Day 17

“He hired himself out…” What are you worth? What could you be paid to do that which you find repulsive and demeaning? They say everyone has a price!

Throughout my college career I did many different jobs; delivering pizzas, tuxedo rental, burger flipping, bell hop, traveling singer, landscape maintenance (a/k/a lawn mowing!), and the all important corn de-tassling (all the Midwesterners know what I’m talking about). Honestly, I was often quite embarrassed by what I perceived as my “lowly position” in the food chain.

One summer in Abilene, Texas, when I was a poor, starving college student I took the only job I could find. TELEMARKETING. I was one of those guys that calls during dinner and won’t hang up because you NEED to be excited that you just qualified for a possible vacation to an undisclosed location for sometime in the future...this lasted three days. Then, I decided I’d rather starve than to go through anymore torture. My price was low, but not that low!

The next summer my friend Elizabeth gave me a book called The Blessing by Gary Smalley and John Trent. She wrote this in the flap, “...I just want you to know that even though I don’t always act like it, I love you more than you’ll ever know and I would do anything for you. Even have you as one of my bridesmaids!” As I read The Blessing that summer—my life was changed forever. I discovered for the first time something that I had been taught in Sunday School but never digested fully. GOD loves me completely and accepts me just the way I am. It helped me see how GOD’s love was being poured out on me in the form of family and friends like Elizabeth. At the age of 22, I was humbled and honored to be a loved child of the Father for the first time.

By the way, I’m happy to report that I was the minister at Elizabeth’s wedding 12 years ago today—not a bridesmaid!!!


Jim Bales