day 1134: Working In Concert

"Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?"

You can tell the difference between those who can just read financial statements and those who really know financial statements.  Those who read them can make sense of them and explain the numbers, but those who can read them and then turn them into the story of the business, are ones who actually know what to do to make them better.  The two statements that any of us will be given when we are looking at or into a business will be the income statement and the balance sheet.  In a recent Businessweek article Mark Hurd, from Oracle, said that these two documents “Work in concert”.  On their own the Income Statement or Balance Sheet can tell you many things about the business, but it is not until you see them both together can you tell how healthy, or unhealthy, is the business. So, with these two documents (and enough history with these) then one can begin to see and create a story about the business.  There are patterns that can be ascertained and even some assumptions that can be made about what kind of business this is and how it compares to competitors.  The Income Statement and the Balance Sheet are inextricably intertwined and that is how they work on concert.  We can only hope that we are finding many opportunities in our business to have everything work as in concert as the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet.

We can’t explain how it works, but we believe and know in our deepest being that the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit work in concert to bring us as close to God as we want to be.  This idea of working in concert seems to me to be a godly idea. Throughout the Bible we are taught to love each other and told how to treat and respect our fellow human beings. We are told that when two or more come together that God will there as well.  We know that in concert the Bible, prayer and fellowships with other believers can yield amazing results.  So, it is upon us to show through our lives and working that we also can work in concert with others.  When we do this, we are modeling what we are taught.  When we don’t then we are being examples of the opposite.  As we consider the type of team member we are being, or what kind of subordinate or boss we are, then let’s remember that we should strive to always “work in concert”.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 3:16 (New Living Translation)

day 468: Where Confidence Lies

Where our confidence lies is too many times with other people. In our jobs we look up to our boss, our bosses' boss and ultimately to the CEO for the direction of our livelihood. The problem with this is that, regardless of how good of a person or how good they are in their job, people will always let us down. This is just the way it is, because we are all people and we fail physically and all have our faults. This past week we had the example of Mark Hurd, a very good CEO being removed from his position for failing to reports his expenses correctly. We also saw that the CEO of Sara Lee, Brenda Barnes, was having to step down because of an untimely illness. Both, very good CEOs and doing good things for their companies. But for different reasons, one day they were in their job, the next day they weren't. And throughout both organizations there were undoubtedly people wondering what will happen next with the company and to their own jobs. Their confidence is shaken with the change and the unrest now at the top of the organization. Changing where we allow our confidence to lie is hard to do, but if we find ourselves putting too much confidence in our earthly leaders, we will also find ourselves at some point feeling lost and confused. David wrote of this in Psalm 146: 3-4: "Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When the breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all of their plans come to an end." Think about this today and evaluate where you are putting your confidence. If your first thoughts are those about people, then it is time to begin the shift to realigning your confidence to the only One who won't let you down, who won't disappear, who won't change jobs on you, or make a mistake that has Him removed from His position.

Reference: Psalm 146: 3-4 (New Living Testament)

day 465: In The End, It All Adds Up

This past weekend the news was released that the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Mark Hurd, was stepping down over violations of HP's policies. The stories that were released had his termination basically coming down to the falsification of expense reports totaling up to $20,000. Whether it is $1 or $20,0000 it is still bad and wrong, but the fact that one of the most recently successful technology CEO's who earns in the tens of millions of dollars per year, would allow himself to risk his job and reputation over, in comparison with his salary, that relatively small amount of money, reminded me of how important it is that we each not overlook the impact that the small things can have on so much. In Luke Chapter 16, Jesus says; "Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities." In the end, Jesus is saying, it all adds up. The small things matter and can become the difference in someone trusting, or not trusting us with the bigger responsibilities. And, we all have small areas in our work where we can either decide to cut the corner or not. It is something to weigh heavily. As believers who are trying to bring glory to God as the purpose of our work, it goes beyond just the faithfulness of the small matters. Jesus goes on to say in verse 11; "And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?" What we do at work and how we conduct ourselves can have tremendous impact on others and how they either respect and believe in us and what we stand for. Think about this today as the small things come your way and remember that that one small infraction ca end up becoming a huge deal.

Reference: Luke 16: 9-11 (New Living Testament)