I hate going to headquarters, Jim thought after Frank Wright messaged him to meet in his corporate office. It almost always means despite all the accolades for doing such ‘an outstanding job,’ I’m going to be saddled with more work. Or worse, I’ll be stuck visiting some high-level client who wants to be stroked and meet the Lab Director before expanding their project. I hate politics!
It was the “or worse.” Jim balked at going on another client visitation trip.
“Jim, if you don’t want to go on this trip or with Harry Cleveland, say so,” Frank said through a friendly smile.
“I don’t want to go, Frank.”
“You were supposed to get all professional and say something like ‘I would love to, Frank’ or something similar.”
“I don’t want to go, Frank.”
Frank gave a long, soft sigh as he scratched his head in frustration. “Well, the customer wants to meet the AI Lab Director and Corporate Chief Science Engineer for this meeting. There is no way around it. They will spend a boatload of money with us. You can turn down other trips or go with someone else later, but this trip has to be, and it has to be Harry.”
“Frank, Harry is a great guy, but he’s a Christian. I don’t think there is anything wrong if a person likes that sort of thing, but it sure isn’t for me.”
“What on earth does it have to do with anything? This is a business trip, not a religious outing.”
“Geez, Frank, I’m a man of science. That excludes having any religious views. If you can’t touch it, measure it, or calculate it, it’s a fable and doesn’t exist. All religions fall into the fable category.”
“And so what? Again, what does it have to do with the trip?”
“Harry eventually steers the conversation around to God and starts asking me about my relationship with God. He asks smoothly, but I always know the God topic is hanging around in the atmosphere somewhere, waiting for the right time to drop into the conversation. The suspense of when it will happen drives me crazy. I’ve asked Harry to stop talking about God, but Harry said, ‘If I didn’t speak, the very stones would cry out in my place.’ What the hell does that even mean?”
“It means if Harry didn’t say something to you, someone else would, at least, it’s what I think. Listen, I’ll talk to Harry and ask him to tone it down a little. Would it help? I have to ask another question. Is it because he is African-American?”
“What? No! That’s crazy. I don’t believe in this God thing of his. He’s a good guy, has a beautiful wife, kids, and a grandchild on the way. I wish I had his home life. They are so all-together. The perfect couple.”
“They are the perfect couple. Harry and I were talking about the trip, and the family came up in the conversation.”
“See what I mean, Frank? He steers the conversation.”
“I suppose so, Jim. But it’s no big deal. He says he and his family are close because they are close to God. Frank even drew me a little equilateral triangle. On the top of the triangle, he wrote God and put himself and Janet on the bottom corners. He explained as they each grow closer to God, they move up the triangle and are automatically moving closer to each other too. Right or wrong, you have to admire the man for thinking like that.”
“I guess so, Frank. Yeah, okay. You win. I’ll go peacefully. Harry likes to sit in the restaurant after dinner and chat all night. I’d rather go to the bar and have a couple of drinks.”
“How is he when we send out an entire team to a client location? Does he mix with everyone?”
“Well, if we go to a strip club, Harry won’t come. He says, “It’s not my style,” and serenely heads back to his hotel room. The teams think Harry carries being an upright person too far.”
“How do you feel about it?”
“Deep down, I have to admire his convictions and strength for holding onto his beliefs. I believe he is dead wrong, of course, but still, you have to respect how he maintains his position without a lot of fanfare or drama. He’s never once condemned us for our choices.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Frank.
Jim and Harry met at the airport later that night.
“So, how are things going on the home front?” Harry asked as they chatted while waiting for their plane.
“All peaches and cream, Harry. Why do you ask?”
“It’s nothing, Jim. I was only wondering.” Harry could see the signs of internal stress on his friend. “You know gossip spreads like magic. There were some rumors of troubles at home, is all. If there’s no story, people make one up.”
“We have the same problems as everyone else. We’ll work it through. No biggie.”
“I understand. There’s another rumor suggesting you had a fire at your place a little while back. Everyone okay?”
Jim was silent. His cheeks reddened. “Yeah, we did. But it was just a little backyard thing. Not much damage done.”
“Humph. The mill says Alice had something to do with it. Do you ever pray over your marriage?”
“Harry, there you go again. You’re going to hit me with how God can bring fulfillment and peace into my life and marriage, right?”
“Guilty. You got me on that one,” Harry smiled.
“I would love to feel peace in my life, but the price of your kind of peace is too high for me to pay.” Where is the fun of clubbing and women? Jim said to himself. I’m not ready to give it all up yet. Maybe when I’m old.
“I understand,” Harry replied as he continued with his meeting preparation. “No pressure.”
This trip was their third one to Cincinnati together in the last sixteen months. Their routine was always the same. Catch the Delta Airlines flight at six-ten AM from LaGuardia to Cincinnati, meet with a variety of technical and management clients all day, go to dinner with one or two company decision-makers and then go back to the hotel.
“So, where are we staying on this trip?” Jim asked, and then continued without waiting for an answer. “As if I didn’t know. Let’s see, what’s the most boring hotel you can find? Oh yeah, the usual.”
“I made reservations at the Symphony,” Harry replied. “It’s a nice, older hotel and barely north of the city near Washington Park. The rooms are nineteen-thirty style with ornate poster beds, fireplaces, and crafted furniture that can almost make me believe a footman was waiting for us in the lobby to assist us in getting into a horse-drawn carriage.”
Jim rolled his eyes.
“It has an ambiance. I love it.” Harry continued, “It seems more fitted to my nature than most of the cookie-cutter bright-lights chain hotels.”
“Yeah, I know it fits you. But I’d rather stay in a larger, more upscale hotel with a better bar and a band. Do you keep choosing the same place to keep me under control?”
Harry knew Jim wanted a more modern venue hoping to meet a young female professional to hook up with for the evening.
“Jim, would I ever stoop to that level?” Harry asked, grinning. “It’s the affordable rates and nearness to our clients mandating the choice. You know that.”
“Sure thing, Harry. Nope, you would never stoop so low. You bet,” Jim replied with sarcasm.
The schedule of meetings included corporate heads along with the CEO. The dinner afterward went as expected without the slightest variation, except for the CEO asking for better grades of wine at the table.
These dog-and-pony shows are about as exciting as rolling a gutter ball in bowling. A straightforward track with no deviation. So dull, Jim said to himself.
“Well, we left the client feeling adequately stroked. Now let’s get back home.”
On the flight back to LaGuardia, comfortable in Business Class, Harry asked Jim again if he ever thought about accepting Jesus as his personal savior. Jim considered his many sexual encounters with other women.
“Will all of my sins of the past be erased if I did?”
“Yup,” Harry replied in the affirmative.
Jim asked, “Does it mean I will not have to face the penalty for what I’ve done?”
“Well, now that’s a two-part answer. The first part, from Christ’s viewpoint, is since He has already paid the full price for our sins, there would be no eternal punishment tendered to those who have a change of heart and become His followers and disciples. The second part,” Harry explained, “is not such great news about how it works in the here and now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I do some work in a prison ministry. Inmates are turning their lives around. Although they give their hearts to Jesus, they will still have to serve their full sentences. You may be forgiven in the heavenly, but it may not work that way on terra firma. If you do the crime, you will probably do the time, up to and including capital punishment.”
It bothered Jim that Harry again seemed so logical and sure of what he was saying. I’d like to be sure of something like he is. Anything!
“So Harry, if I turn my life over to Jesus, you’re saying I might still get screwed down here. Is that correct?” Jim asked.
Harry answered with compassion in his eyes. “No. You can’t call it ‘getting screwed.’ I would call it receiving the payment you worked so hard for. The Bible says, “the wages of sin is death.” Wages are simply the fair payment for the work you have done. Right? When you get your paycheck, you’re not getting something you don’t deserve. You’re getting exactly what you do deserve and what you worked for, your wages. Does that make sense to you?”
“Sort of,” Jim mumbled back. But I’m still not going to let something like religion get in the way of having fun. Damn it, though. Harry makes some kind of crazy sense.