Everybody's Working For The Weekend

I recently played in a charity golf tournament with my dad.  On a weekday.  During a busy time at work.  It was a beautiful day.  Despite the flooded sand traps, and having to keep the carts on the path, and losing 14 balls, and heading back to the office to address a few things after the round was over, it was still a great time.  I haven’t done that in years.

Growing up my dad worked ridiculously long hours.  Our business is real estate, and most of my childhood memories go back to the boom of the 80’s.  The trade-off of the long hours was that there were always banks, partners, and vendors who took him golfing.  During nice weather, I’m sure he was on the course once a week.  I guess that’s a fair trade for 80+ hours in the office.

In reality, the long hours and hard work were invested more for the payoff of financial security than for golf outings.  He made a good living, and we were blessed.  I have continued the family business and am a full-time Real Estate Broker.  I’m one of the crazy few who specialize in commercial & residential & land.  That means I have to keep normal daytime hours in the office for our commercial clients, work nights and weekends with our residential clients, and also be ready to visit a vacant site in any season. 

Why am I telling you this?  #1 – You’re a captive audience, and I’ll take a little free marketing anywhere I can get it!  But seriously, #2 – Even though the golf outings are few and far between now, I do work hard for the simple trade-offs of a little relaxation when I can get it.  My biggest goal for my off-hours is to spend time with those I love the most.  My family.

This weekend, I’m looking forward to a 3-day break, spent camping in the woods.  It’s easily been a month since I’ve taken a full day off.  I’m looking forward to 3 of them in a row.  When’s the last time you had even a single day off without checking emails?  That’s why my off-time so often involves locations with poor cell reception.  I want to find some uninterrupted time to focus on my loved ones whenever I can get it.

Most years I can squeeze in maybe 2 cumulative weeks of vacation.  I always try to force at least one full, unbroken week, and always spend it with my wonderful family.  50 weeks of working hard is the price for the payoff of 2+/- weeks to fully and completely enjoy the company of those I love most.

I don’t say any of this to appear a martyr or as some workaholic.  I say it, because I think most of you can relate.  I don’t think I am the exception, but am more the norm.  And whether you’re working hard to be able to afford a beautiful house, comfort & security, or just because you’re motivated to get to those days when you can take OFF (be it vacation or retirement), I think many of us can agree that more time & effort is spent in the WORKING than it is in the ENJOYING.  The payoff doesn't quite seem proportionate.

And that brings me to my point.  I’ll work hard for a month in order to get 3 wonderful days with my family.  I’ll work hard for 50 weeks, in order to get just 2 weeks to completely focus on my loved ones.  Even if you’re working hard for 45 years, in order to get 20 years of retirement, God is offering us so much more.  God is asking us to work hard for 80 years of life (your mileage may vary), in order to get AN ETERNITY of absolute ecstasy.  If we work the short years of our lives on this earth, we are going to get to spend billions and billions of years with Him in heaven.  Those are some pretty amazing odds, and an infinitely amazing payoff.

Whether your burden for today is in an office, on a jobsite, flying somewhere, surrounded by kids, running errands, or anything else…can you make it through today’s difficulties, with the simple knowledge that you’re going to get a paycheck on Friday, or a day off on Monday, or a vacation next summer?  If so, how easy should it be to make it through just one lifetime of faithfulness, in order to be able to enjoy WONDERS THAT WE CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE…forever.  FOREVER! 

Are you working for a big, comfortable house now?  The dwelling place the Lord has prepared for us is beyond our comprehension!  Plus, I understand he was a pretty good carpenter, so I’ll bet the millwork is awesome.  Are you working hard just to get to the days where you can relax, and enjoy your loved ones?  In heaven, we will be rejoined with all of the beloved faithful, and we’ll experience His amazing love as well.  If we can rationalize putting in our worldly work on earth for the small payoff we see in return, then we should easily be able to run towards the spiritual work we’re called to, knowing that God’s reward for us is so huge.

Whatever else you do today, make sure that you're working for the good Boss, and keeping His teachings as your mission statement.  If you put in a (relatively) short time working for Him, you’ll get to vacation with Him for the rest of eternity.  And you’ll be fully vested in a benefits package that is beyond your wildest dreams!

Written By: Matt Buehrig
Inspired By: Time With My Family

A train is comin'

There was a man who worked for the railroad station.  His office was a small wooden shack next to a bridge.  Ships coming in from the harbor would need safe passage through the canal, however it was also a busy railroad.   So several times a day, this man was in charge of raising and lowering a giant draw bridge.  

The man had a young son.  Ever since his wife died, he would take his son to work with him.  He loved his son.  And the son loved his dad.  The father would show his son how the great machinery worked.  All of the gears and pistons.  It was impressive to see how the tremendous weight of all the steel was smoothly lifted and gently put back into place with such precision.

However, it was never the motors and the equipment that would fascinate the boy.  What he loved most was watching the people on the train.  On their way to the control shack everyday they would walk through the station where hundreds of busy people would board.  Some seemed excited to be starting some new adventure.  Others appeared to be in pain and deep sadness.  Many were too busy to notice much of anything around them.  But the boy noticed all of them.  All of these different lives coming and going.

There’s a train comin’

One day there was a large freighter that was coming in through the waterway and the drawbridge went up to let the ship pass.  The southbound 426 line passenger train from Chicago was running early, so he needed to make this a quick turn and get the bridge back down.  As the boat passes through, off in the distance, you can see the smoke of the oncoming train.  As the drawbridge conductor releases the pressure for the bridge to lower, nothing happens.  The bridge won’t go down.  Panic starts to set in.  He adjusts the valves and resets the primer and tries it again.  Nothing. 

There are two emergency release levers, one is to the conductors right at the other is down at the bridge dock.  All these years, he’s never had to pull this lever.  As he braces himself to pull it, he sees someone rushing to the bridge dock.  It’s his son.  His son must have seen the train and the bridge up and was running to help.  It all happened so fast.  As the boy tried to reach for the  manual release, he slips and falls into the gear box.

The train is coming  

367 passengers sit on the passenger train.  His son is trapped in the gear box.  He has seconds to make an impossible choice.  Pull the lever, lower the bridge and he will save the train, but sacrifice his only son.  If he does nothing, the train will fall into the icy water below, killing all of the passengers onboard.

The next two seconds ticked by like an eternity…until he slowly pulls the lever down hearing the rusty switch groan and click into place.  The draw bridge comes down.

The father stands outside his shack, watching the passengers pass by.  They are sipping coffee.  Whispering secrets.  Some are sleeping.  Unaware of the price that was just paid for their lives.  In the back of the train is a young girl.  Her heartache and brokenness had led her to a life of sorrow and drug addiction.  Her body is longing for another release, so she heads into the bathroom for another fix.  For some reason, she decides to look out the window.  She’s confused by what she sees.  There is a man outside a small shack.  He’s sobbing.  She can see in an instant the level of pain he is in.  She knows that pain.  She looks down at her drugs, and drops them into the trash and goes back to her seat.

A few years pass.  The drawbridge conductor walks through the station, but he no longer can bring himself to look into the windows of the train at all of the people.  His gaze now is down as he lumbers off to the shack.   Not a day goes by where he doesn’t stare at that emergency lever and think about that choice he had to make.  He can’t help but ask himself, “Did it even matter?” “Does anyone even realize the price that was paid for the lives they are living?”

Then as the smoke clears, he sees a young woman approach.  She looks familiar.  The face from the back of the train that day.  She looks so beautiful and is carrying a young baby boy.  She smiles as she approaches the shack.  “Thank you” is all she says and walks away.

  

The train is here

Each of you live an amazing life.  You are blessed beyond measure.  Even if it doesn’t feel like it, or you aren’t aware of it, you are loved, cherished and protected.  Your happiness and freedom was paid for you.  God sacrificed his only son for you.  Yes you.

You have a choice to make.  One that will change you forever.  Will you honor the sacrifice?

There may be people in the world that aren’t aware of what took place.  Like some of the people on that train who just weren’t paying attention, and just go through their lives with no knowledge of what took place.  That isn’t us.  We know.

I know we are tired.  We have a lot on our plate.  Is it that big of a deal to sleep in on Sunday’s and miss mass every once in a while?  PX90 is so early and our Saturdays are usually pretty full.  It’s tempting to hide behind our emails, to do lists, and the ball game rather than answer the call to live an authentic life. 

So the challenge is to remember the the girl in the back of that train;  to witness the suffering that was endured and allow it to change us.  We will turn away from darkness and shame, and seek the father out, looking at him with love and whisper, “Thank you.”