Marcus Redding Has a Normal Day

“Good night, mom. I’m glad you are feeling better.” It had been a week since Marcus came home and found her so upset about her mom. But Ruth was doing better, she had a good week at work, and Lauren took her to lunch over the weekend. Marcus asked how she was doing. Lauren shook her head and shrugged, “She just had a hard week. She’ll be all right. Like the Psalm says, ‘Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.’” Marcus yawned, “Speaking of the morning, it’s time for bed. What do you have on for tomorrow?” “Normal day,” she said, “normal as it can be when computers and people get together. What about you?” “Normal day...normal as it can be at Colby’s Wholesale.”

Marcus got up at 6:00. He made coffee and sat down at the kitchen/card table and opened Lauren’s laptop. He read a chapter from Romans on biblegateway.com. Then he checked espn.com and watched the highlights of yesterday’s baseball games. After another cup of coffee it was time to go to work. He climbed into his 2001 Dodge Ram to make the fifteen minute commute. He got there at 6:45 to open the warehouse, get the orders, and make coffee for the guys. One or two days out of the week he got to deliver, but not today. Tuesdays he was always in the warehouse. He worked till noon filling orders and loading trucks, took a lunch break from noon to 12:30, then he worked till 5:00 and left the evening shift to finish the work for the day. He usually passed Brookshires on the way home so Lauren had texted him a grocery list. He stopped and picked up toilet paper and bananas and orange juice. He got home at quarter to six and fixed a little dinner so it would be ready when Lauren got home. The orange juice made him think of breakfast so he cooked breakfast for dinner: ham, eggs, toast, orange juice.

Lauren’s workday was a couple hours different than his. This worried her when they first got married. She was concerned about her recovering alcoholic husband being home alone after work every day. It would be so easy for him to want to relax after work with a beer. But they talked about it and he was all right. Lauren was only 23 years old but she was over the Information Technology department at Tyler Junior College. She didn’t just work with computers, she was in charge of all the technology on the whole campus. She got to work around 9:00 and assigned the technicians to work on whatever projects needed attention. She taught a couple technology classes herself. And since there was always new software and software cost money there were always meetings with administration. She had a big job. And it was stressful. But Lauren was really good at what she did. The Christians who worked with her called her “Josephine” after Joseph in the Old Testament who succeeded at everything he did. She got home at 6:00 or 7:00 on weeknights.

Tonight Marcus had dinner (breakfast) ready, which was nice. Between bites of ham and eggs they talked about their days. Marcus had a regular day at work, no drama. Lauren had a regular day at work, plenty of drama. But it was a normal day. Too many days in a row like that made Marcus feel antsy, anxious to do something exciting, and he told Lauren as much. She swirled the last bit of orange juice in her glass, “Most of life is routine. We go to work, come home, go to church, you know. That’s how Jesus spent over half his life. Working as a carpenter, coming home, going to synagogue.” Marcus leaned back in his chair, “So if we can handle the routine of daily life then we can handle the big things that come up. Jesus said something about that, didn’t he?” Marcus was setting Lauren up to quote Jesus’ words, most of which she had committed to memory since she was a teenager…

Lauren picked up the dishes and glasses to take to the kitchen, then she came back to the table and kissed him on the forehead, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. Thanks for making dinner.”

More about Marcus Redding’s journey of faith next week.