Light Bulb, part 2
I recently wrote about getting the bulb replaced in my vehicle and my interaction with the shop while waiting for the work to be done.
When I brought my vehicle in, they said it would take half an hour to an hour, depending on how hard it was to get to the bulb. When they called me over to pay for it, I really had no idea what it would cost.
The young lady behind the counter commented that it took a more expensive bulb, almost $20. That didn’t sound too bad to me, because back in the day, I remember buying a whole light component to replace it, and that was around $20. Remember when you bought a pre-made heavy light bulb and replaced the whole unit when it went out? Seems like it used to happen more often back then than now, so at least that is better.
Then, she told me the total was almost $120. I gasped. It was at that point I realized the labor to replace the bulb was almost five times the cost of the bulb. She told me the technician (we call them that now instead of mechanics) had to replace the bulb by going through the fender or something ominous like that. It was at that point I realized that if it took him an hour to do this, I might have been successful in replacing it myself in eight hours, maybe. I accepted the value proposition of the exchange.
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”
And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, ’so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”” - Luke 11:42-52 ESV
We’ve created a society so complex that the average person needs experts for many things. I valued all my employees when I worked. I realized that everyone was important and needed to work together to accomplish our objectives.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a
single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” - 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 ESV
I can’t say I was excited about paying my bill, but I was grateful God had provided me the resources to shoulder it, and I appreciate the skill and expertise of those who can do that work.
