A new meaning of Internal Revenue 'Service'
I recently got a full-time job working for the man at the IRS here in Austin TX. Now, I must say that I wasn't exactly thrilled about this job going in to it. The extent of my duties are basically to type 1040 tax information into an archaeic computer program for 8 hours in a room with no audible sound other than that of clicking keyboards. Oh, and did I mention that I start at 6:00 pm? You do the math. "He's crazy," you must be thinking. Hey, it pays the bills. But I'm realizing that it does more than that.
I've come to the conclusion that my 8 hour shift with my binary friend is really a catalyst for what happens in essentially one hour every day at the IRS: lunch and two fifteen minute breaks. That's right. I suffer through 8 hours of typing while always looking forward to one hour. This is because during these breaks, I actually get to interact with human beings.
Now, one must understand that the night shift of typing information at a terminal attracts a completely unique demographic of people. Most of them aren't married or are divorced with no current nuclear family living at home. They also probably have another job that they are working during the day. These are tired, weary people that are trying to make ends meet. The great thing is that every day I've worked there, God has given me an opportunity to serve these people. So it really has become my version of Internal Revenue 'Service'. IRS aren't such bad letters when I think of them like this.
My second day of work I was on a fifteen minute break when a thiry-something woman and I got into a conversation of theology. She had dated an LC-MS Lutheran pastor's son for three years and she called it off because "he kept telling her what to do". As the conversation went on, I came to realize that this wasn't the case at all. He was simply telling her the truth and she didn't want to hear it. You see, she is basically a universalist -- she loves feeling good about God. As we talked, she explained how she doesn't believe in hell, original sin, or even the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. She feels that Christianity is exclusive and insulting, a claim with which I agreed, to a point. However, she still claims Christianity as her faith. What an opportunity! So I discussed with her for the remainder of the break all of these issues, simply to see where she was coming from. Most of my time was spent carefully listening, but I'm confident that the little that I did say, the Holy Spirit will use somehow.
This is just one example of the many conversations I've had with the folks at the IRS -- real people trying to make a living. I pray that the Lord would use me to be a light to them, and this doesn't mean that I must have these heavy conversations everyday with people, trying to "get 'em sayved," but simply to be grace to them. I hope to keep writing about my experiences in Internal Revenue Service.
I've come to the conclusion that my 8 hour shift with my binary friend is really a catalyst for what happens in essentially one hour every day at the IRS: lunch and two fifteen minute breaks. That's right. I suffer through 8 hours of typing while always looking forward to one hour. This is because during these breaks, I actually get to interact with human beings.
Now, one must understand that the night shift of typing information at a terminal attracts a completely unique demographic of people. Most of them aren't married or are divorced with no current nuclear family living at home. They also probably have another job that they are working during the day. These are tired, weary people that are trying to make ends meet. The great thing is that every day I've worked there, God has given me an opportunity to serve these people. So it really has become my version of Internal Revenue 'Service'. IRS aren't such bad letters when I think of them like this.
My second day of work I was on a fifteen minute break when a thiry-something woman and I got into a conversation of theology. She had dated an LC-MS Lutheran pastor's son for three years and she called it off because "he kept telling her what to do". As the conversation went on, I came to realize that this wasn't the case at all. He was simply telling her the truth and she didn't want to hear it. You see, she is basically a universalist -- she loves feeling good about God. As we talked, she explained how she doesn't believe in hell, original sin, or even the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. She feels that Christianity is exclusive and insulting, a claim with which I agreed, to a point. However, she still claims Christianity as her faith. What an opportunity! So I discussed with her for the remainder of the break all of these issues, simply to see where she was coming from. Most of my time was spent carefully listening, but I'm confident that the little that I did say, the Holy Spirit will use somehow.
This is just one example of the many conversations I've had with the folks at the IRS -- real people trying to make a living. I pray that the Lord would use me to be a light to them, and this doesn't mean that I must have these heavy conversations everyday with people, trying to "get 'em sayved," but simply to be grace to them. I hope to keep writing about my experiences in Internal Revenue Service.
posted by doulos at
9:32 AM
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