day 886: Fundamentals Matter

"Unless you are faithful in small matter, you won't be faithful in large ones."

I was having a conversation with a dear friend and very successful senior executive who is reaching the end of his career.  Upon a moment of reflection about his career arc, he pointed out that a turning point for him was when he realized what he was really good at and realized that it was time to forget everything else and focus just there.  He went on to say that it was then that he began to see his job differently, and like finding a higher level of definition, he could see that his job and what he was really good at, was all about the fundamentals and ensuring that they happen flawlessly, over and over, each and every time.  He sounded like a great sports coach.  The great ones know how to see the game and break it down to the basics and the fundamentals and then build a team from those, long before offense, defense and strategy show up. The fundamentals matter and it's interesting to me that it is with age, experience and wisdom that they can come into clearer view.

The same is so true in our spiritual journey and walk.  Jesus tells us so as he more than once reminds us of the small things, the fundamentals if you were, that must be believed, followed and exercised.  If we are to live the full and abundant life that He has given us then we must pay attention to the fundamentals.  And certainly, if we are to work to our purpose of bringing glory to God in all that we do, we have to follow and exercise those fundamentals as faithfully as we can.  Today, let's do a check-in and see how we are doing on the fundamentals and being faithful to the small matters.

Reference: Matthew 16:10 (New Living Testament)

day 224: Little Matters

It's the big things that matter at work. Much of our energy and emotion get tied to the presentations to the Board, the big sales meeting, the major cost saving initiative, the big marketing and advertising roll-out, the big idea from the shop-floor, etc. We tend to get excited and focus on the big things and we overlook the small things. But, the small things that are overlooked can drive us crazy. Have you ever been in a real rush with something important that needs to copied on the copy machine and as you are running your copies up comes the message, "out of paper"? Yes you have, we all have. After we throw our hands up in the air we start scrambling for the ream of paper that is lying next to the machine, which of course is barely full with not enough paper in it, so instead we start searching for another ream, which of course someone has rearranged the supply cabinet again and we can't find the paper. And so it goes. How different that last scene may have played out had the person before us recognized that the paper supply was low and instead of walking away for someone else to deal with it, they would have found the ream of paper, replenished the copier and put an extra full ream next to the copier just in case someone needed it? We don't get rewarded at work for the little matters as much as we do the big things. If we did then offices would be tidy, phone calls would be returned, emails inboxes would be empty, people would feel recognized and thanked for their work, and we might all be happier with each other. Little does matter in the bigger scheme of work and life. Without the focus on the details and the little things the bigger things would never happen. In 1 Corinthians 1:28 Paul tells us that God chose "things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important." Today you will be faced with things that seem so little that they can't matter. They are nothings, really. But, they are something big to someone else and you taking a moment of your time to take care of the little thing could change the course of something big. Imagine the Sales VP who needed those extra copies before the Fedex man left, but couldn't find the extra ream of paper and missed the delivery window because he couldn't get the copies made in time and because of that the company missed out on winning the big contract, which was the make or deal for the year for him and everyone in the company. Little matters. God tells us so, so don't take for granted that the little things you are given today at work are inconsequential, they may be quite important after all.

Reference: I Corinthians 1:28