day 1290: Teflon and Velcro

"Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees."

Is your organization filled with Teflon or Velcro?  What do I mean with that question?  Teflon organizations don't let negatives get them down.  They don't allow the comments of others to stick, but instead get the meaning across and then roll off.  These are cultures where those from the outside can't understand how plainly and sometimes bluntly people can speak the truth.  These cultures can also be ones that move faster with less friction. The downside is that positive comments can also roll off too fast and should stick a little longer.  Velcro cultures are just the opposite.  Everything sticks and nothing is easy to move.  One small comment can be debated and fretted over forever and then everything gets jammed up.  Funny thing about a Velcro culture is that the negatives still stick way more than the positives. The positives, are almost like the Teflon culture in that they get drowned out and ignored quickly, because there are so many negatives sticking around.  Which is your culture?  Which are you supporting inside of the culture?

As ones who are striving to bring glory to God in our work, to bring purposed working to life, we can't be people of Velcro.  We have to be encouraging, optimistic, hopeful, positive and uplifting in our demeanor and spirit.  If we aren't then we are like the ways of the world and we have nothing to stand with as our example of the love, grace, mercy and hope of Christ. Let's check ourselves today and be sure that we have on our Teflon and not our Velcro as we finish this week.

I realize for many of you, today will be the last day of work before Christmas.  Purposed worKING will be here Monday the 23rd and then off to celebrate Christmas for the rest of the week.  For those checking out today, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!  May it be the best Christmas yet for you!

Reference: Job 4:4 (New Living Translation)

day 609: Don't Dis' Courage

"I command you - be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

The company or business leader who takes the big risk and then succeeds will experience others recognizing their courage to step forward and take the chance when others wouldn't. We applaud courage and we give praise to those who demonstrate it and follow through. Yet in business there are usually a group of naysayers who will be the first to "dis' courage" or be discouraging. We know who they are and if we thought about it for a moment, we could come up with a list of the people we can count on to consistently be looking for the hole in the doughnut or point out all the risks to an extreme. I have often wondered why these people do what they do and I believe it is their own lack of courage that holds them back from supporting or jumping on the bandwagon. They would rather take their own chance to stay safe, secure and controlled by the fear of failing. The problem is that these people are not only securing themselves, but also holding back others who want to strive and reach for more.

God does not want us to be those who discourage others. We are to be encouraging and we are to be courageous and strong. Being discouraged is mentioned together with being afraid and if we are either then we are turning our backs on what God has promised us. Others are looking to us and we have the opportunity today, right now in this time, to be ones who can be courageous because we believe, know and trust that God is with us wherever we go. To be any less is to say that our God is not what He says He is! Today is a day for courage and strength that comes from Him!

Reference: Joshua 1:9 (New Living Testament)

day 454: An Encouragement Prayer

We just can't get enough, or dole out, enough encouragements. I love to be around people who are great at encouraging others. These people seem to have the right words at the right time, and they make you feel good when everyone else is trying to drag us down. Let me just hang out with those people all day long. Sometimes though they aren't around when we need them and we have to stand on our own two feet to make it through the day, week, month, or year. It really gets hard when we get assigned to a project or have a boss or co-workers where there isn't an encourager in the group. Without at least one person, a team won't feel like a team and it gets harder and harder to feel uplifted and positive about the future. That's why if we don't have an encourager around us, that we should look to be the one who picks up that role. But, where do we get our oomph if not from someone else? David says a prayer for us and gives us direction in Psalm 69:32; "Let all who seek God's help be encouraged." Finding true encouragement starts with seeking God first. If we can reorient ourselves away from the need of receiving encouragement from others and look to God for all that we need, then we can fill ourselves up with all of the reinforcement, positives and wind at our back that we can handle. Consider today a problem, a challenge, an issue that you recently faced and took on alone without consulting or asking God for His special assistance. How effective were you? You may have nailed it without His help, but think about how encouraged and confident you were? Did you miss an opportunity to have true encouragement within you? Would you have come through the challenge feeling differently had you brought Him to work with you? David prayed for us and since God answers prayers, we can go into today, tomorrow, next week, etc. knowing that if we continue to seek God's help we will receive all the encouragement we will ever need.

Reference: Psalm 69:32 (New Living Testament)

day 391: Amen Not No-Men

Yesterday as I was teaching Sunday School one of the little kids said that the opposite of "Amen" was "No-Men". I laughed as you really never know what is going to come out of the mouths of babes. Later as I was thinking about it, I thought he was actually right and indeed Amen is a word of encouragement and reinforcement and the other side of it would be being negative, so in a way, "Nomen" is not good. At work we are offered so many opportunities to reinforce things positively with an encouraging word, but we don't pounce on those chances enough and more often than not someone else will jump in with the negative point of view before we have a chance to say something good, and then it is too late. Once the moment slips away it is hard to get it back and instead of placing an encouraging word we, by default and silence, will have maybe sent the opposite message of what we desired. Without even knowing it, we can become "no-men". This is not what Paul tells us to do in Romans 15:2. He says instead, "We should please others. If we do what helps them, we will build them up in the Lord". If we start today with a few of our own "amens" to the work and efforts of others then that pleasing will come back many folds over as will a draw from others who will want to be around us so that they can also feel the positive reinforcement. And whatever we do let's not fall into the trap of being seen and known as the negative person in the room. No one likes or wants to follow "No-men".

Reference: Romans 15:2 (New Living Testament)

day 181: Rounding Up

Part of getting anything done at work is knowing your co-workers well enough that you can predict how they will respond to any request or idea. In effective presentation or public speaking classes this would be called, "knowing your audience". It is true, those who are most in tune with the people around them are usually the ones who are the best influencers and can get the most done. If we are not one of those people, we know who that person is and we take our issues to them and get their advice on how to get through to someone or sometimes we ask them to carry the message for us. Being able to know people well enough that you can predict their answers and reactions is a real skill to be developed and honed. Another outcome of this ability is that once you know someone at that level they begin to trust you in return. It's a nice reciprocal. I have also seen that a trait of these people is that they tend to see the best in people as well. They "round up" on others. This means that they aren't always looking for the worst in people, like many people do, instead they look for the best and they see those traits and they build them up and reinforce the goodness in them. If you want to try something that builds trust from others then if you do nothing else, just do this. So many people walk the halls at work worried about where and when the next cutting remark, or the questioning of their ability or performance is going to hit. For many, self-confidence in their jobs is low to start with and then add on the concern that someone is lurking out there just waiting for them to slip, makes for a lot of people walking on egg shells around their co-workers. When someone comes along who will build them up and give them confidence and assurances, then that person becomes someone they trust, listen to and follow. And yes, that same person who rounds up others becomes the one who can influence and get things done through others. Are we not to be the ones who round up on other people? In Psalm 37:31 we read; "Consider the blameless, observe the upright..." Yes, we are to the be the ones in the office who round-up on people not round-down or look for the faults in others. Everyone, other than our Lord, has faults and issues. We don't have to go further than the mirror to find someone with faults. So, as we strive to be the living example of a person for others to want to listen to, learn from and see our purpose then let's start with the simple notion and lesson of "rounding up".

Reference: Psalm 37:31 (New Living Testament)

day 163: Inside Job

Throughout this Purposed worKING blog we have explored how we can bring glory to God as our purpose and how we can use our work that we do day in and day out to be a part of the work of the Kingdom. Each day we go to work and we do our best to represent what it means to be a follower of Jesus and we try and live the example and role model that God would want us to live. One day is better than another and regardless we continue to strive towards being the best we can be. The typical work environment does not assist in this and we find ourselves trying to go right and good in the midst of politics and lots of little bad things that can add up to making it really hard to live the life at work that we desire. It may be that this is harder than it needs to be because we aren't allowing God to do His work on us. What He wants to do is what I call an "inside job". He wants us to welcome Him into our lives and then allow Him to work from the inside out on us. We see this in Philippians 2:13; "For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him." What I love about this verse is that while we are going about our work, doing the best we can to please Him, He is doing His work inside of us to give us the desire and the power to bring Him pleasure. If ever there was a virtuous circle it is this one. As we continue to explore how we can turn our earthly work into God's purpose, let us never forget, and let us be daily encouraged, that God wants to work as hard at this in us as we will allow Him. As we head back to work this week after the long weekend, let's start with letting God do His inside job on us first and then we can pick it up from there for Him.

Reference: Philippians 2:13 (New Living Testament)

day 96: Behind The Scenes

There is always someone behind the scenes who is doing a lot of heavy lifting and hard work but who is rarely seen or noticed. Occasionally at work the unsung heroes get called out and invariably everyone is so appreciative that a standing ovation and lots of recognition is given out to them. And then, the moment passes and we all go back to our jobs and we tend to once again forget the unsung. Instead of remembering and continuing to build up those who are not in the spotlight, we head back to our work and look for how we can land in the spotlight ourselves. It's just the way that work works. There is a different approach that we can take and it is one that will be fulfilling both to us and to others. Paul says in Romans 15:2: "We should please others. If we do what helps them, we will build them up in the Lord". What he is saying is that if we are really serious about building up others then we need to worry about pleasing and helping them versus worrying about pleasing and helping ourselves. It's in our human nature to think first of ourselves and second about others, but it is supposed to be the other way around. We all have brothers and sisters in faith who we know in our workplace. If we want to build them up in the Lord and help them be stronger and more effective as witnesses and examples, then we need to reach out to them and ensure that we understand what help they need and then go about providing them this assistance. And we should not stop there. We should do this for all of our co-workers as we strive to build them up and ensure that they can see through us the example of a life well-lived and different than the rest. There will be many opportunities today to practice this principle. Pick one or two and intentionally go out of your way to help and please and then watch what happens. I suspect that you will like the outcome and even more so, the person who you are helping will receive far more assistance than what is obvious at the moment. Is it time for you to become a behind the scenes builder of others?

Reference: Romans 15:2 (New Living Testament)

day 86: Refreshment

Work can be draining of energy and spirit. Ever notice how you feel the freshest in the morning and by the time the end of the day rolls around it can sometimes feel like you are falling across the door threshold of home? The release thump of the briefcase on the entry way floor may be the loudest noise of the day. I once saw a study that was done where researchers videotaped people from the time they got out of their cars in the office parking lot to the time they got to their office door. What the research found was that people walked the fastest and stood most erect at the time of getting out of their car in the morning and as they walked towards their office they slowed more and more and their posture worsened so that as they walked into their office itself they were more bent over and walking slower than at any other point. I know that feeling. The burdens of the day can start climbing out of the briefcase and onto your shoulders as the day starts. And so we find ourselves needing and wanting refreshment of energy and spirit to keep the day "up" and productive. The Bible tells us how to do find this refreshment. Proverbs 11:25 says, "The generous prosper and are satisfied; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed". It's counter intuitive but it's true. To be refreshed and to stay up we must give more than we receive. I once worked for a guy, Gregg, who used to say to us that he felt his job was to be an "encourager" and that he felt that his duty was to come to the office each and every day with an uplifted and positive spirit and pass that along to others. And you know what? It worked. When he would enter the room things got better. I know it took a lot out of him but I also know that the Biblical principle mentioned above was working through Gregg. The more encouraging and refreshing he was, the more he got back. When greeted with a smile, we smile back. Gregg received smiles all day long. It's not easy, but it's certainly worth a try. So, today, can you put the smile of the Lord on your face and try and be a refresher for others? I'd ask you to try and then take a mood check at the end of the day. If you see any hints of a result then try again tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after. Who knows how your disposition and outlook for work might change from such a simple attitude adjustment.

Reference: Proverbs 11:25 (New Living Testament)