day 459: When It Looks Like It Is Over...

If you have ever run a business or been close enough to a part of managing the overall business you know that there comes times when it you know it is just about over and time to call it quits. While it might be the overall business itself, more often than not it is a product line, a project, a customer who will be lost, a financing, an employee who can't be saved or one who can't be hired. It happens to every business and it is hard, really hard, to call it quits after all of the time, effort, energy and money has been spent to get this far, only to see it slip away. The fact is that it never slips away, what really happens is that we just don't want to see it coming or make the decision or worse yet, make the decision from a place of fear, despair or anger. It happens. What is important is that we don't let that become the way that we operate all the time. The other side of the coin are those who run business as though today is the last day and that the threat of going out of business or closing down a product line, division, etc. always looms so that there is a constant feeling of fear and oppression that takes much of the joy out of work. There is a balance in a lesson from the Bible in the book of 1 Kings about the time Elijah met with the widow at Zerephath. He asked the widow for water and a bite of bread. The woman was at the end of her food and she told Elijah that there was no bread, only enough for her and her son to have one more meal before they died. Elijah said back to her in Chapter 17, Verses 13-14; "Don't be afraid! Go and cook that 'last meal', but bake me a little loaf of bread first. Afterward there will still be enough food for you and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!" Elijah was saying to her, have faith and don't worry about when the end arrives. If we trust in the Lord for all that we need then He will provide enough to make it through. There are times when it is the right time to quit something and it becomes foolish to keep at it. But, that decision should never be made without the faith and trust upon God as as the provider of the needs. That means that our decisions can and should be made from a place of strength and confidence, never fear or despair.

Reference: 1 Kings 17:13-14 (New Living Testament)

day 240: No Fear

As I sat in church yesterday listening to my Pastor as he spoke about the storms that we each must face in our lives, he flashed up on the overhead screen 2 Timothy 1:7 which says: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." As I drove home thinking about fear and what it does to each of us in our jobs, it became reassuring to me that we can know that fear is not from God, as the verse above tells us that God has not given us this emotion. Fear is a real emotion in our jobs, although no one ever really talks about it. It starts with a general insecurity and fear of our job performance and job loss. Long ago, the contract and assurances of lifetime employment was broken. Since then, we all fear at one point or another that supply and demand will take over and the greater supply of talent than demand will catch up with us and we will "be out". The newspapers will be full this week of stories of those in the financial industry who just over a year ago were on top of the world and today find themselves unemployed or employed well below their expectations and former career pinnacle positions. Our job insecurities are fears. We also fear how others will perceive our work and the reactions to the positions and stands that we take. Many drives into the office in the morning are filled with butterflies in our stomach. The problem with living in fear is that we then fall into the timidness that Timothy also describes. Being timid then leads us to stand still and miss opportunities, or worse yet to fail to take the stands that we know we should. So, that is why Timothy's verse can make such a huge difference in how we go to work this week. Imagine that we could really, truly, replace the feeling of fear with power. Add on love and self-discipline and you have the whole package. Today, as you start the work week, think about the areas, issues, people where you get that feeling of fear inside of you and pray this week to have fear replaced with the power that can come from God being taken to work with you!

Reference: 2 Timothy 1:7 (New Living Testament)