THE PERFECT JOB

Often people ask me how do I survive such a tough job.  Many have canvassed their way through college but never considered literature ministry as a full-time job alternative.  I may be naive but I consider the colporteur work to be the best job because the Bible tells me it is the easiest job in the world.  No, no you might say, it is the hardest, but listen to what the word of God declares of it: "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and burden is light." [Mt 11:29-30] Our job description is to learn of Christ.  Compare this to a factory job where rough men parade about teaching new recruits, or to a worldly sales job where high-flying young executives twist the truth to suit their purpose of making sales.  Literature Evangelists know their business is to help transgressors to come to God because "The way of the transgressors is hard." [Prov 13.15] How can those trying to help sinners out of bondage conclude that their task is harder?  According to God's word, my life as a colporteur is easier than those earning a living in the secular marketplace.

Many colporteurs possess a checkered past.  Some have been bankrupted in other professions, have suffered through broken marriages, are ex- pastors, and have experienced mighty failures in life prior to joining the LE ranks.  This sounds like a cave found in the Bible: "David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave ... and every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him." [1 Kings 22:1,2] These troubled souls became David's trusted mighty men.  When the world tosses a man onto the scrap heap sometimes the literature work restores him tenfold.  I know I am a better Christian in the LE work than I am out of it.

Think of your boss and compare him with the untold tyrants patrolling the business world.  Many worldly bosses are rude, demeaning and deserve to be fired but never will be.  I work for God as does every literature evangelist.  I may have a director and supervisor but in the end, my boss is my Heavenly Father and could I ask for more?  We suffer abuse sometimes from our customers, but is their pent up anger really directed at us?  People shout and swear and slam the door in our faces, yet they don't know who we are.  Their anger is really directed toward God.  One time a fellow LE, Bruce Germsheid, told me he was driving down the road after a particularly rough bout of customer rudeness, when he cried out loud, "Lord I don't need to take this abuse!" He said, almost audibly, a whisper was heard back, "Neither did I." 

Compare worldly working hours.  Many Christians work rotating shifts, even the grave yard shift.  Others spend a lifetime fighting rush hour traffic arriving at the factory before sunrise, just to collapse at home after enduring the return trip nightmare.  My working hours consist of when I am inspired to go out.  Surely,  I need to be self-motivated, but if something comes up like writing this book or a family emergency I am always available.  A colporteur should never bank on it, but the truth is the LE often earns his entire week's salary in a couple of hours time.  Sometimes he works late into the night but this is by choice.  There are no punch clocks monitoring his every working minute.  During my big selling years in Manitoba I worked 60 hours per week.  One time in the Maritimes I remember joining the ministerial staff for 8 a.m. worship and returning at 11 p.m. to sleep in their parking lot in my van after canvassing all day and night!

Think of  your current place of work.  Are you staring at the same walls year after year?  My workplace is the outdoors, my office is my car. I don't sit in a stale lunchroom or have to keep an eye on my watch to race back to the office after lunch break.  Many times I sit in the park, or by the water's edge and enjoy a leisurely picnic.  I don't recommend it as a daily practice but sometimes a mid-day snooze is in order to refresh your weary bones.  Ah, the life of the LE!

Many worldly workers feel their lives are compromised in the humdrum of routine, treading down the assembly line of life.  In my job, no two days are remotely alike.  I never know where I am going to end up, often times I don't know where exactly I will start. You couldn't duplicate a day if you tried.  George Dronen, my former publishing director once warned me, "Glen, you have been in this work too long.  No other job will suffice now." How true.  Over my years in the work I have responded to countless ads recruiting sales help, have wasted mornings in car lots learning to sell cars, attended seminars learning to sell time-shares, studied real estate training manuals, and have pondered the investment and insurance angles. However, in the end, this time spent proved wasted and fruitless.  A few hours amongst these types of professionals, after working for God, is a sobering wake up call. A few missed days learning other trades didn't matter much in the big scheme of things, the Lord is always there to take you back, often with renewed enthusiasm. 

When I complained about having too many expenses, my former director Robert Fournier said, "Pray for the Lord to expand the borders of your tent." That is the beauty of the colporteur work - no matter how great the expenses, the potential to earn that and more exists.  Other people may think they are on a salary but everyone is on some sort of commission because if they don't perform their job, they will be fired.  There are no unemployment lines in the colporteur work and if you want success a person can go and get it.  A book man who is dedicated to the task, and has mastered his craft well, will earn as much as he needs to support a family.  I have owned a twenty acre farm by the ocean and a thirty acre farm near the lake, raised a family and my wife has never held an outside job since 1984.  Her job as a literature evangelist wife was to keep me motivated to go out.  One time I came home totally discouraged and announced to her, "Its useless to try and work right now, the economy is shot and people are not buying.  There is no sense burning up the territory." Her reply received quite a chuckle when it was repeated at an LE Institute for the workers.  She looked me dead in the eye and said, "If there is one thing that turns my stomach, it is a man who has a yellow streak down his back.  Take your bags upstairs tonight, but tomorrow morning you're going back out - and don't come back until you can put bread on the table!" During my record setting years when my accountant told me that I was earning more than an airline pilot, I would ask her, "Am I putting enough bread on the table?" 

Yes, we as Literature Evangelists, have the easiest job, with the most flexible hours, with the best possible boss on earth. It is a calling, it is a mission, it is a ministry.  The question that needs to be asked, "Is it you?" Maybe you feel called to the ordained ministry.  If so, there is no better training than the colporteur work.  The literature work does have one rather large advantage over the ministry - should you during a canvass, commit an error, say something you wish you could reel back - it is over as soon as you leave that house.  You do not have to carry this mistake with you for the next five years as a pastor would have to do in a district.  Shake the dust off your feet and move forward, completely free.  I guess that is what I love most about the literature work - the freedom it affords.  I go where I want, to whomever I want, whenever I want, and however I want.  Very few jobs on earth offer this type of freedom.  And during the rough times, remember, "Smooth waters never make a better sailor."

You may be fired up to become a literature worker, yet currently be an efficient banker dealing with the finances of the world. You may be a real estate agent helping people to find homes, or a baker bringing whole grains to nourish mankind.  The truth of the matter, is that everybody has their peculiar calling in life.  H.M.S. Richards Sr. once told ministerial recruits that if there was another job on earth that they could successfully do and be happy in, then go and do it.  This ministry is set apart for those who have a restlessness of soul that will not cease until they join God's army.  And in joining this army, like Uriah, you are willing to head to the front lines without regard for personal welfare.  It is this type of brave soldier that God requires in the foxholes.  And one not feel ashamed if you shrink before the shrapnel of the enemy or have been forced to retreat to safer ground. "It is not correct to think that everyone can be a canvasser.  Some have no special adaptability for this work; but they are not, because of this, to be regarded as faithless or unwilling." [CM 27]

The literature ministry defines who I am as a Christian and how other church members view me.  My secret is that Literature Evangelism guarantees my close relationship with God.  Sister White puts it this way, "Friendly sympathy and real feelings of tender interest for others would bring to our souls blessings that we have never yet experienced, and would bring us into close relation to our Redeemer." [Ellen White,That I May Know Him, p 334]

home