day 123: The Paradox

There is an intriguing and fascinating paradox about finding and living our real purpose at work. Work is set up for us to "get ahead" and in many cases, set up purposefully for there to be a "horse race" for the next position. It is all set up for everyone to be jockeying for the promotion or the assignment that can move them up the ladder a rung. The best of the best organizations are written about because of their "deep bench of talent" and how great they are because they have multiple people ready at any given time to take over if there is a change with the boss. I spent many a year and a lot of energy and time doing just that for companies. There is nothing wrong with this per se as long as none of us fall into the trap of thinking that the next job, the next promotion, the next relocation, or the next assignment is what it is all about. If we become fixated on this then we have lost the perspective needed to live out our purpose in our work. Jesus gives us the "big picture" from the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew Chapter 5 verse 5 He says, "God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them". That's about as opposite as you can imagine from the individual development plan discussion you will have with your boss or your HR person this year. Can you imagine a conversation that started with, "What we need to work on this year is your gentleness and also figuring out how to move you down the pecking order a few notches." So how we work and how we are supposed to work is what George Barna calls a "paradox". He says in his book, Revolution, this about the paradox: "You win before you experience your initial skirmish. Faith triumphs overs competence. Spiritual power overwhelms physical force. Humility generates attention and appreciation. Holiness defeats worldly cleverness. Those who surrender their lives defeat the enemy who seeks to destroy them." We are all supposed to be part of the paradox. If we fall into the web of living to get ahead in our work then we get spun by the spider we may never find our way back out. If we fail to realize that the answer to the paradox is in the "how" and the "process" of of our work, instead of the "what" and the "accomplishments" then we will not be able to live out our purpose in our work. As we "spring" into the year, now would be a good time to look over the year so far and see where our time, our resources and our energy have been spent to date. For where those have gone we will find what our true priorities have been so far. The question for us all is can we find a way to live in the paradox that God has challenged us to live within? If we can, we may just find that we are closer to working our real purpose!

Reference: Matthew 5:5 (New Living Testament)