Take This Job and Love It Sample

DAY ONE 

TAKE THIS JOB... AND SHOVE IT 

I grew up on a cattle ranch in Eastern Oklahoma where working was just part of the deal, regardless of your age.  To this day I still have vivid memories of ten-year-old me cleaning stalls, busting bales, and feeding steers with my stepdad, the manager of the ranch.   

When we fed the cattle, I was the gate opener-and closer.  We’d feed a herd in one pasture then head through another gate to another pasture to feed the next herd.  Twenty or so gates and herds later we were done.  Sunshine or blizzard, three-hundred-and-sixty-five days a year the cattle had to be fed.  

It was a monotonous job.  We were glad we had KEBC (Keep Everybody Country) playing in the truck to liven things up some.      

One song, I recall, to which we always turned up the volume was a song by Johnny Paycheck titled, Take This Job and Shove It.  Many of you are singing it in your head right now:  Take this job and shove it... I ain’t workin’ here no more.  

The song was funny to us but also somewhat poignant.  In so many ways, my stepdad yearned to tell the owner of the ranch to shove it.  He eventually did, in a gracious sort of way, and over time became very successful in the oil and gas business.  I’m so proud and thankful to him for stepping out in faith—at the right time—and pursuing something that he felt led to do. 

Fast forward fifteen years.  I too felt called and led to chase a dream.  So I dropped out of my third year of law school and made the move six-hundred miles east to Nashville, Tennesse, where dreamers like me went to become country music stars. 

After a couple of years of knocking on doors on Music Row, I finally caught a break, landing a writing and recording deal.   

I was finally doing exactly what I had always dreamed of, something I believe I was gifted by God to do.  And would you believe it?  I even opened up a couple of shows for Johnny Paycheck himself and sang along backstage as he rendered his classic hit Take This Job and Shove It.  I was living my dream... or was I? 

Back then, my circumstances were somewhat ideal in about every way, especially my job.  I was doing exactly what I wanted to do.  But in hindsight, I’m not so sure I enjoyed it as I should have.  I was too busy chasing the next better thing than to live in the moment.  To put it in spiritual terms:  I was too busy to give God all the glory.  In my mind, giving God the glory would come later... after I'd made it big. 

Scripture tells us whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.  I might have worked at my job back then with all of my energy, but not as if I was working for my Creator.  In all honesty, I worked for the approval of others, not God. 

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:  

I will delight myself in You and only You, Lord.  Thank you for giving me today.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen