TODAY A VERY DEAR CHRISTIAN BROTHER, JERRY BAKER, shared a graphic which basically said: "No
matter your status in life, doctor or office cleaner - that does not
give you the right to look down upon another person who has a lesser
job."
As happens so often with me, I wrote a response to Jerry - but then
realized that this is a thought I would like to share with all my
Friends. In Matthew 22:36 Jesus was asked, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And Jesus compressed the Ten Commandments into two:
"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." The first Four Commandments relate to your relationship with God the Father.
AND
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The last Six Commandments relate to your relationship with your fellow man. Do you see where Jesus put His emphasis?
After His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ, God the Son, left all
Christian believers with Two Commandments and Two Ordinances. Any
person who is a Christian believer will live by those Commandments and
Ordinances. If we, our church, or our denomination - excludes any part
of those Two Commandments and Two Ordinances - is that person, church,
denomination really Christian?
No, I am not judging anyone or any church. That is something each of us
must do for ourselves. But food for thought: If one or both of the
Commandments, if one or both of the Ordinances - are excluded in your
life or in the life of your home church - do you think it is time for
change? As I said, food for thought.
These are my thoughts I shared with my Christian brother, Jerry:
Hi Jerry Baker, In the end, it is not what we do for ourselves - it is what we do for God that will matter.
I can easily recall the dilemma of several customer/friends I have had
over my years in the computer industry. In the mid-1960s I lived in
Northern Cal and worked in the Palo Alto area. A customer, Rick, who
was also a friend, had a masters degree and was working in computer
design for Lockheed. One day we were talking and he told me, "Bill, I am quitting my job and going back to college to study medicine."
I thought, "That is a nice fit. With his computer design background
plus his newly gained medical knowledge - he will make a great
Biomedical Engineer." I bumped into him years later at the VA
Hospital in that area - and found that he had opted to become a
psychiatrist. Who could have guessed it?
When I think of Biomedical Engineering, I always remember a man and an
incident from circa 1968. I was selling computers out of Huntsville and
was negotiating the sale of a million dollar computer system to
Vanderbilt University. As part of my negotiations I was taking six
people from the Vanderbilt Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering
departments to my company headquarters in Boston. On the flight up I
sat with Dr. Bill Baker, head of the Biomedical Engineering Department.
During the flight we were chatting and he asked, not to judge but merely as a part of our conversation, "Where did you go to college?" And I answered him honestly, "I don't have a college degree." His response was conversational, but in no way judgemental, "It really does not matter, does it. You know your job and your computer field very well - and that is what really counts." By the way, a few weeks later I flew to our Regional Sales Meeting with a million dollar purchase order in my pocket.
In the 1970s I made a sales call on a man at Rockwell Autonetics in
Anaheim. He held a Ph.d. in, I believe, computer engineering. I could
see that he was not a happy camper that day, so we just chatted. He was
unhappy in his job. I asked, "If you were going to get your Ph.d. now - what field would you choose?"
He told me, "I would not bother with college. I would become a
carpenter, plumber, electrician, etc. They make a lot more money than I
do as a Ph.d.!"
How well I recall an account I was working on in the early 1970s. He
was a VP in charge of the new product research division in Van Nuys for a
large Auto Testing Equipment company back East. I had loaned him one of
my computers to see how it fit into his plans for a new product.
All was going well when he went on his vacation. When he returned to his
office after the vacation - he found that the Suits and Powers in the
home office back East had decided to close the research division here in
Southern Cal - and never bothered to tell him as he went on vacation.
Can you imagine coming back from a great vacation - and being told, "The research division you were running has been closed. Have a nice life!"
He called me to pick up my computer - and as I was putting it in my car, he told me, "Bill, you have not sold any computers - but you have made a friend."
And that meant more to me than any commission check I might have
received later. It all depends upon what we value in life - and his
friendship was head and shoulders above the commission. Just a few
thoughts.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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