day 310: Starting At The Bottom

I was talking to a college graduate from last year who just found a job. As he described the job to me, he was very humble and grateful that he had any job to begin with. He told me that the job he had taken required him to start at the bottom and work his way up. I explained to him that this was fine and that most of us, myself included, did just the same thing. Not enough stories are told about those who started in the mail room and ended up in the corner office. That's mainly because most of us don't stay in one company long enough to see that full ascension cycle occur. But even when we change jobs, we know that we need to start at the bottom and work our way up. That may mean that we need to start at the bottom of the organization and the root of the work and learn the business from the ground floor, all done before we can be truly effective in our new role. Those that come in from the outside and act as if they know and understand the business before they really do, don't last long. This is a challenge for all of us, to work as though we don't know everything and continue to return to the foundations of our business and to the people who do the real work and value their work and the relationships we can have with them. Just a few day after Christmas we should be reminded that Jesus took the same approach. He came to the earth and started at the bottom of the bottom, as a baby, born in a manger in a stable and from there worked at his life like God desired to rise to be the King of Kings. We so often think that life and success should come easy and that we have "earned it already". Any time we start to fall into that attitude and we forget that life and success at work is really about what we do to work from the bottom up, then all we need to do is think about how our Lord started into this world and how He, without regret or disappointment, worked, learned and waited until it was time for God to bring about His purposes. As we enter into the last days before the New Year, let's not forget the example that Jesus provided for us and let us never forget from where we have come and how important it is to never lose sight of importance of starting at the bottom.

Reference: Luke Chapter 2 (New Living Testament)