He Started by Digging Sewer Trenches by Hand

"He learned the business of plumbing and heating/cooling the hard way, he started by digging sewer trenches by hand." Those were the words the family of Gene Gray used in fondly remembering their husband and father as we, together, prepared to celebrate, his life. Those words caught me and held my attention for a long, long time in the simple truth they conveyed: Gene never thought himself 'entitled' to anything and was willing to work for everything.

It is the mindset of, as Tom Brokaw names it, "The Greatest Generation". Nothing is ours to claim or own just because we live somewhere, have a particular color of skin, have certain birth parents, or belong to a particular religious group. We are all members of the human family, equal inheritors of God's grace and vision, and each have the responsibility to work hard enough and for the benefit of the whole, so as to leave the world in better shape than when we came into it. Certainly, being born in the United States is, in and of itself, a huge gift, even for the generation who lived through the Depression and WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, and the whole host of other wars and police actions which are now a part of our collective history. Yet, I am reminded, neither is it a guarantee. In some places, in some peoples, there are those who wait, still, for that 'benefit' to kick in, banking on their entitlement check to save them from themselves.

Not for Gene. He learned the trade on the handle of a tile spade digging sewer lines, long before all the new fangled machinery there is today ever was available to the small local contractors. Gene worked, and by his work, a little luck, a lot of humor, and even more faith, he accomplished a living which provided that his children would be able to go to school, to college, get their degrees, and find jobs that would put them in the position of never having to dig sewer ditches again, unless they chose to dig those ditches. And, while he worked, he read and he wrote. Gene could quote Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant and Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. He was well acquainted with the work of Edgar Allen Poe and equally versed in the books of the Bible. He was a well-skilled sheet metal worker by day and an accomplished author in his own right in his spare time. He built five homes, including 'well-cussed cabinets', and established his family in the midst of a growing community. He savored his service in the Army in Korea and his friendships with those he met in the coffee shops . . . and it all found meaning in the handle of a shovel digging sewer lines to learn a vocation.

One might argue that today's generation, X, O, or whatever it is currently being called by the experts, might be well served starting their lives from a similar place. There is something about shaking hands with those whose calloused fingers rub coarsely across your own, yet, like Gene, their hard work and diligence was so others after them wouldn't have to work as hard. Still, in the work is value. In the value, lessons. In the lessons, humility. In the humility, community. Maybe that is why Jesus calls us to be servants to others, not the ones expecting to be served. He understood the lessons of having dirt under your fingernails and sore arms from carpentry work lingering long into the night after the project was done: it reminds you of how precious the work is and how important each step is along the way that none of them need be repeated because they weren't done well in the first place. Hmmmmmm.

It is certainly something to ponder as we listen to the voices of the current age tell us how much they deserve from the government, and how much they deserve from the school systems, and how much they deserve to be in management, and how much they deserve shorter hours of work, and how much they deserve higher levels of pay, and how much they are undervalued by big business, and how much they are oppressed by . . . . well, you get the idea. Maybe, there is one more lesson 'the life being celebrated' has to teach along the way: Everything, even hard work, is a gift. The value of the gift is the heart of the Giver, all we need do is use it and we will learn its power.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don