The Job Is Too Small
Story★★★★In her book, It’s My Turn, Ruth Bell Graham recalls growing up as a missionary kid in China. Among her stories is this one. An oil company, about to open a new operation in China, wanted to find a man to manage the new division. They wanted someone young, a university graduate, a proven leader, and someone fluent in the Chinese language.
They located a man who perfectly met this qualification. He was a twenty-eight-year-old missionary already living in the city where the company was planning to establish its office. When someone asked how much salary this young man was getting, the committee learned it was very modest.
They set out to hire him. The oil company offered the young missionary over ten times his current salary. He declined. They raised the offer.
He declined again. They offered him even more, but yet again he turned them down.
Finally the agent asked, “What will you take?” “It’s not a question of salary,” replied the missionary. “The salary is tremendous.
The trouble is with the job. The job is too little. I feel that God has called me to preach the Gospel of Christ. I would be a fool to quit preaching in order to sell oil.”
“Such were the giants,” recalled Ruth Graham, “among whom we grew up!’2 1Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 236. 1Ruth Bell Graham, It’s My Turn (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1982), 20-21.
?Ruth Bell Graham, /t’s My Turn (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1982), 20-21.
The point
A young missionary declined a lucrative oil-company position, choosing to preach the Gospel over secular wealth. His conviction reveals the true measure of calling and treasure.