Blue Collar God/White Collar God White Collar God

; CHAPTER ONE: ;Blue-Collar God ;He could have been born the son of a CEO. He could have attended a snooty prep school. He could have shuffled himself into the deck of humanity as a king. ; ;But he didn't. ; ;He came as a three of clubs. ; ;He chose to be common. Ordinary. Regular. ; ;He was born in a blue-collar hospital. He lived a blue-collar life. He hired a blue-collar crew and ran a blue-collar ministry. He was, literally, one of us. ; ;In Blue-Collar God, that's exactly how I hope to portray him. Approachable. Accessible. I want to bring him down to the level to which he willingly brought himself; down to earth, down to us. He pressed the button for the basement of existence, becoming sub-God, trading in his puncture-resistance for human flesh. ; ;Imagine . . . ; ; ; ;God, a New York City cabdriver. ; God, a garbageman. ; God, a kite maker. ; God, a homeless insurance salesman. ; The I Am, now Everyman. ; ; ; ;These are the stories of a God who gave up his CEO position to become a grunt, who traded his high-profile I Am status for a lowly John Doe existence. Instead of us struggling to live up to God, he willingly chose to live down to us. These are the stories of a God who went to great lengths to erase the disconnectedness between us and him. ; ;This book is for people who struggle with that disconnectedness, who struggle to feel a closeness with God, who struggle walking with him even though they may be working for him. It's for people who have accepted God's gift of grace but have left it sitting under the tree, unwrapped. It's for people who keep asking for his forgiveness but are suspicious as to whether it has been granted. This book is for kitelike people who keep trying to fly themselves with no strings attached. ; ;These stories aren't all neat and tidy. They're pictures of real life and the things that sometimes happen in real life. The symbolism may disturb you at times, but stick with me, follow the images all the way through and reach for the underlying nugget of truth. My wish is not to offend, but to jump-start our thought processes by sketching some pictures of God that are a bit nontraditional. After all, a God who swapped deity for humanity, even if only for a while, can't be accused of being overly traditional. ; ;My hope is that you will become more comfortable with this nontraditional God who became human, ordinary; that you will feel a safeness in reaching for his calloused hand, that you will become more trusting of a God who willingly traded his white-collar superiority for blue-collar accessibility. These are the stories of a God who became a regular guy. A God who became approachable, accessible-blue-collar. ;A ; ; ; ;CHAPTER ONE: ;White-Collar God ;To say he's successful would be quite an understatement. To say he has entrepreneurial inclinations would be stating the glaringly obvious. To say he's a big shot, a big wheel, a big deal, the big cheese, would be selling him short on "bigs." ; ;The name embroidered on his white collar pretty much says it all . . . ; ;God. ; ;Think about it. His address? Heaven-it's about as white-collar as you can get. His staff numbers in the billions-that's enough to make any CEO's white collar turn green. His portfolio? It makes Bill Gates's pile of green turn a pale shade of white. Yeah, his collar's white all right, blindingly white. ;&Esau, Terry is the author of 'Blue Collar God/White Collar God White Collar God' with ISBN 9780849917042 and ISBN 0849917042.