Good Sunday morning! Good 0300 on Sunday morning... Some mornings I just have to get up and write down what is going on in my head. Yes, as you have probably guessed, I had another of those dreams that just won't go easily into that forgetfulness that usually comes with our dreams. The dream involved rank and position - both of which I enjoyed to some degree in the organizations that employed me. In Christ we only have our value to Him. Today, dum da dum dummm...
Without Rank or Position
In this life we are presented with our rank in relation to each other from an early age. As children we learn to obey our parents and teachers; as students we start out at the lowest rank - kindergartners or 1st graders and move up to our senior year in high school. Some of us then start over as freshmen in college. Somehow the feminists have left alone insisting on "freshwomen" as one of those politically correct things; not sure why. :-) We continue from high school or college to our first employer and are met with rank once more. If we join the military, rank becomes so important that it becomes part of our name, even preceding it. I became Corporal Buckle officially, first names didn't even count. Only among my friends could I use my informal nickname. Introductions, especially to the higher ranking officers, did not include such things as nicknames and first names unless specifically asked for. Can you imagine meeting a general with, "Hiya, Jim! I'm Bucky. How ya' doin?" Probably wouldn't have worked out very well.
The rank of general is a good place to start on position as well. A general is one of the more recognized ranks in the military, mostly because no one cares what a lieutenant or private has to say. A general has a certain amount of authority from his rank, and then more (or possibly less) authority from his billet or position. In other words a major general (two stars) has authority over every soldier or marine from one star on down the ranks because of his superior rank, but may also gain more authority as the commanding officer of a division. A general of the same rank might be the assistant commanding officer or a staff officer and would then come under the authority of the commanding officer due to his position even though both men are the same rank. Confusing? We then get into seniority, or how long a person might hold the rank in relation to the other fellow... You get the point. In military and in civilian life we have a thing about where we rank in relation to our fellow men and women.
The larger the company, the more like the military the ranking and position structure become in our lives. I held both hourly and salaried positions in Cabela's, where those positions also equated to exempt and non-exempt - as in exempt from being paid overtime for work over 40 hours per week. We tend to equate salaried with exempt, but a person can fall into an hourly position without overtime pay, or though its less common, be a salaried person who earns overtime pay as well. As Cabela's grew into a larger private company and then a small public corporation, rank and position became more important to me as it did with most everyone else. I know it became important to the executives because we watched as they all promoted themselves into the new organizational structure. :-) What is important in this is how much I tied my own perceived value into my current or potential rank or position (title) in whatever organization I was employed with at any given time.
Admit it; you've fallen into this trap too. We look at where we are in an organization relative to the top and bottom rungs of the ladder and judge our worth accordingly. If you haven't looked at this from the outside, where I am now, you probably haven't realized just how badly it affects your life. Outside of work you might be uncomfortable hanging out with your boss, and downright stiff when around the boss's boss. While at work you might even have to use "sir" or "ma'am" though that has become rare these days outside of the military. If we don't judge by rank and position, we fall into judging based on their house, car, boat, clothes, and many other status symbols. We have a desire to know where we stand in this world in relation to our fellow humans. Does all of that matter?
We might ask what Jesus had to say about this. His disciples wanted to know: they asked who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. In another case a mother came to Jesus and asked that her sons be given spots on Jesus' left and right. We might laugh a little when thinking that Jesus' next position would be on the center of three crosses, but the dear lady didn't know that at the time. Like us, the disciples wanted to know their rank. Jesus turned everything upside down when it comes to rank and position. He told us that the least now would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, and that those who seek to be the leaders now should serve everyone else. This must have raised some eyebrows even among the disciples; and can you imagine putting that suggestion to the generals, CEO's, senators and other leaders now? Try to imagine your senator coming to town and serving the folks on the street. Oh, we know about the publicity stunts where the politician serves burgers at the fair, or ladles out soup in the soup kitchen. Jesus didn't say to do it for an afternoon; He said take up service for your life's work if you want to be the leader.
If we don't gain value from our rank, title, or position here on Earth, where do we gain value from? Our value must not come from anything we can say or do; when Jesus died on the cross, those of us alive today hadn't said or done anything yet. When Jesus died for us we had no body or name to rank or relate to anyone else. The Bible tells us that all of our good accomplishments are as dirty rags and all or our sins are even worse! So if we have no value from things we've done or said, rank or position, or our own perceived value; where does our value come from? Jesus must have simply loved us for the value He put into us at creation. When He died for us, we only existed in the mind of God. You, me, Bubba down the street, and your mother-in-law, did not exist at the time Jesus went to Calvary to save us. We know that the Son of God would not sacrifice himself for nothing - God doesn't do things for no reason like some of us do from time to time. Jesus reminded us of our value to the father by comparing our value to sparrows and lilies - and not in a belittling manner. His statement in one version began with "How much more..." as in, we are far more valuable than sparrows and lilies to the Father in Heaven.
Some of our perceived value comes from inclusion in a group. Jesus included us in the most important group of all, the eternal life group, when we believed in Him to save us. The inclusion thing brings me to that goofy dream I had. I can hear your groans of relief that we finally got back to this dream of mine. (Groans of relief?) The dream began with someone from the old gang picking me up to go hear an offer to return to my former employer (inclusion). As with most dreams, it was never clear who this person was. However, the meeting was in someones home. When we arrived, he went into the meeting and I went to the house next door (exclusion). I met an old man sitting in a chair at the front door who made a mashed-up quote that sounded like old literature and I tried to show off my knowledge by saying it was from such-and-such book. (My dream mind must not remember quotes any better than I do while awake.) The time came for me to go to this meeting and I went to the other house to find an old friend and his wife sitting at their table (inclusion). The friend said something like "I won't even say what they're going to offer..." Leading me to believe that it wouldn't be a windfall. Someone else said they were going to offer me "PFC" or E-2 (inclusion, but with humiliation). Yes, the military rank and pay grade, thus showing that my dreams make even less sense than I do. I remember storming into the next room ready to unleash imagined fury only to have the dream end without me finding the authority figure responsible for this supposed offer (exclusion once more).
So, I wake up in the middle of the night angry from a silly dream; and I have to wonder just how far this rank thing has got ingrained into my mind. I also felt excluded in the end since there was no target to unleash my fury upon in this dream world, and apparently no real "offer" at all. The humiliation part makes more sense when you realize that all the worst (gross, demeaning, no one else wanted to do them) tasks fell to the PFC rank in the military. In thinking about this dream, it seemed to offer a choice: the world I had come from before my termination last year, or the new life that Christ offers. Whereas the "offer" of going back had me in a fury, the literature character of the old man made me feel good. The character had no name, but this was a person that we all would like. In the dream, I recall laughing with him and leaning on him in a friendly, loving way - like we did with our grandfathers as children. The choice, go forward or try to go back, doesn't seem so difficult when put in those terms.
I have no rank or position in an earthly organization at this time, and I find that just peachy. Christ has granted me the freedom to serve you each morning. When I think back to the old life, I might have been awakened at 0230 to respond to some problem on the network. I would get up angry from having been awakened, been made even more angry if the problem was one that could have waited for daylight, and then would have faced the day sleep-deprived and upset. Today, I wake up angry from a dream, but know immediately that I must get up and write all this down to share with others. Back in the day, I only got up willingly to work on something when faced with the choice of getting up early or staying up late - not much of a choice really. Today, it's now past five in the morning and I am glad to get up and share this writing with you. I would share some coffee too, but I'm going to go grab the last cup. Have a great Sunday in Christ Jesus!
You get two sermons today, congrats!
Bucky
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