Reflection during the Christmas season is inevitable, however cliché. And as I sat pondering about the events of the past year, I saw a mix of salty and sweet.
Since Christmas 2012 our family grew by not one, but two (Landon and Adam) and that is mighty sweet. But also since Christmas 2012, through a series of unfortunate events, I lost my job of three years.
Yes, the Lord has faithfully provided new opportunities, but it’s still often my inclination to say “SCREW CORPORATE AMERICA!” (Obviously, oozing the joy of Christmas spirit…)
But then this morning, as I got into my warm car to leave for work at my new job, I let out a sigh and said “To Dentsply – the founder of the feast.”
In case you don’t know this cultural (and seasonally appropriate) reference, allow me to explain. In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit (most popularly portrayed by the talented, Kermit the frog) sits down to Christmas dinner in his small home. To the shock of his family, he famously raises his glass and toasts “I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast!” Despite Mr. Scrooge’s scrooginess, Bob Cratchit’s thankfulness overflows for the provision of his employer.
So this is my renewed perspective for the path my life has taken in the past three months. Dentsply afforded me many opportunities, including references that helped secure mycurrent job and a salary ample enough to help me pay off acar. More than that, my three years at my first job out of college gave me some life insight.
Here are some things that my first job taught me:
To love everyone.
On a daily basis at Dentsply I interacted with everyone from a single-mom-production-worker, making minimum wage, to a high-back-chair-executive-with-two-PHDs, making more money than 99% of the world. This interaction taught me to love them and everyone in between for exactly where they are.
It taught me that character is not commensurate witheducation. And kindness certainly does not come with pay.
People are good.
This is something I knew, lost, and then was refreshed at the end of my tenure. You could throw lots of scripture at me to prove that we are all rotten from the start and there is nothing good that lives in any of us because of our sinful nature; man is fallen; the world is broken without being reconciled to Christ. Yes, I get it. But I believe people are good. And for that, my naivety has caused me suffering when people don’t always do the right thing. Nonetheless, I saw people—Christian or not—taking care of each other, vouching for each other, and loving each other unprecedentedly.
When grabbing my coffee in the cafeteria, I could joke and show off my natural sass. But in the board room, I could be reserved, only speaking when spoken to. There’s a time and place for every part of who I am and that’s okay.
You can get through even the roughest days with enough black coffee, Avett Brothers albums, and people who know you need some love.
2013 brought many new things, some good and some not-so-good and quite honestly, I am ready for it to be over. My sincerest hope for 2014 is that I carry these things with me: into shifting jobs, shifting relationships, and shifting faith.
