It was another long night for the Uber driver. Over 12 hours, he drove countless people from restaurants and bars to their homes. The driver’s work wasn’t done until the dawning of the next day. Just another Friday night in a string of Friday nights over a period of two or three years. Drunks, profanity, insults – the driver took it. Why? Because he needed the $150 he would earn for 12 hours of work. (After gas and snacks, he would net less than $100.)
That Uber driver was me.
After losing my pastorate in Texas, we moved to Florida to be near our son. And I’m not complaining. I was happy to find work. Uber was just one of four odd jobs I did in order to get by. But I’ll admit it. There were times when I’d pull over at 3 am to let some drunk guy open the back door and throw up outside my car, when I thought, “I was a pastor of a good-sized church. I have four degrees, including an earned doctorate. I’ve written books. I was a university board chairman and chaplain for the NBA. I sat on countless boards. What I am doing here?”
When I drove people around in the middle of the night, they didn’t care about my credentials. And it taught me a valuable lesson. My worth is not measured by accomplishments. It’s not about what I’ve done. It’s about who I’ve become.
The words of Henri Nouwen inspire me: “These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self – the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things – and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.”
Recovery Step: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
