My grandpa colored his speech with a variety of sayings, some his own grandpaisms, others familiar adages with grandpa characteristics. Grandparents world round seem to be full of such witticisms. In fact, my sister and I have picked up a favorite from a friend’s grandma: “If you don’t toot your own horn, it may very well go untooted.”

The other day in the middle of a professional encounter, I caught myself tooting my own horn. I joined the one-upping instead of humbly bowing my knees to our Maker. Granted, my conversation partner started it, and my tooting was muted in comparison. Yet, I could see inside my mind and knew the heart behind my words. I was battling for significance just as fiercely as my partner was.

Now looking back on that conversation, my spirit tells me it’s time for a review. How did I get where I am professionally? In other places here, I have pointed out that having a seat at the table is largely an “accident of birth.” My “accomplishments” too are primarily a result of the situations and places I was born into:

• a family that encouraged me to pursue education and profession and to follow Jesus’ leading even if He took me away from home and out of limiting societal stereotypes
• an education system that supported my pursuits, specifically teachers who shaped my potential and government funds and scholarships to pay for the schooling my parents could not afford
• a country that, perhaps until recent years, garnered respect around the world where my citizenship opened rather than closed doors as did my skin and hair color
• a natural determination and confidence, nurtured in my childhood, to bang on closed doors until they open

Some might claim that the last has played the greatest role in where I am. But take the same determined and confident Emery with her love of books and learning, and yes, hard work, and uproot her from her “accident of birth,” and where would she be? Can you picture her, before China’s development boom, withering in the dry earth that still stretches out beneath the rural villages surrounding my Chinese home?

• She might never have gone to school or learned to read.
• If she did go, her education might have ended after elementary or middle school so that she could work at an unskilled job in order to support her brothers while they finished high school.
• Or perhaps, in order to bring in a bride price, she was married out in her teens and had two, even three children by the time she reached her twentieth birthday.
• It’s also possible she died young because of poor medical care.

Perhaps because of a tendency to value doing over being, we Americans take pride in our hard work. Yet, no amount of hard work can compete with an “accident of birth.” While endeavoring toward professional excellence, I’ve climbed a mountain of opportunity on a relatively clear and well-marked path, my fan club–family, friends, and teachers–cheering me on along the way. For others, though, their path is littered with the boulders of family expectations, societal stereotypes, stifling circumstances, and a vacuum of opportunity.

Will you forgive me, Master, for working for the things of earth instead of You? Next time I’m tempted to join a one-upping match, may I instead toot untooted horns and reach out with encouragement, pulling others up and over boulders! At the same time, may I sing Your praises, Maker! You specialize in opening doors, moving mountains, and tooting the horns of the oppressed!

Image by Walter Frehner from Pixabay