The good man that turned bad out of necessity

[Matthias]

@Riven I shared a personal story with you about a work experience a few days ago. I’ll share a bit more of that story with you now.

You’ll recall that due to my supervisor being inept, I narrowly avoided having my employmemt by the government terminated. Two weeks later, my transfer came through.

For six months I was ordered by my new supervisor to sit in my office with the door closed. He made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want to see me or speak with me. I was allowed to leave my office only for restroom breaks, lunch, and at the end of the work day. What did he want me to do? Nothing.

That’s when I decided to go back to school in the evenings to earn a Bachelor’s degree in theology. (The college gave me 60 hours of elective credits for my 4 year Civil Engineering degree. I only needed 60 hours of credit to be awarded a BTh degree by the college.) What did I do in my office for six months? I worked on my college class work.

At the end of six months my supervisor knocked on my door and said he wanted to see me in his office in an hour (I think it was.) When I went to his office he told me to close the door and sit down. (Okay. I wonder what this is all about.)

As soon as I sat down he asked me a question: “What in the hell is the matter with you? Why haven’t you quit?” (Ah. Their strategy revealed.)

I instantly replied with a straight face, “I have buttocks of steel.”

He just sat there. Stunned. And then he burst out laughing. (He wasn’t a bad guy. He was just doing what he was ordered to do.)

He asked me what I had been doing all that time. That’s when I told him that I was going to school full time in the evening and on weekends, taking 5 classes. I was doing my homework in my office. He asked what subject I was studying. So I told him.

He told me that he had told upper management that I wouldn’t fold but they didn’t agree. (Mexican standoff.)

He asked me one more question: “Would you really have sat in your office for another twenty years with the door closed and having no work assignments to complete?” (He meant government work assignments.) I told him that I like to read and twenty years sitting in my office reading with no distractions was like a paid twenty year vacation.

He told me to return to my office, leave his door open and close mine, and await further instructions. A few days later, I was back to doing engineering work - in my office and on the road - struggling to keep up with my classwork. (I still graduated 18 months later with a 4.0 grade average.)

I’m not a quitter. I’m a theological engineer.

@Riven the story of how I became a theological engineer has a point related to our conversation -> I was innocent and helpless, a sheep led to the slaughter, but was able to defend myself without resorting to violence. I’ll go to the grave believing that God and Messiah had my back. What those “Christian” men intended for my harm, God and Messiah used for my good.

 

[Riven]

@Riven the story of how I became a theological engineer has a point related to our conversation -> I was innocent and helpless, a sheep led to the slaughter, but was able to defend myself without resorting to violence. I’ll go to the grave believing that God and Messiah had my back. What those “Christian” men intended for my harm, God and Messiah used for my good.

How does an engineer have an interest in theology? Seems contradictory to me.

 

[Matthias]

How does an engineer have an interest in theology? Seems contradictory to me.

Well, I’ll try to keep it pithy. The Reader’s Digest version:

My paternal grandparents had an only child. They wanted him to become a Baptist preacher. He wanted no part of that and lived a life that proved it. He liked to tell his friends that he ruled his house “like a Russian Field Marshal.” And he did.

My grandparents then turned their hope from him to me. They took me to church - which my parents weren’t thrilled about but allowed - and I loved going with them. My grandfather, in particular, read the Bible prodigiously. He spent a lot of time talking to me about the Bible and he prayed for me regularly - after I moved in with them (see below) he told me that he prayed for me daily.

My grandparents sold their house and bought a house two streets behind ours. About a year later, my father moved us hundreds of miles away from them - following a terrible fight he had with them about them wanting me to be baptized. We seldom saw them after that. And I didn’t attend church again until I briefly moved in with my grandparents many years later. I was baptized in their church. My parents did not attend, though my mother did ask me if I would like for them to.

I never became a Baptist preacher. My grandfather died before I obtained my theology degree, was ordained an elder, and asked to serve as a pastor for a small congregation. My grandmother knew all of that and just before she died she asked that I preach at her funeral. I did.

My father told me after the funeral service, which he attended, that my grandfather would be proud of me. My father was not.

My interest in theology began at a very young age, and my grandparents played a major role in it. I credit my grandparents but I believe that it was God and Jesus working through them to draw me to them.

Thank you for asking. I’ll sleep well tonight with that on my mind.