Most of life feels like a competition. You race to get enough education to secure a
good job, but then quickly find that politics play more a role of keeping it,
than ability. So you learn. You adapt.
You become a student of the fine art of politics and in the process
realize how much people’s insecurity factors into their business
decisions. To succeed now requires a
study of psychology as well. Add psychic
to the list as the ability predict market direction, buying patterns, and sales
forecasts become critical to your continued overall success. Those who do not feel the weight of this
competition have probably been blessed with not moving too far down the line in
it. But the risks remain no matter where
you find yourself in the pattern.
Taking Christian principles into the workplace presents its
own set of challenges. It is difficult
to show trust to others who have not earned it.
It is difficult to return consistent positive responses to those who
favor getting up in your face or to those who wait for your back to be turned
before the knife comes out. It is
difficult to remain consistent in the face of the emotionally erratic. And even if you do all of this, even if you
manage to pull it off, even when you think you are doing everything right. Sometimes you lose anyway.
Skeptics would argue that Christian principles have no place
at work. Cynics would take it further to
state that you lost because of your Christianity. The temptation of others to take advantage of
your generosity is just too hard to resist.
But both the skeptic and cynic would prefer to have dealings with you
personally, not just for the advantage they believe they can gain over you, but
for the integrity they can count on which is really so rare. In point of fact, a handshake deal with a man
of honor is worth more than a 400 page iron clad contract with a man who has no
honor. Men of honor, men of integrity,
tend to last much longer than men of expediency, and men of compromise. But even men of honor lose.
Of course to really examine and understand this conundrum
you need to take a close look at what it is you are really “losing”. In the case of a job for instance, what you
are “losing” is the environment you know, the people you deal with, the routine
tasks you perform, and perceived security of regular income to plan
around. All notable. All perishable. The real question or measurement of loss is
determined by what comes next isn’t it?
If you “lose” this job but find yourself in a better one, is it still a
“loss”. If you earn more, have more time
off, find easier work, deal with more honorable people, is it still a
loss? Course if the lag time between one
job and another lasts long enough, the lag time itself becomes the “loss”. You could lose everything you own. Not fun.
Been there, done that, have the postcard.
Losing a loved one is much harder emotionally. Losing health is harder still both emotionally,
and physically. It can have a
devastating financial impact as well (we call that one the tri-fecta). But the loss of those we love here in this
world will one day be returned to us in the next. The loss of health, might be restored through
healing in this world, but for certain will be fully restored in the next. The loss of a job is a more unpredictable
phenomenon. You need a job in this world
to survive, but may well have several of them before reaching retirement
age. Some you choose to move to based on
the lure of more. Some you are forced to
find because you are left without a choice.
When the economy conspires against you with a new forced job search, odds
seem stacked against you. Is this the
nature of a “loss” then? Is it losing a
job during hard economic times? You must
know the competition to find another one will be much greater, the number of
openings far fewer. This is a perfect
storm combination that can easily spell out bankruptcy.
So what is the plan of God, when like me, you find yourself
having one of these ugly days? The
company to which I have dedicated more than the last year of my life to
building for success, has opted to separate from me, in order to lower their
expenses. I am sure the lack of
meaningful sales over the last 8 months weighed heavily in that decision. I am not angry about it. More puzzled than anything really. It seemed as though God had opened every door
for me to be in the position I was in with my former employer. And this forced transition never really
seemed to be a part of what I would normally predict as His plan.
So where to go from here?
Sometimes you lose. I did. But I wonder if the loss will be real, or
short lived. I wonder if the effects
will be long lasting or quickly forgotten.
I wonder what the future holds for me.
But I have no doubt in the creator God I serve. While I am clueless on His next moves, I am curious
to watch them play out. I am not
starving as yet, have no mounting bills as yet, am in no immediate danger as
yet. Even if these things all transpire
there is little I can do to control the outcome, or prevent their
occurrence. So due to my set of beliefs,
I can relax. I can put my trust in the
only living entity with enough power to influence the future I am to come
across. I can put the burden for my care
and maintenance in the only Hands with enough real control to insure
success. And what is more, I can try to
maintain the priority of resting in Him, knowing that what efforts I make to
alter my outcome, will find purpose in success only when He makes it so. This is the beauty of trust.
I look forward to the blog entry to thank my God for the new
job and income He has provided. I don’t
know how long it will be before I write that one. But I have every expectation of writing
it. Till then I will continue to discuss
the myths that tend to hurt the name and reputation of our creator God …
No comments:
Post a Comment