For several months between two and three years ago I worked first as a seasonal helper bringing packages to people’s homes in Happy Valley and Clackamas [1] and one memorable day in the Clackamas Town Center, and then as a GIS specialist in the Tualatin building for UPS helping to make routes more efficient. One of the most obvious work methods learned was that UPS drivers, for sound reasons, turn right rather than left. This may seem like a small matter, but twice today I unluckily found myself behind truck drivers who were making unprotected left-hand turns, one of them into the high school on South Cooper Mountain that was along my route, and the other into a tree farm on the north slope of Cooper Mountain a few minutes down the road, which stopped traffic for some time, when it would have been more productive for the drivers to drive in such a way where they would make right-hand turns rather than left-hand ones. I pondered that my own interest in logistics had given me knowledge and understanding that was unusual, and that this knowledge was not widespread, even if it followed fairly naturally from being aware of the patterns of drivers and a desire to avoid making things difficult for those on the road behind us whose progress can easily be stopped because we are waiting for a gap in traffic on the other side of the road.

For a variety of reasons, I find myself often engaged in matters of process and logistics. I manage scarce resources, including my own time, and the many demands that are made upon those scarce resources by others. There is great power as well as great stress in managing scarce resources that are in high demand. Those who control aspects of processes place upon their shoulders the burden of service in a particular area, but in exchange for that service, hopefully cheerfully given, there is a great deal of power that results as well from controlling access to desirable outcomes. As someone who tends to be fairly busy in my own life, and involved both personally and professionally in a variety of activities, I find myself dealing over and over again with a small group of people who communicate issues, seek solutions, serve and perform and coach and teach, and other related activities. I am one of these people myself, and those other people I work with and for over and over again are part of my tribe as well. All of us seek the security that comes from being indispensable, only to find that this honored place comes with the weight and burden of being a pillar or a keystone that holds an institutional structure together.

In ancient Israel, many of these tasks were performed by the tribe of Levi [2]. Most famously, the priests of the sons of Aaron were among this tribe, but even beyond them more ordinary Levites served as gatekeepers, treasurers, musicians, cooks, teachers, counselors, civil bureaucrats, physical laborers in the temple, and other related activities that allowed the institutions of church and state in ancient Israel to function. Fathers and mothers raised up their sons and daughters to serve, and generation after generation saw both the honor and the burden of service for their brethren as a result of their tribe’s loyalty to God, until the temple was definitively destroyed and their responsibilities were given to others. Intriguingly enough, towards the end of the Second Temple period the positions that had previously been reserved to the priests and Levites began more and more to be usurped by the scribes and Pharisees. Among the Levites, far too few of them came back from the Babylonian captivity to preserve their place in service, and as a result of need, their place was eventually lost to those who saw in such service an opportunity for respect and authority over the common people of Israel, even if such people did not necessarily have a heart for service.

I know in my own personal example, my own service was something that I was raised to do. On both sides of my family there was an example of conspicuous institutional loyalty and service, so that as soon as I can remember I helped out and participated and served as I was able to do so. I cannot remember ever being told that this was how one behaved, but being raised as an observant person who had the compulsion to serve where there was a need and where I was able to do so, it came very easily to me. Looking around at those I interact with over and over again, I see the same pattern developing in their own lives, where the example of parental and family behavior raises people who, to the best of their own abilities, serve as they are able and welcome to do so, sometimes in unsung background roles, sometimes as prima donnas in the center of the stage, but always taking the time and making the effort to serve. In the hands of such people, and their ability to encourage and motivate others to serve as they do, lies the destiny of communities and institutions. Where such service is rewarded with thanks, with fellowship and good company, with offices and honors, such service is copied and emulated. Where it is disregarded and disrespected, such service is actively shunned by those who seek after honor. We indeed serve for the glory of God, but we also serve in the awareness that our behavior and conduct is watched by other people. We, naturally, wish for them to think and speak well of us, and so it is worthwhile for us to take a tour of the logistics, to understand the processes by which things work in the institutions we find ourselves in personally and professionally, and so that we may best serve others while also seeking to fulfill our own goals and ambitions, doing well by doing good.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/divine-providence-in-the-life-of-nathan-the-upser/

[2] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/nor-did-he-acknowledge-his-brothers-or-know-his-own-children-a-personal-reflection-on-the-tribe-of-levi/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/1-chronicles-26-1-19-the-levite-gatekeepers-of-the-sons-of-korah/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/leviticus-20-17-23-for-any-man-who-has-a-defect/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/1-chronicles-9-17-34-the-tabernacle-and-temple-responsibilities-of-the-sons-of-korah/