The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. (1Co 12:21-25)
I need to take another quick time out from the ongoing Family series that I’m currently writing. Good reason for it as well, but fear not, there is more to come on the series.
I work at TNG Wigan as a Programme Tutor (yeah I know I was a Personal Job Advisor, last time you checked but you know what God says about promotion). The course of my working life brings me into contact with a number of people who have done what society considers to be ‘menial’ jobs. As a result when helping to build their CV’s there is difficulty highlighting what they’ve learnt or what benefit there was in those kind of roles.
Let me be honest with you. (I know that makes a change, but stick with it, the usual service will resume.) I have had a hierarchical approach to jobs. If you’re a CEO that’s a top job, if you’re doing the cleaning that is a much lower job. The chief financial officer is a far more lofty post than the administrative assistant photocopying and filing. It wasn’t just in the office either. I had a fairly low view of those who work for places like McDonald’s and Tesco doing the customer service kind of roles which appeared to have all the glamour of a day out in Grimsby town centre.
(Yeah, I know, I’ve never been to Grimsby town centre. For all I know such an experience may leave me breathless at the sheer glamour of it all. My argument is say to someone ‘glamour’ and I defy you to get people even in Grimsby to immediately seriously suggest that the number one or an image in the top 25 is Grimsby town centre.)
What didn’t help was actual experience doing those kind of jobs. I worked in Woolworths (R.I.P. Kinda) as one of the first experiences of getting a job through applying and going through the interview process, back when I was a teenager. It was the customer service kind of role and I found it rather mundane and boring. Not only that I also didn’t feel that it was valued that highly. So if it wasn’t valued that highly, why should I value it highly. After all it’s easy to take for granted – I go in, I get my stuff, I go to the counter, and all I require the punter behind the till to do is get the price right and give me my change. Nothing much to ask for and not a glamorous or highly wanted job.
I also did warehouse kind of jobs stacking, pallet-work, conveyor-belt kind of jobs that required more manual nous than stretching the intellect. Now I look back at people who would do that kind of job week in and week out for years and I have a respect for them that I did not appreciate at the time. Here’s the kicker.
What my job does at present clicks into a crucial biblical, Christ-like principle. I esteem that which others esteem the least. I take that which someone thinks is a lowly nothing kind of job and help them to realise how much we should esteem it. For in that job there is worth. In that job there is value, skill, experience and ability that is easily taken for granted.
You know I’m right by the simplest measure. Imagine life without what we consider to be the ‘menial’ jobs. Imagine life where these kind of jobs are done shabbily by miserable people. Seriously, imagine your fries served by someone who has a similarly low respect for the role and does it with neglect. Not a pleasant imagination. Further still imagine the world in which you live in without people doing those hidden and less esteemed jobs.
It’s linked to the argument about the immigrants coming in and taking your jobs, so the answer is to get rid of the immigrants (can I get an amen from my brothers in the BNP?). People in the know have a good idea of the devastating impact the removal of those immigrants would have on the British economy. After all if it was that desired a job then it would be filled up by all the natives, but would you look at that its cheap labour, no one wants to do such jobs that are below them. Is that any surprise that there are others whose work ethic and pride in a job well done far supersedes such pitiful accounts of what’s ‘beneath them’. It’s not just using your current location as a stepping stone, it is proving yourself diligent and faithful wherever you’re placed.
For all the menial jobs then, due recognition has to be given to their actual worth. The Christ-like model it replicates is that where Jesus suggests that the way up is the way down – to take the form of a slave doing menial jobs in helping others out of a heart of compassion and a desire not to be served but to serve.
It is also seen in the approach to Body Life that Paul encourages in the Corinthian church. I love that whole sentiment in the verses at the top of this. It’s meant to be lived out best in the Body of Christ that doesn’t appoint SUPER PEOPLE that are unattainable (like setting them up on rostrums in royal thrones for from them and them alone comes the Word). Rather this Body actually magnifies those elements that don’t get the coverage. We reflect that in honouring those that don’t get the credit. That customer service person in the shop or the McDonald’s server. If that’s the mentality that works in Body Life, I am certain it has repercussions for our approach to societal engagement.
This is where I give God thanks for a Christ-like Kingdom mentality that finds much to celebrate and rejoice over in those who do ‘menial’ jobs and puts me in a strategic location to work with those young people to allow them to recognise that value and worth. I hope that helps them also recognise that there is a different way of viewing life. Not through the eyes of naked ambition, avarice and greed. Not that at all, but through the loving compassionate eyes of One who finds delight in serving and with such a mutually submissive attitude liberates others to share and enjoy in that kind of life.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 