Good Job

Some time ago, there was a document that got faxed around, from office to office (back before the internet) showing Charlie Brown, with an added caption that was very un-Schulz-like, “Doing a good job around here is like wetting your pants in a dark suit. It gives you a warm feeling, but nobody really notices.” It is, to say the least, an interesting sentiment. I think that it mostly just shows that there are a lot of people that don’t feel appreciated. Of course, a lot of us aren’t really good at showing appreciation (myself included). I suspect that sometimes people are more appreciated than they realize, it’s just that the boss, the spouse, the kids, the neighbors, whatever, aren’t as good at showing appreciation as they should be.

I wonder sometimes how God feels about it. There is a story in the gospels that Jesus healed ten lepers. Imagine that, for a minute: Ten men, who, because of a disease, were made social outcasts. These men were not allowed to stay with their families, or anyone else that didn’t have the same disease. They couldn’t work; they were reduced to begging for the charity of others. There was no “Lepers Hunger Fund” in those days, whatever charity they got was on a one-on-one basis. Jesus comes across these men, and He tells them to go show themselves to the priests. As they went on their way, they were healed. One of them returned to thank Jesus. One of the ten. Jesus asked the question, “Where are the nine?” He knew, of course; He just wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss the point. Most of us don’t bother to thank God for what He has given us.

Can you imagine being cured of leprosy, and not thanking God for it? What if you were healed of cancer? What about those of us that have never had cancer? Shouldn’t we thank God for our good health? On the other hand, some of us have real health problems, but still finds ways to contribute. Let’s face it, if you have a means of thanking God, then you should be thanking God for that. If all you can do is thank God, then thank God.

Now, let’s take this the other way. If you are doing your best for God, do you think He doesn’t notice? He may not (in fact, probably will not) pat you on the head on a daily basis and tell you what a good job you’re doing, but He knows. It may seem a little unfair sometimes… Let’s be honest about this, life in general seems unfair almost all the time. Remember the workers in the field? The ones that were hired early in the day were promised a penny, the ones hired later in the day were also promised a penny, and the ones hired for the last hour of the day were also promised a penny. Is it fair that each worker got paid the same, when some of them clearly did more work? Would it be fair to the ones who were hired at the end of the day to pay them less than what they were promised? Would it be fair to pay the men hired in the morning more than what they agreed to work for that morning? The point is, God gives out His rewards at the end of life. He is going to give us more than we deserve, anyway, so it doesn’t make sense to sit and complain that someone else got more than we think they should have: They got what God thought they should get, and we got more than we should have, so what right do we have to complain about what someone else got?