Lured

 

Josh grew up in a small town in North Georgia.  He was relatively athletic, but was more into tennis and wakeboarding than team sports.  His dad, William, also grew up in North Georgia.  William had a job working at one of the carpet manufacturers, but his real passion was fishing, and he developed a knack for making his own lures.  His friends that he fished with saw his fishing success and hoped that the lures might have something to do with it.  William started making lures for his friends in his garage, and after several years, was selling them on eBay.  The lures became very popular, and a friend of Williams approached him about turning William's hobby into a business.  With money from the friend, and William's lures and reputation, the "lure" business grew into a successful company selling several lines of products for the outdoorsman.

 

At first Josh wasn't that interested in his dad's business - except for the fact that his company's success did allow the family to own an above average wakeboard boat.  Josh took full advantage hosting his high school buddies for hours of fun at the lake.  

 

But as Josh begun considering colleges, he recognized that his dad's company might offer him a place to land when he graduated.  He elected to go to a technical school to study process improvement and advanced manufacturing techniques.  He had seen how time intensive it was for his dad to make his lures and knew that the cost to produce them could be less with a better process.  He studied hard and made good grades.  On the weekends, when his dad was out fishing with friends, he would spend hours in his dad's workshop exploring what materials his dad had used to make the lures and pouring over pencil sketches of lures stored in one of the drawers in his shop. 

In one of his final classes in college, Josh had to redesign a manufacturing process for an existing product.  Without direct help from his dad, Josh used everything he had learned from his dad's shop and in college to redesign the manufacturing process for a new fishing lure.  Josh hoped that his commitment to the project would help secure a place for him in his dad's business.

After graduating college with honors, Josh got with his dad to present the new lure manufacturing process.  His dad listened intently and was pleased with his son's work.  Then Josh asked his dad if he could be the Director of Manufacturing for the lure side of the business, promising to reduce production costs by 20% within the first year.  William looked at his son, but didn't respond.  A growing feeling of rejection started welling up in Josh's stomach. It was so strong that he thought he was going to puke.  He didn't know whether to bust out crying or scream in rage.  "All of that work.  All of that time.  Wasted.  All for nothing.", he thought.  Finally after what seemed like hours to Josh, but was probably only a few seconds, his dad said, "Josh, I love you so much.  I will help you find a good entry level position in the right company - whether it's my company or another company."  Josh couldn't believe it.  "How could you do this to me, your own son, after all I have done?"  His dad replied carefully, "I just wanted you to come fishing with me."

 

(Disclaimer:  While this parable is mine, the idea was completely inspired by J. I. Packer's Knowing God.)