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Key Bible Verse: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect (1 Corinthians 15:10a). Bonus Reading: Luke 12:15, James 4:13-15

The skills of a man can become obsolete overnight because of a new technology. He has to go backward in income production and in recognition in terms of title.

"It wasn't the drop in pay that bothered me, Gordon; it was the loss of the personal parking place, the corner office, the two secretaries, and the knowledge that when people called me, the first thing they hear was "this is Mr. G_____'s office." Now I walk a block from the general parking lot, sit at a workstation, and answer my own phone. That's a real comedown! I just never knew how important those little trinkets were to my view of myself. I'd worked all my adult life for those things; the money was almost an afterthought."

The market slumps, and a guy who has built fine houses all his adult life can't scare up the simplest renovation job. He sits at home making calls, waiting for calls, while his wife goes off to develop the income. "I'm nothing without a hammer in my hand," he says. "She doesn't know how often I've cried while she's backing out of the driveway. Take away my work, man, and I'm just a big zero."

—Gordon MacDonald in When Men Think Private Thoughts

• What's the real source of your worth? How does that change how you see your job?

Thought to Apply:A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself.

—AXEL MUNTHE (Swedish physician and writer)

Credits: Adapted from—Monday: When Men Think Private Thoughts (Nelson, 1996)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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