dying with my boots on!
Dying with my boots on implies a faithfulness to keep working to the very end of life. Unexpected accidents are tragic, but most of the time the people I know have slowed down a lot before the end. When I turned 15, a beloved mentor and employer had his last heart attack in the woodshop. He was pushing wood through the planer without me, his apprentice, while I was gone on a trip with my father. He loved to make things, but I'm not sure his diligence was matched with wisdom in this. He lived a long and full life, and he certainly died with his boots on, but if he had taken a few days to sit at home while I was gone, I have the feeling he might have lived and loved a while longer. I would have enjoyed that a lot. (And every day I think he would have kept showing me his finger with the part missing from the planer!)
For my own part, my MD is telling me that lowering my blood pressure and cholesterol levels might well mean living longer. He ran an online calculator that showed my odds of dying from heart disease in the next ten years at 20% if I don't change anything. Now some of you younger folks are thinking, "20% is not bad for an old geezer like Steve." Stop it! Some of the older folks are probably thinking, "20% in ten years, I'd take those odds."
Working myself out of a job!
For some reason, I've heard this saying particularly associated with international ministry. Perhaps ironically, I seldom hear people say this to their pastors. Most of you know I was in Taiwan 15 years as director of a counseling center, and I've been back as recently as right before COVID. It's now been over ten years since I left. God has certainly brought along some great people to continue the work, but I can also say with certainty that I didn't work myself out of that job.
On the other hand, while I was doing it and even before I started, I certainly imagined that someone else could do it better. Based on what I have heard, I wasn't the only one with those thoughts either!
Working for the night is coming!
I think this saying focuses more on the work than the person working. Whether daylight is required to see the task at hand or the harvest must be brought in before the weather changes, this saying reminds us that there may be a window of time when a task needs doing, and delay will mean loss. I think the Israelis who crossed the Red Sea experienced that—the Egyptians pursuing them, not so much. On the other hand, sometimes we don't know how long we have, and we might not undertake a job if we knew what time and chance were bringing our way.
One of the parts of my job has been writing these email updates. I realized early on that I couldn't write about the people I'm caring for, so I decided instead to write about myself and my family with particular attention to the challenges of the international ministry journey. This year I've been asking myself--what are the themes that somehow never get talked about? I think quitting ministry jobs and leaving ministry roles is one of those things that gets little attention. So here I am, with the temerity of an old guy with little to lose 😊!
Working like an ant, not like a grasshopper!
I fear the grasshoppers don't get much respect in this proverb, as we can all see the ants diligently moving as long as they have life, while the grasshoppers spring from one place to another at seemingly random intervals.* Both grasshoppers and ants have been with us for a long time, and both strategies are apparently effective for their respective practitioners.
(*Fun fact: While Proverbs 6 uses an ant as an illustration of a good worker, the parable of the ant and the grasshopper is one of Aesop's fables. Aesop is believed to have been a slave and storyteller around the time of the minor prophets. In the Bible, grasshoppers and locusts are often images of warriors.)
In our family we've got a cross-cultural marriage. Laura works more like an ant and I work more like a grasshopper. We try to live fully and well just as we are, but we know the challenges of both ants and grasshoppers—and can borrow from each other's strategies as well.
A good worker sees what needs to be done!
This saying suggests that the work is always at hand, and that the question is instead whether we have the wisdom and skill to both see a need and to take care of it, moving as expeditiously as possible to the next task. When our kids were young, we called this "Cappola Pomola." After all, who tells middle schoolers to apply Critical Path Project Management. In practice, this often meant something like "Go to the car now. Tie your shoes on the way to school." Or maybe, "Don't wait for someone to tell you to go to the bathroom, get your books together, and grab your lunch." It's still good advice for a 65 year old, but I don't think Cappola Pomola has ever gone viral.
But wait, there's more!
Figuring out when to take a job and when to lay it down is complex, and there are many factors that go into such decisions. A sage once said that there is always more to be said on a subject. Proverbs are good, and they contain some truth. The wise selection of the right proverb for any situation is an art form.
"You go, and do likewise." That was what Jesus said at the end of the story about the good foreigner: "'Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?' He said, 'The one who showed him mercy.' And Jesus said to him, 'You go, and do likewise.' [Luke 10:36-37, ESV]"
So if you're wondering how this 65 year old and my slightly younger lady decide to keep working, here are some hints. Doing good to our neighbors is always in season. So let's all go and be good foreigners, even with our neighbors.
With love, in the name of the one who keeps us, Steve and Laura
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CESv-6npbDxDRpGVG5Qck3H-xL_O3O2JMnphhd%2BSd6Kww%40mail.gmail.com.
