Well it
looks as though my professional career is coming full circle. Six years ago I
started working for Eaton Corporation in their electrical division, moved to
the fluid power division, then took a job with another company called Cooper.
Last week while your mother and I celebrated 7 years of marriage in Kauai I
found out that Eaton was acquiring Cooper. In a few months I will be back to
where I started, though in a different role, if they keep me around.
This whole thing has got me
thinking about my professional life, what I want to do, where I want to do it,
and what the purpose of it all is. I like to make money, I look to find ways to
make more money, starting a business, investments, getting promotions, I spend
my time thinking about it, striving for it. Yet it doesn’t make me any happier,
I guess I feel more respected by others, more secure knowing that we have
financial reserves and I don’t have to stress myself out about paying bills,
but not an increase of happiness or peace. I like to travel, spoil your mother,
and you, and buy myself the occasional novelty. None of that leads to lasting
fulfillment, just temporary highs. I guess I like to spend the most on travel,
since those memories I can carry with me forever and the experiences bond you
to the people you share them with.
All of that rambling to say
this. I don’t know how much I should sacrifice to gain something that may not
be worth the gaining. We are conditioned in almost every country to look upon
wealth as the ultimate goal, that those who have it are better, happier, and
sexier than the rest of us. I think that view is the same as any stereotype,
that is to say, false. There is a large part of me that wants to drive a nice
car, live in a massive house, take lavish vacations and buy clothes that cost
400% more than they should, all so that I feel, and that others think, that I
am important, special, worthy of respect and a possessor of power over this
world. If I accomplish it all, I will die the same death as the poorest of the
poor, the same darkness, the same ultimate end, just a different journey to the
same destination. Though we cannot ask, I doubt someone with billions of
dollars feels any more at peace with death in the final moment than someone
with one dollar.
So what is your father to do? I
imagine taking a small 9 to 5 job somewhere in a beautiful location, working
with my hands and coming home to your mother and you every night. I imagine
owning a small business that will never make me rich or envied, but will leave
me peaceful and content. I also imagine sending you to college, having a
vacation home for us, continually challenging myself in my career and allowing
us to see the world. My dreams clash with one another and I struggle to know
which is wiser. In the end I know God will direct my steps as surely as he has
thus far in my life. When I was young, and even starting college the life I
live now and the career I have had was completely unknown to me, life just
happens as you prepare for it.
I am telling you about all these
things to share my heart, so you know what your father struggles with. I want
to be a good man, a good husband, and a good father. I think finances play a
part in each of those roles. I don’t just want to “put bread on the table” I
want to surround that table with a nice house in a good neighborhood, and make
sure we see the world outside our door. I want to use the talents God has given
me to provide for the church as well as for my family, so that my earthy gains
can have a lasting impact in the lives of others, which is why your mother and
I tithe and why we went to Africa, and why someday we will take you back.
I will tell you this right now,
in any life there is a measure of success and failure. There are those who make
very little, but live great lives, and there are those who have more than can
be imagined who are mired in misery. I will love you no matter what your
financial success is in life; my only concern is that you have a purpose.
One great thing about any
failures I face is that your mother and you are there for me. My two beautiful
ladies. At the end of the day no matter the job I do, the stress in my career,
I will always have the two of you. You can be certain that the reverse will
also always be true.
