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The Fragrance of Life
by L Cruz III2006
(This is a true story of the day God
spoke to me. For purposes of privacy the location, industry and name of my
previous employer has been omitted. To this day, I have a very hard time
reading this.)
I used to work at ***** located in ***** where a team of outstanding managers with impressive managerial techniques had quit, leaving in their wakes many new managers with new fear-based management styles…management styles where the “end justified the means”, no matter the means.
It wasn’t long before people became so afraid for their jobs that dirty office politics reached a fevered pitch. Eventually, our low morale resulted in low production, which only encouraged our managers to apply even more pressure. It became a relentless cycle.
Suddenly in 2001, time stopped as the horrors of 9/11 unfolded. The world sang a unified song of shock and mourning...us included. Then, one month later, those horrors were greatly contrasted by the birth of our beautiful son. It was a bittersweet time. But the sweets were so very sweet.
However, unbeknownst to me, while enjoying my paternity leave with my wife and our newborn son, constant news reports and rumors of corporate layoffs were intensifying the politics at work.
I am sure you can imagine my shock when I, a proud and honored new father, returned to a workplace that had fallen into a silent war of survival. Although it had become an astonishingly unhealthy place to work, I refused to leave. I needed the money to help support my family and I had doubts in my abilities to find another comparable job in the new economic climate. (I never once thought of turning to Jesus. I depended solely on my own limited knowledge and never the omniscience of God.) The longer I worked there the worse things became…the worse I became…the more I began to lose my way.
Then, one Tuesday morning in March of 2003, while driving my little boy to daycare, a lady driving a big red truck ran a red light…slamming head on into our car. In that moment, my life had changed. Thankfully, my son was relatively unharmed (thank God for car seats). I, on the other hand got pretty banged up. However, the worst part of the accident wasn’t the pain or the damage to my body…it was standing on broken glass in the middle of the street watching my little angel scream in fear…stuck behind a jammed and damaged door where I couldn’t reach him. It would be an agonizing half an hour before rescuers would arrive to free him from the wreckage. It was an experience that no parent should ever have to endure.
Despite the weight of the ordeal and my many injuries, one of my bosses still wanted me back to work immediately, but I was just too injured to return. Standing my ground, I took three more days to recuperate (not to mention the months of rehab that would follow).
A few days later on March 31st, 2003, my wife piled our son and me into our last remaining car to drop him off at daycare and me off at work. Along the way, not far from tollbooths, we got stuck in a traffic jam. Traffic jams were uncommon that time of morning in *****. My first assumption was that it was a car accident so I quickly prayed for the people involved. But as we got closer to the source of the holdup, I realized that it wasn’t an accident at all. There was an animal on the highway. Obviously frightened, it cowered and darted between honking cars, ran in front of our car, looked at us, then moved on to the center grassy median and eventually into the southbound traffic. Other than wishing it a safe journey to wherever it was going, I thought little of it.
Once I arrived at work I was met by the all-too-common negativity and mopes of my coworkers, and the eventual scowl of my boss. Later that morning, while filling out paperwork with the Human Resources Manager, she noticed that I had (of all things) pink eye. Pink eye? Me?
“You have to go home.” She said. “We can’t have you here, you’re too contagious.”
I fought the issue because I had just returned after being away for four workdays, but she insisted…then called my boss on the phone. He was furious with a capital F.
So there I was, a man in pain who was riddled with fears of being fired from a job I didn’t like – riddled with fears of not being able to provide for my family during a questionable economy- haunted with memories of my innocent little boy trapped in the car – wonders of why, since I was such a safe driver, did the accident happen at all. Basically, I was afraid of everything.
So, who should be my cab driver? …a pleasant and talkative man with an accent I couldn’t identify who liked to run red lights…the very driving habit that I had grown to despise.
While driving his cab, he went on and on about how he believed the media was stoking the flames of war in the Middle East. While I am sure his concerns were heartfelt, I only half listened as I had a war of my own to contend with.
As he talked I just prayed silently to myself. “Why God? Why are You doing this to me? What are You trying to tell me?”
The cabby just continued in his monolog-first Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Cuba-paying little attention to my presence in the cab at all. I just kept praying.
“Please Lord, tell me. Tell me why do I (of all things) have pink eye NOW…at the worst possible time? Haven’t I been through enough?”
The cabby continued blissfully unabated.
I prayed. “I know I work in an unhealthy environment, but I need the money. My family needs the money. It’s almost as if You are trying to keep me away from the job. Please tell me, God, why do You keep taking me away from work?”
Suddenly the cab driver’s thick accent seemed to fall away as he looked at me in the mirror and said, “Because association becomes assimilation. The more time you spend around something, the more you will become like it.”
Bam! That was it! Association becomes assimilation! Wow! On perfect cue my prayer to God had been answered through the lips of a cab driver. Tears almost immediately came to my eyes. An unexpected rush of love and well being consumed me.
In an instant, God had illuminated my rocky path with His message, which was profound and very clear.
The message was this - The more time I spend around anyone or anything that is destructive, the more I will become destructive. The more time I spend around anyone or anything that is loving, the more I will become loving. The more time I spend around true followers of Jesus, the more I will become a true follower of Jesus.
Then it happened. I remembered. I remembered the traffic jam that morning. I remembered my fears of it being caused by another car accident. I remembered discovering that it wasn’t an accident at all, but an animal running through traffic. I remembered that it ran in front of our car and looked at us. I remembered that it was white. I remembered that it was small. I remembered that it was a lamb. It was a lamb!
At that moment I was born again....no. I was BORN!
As the cabby drove recklessly through the intersection where the accident happened, I felt a need to get scared or tense, but I didn’t. I knew I was in God’s hands. I knew I had just received a message from Him that He needed me to hear. I was so profoundly grateful for the message, but I was relieved the lesson was over.
I tipped the cabby $20 for a $10 cab ride and thanked him profusely. He didn’t understand. (The fact that he didn’t understand is very important. I’ll get back to him in a minute.)
God changed the way I looked at things so much that the things I looked at changed. As far as work went, I didn’t get fired. In fact, upon my annual review, I got a slightly bigger raise than the rest. I stopped being one of the warriors in the silent political war and I separated myself from the destructive crowd. Soon, I started talking about my experience with others at work. Slowly, old and new friends started coming out of the woodwork, timidly sharing their experiences and beliefs. I eventually found myself amongst a small group of people with whom I had no fear of associating.
A RECENT DISCOVERY
It wasn’t until recently that it dawned on me that God’s message reached far beyond what I originally believed. I thought it was a message to benefit me (me, me, me). I was only partially right. It was more of a message to benefit (first) my family, (then) my friends and (also) those I meet along the way.
This is what I mean.
Yes, it is important for me to ask myself who I become when I associate with others…but it is equally important if not more important to ask myself who others become when they associate with me? Assimilation is inevitable. That means that I am an influential leader and a teacher, as you are an influential leader and a teacher, as the cabby was an influential leader and a teacher. You see, in addition to ourselves, we have an obligation to the person next to us. I see it as a living cycle of the Greatest Commandment.
That cab driver had no idea what he was part of. To this day, he is probably still driving his cab in ***** completely oblivious to the fact that God spoke through him. He may never ever know…the same way you may never ever know.
THE MESSAGE
Association becomes assimilation.
Do we realize how we affect others?
Do we improve the fragrance of life?
I used to work at ***** located in ***** where a team of outstanding managers with impressive managerial techniques had quit, leaving in their wakes many new managers with new fear-based management styles…management styles where the “end justified the means”, no matter the means.
It wasn’t long before people became so afraid for their jobs that dirty office politics reached a fevered pitch. Eventually, our low morale resulted in low production, which only encouraged our managers to apply even more pressure. It became a relentless cycle.
Suddenly in 2001, time stopped as the horrors of 9/11 unfolded. The world sang a unified song of shock and mourning...us included. Then, one month later, those horrors were greatly contrasted by the birth of our beautiful son. It was a bittersweet time. But the sweets were so very sweet.
However, unbeknownst to me, while enjoying my paternity leave with my wife and our newborn son, constant news reports and rumors of corporate layoffs were intensifying the politics at work.
I am sure you can imagine my shock when I, a proud and honored new father, returned to a workplace that had fallen into a silent war of survival. Although it had become an astonishingly unhealthy place to work, I refused to leave. I needed the money to help support my family and I had doubts in my abilities to find another comparable job in the new economic climate. (I never once thought of turning to Jesus. I depended solely on my own limited knowledge and never the omniscience of God.) The longer I worked there the worse things became…the worse I became…the more I began to lose my way.
Then, one Tuesday morning in March of 2003, while driving my little boy to daycare, a lady driving a big red truck ran a red light…slamming head on into our car. In that moment, my life had changed. Thankfully, my son was relatively unharmed (thank God for car seats). I, on the other hand got pretty banged up. However, the worst part of the accident wasn’t the pain or the damage to my body…it was standing on broken glass in the middle of the street watching my little angel scream in fear…stuck behind a jammed and damaged door where I couldn’t reach him. It would be an agonizing half an hour before rescuers would arrive to free him from the wreckage. It was an experience that no parent should ever have to endure.
Despite the weight of the ordeal and my many injuries, one of my bosses still wanted me back to work immediately, but I was just too injured to return. Standing my ground, I took three more days to recuperate (not to mention the months of rehab that would follow).
A few days later on March 31st, 2003, my wife piled our son and me into our last remaining car to drop him off at daycare and me off at work. Along the way, not far from tollbooths, we got stuck in a traffic jam. Traffic jams were uncommon that time of morning in *****. My first assumption was that it was a car accident so I quickly prayed for the people involved. But as we got closer to the source of the holdup, I realized that it wasn’t an accident at all. There was an animal on the highway. Obviously frightened, it cowered and darted between honking cars, ran in front of our car, looked at us, then moved on to the center grassy median and eventually into the southbound traffic. Other than wishing it a safe journey to wherever it was going, I thought little of it.
Once I arrived at work I was met by the all-too-common negativity and mopes of my coworkers, and the eventual scowl of my boss. Later that morning, while filling out paperwork with the Human Resources Manager, she noticed that I had (of all things) pink eye. Pink eye? Me?
“You have to go home.” She said. “We can’t have you here, you’re too contagious.”
I fought the issue because I had just returned after being away for four workdays, but she insisted…then called my boss on the phone. He was furious with a capital F.
So there I was, a man in pain who was riddled with fears of being fired from a job I didn’t like – riddled with fears of not being able to provide for my family during a questionable economy- haunted with memories of my innocent little boy trapped in the car – wonders of why, since I was such a safe driver, did the accident happen at all. Basically, I was afraid of everything.
So, who should be my cab driver? …a pleasant and talkative man with an accent I couldn’t identify who liked to run red lights…the very driving habit that I had grown to despise.
While driving his cab, he went on and on about how he believed the media was stoking the flames of war in the Middle East. While I am sure his concerns were heartfelt, I only half listened as I had a war of my own to contend with.
As he talked I just prayed silently to myself. “Why God? Why are You doing this to me? What are You trying to tell me?”
The cabby just continued in his monolog-first Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Cuba-paying little attention to my presence in the cab at all. I just kept praying.
“Please Lord, tell me. Tell me why do I (of all things) have pink eye NOW…at the worst possible time? Haven’t I been through enough?”
The cabby continued blissfully unabated.
I prayed. “I know I work in an unhealthy environment, but I need the money. My family needs the money. It’s almost as if You are trying to keep me away from the job. Please tell me, God, why do You keep taking me away from work?”
Suddenly the cab driver’s thick accent seemed to fall away as he looked at me in the mirror and said, “Because association becomes assimilation. The more time you spend around something, the more you will become like it.”
Bam! That was it! Association becomes assimilation! Wow! On perfect cue my prayer to God had been answered through the lips of a cab driver. Tears almost immediately came to my eyes. An unexpected rush of love and well being consumed me.
In an instant, God had illuminated my rocky path with His message, which was profound and very clear.
The message was this - The more time I spend around anyone or anything that is destructive, the more I will become destructive. The more time I spend around anyone or anything that is loving, the more I will become loving. The more time I spend around true followers of Jesus, the more I will become a true follower of Jesus.
Then it happened. I remembered. I remembered the traffic jam that morning. I remembered my fears of it being caused by another car accident. I remembered discovering that it wasn’t an accident at all, but an animal running through traffic. I remembered that it ran in front of our car and looked at us. I remembered that it was white. I remembered that it was small. I remembered that it was a lamb. It was a lamb!
At that moment I was born again....no. I was BORN!
As the cabby drove recklessly through the intersection where the accident happened, I felt a need to get scared or tense, but I didn’t. I knew I was in God’s hands. I knew I had just received a message from Him that He needed me to hear. I was so profoundly grateful for the message, but I was relieved the lesson was over.
I tipped the cabby $20 for a $10 cab ride and thanked him profusely. He didn’t understand. (The fact that he didn’t understand is very important. I’ll get back to him in a minute.)
God changed the way I looked at things so much that the things I looked at changed. As far as work went, I didn’t get fired. In fact, upon my annual review, I got a slightly bigger raise than the rest. I stopped being one of the warriors in the silent political war and I separated myself from the destructive crowd. Soon, I started talking about my experience with others at work. Slowly, old and new friends started coming out of the woodwork, timidly sharing their experiences and beliefs. I eventually found myself amongst a small group of people with whom I had no fear of associating.
A RECENT DISCOVERY
It wasn’t until recently that it dawned on me that God’s message reached far beyond what I originally believed. I thought it was a message to benefit me (me, me, me). I was only partially right. It was more of a message to benefit (first) my family, (then) my friends and (also) those I meet along the way.
This is what I mean.
Yes, it is important for me to ask myself who I become when I associate with others…but it is equally important if not more important to ask myself who others become when they associate with me? Assimilation is inevitable. That means that I am an influential leader and a teacher, as you are an influential leader and a teacher, as the cabby was an influential leader and a teacher. You see, in addition to ourselves, we have an obligation to the person next to us. I see it as a living cycle of the Greatest Commandment.
That cab driver had no idea what he was part of. To this day, he is probably still driving his cab in ***** completely oblivious to the fact that God spoke through him. He may never ever know…the same way you may never ever know.
THE MESSAGE
Association becomes assimilation.
Do we realize how we affect others?
Do we improve the fragrance of life?