It All Matters

by Ryan Krzykowski

There’s a whole lot I’ve taken for granted over the years.  Yesterday I drove to Omaha with my youngest son, and along the way we went through a handful of construction zones.  I’ve always hated road construction zones, but what if there were no road crews at all?  Or the roads hadn’t ever been built in the first place?  This morning I woke up in a hotel after a very late night at the College World Series.  I’m not usually a huge breakfast guy, but when I wake up early in a hotel, that buffet is a must.  I counted at least 5 employees responsible for making that meal happen for me, and I’m not sure where I’d be this morning without them.

Every day there are millions of people doing jobs that make our lives work the way we’re used to them working.  Last week I helped coach a football camp at a middle school.  As I took a few looks around the campus, I saw a team of landscape workers spreading mulch in planters.  There was a team working with some pretty serious machinery resurfacing the track around the field.  There was also the team I was on — a team of 6 men committed to taking a group of 12-14 year old boys and helping them become the best they can be, both on and off the field.  Thinking about it, I realize every one of these teams had something important to offer our community.

Jesus spent roughly 33 years on the Earth, and about 30 of those years were spent in obscurity, most of them doing some kind of carpentry.  I’d be willing to bet on a couple things about that.  First, I’m confident Jesus never wasted a day.  So it follows that he took carpentry seriously and was probably awfully good at it.  Jesus didn’t spend 30 years simply waiting to live out his purpose, he lived purposefully all the time.

I’m not sure if I have a profound point to make here – it’s mostly just that the past year has helped me understand how fragile much of our way of life can be.  It takes all of us.  Every job matters.  Every person doing their job matters.  We will never know the names of the vast majority of these people (although I did ask Levi, one of the track resurfacing guys, what his name is).  And yet, having some level of appreciation for all that goes into a day in the life of our neighborhood/nation seems like a good idea.

So whoever you are, and whatever you’re doing today, know that you matter.  What you’re doing matters, and although we might not know your name, we see you and thank you for doing that work well.

Let’s Coach With Purpose…