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Key Bible Verse: A wise youth works hard all summer; a youth who sleeps away the hour of opportunity brings shame (Proverbs 10:5). Bonus Reading: Romans 12:11-12

Before I graduated from Yale, the Duke University medical school accepted me to enter in the fall. I wanted a summer job, and the employment counselor, who was white, interviewed me. I explained that I was finishing Yale and going to med school to become a doctor. "I have the perfect position for you," she said. "It's at the medical clinic at Pope Air Force Base."

Expecting some exposure to patient care, I arrived at the clinic in a tie and dress shirt. I knew a clerk position was open. I'd learned to type and was good at it. I assumed that would be my position. I should have caught on when the personnel director stared at the way I was dressed. "You're the gardener," he said. A white woman who might have typed 20 words a minute became the clerk/typist. I didn't complain. I was grateful to have a job. All summer I dedicated myself to being the best outside man they'd ever hired, with the cleanest yard on base.

Within a few days of being hired, I met people who staffed the clinic. Once they learned I was a future physician, they invited me to use their library any time I wanted. Sometimes after work, I went in and studied for an hour.

—Larry Harris in It All Starts at Home

My Response: Is there work I avoid because it seems inferior or undignified?

Thought to Apply: There's no labor a man can do that's undignified if he does it right. —BILL COSBY (comedian)

Adapted from It All Starts at Home (Revell, 2004) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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