My Place, My Wish

Today's Thoughts 8/7/11 - My Place, My Wish

My place, where is that? Is it my home, or my home away from home, my truck? Just how many ways can one define the words "My place"? Where is my place in this world? How do I fit in? This seems to be a very big question for me today. I know where my home is. I know I live in my truck for months on end. That truck has been more of a home for me over the years then my actual house. It seems like the phone is my place way to often because my wife is in that phone and she is my family. Any place my family is, is my place; my home. This much I know. But where is my place in this world? This I seem to have a question about today. Where do I fit in? Where is my place in this world?

Today's guest speaker at church really got me to thinking about this. As he related his story about his life's travels and I compared them to mine.  At the risk of sounding envious and jealous, which I hope I'm not, or at least I'm not trying to be. But as I listened I wondered why some of the things he did in his life are similar to things I've done in my life, yet the outcome between the two of us were so much different. The outcome meaning the way that we are received by the people we are involved with as we both went about our life's work.

Let me take a second to fill you in about our guest speaker so we might compare the two of us and see what the differences might be.  At a very young age the speaker confesses to drinking and doing drugs. He then comes to know God and goes about doing God's work as a missionary all around the world. He basically gave up all his worldly possessions to preach the word of God in countries where it was illegal to do so.  He went into a place where no christen could be found and the government will arrest you for preaching the word of God. And he chooses to take a child with learning disabilities out of our government system and take on the responsibility of raising that child on his own with the help of his wife.

Well, to start with I cannot even begin to compare myself to this speaker. I can only hope that one day I live up to being able to achieve even half of what he did. But in my own little way, I do come close in some ways.  Like the fact that as a young man I was way into partying.  I set out joining the Army because I knew I needed to clean myself up if I was ever to become a respectable citizen.  Also, I set out on a path to becoming a good Christian but instead of hearing a call to spread God's word, as it is word for word in the Bible, my involvement in the trucking industry showed me a different path.  My path was to spread the word that running safe and legal in an industry that it was at the time, was basically unheard of; but now should be ok to do.  And in this industry just like America herself, one can find a melting pot of individuals of all nationalities and religions alike.  I was raised in such a fashion that these things did not bother me.  A person should be held accountable by their acts, not their race or religion. This I have always believed, and if a little bit of what being a good Christian was to rub off on the people I found myself working with; just like our speaker described happened with his work, then all the better.

So, why the difference in the way he is treated as opposed to my experience? Mine; being the experience that I choose to speak with anyone of any race or of any religion, I'm set aside. One that treating each and every human being on this planet the same gets me tossed out and set aside in certain groups.  My son, I did what was best for him, not what the government was failing to do. For this we were cast out. I've spoken with drivers of all races and all religions, and I have been deleted from several groups because of this. It is not uncommon to be told that if you talk to them, you cannot be with us. I hear the calls to join together and unite, but then I'm told only if I do as I am told. Only if I am the sort of person that I am supposed to be. And when I do step out and talk to someone that is not considered acceptable, it is not long before I get a private message, "so and so said you were talking to a unacceptable person and this needs to be cleared up before we can continue to support you".

So I'm having a hard time tonight trying to understand why this speaker, a wonderful Christian can go into a country where not one Christian is allowed to be, and be supported by the church; and I am tossed aside by some in the trucking community because I chose to treat each and every driver as an equal regardless of race or religion.

Each of us has a destiny I suppose, a calling that belongs only to them. God, it has always been said, works in mysterious ways. Is this my deal? I learned a long time ago that I was able to do my work best in small groups, more one on one.  Like earlier, before the speaker when a few of us were talking about my book and why I wrote it in a small room.  Spreading the word that drivers were trying to run safe and legal, one set of ears at a time.  It has never been my goal to have thousands of friends on Face Book or ever to be a big star in the public eye.  I've giving away more books then I'll ever sell, and none of these things really matter much to me. But, the way that some treat me, does bother me at times.

My place, where is it?  It's down in the trenches where my feet and hands are going to get dirty.  Where the worlds finest have cast the unwanted.  That’s where I have found my place to be.  There is not one soul on this earth that is not worth reaching out to as far as I am concerned.  So regardless if it is to preach the word of God or preach the values of running safe and legal.  Each and every driver out on America's highway is a part of our trucking brotherhood, and no one has the right to cast them aside because they do not meet the standards of the elite of our industry.

So what can I say?  My place in this world is where it is, at the bottom.  I can live with that.  I've never been comfortable in big groups, always been a more one on one type of person.  I find I don't need the rewards of having a crowd love me.  I never really planned on getting rich so the sales of my book are just fine as they are.  Spreading the word that drivers are trying to do this right.  I know some think it's all about the profits, and they will never be convinced that making a profit is a perfectly acceptable thing to do in America.

So my place, serving the very type of people that Jesus served in the bible.  Not so much to spread the word of God as it is to spread the word that running safe and legal in the trucking industry is a perfectly good path to choose.  You will not be alone any longer as drivers were back when I first started spreading this word so many years ago.  So, what is my wish?  That one day everyone in the trucking industry will be treated as an equal by those in the trucking industry.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
Be sure to add me as a friend if you like "Today's Thoughts"

http://runninglegalblues.blogspot.com/