“A new king in Egypt”*

*Exodus 1:8
“Now there arose a new king in Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”

One of the great American classics is John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. Set in the 1930s, it tells the story of the Joad family as they are forced to leave Oklahoma during the dust bowl years, and migrate along with the thousands of Americans who went to California on the promise of a better life. One of the startling scenes is when the Joads encounter vicious prejudice and are spurned as “Okies.”

When our son was in elementary school, one of his teachers gave the class a most interesting assignment. The students were to interview their grandparents and ask them what they remembered about the Depression. So, during one trip with Grandpa, our son questioned away. What was it like to live during the Depression? Where did you live? Did you ever not have enough to eat?

As it turns out, by circumstance unrelated to the dust bowl impact on farming, my father’s family—his father, mother, brothers and sisters—all moved from Oklahoma to California in 1933. So, like the Joad family, my father’s family were also “Okies.”

My grandfather had been president of a small Bible school in Oklahoma, when an offer came for him to be religious director and Bible teacher at a church college in southern California. So, the whole family moved west in 1933. The trip to California held its own adventure. The family left Oklahoma in August 1933, driving the newly acquired Chevrolet. Behind it was a trailer which held their household possessions. Along the way, they traveled the most used route of that day, U.S. Route 66. However, to save time and money, my grandfather determined that the map showed an unpaved road that bore more directly west than Route 66. They took the road across New Mexico. Partway along the unpaved, unmarked road, they heard a clatter. Some yards back lay the car battery which had fallen out. When they had stopped to investigate the noise, they had not switched off the car, so it continued to run drawing its spark directly off the generator. They managed to find a small garage which had the correct size battery that was somehow mounted into the engine, and they continued on their way to California.

Ordinarily, the position in California should have been a long term position. My grandfather had a yearly contract that had been renewed several times, and when it came due for renewal in 1936-37, he counted on having it renewed again. Until then, compensation for my grandfather had included tuition for his children. His oldest son had attended the college on that arrangement. When the college president handed the new contract to my grandfather, it contained a major change—no more tuition. With his second son (my dad) ready to begin college, this change was a severe financial blow. So my grandfather handed the contract back, and asked that the old terms be restored.

Several days passed; then my grandfather met the college’s Board chair who informed my grandfather that since he had no contract, he had no job. My grandfather was 53, suddenly unemployed, with five children, and the country deep in the middle of the Great Depression. My oldest uncle had finished college, but my dad was ready to begin, and there were three other children, with the youngest only 4 years old.

I have thought about that event in my grandfather’s life a lot. Five years ago, I “retired” because the company I worked for eliminated the department I headed. While I was closer to retirement age than my grandfather was, and had no young children still at home, the event still shocked me. And I had to find a new focus for my life.

My grandfather overcame this challenge. He found new work in two separate jobs, and he built his own home after this episode in his life.

Sometimes there are shifts in power in our lives, new kings arise and we find ourselves disrupted, out of place, out of favor. What we do next, of course, makes all the difference.