There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway
Why there’s not four of them heaven only knows
I guess it’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you
It’s what you leave behind you when you go
This song, performed by country legend Randy Travis, tells a fictional, yet believable story. I noticed several years ago that this song connects well with the theology of work. I mentioned it in my book. I would like to revisit this song to reflect on it a bit more. I want to highlight its redemptive value, and then ponder for a while on the kinds of work that God values, how work has eternal value, and what it is that we are leaving behind in our own work here on earth.
The song’s redemptive value
To set the stage, let me share a slightly edited quote from my book, Immanuel Labor: God’s Presence in our Profession:
This makes me think about the song ‘Three Wooden Crosses’ recorded by Randy Travis a while ago. The lyrics powerfully portray a redemptive message that puts the spotlight on the life-changing ability of God’s Word. It tells a story of four people who were on a bus—a farmer, a teacher, a preacher, and a hooker. Three of them died in an accident (and thus the three crosses that were placed on the right side of the highway). Only one of them lived, but we are not sure who it was at first. We learn at the last verse in a twist that it was the hooker who survived the accident. She was the one to whom the preacher gave his blood-stained Bible as he lay dying, and it obviously changed her life. She raised her son with the faith in Jesus Christ that this Bible taught her. Years later, he became a preacher who used that very same Bible every Sunday.
In Kingdom Calling, Amy Sherman shares a concept of God as our vocational model, which describes the different kinds of work God does in our midst and how our human vocations fit into this model. One of them is Redemptive work: God’s saving and reconciling actions. Sherman identifies people who do redemptive work as ‘evangelists, pastors, counselors, and peacemakers … writers, artists, producers, songwriters, poets, and actors who incorporate redemptive elements in their stories, novels, songs, films, performances, and other works.
I asked, “So, how does God carry out this work today? Sometimes, He works supernaturally. For example, He does redemptive and revelatory work through His Holy Spirit. However, it is also true that God uses human beings, both believers and nonbelievers, to do this work.” This powerful song has redemptive value because the songwriter painted a clear picture that was heard by a mostly secular audience that God’s Word transforms lives if we read it and believe.
What work does God value?
This song demonstrates that teaching, farming, and songwriting are career fields that have value. Some, though, might rightfully point out that it depends on what subjects are being taught, what crops are being raised, and what types of behavior are being glorified in a song. Preaching is also highlighted in this song as a special vocation that adds spiritual value to our society.
The song also mentions a fourth career field, one that has often been referred to as “the oldest profession.” The hooker’s story in this song adds redemptive value. However, everyone knows that even though she and the preacher shared the same goal of “searching for lost souls,” her line of work cannot be considered valuable in God’s eyes, since her actions violate God’s commands.
One of the basic tenets of the theology of vocation is that work has intrinsic value, particularly the kind of work that adds shalom (peace, harmony, and flourishing) to this world. Because God works, the work humans are privileged to do as His coworkers is valuable. It is part of God’s divine plan to allow us to help Him expand His creation. Work also has instrumental value. God works through us to meet the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of our neighbors.
As transformed Christ-followers, we are exhorted by the Apostle Paul to work in a new way, to wholeheartedly serve our employers (and our coworkers and employees) as if we were serving Jesus, not people (Eph. 6:7.) Paul states this idea in a similar manner in Col. 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
How does work have eternal value?
The farmer, the teacher, and the preacher left something of value to their family, their students, and a hooker. The farmer “left a harvest, a home, and eighty acres, the faith and love for growin’ things in his young son’s heart.” The teacher “left her wisdom in the minds of lots of children” and “did her best to give ’em all a better start.” The preacher left behind his Bible to a lost soul.
However, I encourage you to stretch your sanctified imagination to consider the eternal value of the work they did that followed them. In Your Work Matters to God, Sherman and Hendricks stated something deeply profound about the heavenly value of earthly work: “In meeting the legitimate needs of people, a worker is serving people who obviously have eternal value. In other words, the product of the work may be temporal, but those who benefit from the work are eternal. So we find that whether or not the product of our labor lasts into eternity, our labor is full of eternal implications.”
There won’t be much of a need for Soldiers in heaven. (See Isa. 2:4, which mentions that “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.) Regardless, I know my work serving in the Army on active duty and as a civilian for nearly 40 years had eternal value. As I travelled around the world wherever Uncle Sam sent me and my family, we have blessed many.
What are you leaving behind?
What about you? Are you leaving behind a legacy of sacrificial love to your neighbors, i.e., your boss, employees, coworkers, customers, and family members? As an old Christian classic song sung by Ray Bolz speculates, someday when we die, we may meet various people in heaven who will come up to us and say, “Thank you for giving to the Lord. I was a life that was changed.”
I trust that this brief exploration of the words and themes of this old country song inspires you to keep on doing the work that God has gifted, called, and provided for you to do. I know that as you work in His presence to glorify Him, you are making a difference, both now and for eternity.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Russ Gehrlein
Featured Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
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