Recently I was going through some of the things that my dad left behind after his passing a few years ago. I came across his resume and read through it.
My dad, who had been a minister for over 40 years and had served as pastor at several churches in Georgia and North Carolina, came to a point where he was forced to find employment after the church organization, he had been so loyal to turn its back on him and forced him out.
The leadership did not have his back. Am I still bitter about that? Heck yeah.
When I was reading the resume, he had put together, I read the part on his resume where he described his time being a pastor. The one thing that really jumped out to me was where he had noted that during that time, he had only missed church two times - once when his father passed and once when his mother had passed.
That seemed very sad to me. What’s even sadder was as I sat next to his bedside during his final days that he looked over at me with tears in his eyes and said, “I’m sorry that I didn’t spend more time with you and your mother.”
We should take a moment and think about our priorities.
What is it that is truly important to us today? I don't mean the things we SAY are our priorities, but what do our actions show what our priorities are?
I don’t regret my dad’s loyalty to being a minister and caring for the church, but it needed to be more balanced. We never had a vacation growing up. Everything was about the church. Our lives was the church. Someone made a comment that I had grown up in a "Godly" home, but the truth was that I grew up in a "church" home.
We can’t make other things - even if they are good things - to be the main thing. Our church, our jobs or our bank account are not the main things. I don’t want to wait until my last breath to realize I was wrong about where I had placed my priorities.
So many people put their main focus on their jobs. I know I have been guilty of doing that myself. I spent over 30 years working for the Department of Justice and providing technical support for attorneys in federal court. I built a solid reputation during that time. With all of that experience and reputation, you think that you can't be replaced. When I retired do you know what happened? They hired someone else to replace me and they moved on.
It doesn’t matter how much we have sacrificed for our jobs. Don’t make sacrifices for the wrong people or the wrong reasons. Our jobs are important, and we should have some integrity in doing them. Unfortunately, the bills have to be paid but aside from the job, let's not forget to live our lives.
In the end, my dad missed the time he could have had with me and mom. He didn't regret that he had preached more sermons or worked other jobs. Those things weren't important in the end. I don't want to get there in my own life and regret my priorities.
