Just Call Me Baruch

     Our pastor's message this morning came, in part, from Jeremiah 45.  Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch, had hoped for greater success and a loftier role in life.  God's plan for Baruch was somewhat different.  God reassured Baruch that He would protect and provide for him.
     This particular message was one I desperately needed to hear.  When we decided to become small business owners in 2002, we were sure that if we could get through those tough first years, we were going to explode with success and become the premier general contractors in our market.  After all, I am a very good accountant and business person.  I have had all the management training, continuing education and professional experience to really perform that side of the business.  Mike and our business partner Roger (and his wife, Debi) are outstanding master carpenters, true craftsmen with decades of experience and sterling personal reputations in the trade.  Most of all, we were, and are, committed to the highest business ethics.  We will do it right or not at all.  In theory, the very best of business plans.  Reality has been very different.  We have not wavered from our original plan.  We give our very best effort, bid fairly, pay our vendors timely and treat our employees with dignity.  Yet, we continue after 11 years to make just a modest living, most years happy to break even.  Our service trucks have more than 200,000 miles each on them and we patch up tools and equipment to get through one more job.  We repeatedly comb through every facet of our business to figure out where we are missing our big break.  Is it our overhead calculation?  Is it our labor hours per task?  Is it taxes and regulation?  I have even gone back to full time work outside of our company to try to ease the financial burden.  Why, God, are we not successful?
     Pastor's message this morning made it clear to me that I am worrying about my standard of success, measured in dollars.  God measures success by whether or not we are doing our part in His plan.  God has provided for us.  We have a comfortable home.  We have never been hungry or without heat or lights.  Somehow, when a vehicle needs repair or one of us needs medical care, we have been able to meet that need.  We have funded the education of our children and even been able to take a modest family vacation every year.  So, if we have the blessing of God's provision, does that mean that whatever we are doing is part of His plan?  What are we doing?
     We, as fallen humans, can't comprehend even a speck of what God has planned for the universe into infinity.  He already has everything worked out.  Why do we feel compelled to keep the business going and not seek more profitable ventures?  What are we doing with this business that fulfills us in a way that money can't?  After reflecting all day, the only thing I can come up with is the role we play in our industry in training apprentices.  As a small company, we don't specialize.  We take pretty much any work we can get.  We frame, roof, side, insulate, drywall, restore and remodel.  We do residential work and commercial work.  We have worked as a subcontractor on huge multi-million dollar projects and as a general contractor on remodeling office space.  Because of the diversity of work we perform, the administrators of the union apprenticeship program love to send apprentices to us for their work experience.  These young people work side by side with Mike and Roger learning the construction trade.  Being small, we can't afford to pay them to sit and watch or push a broom.  It is an established fact in our market that the apprentices trained by us have a higher success rate, measured by completion of the program and continued employment, than apprentices who have not worked with us.  Other employers seek out the apprentices who have been trained by us.  If we were big and financially successful, it is unlikely that we would be able to give these apprentices the level of training that they currently get working with us.  When I think about it, how amazing is it that we have a hand in teaching people skills that they use to provide for their families?  Who knows what God has planned!  Maybe one of the young people who worked with us will fund the education of his child who will grow up to be a great president or find a cure for cancer.  We will likely never know, but that's ok, because God knows.
     Baruch may not have been well known or considered a success in his day, but we know him today, thousands of years later, because of his role in bringing us part of God's Word.  All work, all service, if done obediently and faithfully, leads to real and lasting success in His ledger.  That, after all, is the only measure that counts.