I’m sitting here working on a project. Jennifer is sitting on the couch behind me. She says, “Here’s a job that’s from ten to three. They say it is ideal for a mom with school-aged kids.”

Of course, not all our children are school aged. We talk a bit about how to deal with our youngest. And then I say, “Well, they’re aiming at your demographic so go for it.”

But, of course, this bothers me a great deal. Jennifer worked for a major imprint for a major Christian publishing house for several years. Her boss lived in another state and she was his office staff, getting proposals ready, working with authors, and working with contract workers, as well as organizing with printing and other departments. Before that she was on a staff where, at one point, she was responsible for a magazine, a newspaper, and a newsletter (I was also a member of the team and, yes, for awhile, she was my boss. I liked the arrangement so much I decided to marry her and make it permanent!)

But after about a decade of being a mother with a professional husband who (hypothetically) was supposed to bring home the income, she is now reduced to getting hourly clerical jobs.

I hate to sound bitter, but it often looks to me like a great many jobholders need to justify their incomes by describing their work as mystically as possible to make it look like not many people could do it. If it became clear that almost anyone could learn the software applications and procedures in a month and that the quality of their work depended on abilities and intelligence that are not as easily measurable or quantifiable, the world would become a frightening and unstable place for many.

One semester in seminary I worked nineteen hours and held down a full time job and did just fine (other than a week’s tussle with pneumonia which, thankfully, hit just in time to be medicated during spring break). I wonder, if one were trying to break into the corporate world, how he would get that across. I think this is an issue that faces a great many pastors. They have, by every measurable standard, shown themselves as able to learn and work and get things done. But this simply does not get credited to them.