To close out 2012 and kick off 2013, I spent better part of 6 months in a constant state of emotional torment. In the midst of a very critical decision making process, I felt like a child somehow positioned on both sides of the world’s biggest see-saw. The highs seemed astonishingly high and the lows incredibly low. The relative ease in which I was able to change directions actually turned out to be quiet troublesome to me. Up and down, up and down, up and down with that rhythmic squeaking that almost lulled me to sleep, not wanting to ever make the decision.
Part of me wished that my see-saw partner would have been that much bigger kid. You know, the one that had all of the leverage due to his weight? At any moment, he could plunge down and send me soaring into the sky like a bottle rocket, only to jump off just as I reached the highest point, causing me to plummet down at an even more accelerated rate until the ground, my seat, and my tailbone would join forces to bring me to an abrupt stop. Yes, I actually hoped for such a happening.
The showdown taking place in my head was a career choice. I was faced with choosing between a full-time position as a campus pastor with my church, Fellowship of the Parks, or staying at the Dallas Fire Department and preparing to take a promotional exam to hopefully become a Lieutenant. Here is the single question that created the most indecision and was the root of all of my internal struggle: which career would be living within God’s will for me?
I addressed the idea of feeling a “calling” in a previous post Calling All Ninjas, but I was recently reminded of another lesson I learned throughout this process: you can live within God’s will for you no matter your circumstances. My wife Ann was wise enough to point this out to me when she told me, “you don’t have to work for a church to serve the Lord.” She could not have been more right. There were plenty of guys on the job at DFD serving the Lord each and every day, and there are probably equally as many church staff members out there who are not serving Him. The truth is that you get to decide daily how you will use your circumstances and circle of influence to impact other people, whether you’re a fireman, a pastor, or the custodian at a local high school.
CUSTODIAN OR COUNSELOR?
Charles Clark (pictured at right) became the custodian at Trinity High School in Euless, TX a couple of years before I arrived there in October of 1992 in the middle of my sophomore year. Mr. Clark was recently the subject of a short new piece covered by On the Road. (Click the link under the picture to watch the short video.) Mr. Clark is a great example of what I would consider living out God’s will within his given circumstances. He could easily have chosen daily to clean the bathrooms, empty the trash, lock the doors, and quietly slip out for the day. Instead, Mr. Clark has chosen to use his profession, his love for people, and his influence to impact the lives of the people around him. Here are 3 lessons that we can all learn from the janitor at my alma mater.
1. “Once they trust you and they know you love them, you can get them to buy into what you’re selling”
The wisdom in Mr. Clark’s voice was never more apparent than when these words poured from his mouth. More powerful than any persuasive speech or marketing campaign is the power of personal relationships. Christians, please re-read and re-listen to the words of that custodian. They sound much like the words given to us through the Bible. Before you can get someone to listen to what we have to say, they have to know that we love and care about them. We are told to help everyone become believers and to teach them what we have learned (The Great Commission), but we need to be reminded that the best way to do that is to first love them. After all, the effectiveness of anything we do is affected by the way we love people (see Matthew 22:37-40). A person does not value your input until you make them feel loved, respected, and cared for by you. Your circle of influence is directly proportionate to the number of people that feel like you genuinely care about them. I suspect that Charles Clark has a circle of influence that is, at a minimum, the size of the Trinity High School campus.
2. Do things because they need to be done, whether they are your job or not.
I am in the process of instilling a “code” to live by for me and my sons. One of those codes is that Macheca men will right wrong. I feel like God calls us to stand up for what is right at all times, not just when it is easy or convenient. It is always our responsibility to take part in fixing what is broken, in healing who is hurting, and standing up for those that can’t defend themselves. Mr. Clark sees that high school students living in a broken world, facing the cruel realities of a very unforgiving society are often unable to “defend themselves”. You see, even though it is not your job to help my mom change her flat tire, it is not your job to show compassion for a homeless addict, it is not your job to sit and listen to a hurting neighbor dump their issues on you in the driveway, and it is not your job to invest time in another person’s child, the world sure would be a better place if we all did. I wish I had the ability to see all things through the lens that Charles Clark sees his work. How much greater would your life experience be if everyone looked at you the way that Mr. Clark looked at his students? What if everyone saw you as being worth it? What if everyone valued you and invested in you? What if everyone did these things not only when it was their job, but all of the time because it needed to be done? I doubt any of these things are in the job description of a custodian, but there are stories of Mr. Clark purchasing clothes for students, giving them rides to jobs, even giving them a place to stay when they had nowhere to go.
3. You get out of something what you put into it.
Let’s face it, the job of a school custodian is not highly respected in our society. This is a job that could be seen as ordinary and unremarkable, negligible and unrewarding. But such is not the case at Trinity. Charles Clark sees his role as significant and far-reaching. He pours his heart and soul into the work that he does and the place that he does it. And you can tell by listening to him, that he gets great fulfillment and joy from his work. This is a prime example of reaping what you sow (see Gal 6:8-9). At the end of the interview, Mr. Clark says, “this custodian thing is working out good for me. I got a great life.” What if we all used those words to shape our outlook on our own lives? What if you lived and worked in such a way that allowed you to constantly say these words to yourself, only changing the blanks, “This ___________ thing is working out good for me. I got a great life.”
LUNCH WITH MR. CLARK
Although I never got to sit just outside of the office on that big rock with him and I never got to slowly stroll the halls with him listening to his sage fatherly advice, I have learned a great deal from Charles Clark, Custodian at THS. To be completely honest, I never had the pleasure of meeting him in our 3 years there together; however, he taught me a tremendous amount about life and perspective in just 2 minutes and 42 seconds. If anyone knows how to contact him, let him know I’d like to buy him lunch one day. T’s up Mr. Clark.
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Connection of Dots 