Two months after my high school graduation, I started working for steel mill called, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, in their open-hearth department. I continued to work full time for nearly nine years until I earned my undergraduate degree, which took eight years taking courses going part time.
A week after starting there during a midnight shift, I became the first person of African-American Heritage to take a shift as a third helper in that open-hearth department. This was a really big deal at the time. Working as a helper on the open-hearth furnaces were some of the highest paying jobs; and up until that time, people of color were not given the opportunity to work on them. Many others came after me and were able to earn the higher pay. That was the first of a number of situations, where I was the first African-American to do a specific job.
Often, while working in the mill we could get really dirty, or be around a lot of heat causing us to perspire quite a bit. Additionally, working around the furnaces sometimes could be very dangerous. I normally wanted to take off the work clothes, and shower before putting on my street clothes. It was a wonderful feeling to remove the dirty and smelly work clothes after my shift was over. After the shower and putting on the clean clothes I almost felt like a new person.
In this passage from Colossians, we have the image of being stripped of the old self (old clothes) and being renewed into a new self (new clothes). The reader is encouraged to leave behind the old practices that they were once involved in, and to be renewed with the knowledge of a new life in Christ.
As we take part in the spiritual pilgrimage, in order to become the person God wants to be, the practices of the old self (old clothes) maybe something we don’t feel like wearing any longer. The Spirit may lead us to leave behind things that may not work any longer or feel right on our journey. Somewhat like when I couldn’t wait to get off my dirty clothes after my shift was over. While striving to become a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ, may you leave behind those old things that prevent you from being renewed. May you be clothed with your new self (new clothes) in the image of Christ!
The attached pictures are from a visit we made to the Steel Museum in Youngstown Ohio, a few years ago. The first picture is of me standing next to an open-hearth furnace door, just like the ones I worked around, while in the mill. The hole in the door was used to take samples of the molten steel, and the door was water cooled and very thick because of the heat. The other two pictures are what our wash house resembled. After a shift we would put our clothes in baskets, which were pulled up out of the way to the ceiling. These pictures represent a time--long ago and one probably forgotten by many! Blessings on your spiritual pilgrimage, peace! Vernon T.
Copyright © 2021 Vernon T. Jones, All Rights Reserved