“Under three things the earth trembles, under four it
cannot bear up. A slave when he becomes king, and a
fool who is full of food; an unloved woman when she
gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces
her mistress” (Proverbs 30:21-23, ESV).
It was Barry Goldwater who said: “The United States is
a wonderful country where anyone can grow up to be
president…except me.”
We like the idea that in America, anyone who works hard
will get ahead. But it doesn’t always work like that.
Josh had worked hard in his firm for twenty years. His
first job was right out of high school doing errands.
He didn’t have the college training some of the others
had, but he made up for it in long hours and effort.
When his boss offered him the plant manager job, no one
was surprised; he had earned the chance. Here was a
rags-to-riches story that should have warmed the heart.
But he surprised his colleagues by becoming dictatorial
and unreasonable. The people he managed began to
fiercely resent his high-handed manner. He began to
wear eight hundred dollar suits and drive fancy cars.
Clearly the promotion had gone to his head. It
shouldn’t have, because he of all people should have
known what it was like for the ordinary folk, the ones
who sweated on the workshop floors, the ones who were
just starting out with families at the bottom end of
the rung.
Within a year management realized their mistake, and
Josh was transferred to a branch in North Dakota, the
business’ version of the Siberian salt mines.
Like a servant who becomes king, then takes on “airs,”
or an old maid who suddenly becomes a bride, then
treats her new husband with disdain, Josh had allowed
his good fortune to go to his head. He had forgotten
where he came from.
As Will Rogers once said, even a president is nothing
more than “our hired help.”