Concerning Vacation

Allow me to present "Concerning Vacations" from The Parables of Safed the Sage. 1917 by William E. Barton.

NOW I dwelt in a city and the labor of the weeks was heavy, so it came to pass as summer approached, that every year I went on a Vacation. And ofttimes I rode upon a stage in the hills of Vermont, the Driver whereof was a man of experience. And he spake to me ofttimes, and every year this was the burden of his complaint :

Behold, thou comest here again on thy vacation, being a man who toilest not, nor spinnest, nor gatherest into barns, and the greater part of those who ride on my stage in the good old summer time come likewise; but I drive this condemned old stage year in and year out, wet or dry, hot or cold, and for forty years i have had no vacation.

Now when I had heard this many times, I wrote to the Manager of the Stage Route, saying:  Behold this driver of thy company hath served long, and hath never had a vacation; give him two weeks, that he may have a vacation like unto the rest of mankind.

And they did as I made request of them; and they sent another driver to drive the stage for two weeks, that he might have a vacation.

and the next summer as I came that way, I asked him concerning his vacation, and where and how he had spent it.  And he relieved himself of a burden he had been carrying, namely, a mouthful of tobacco juice, and thus, he made answer:

The first day, being Monday, I rode with the new driver to show him the road; and because he was slow to learn I rode with him also on Tuesday. And on Wednesday I feared lest the bay mare should have cast a shoe, and I rode with him again, and stopped at the blacksmith shop in the place midway, for there dwelleth the only smith who knoweth how to shoe horses as they ought to be shod. And on Thursday Widow Skiles was going to town, and I knew her trunk must go, and I feared lest that substitute driver should have forgotten it. And on Friday it looked as if it would rain, and was no kind of day for a man to be starting on his vacation, so I rode on the stage that day also. And on Saturday it did rain, and was no kind of day for a man to be sitting around inside the house with nothing to do, so I rode again that day. And on Monday there were a lot of city folks who had been out in the hills for the week-end, going back to the city, and some of them were a leetle mite p'tic'lar, and I thought I might as well go long, and see them git on the train. And Tuesday I realized that the time was more'n half gone, and a feller couldn't do nothing in one week nohow, so I just con-tinnered to ride on the stage with the substitute driver, and show him how. And by the end of the second week he was a pretty good driver, and if I could have had a vacation then, I could have trusted him to run the stage. Thus spake to me the driver, who had always complained that he had never had a vacation.

And I meditated much concerning what he had said to me.

And I said, 0 my God, let me not be one of those who constantly complain of the blessings they do not have, and who would not know what to do with them if they had them.

The Power of Change...

I think I was in high school the first time I heard the quote.  It’s often attributed to the formally named John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton.  Acton didn’t invent the idea though, he just happened to be the guy who articulated it in what would become its most popular form. 

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Of course as with all popular quotes, it wasn’t long before others were inventing spin-off quotes.  One of my favourites is attributed to a guy named Orrin.  Orrin’s response to Acton was, “Absolute power doesn’t corrupt, rather it reveals character.”  We would all sin more had we more means and opportunity.  Having more power gives us that additional means and opportunity.  It is why leaders of populist movements often become tyrants when they come to power… suddenly they have the means and the opportunity to become what they have always been (I think this is part of what the writer of Proverbs 30:8-9 was getting at).

I’m an ideas guy.  For me when I step into a new leadership role one of the first things I do is explain, “I’m going to be doing some things differently.  I’m going to try new ideas.  Some of them will work and some of them won’t.”  For me, power creates the opportunity to affect change.

Generally religious people love change… so long as they don’t have to change.  People love new leadership… so long as the leader leads in the direction that they want to go… or worse, so long as the leader has no intention of leading anywhere.

Jeremiah was proven prophet of God.  Everything he had prophesied in the name of the LORD came to pass.  So it’s not surprising that the people who had just experienced the brutality of Babylon, the destruction of their city and temple, the murder and captivity of their friends, families and countrymen would come to Jeremiah and say, “What now?  What do we do now?  Lead us!  Whatever you say God wants us to do we will obey!” See Jeremiah 42.

It is my contention that it is not power that corrupts so much as it is the lust for power.  It is also true that many a good leader has been accused of being corrupt simply because the people they were trying to lead did not want to be led.  It seems an almost universal and eternal truth that as soon as a leader identifies a direction, there will always be a contingent that will not want to go. “Lead us! Lead us!” they say… until you try…

Read Jeremiah 43… 

Just sayin’

Forgiveness

The small rural village of Idlesborough was blessed with the gift of two excellent bakers. 

The word was they had grown up together but had suffered a falling out in their teen years and become sworn enemies.  Both had developed a passion for baking, gone abroad to develop world class skills and returned home in the same year to start a bakery. 

The fact that they both wanted to start a bakery in the same town only furthered their hatred of each other.  They raced to set up set up their shop each before the other but as it turned out they opened on the same day.  Both first class bakers who, in the years that followed, kept the town more than satisfied with first rate pies and pastries, cakes and cookies, breads and buns, cupcakes and confections… you name it.

One day, so the story goes, God sent an angel to one of the bakers (Nadim was his name) with an offer, that at first, seemed too good to be true.

“Nadim,” the angel said, next week at this time I will return and give to you whatsoever you wish!”

“Anything?” Nadim asked.

“Anything.”  the angel replied.

Nadim could hardly breathe so great was his excitement and he spent several minutes lost in a fantasy world before he realized the angel still stood beside his rack of cooling pies.

“…and?”  Nadim hesitantly asked

“And,” the angel continued, “whatever you request will be doubled and given to your enemy.”

“Wait!  So if I ask for $1 million he gets two and if I ask for $10 million he gets twenty?”  Nadim asked slowly turning red with rage while shaking his finger towards the bakery across the way.

“Yes but you get the desire of your heart do you not?”  the angel replied.

Nadim spent the week in a frustrated tumble of emotions.  One moment he was ecstatic beyond words imagining what he might ask for… the next he would sink into a deep depression imagining what would be given to his sworn enemy…

When the angel returned the following week Nadim looked like a wreck.  He had hardly slept, he couldn’t focus at work and was often seem shouting through the window even when no one else was in the room.

They sat and stared at each other across the kitchen for what seemed like eternity.  The angel waiting, Nadim still fighting within himself.

Finally, with a look that belied an ancient evil he said, “make me blind in one eye and deaf in one ear.  Make my left hand useless and my right leg lame.  Make me a halfwit.”

The story is actually about forgiveness.