Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Above My Pay Grade

Above My Pay Grade

Last updated on: October 18, 2019 at 12:15 am by Scot McKnight

Above My Pay Grade 2019-10-17T12:16:20-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Mike Glenn

One summer, I worked for a local bottling company. Every day, I would show up and wait for the machine operator to start cranking out two-liter bottles of America’s favorite soft drinks. Bottle after bottle, case after case, truck load after truck load ran onto a circling stainless-steel platform waiting for me to grab them, stuff them in a box, stack the boxes onto a pallet and wave for the fork lift driver to come and take the full pallet away. I stacked a lot of boxes in shifts that lasted anywhere from eight to twelve hours a day, six days a week.

America, at least my little part of it, drank a lot of soft drinks.

I worked with a long-time employee named Lionel. Lionel was a tall, strong man who handled cases of two-liter soft drinks with one hand. He was quiet, and he showed up and worked hard every day. Lionel had a simple philosophy of life. Take care of your business and stay out of everybody else’s business. If you asked about the latest gossip, he would shake his head and say he hadn’t heard anything about whatever you were talking about, and because it wasn’t his business, he wouldn’t be listening.

Me, on the other hand, I was a talkative young man. I wanted to know about everything. Did you know the formula to the soft drink? How many bottles a day could we put out? How many cases could we stack one on top of the other before they fell over?

Most of the time, my questions and musings would be met by Lionel’s smirk and a simple, “Shut up, college boy, and get back to work”.

Other times, he would shrug his shoulders and say, “that’s above my pay grade” and he wouldn’t say anything else except, “get back to work”. Everything, it seemed, was above Lionel’s pay grade, and if it was above his pay grade, he didn’t worry about it. In fact, he didn’t give anything that was above his pay grade a second thought. For him, there was his family, his neighborhood (he had lived there since he was a boy), his church (he loved his bishop) and the product on the pallet in front of us.

That was it. Everything else was above his pay grade.

I think of Lionel from time to time, and I marvel at how long it’s taken to me to learn Lionel’s simple philosophy of a good life.

You see, that talkative young college student has never lost his curiosity about finding the ingredients to secret formulas, and how high things can be stacked before they fall over. I wonder why there is so much evil in the world and why children get sick. I want to know why some people seem to get away with some stupid decisions while others spend the rest of their lives paying for them.

I want to know what makes life worth living and what things are like when you die. I want to know a lot of things…

…and every one of them are above my pay grade.

I’m not the only person who asks questions above their pay grade. Once, Peter wanted to know what was going to happen to John and Jesus said, in so many words, “That’s above your pay grade. Now, get back to work”. That, of course, is my very loose Southern translation, but it captures the gist of Jesus’ conversation with Peter.

And it captures a lot of Jesus’ conversations with me. “That’s above your pay grade. Now, get back to work”.

While I’m pondering the existence of evil, I overlook the wounded person right in front of me. What’s more evil – the dark power that caused the wound or the casual darkness that keeps me from seeing the wounded person?

While I’m pondering the causes of world hunger, why don’t I feed the hungry who live in my own neighborhood?

Sometimes, I think we hide behind these unsolved mysteries to keep us from engaging in the real opportunities of ministry right in front of us. Why? Because talking about the great questions is a lot easier than dealing with real people in real community.

We can talk about humanity’s inhumanity.

We can blame the Republicans.

We can blame the Democrats.

And we can go home feeling justified by the intense discussions we’ve had. If you talk long enough and passionately enough, it almost feels like work. Yet, nothing really changed.

But as Lionel would remind me, there’s a pallet to fill right in front of me. There are cases to fill and trucks to load. That’s what I was hired to do. Everything else is above my pay grade.

There are lost people who need to be brought home.

There are wounded people to be bandaged.

There are angry people to be heard.

There are those who’ve been abandoned to be rescued.

That’s what I was called to do. That’s what you were called to do. Everything else is above our pay grade.

For whatever reason, Christ has trusted me with this little part of His world. That’s all. So, it’s back to work.

We’ll just have to learn to trust Jesus with everything that’s about our pay grade.

And everything else is above our pay grade.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 17, 2019

Lines and Circles? (RJS)

Next Post

October 19, 2019 Weekly Meanderings, 19 October 2019

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus use to heal blind man?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Water Oil Mud and saliva Cloth