Ace-Of-All-Trades: How Working in Hardware Allows For Humility

With working at any job, you know you are going to have slow days or busy days.  Today fell under the category of the latter.  At my current job, I am full-time doing anything you can think of in the store.  Cutting keys, mixing paint, or building grills, everyone who works has to be trained in pretty much all types of fields when dealing with hardware.  Even after you are trained to know the basics, there is still so much left to learn, and the job continues to be fluid and changing. So, in essence, you are never finished learning.

During my shift, a couple came in wanting to buy a wooden bench they saw outside.  They were unable to take it home that day, so I gladly volunteered to take it to the back and disassemble it for them.  That way, they could pick it up tomorrow without any trouble.  I wrote down their contact info and lifted the bench to the stockroom to begin my work.

Always, when doing long projects or assignments, I would go into a sort of “automatic mode” and let my mind drift.  This way, I would be able to concentrate on my work while having the opportunity to focus on other ideas or to simply daydream, passing the time away.  My mind wandered for the next couple minutes, on nothing particular at first.  Then my mind drifted to the thought that, while I was doing such a simple task, it had a lot more meaning than I first thought.

Jesus, when he would teach, would use parables as a direct way of making his point.  They, as Loyola  Press states, “are a Jewish style of storytelling…drawn from ordinary life”.  In the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is a perfect example of humility, as Jesus states in Luke 18:14 that “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted”.

Thinking of how that passage from Luke’s Gospel can help someone understand the importance of their job, whatever it may be. You may not have the most appealing job or you may be working the most amazing career to ever be created, but you must always consider the same thing: you are still human.  As a human, we tend to think down about jobs we consider “below us” or “demeaning”.  What we must remember, however, is that you are changing someone’s life.  Remember that, while you are working to keep a roof over your head or provide for your family, you should always have respect for all who work.