“The minister or teacher aims high in their academic training to qualify them to go up the ladder of success in their chosen field. If they are successful the result is a higher position with a higher salary. You can’t tell me they don’t appreciate the higher salary. So it is with the business man. If he has good qualifications and well developed incentive he will build his business up to the highest his ability will allow. Sure this will earn more money for him. And he will appreciate it, just as the minister and teacher does. The principle is the same. In practice, the business man is likely to make more money than the minister or teacher, but that is no reason for envy and hatred. Each has freely chosen his own field.
“Besides, the good business man is not likely to hoard his profits. Chances are he will reinvest them and continue to build for the good of all. In my opinion, business people like that deserve high respect. But they reap the scorn of belittlers perhaps more so than do the dubious greedy ones of the business world. There are ministers and teachers to whom I wouldn’t want to send my family, as we have heard previously in this group. Likewise there are good and bad business people.”
Collin replied positively to Brett’s business perspective. “I agree with you one hundred percent, Brett. There is a lot of envy that lumps good business people like yourself in with the shabby and questionable business people, or even turns on the good business people, leaving the questionable ones alone. To me, business and money are gifts of God to be properly used by us. When so used they are a blessing to God’s people. They can only be properly used by well charactered well meaning people. At a later session I will be discussing belittlers at work in the business and commerce of Terraprima, so I’m glad you mentioned it now. It is a good preview of some of what is yet to come. Keep the topic in mind for later.”
“Thanks,” said Brett, “I may have taken the group off track here. Let us get back to Durwin. Imagine that, he had to put up with abuse in the Bible study group for several months.
Owen added, “I can imagine the tension it produced for him. It must have been nerve racking.”
“It would have been nerve racking for most people” replied Collin, “but not for Durwin. He had been dealing with belittlers all his life and could cope well with them. Yet, even though it didn’t rack his nerves, it was extremely stressful. It got so that he didn’t know when to speak and when not to speak. Either way it didn’t please them.
“Tension there was aplenty,” continued Collin, “it was now obvious to Durwin that this congregation was dominated by belittlers. Such churches never prosper nor get ahead. Durwin knew what he was up against, but his reputation with the larger church of the area was already established, with his ministry described as excellent and superior. Good reports were getting out from the congregation generally. So with that kind of back up, Durwin resolved to try to change the mind-set of the administration of his local church. Easier said than done! Their proud position would in time be observed in essence as, ‘we are perfect as we are. Just give us the right minister and our church will flourish.’”
Collin went on with the story. “A second incident that set the stage of belittling in this congregation occurred simultaneously with the Bible study event. Even though the interior of the ministers residence had been put in top condition before the Lawtons’ arrival, there had been no smoke detectors installed in it. It was a simple oversight, easy to happen, easy to remedy. Durwin and Canda both had experience with fires in their lifetime and knew what could happen. One of their main concerns was that the bedroom windows were high above the ground which in the event of fire would make escape through the windows hazardous even though they had a rope ladder type of contraption for that purpose. Early warning would allow for possible escape through the doors. They wanted smoke detectors installed. So at a meeting of the appropriate committee, Durwin asked that two smoke detectors be installed in the minister’s residence at a cost of twelve dollars each, with volunteer installation by Durwin or by anyone else who wished to install them. It was a logical request, yet mouths dropped when it was made. The chairman of the committee sputtered out excuses, ‘Well we have to consider our budget and be thrifty; I don’t see any problem with that residence to cause a fire; there hasn’t been a fire there yet; we have an excellent fire brigade in the area; you can have a rope ladder to exit through the windows.’ Their undisciplined pride was ruling far, far above their reasoning.
“Durwin responded very gently so as not to ruffle that hollow pride any further, ‘But we already have a rope ladder. We are just asking for earlier warning; two smoke detectors at a cost of twelve dollars each. I will install them myself.
“The chairman raised his voice in rebuttal, ‘I will install the smoke detectors,’ he said, as his chest came up and his pride took over. ‘I am a member of a fire company. I can buy them at a discount,’ he snapped as he asserted himself.
“A few days later this person arrived at the residence with the smoke detectors and screw driver. Durwin and Canda had already chosen the places to install them. They suggested it to the man. He became outwardly perturbed. ‘No,’ he snapped, ‘I will place them here and here,’ and immediately began to install one where the smoke on its way to the master bedroom would go up the ceiling fan opening before it reached the detector. Canda was quick to stand her ground. ‘Look here, it’s my life that’s in the balance in this house and that smoke detector is going right where I say. Now leave it here and we will install it ourselves.’ Durwin backed her up. But since it appears to many that a minister is not supposed to get angry, or even speak firmly, he did so less emphatically than did Canda. That was a maneuver Durwin and Canda had long ago learned in the ministry. They couldn’t blame a minister for what his wife did or said. So Canda performed the task of firm assertion. Durwin reaffirmed her simply by saying calmly, while looking him straight in the face, ‘we know what will make us feel safe.’
“There was no real relenting in the man’s mind. In hostility he snapped, ‘okay, I’ll install them where you say. You can have your way.’ He said it as though Durwin and Canda were people who wanted their own way all the time. He installed the smoke detectors near but not exactly where they suggested. He did the work hastily, and without finding a place where the screws would go into something solid. Consequently, before long one of them fell from the ceiling, and Durwin and Canda had to reinstall it themselves and patch needless holes in the ceiling.
“One of the damaging results of this incident was that almost the total administration of the church took up the position that the Lawtons were demanding type spendthrifts who would have to be watched carefully. This impeded Durwin’s ministry among them greatly thereafter. The Lawton’s, both of them, had always been thrifty over how church money was spent, just as they were over their own. The defamation of the Lawtons’ characters was continuing.”
Brett spoke in tones revealing his difficulty in fathoming such a personality. “You say, Collin, that this man was a member of a fire company?”
“Yes that is so,” reaffirmed Collin.
“Then,” said Brett, “he would certainly know the value of smoke detectors, wouldn’t he?”
“Yes,” said Collin again.
“Well,” said Brett, “the man’s pride was beyond all his reasoning powers. First he tried to deny the need for smoke detectors. Then he tried to install them in ineffective places. He was playing around with the Lawtons’ lives. Then as important as it was he installed them carelessly so that the Lawton’s had to do the job over. That kind of pride surely is ill founded, isn’t it?”
“Grossly, I would say,” replied Collin with a smile of approval for Brett’s observations. “Grossly and more.”
“And there is more,” came in Gilda. “That man couldn’t bring himself to admit a little oversight like smoke detectors, a minor thing really. His silly pride was in the way all right, so much so that life or death didn’t matter. Moreover, the Lawtons’ characters were damaged and their ministry impeded by the labels of ‘demanding