day 1347: Greener Grass?

“You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor."

A former colleague of mine is up for a big promotion. It's the job he has waited for his entire career and if he gets it then he is at the top of his functional area and the years of working hard within the company will have been worth it all!  I checked in him the other day to see where things stood.  He told me that the decision was down to him and one other person.  I was puzzled because who else inside the company could be in competition for the job?  He responded, that it was him against an external candidate!  I cringed for him.  I was quickly reminded of how easily we look to the outside and think the grass is so much greener.  Sometimes, when it is time to upgrade or change direction we have to go to the outside but I have always been of the mind that internal choices need to be decided and dismissed before that decision so that those who have worked hard and held their loyalty are not put in this awkward position of, "Am I not good enough?"  While the grass looks greener, let's not forget that it takes more fertilizer, water, nurturing and caring to keep that grass green, than it does to maintain the turf that we know that is not as fragile or will fail under who we already are.

Somewhere in our human nature we are built to want what we don't and can't have.  It's a problem in us, otherwise we wouldn't have been given the Commandment about coveting.  When this desire of ours translates into people, positions, promotions, raises, etc. we are treading on think ice.  We need to check our motivations as it hard to be wrestling with these issues and still be bringing glory to God in our work.  Let's consider today if we are working with a gratitude for what we he, or are we working with obsessions over what others have that we want? That grass, while it looks greener, can't be come our obsession.

Reference: Exodus 20:17 (New Living Translation)

day 287: Throw Off The Covets

I have a friend who just lost out on the job as the senior HR Executive for the one of the "hot" companies in the alternative energy/transportation space. She was called out of the blue by a recruiter who talked her into considering the role, interviewing, falling in love with the company and the management team, preparing on how to communicate her departure from the very good company and very good job that she has now, and emotionally being in the new role. She had gone as far as seeing herself in the new job and she was playing it all out in her mind. Then, last week, after she had gone through all of the interviews and was waiting for the offer to be delivered to her, she got a call from the recruiter that the company had decided to go with someone else for the position. I read the email from her and I braced myself as I scrolled down the message. I expected to hear the disappointment and the border-line anger jump off of the page. But, lo and behold, it didn't, she didn't. Instead, what I read was a very mature and gracious acceptance of the fact that "maybe, it just wasn't meant to be". She then went on to write, and I think say to herself through her note to me, that she works for a great company, she likes her job, she loves her team, and respects her boss, so why should she fret? She said, "I felt honored to be in the consideration, now back to work". I say, "wow", because she is, in my experience, one in ten who can take this attitude. Too many times to count in my career have I watched job and career envy eat someone up from the inside out. If they didn't get the job or the promotion, or someone else looks like they are getting ahead of them, or they feel like they should be the one to get the next promotion, etc., they let coveting take over. We know from the earliest of our Bible teachings that we are not to covet and we most always put that in the context of other physical possessions, etc. But, we can also put that job that someone else got, that promotion that got away from us, that extra bonus payment that a co-worker received, that consulting assignment that a competitor won, all in the bucket of things that we shouldn't covet. My friend is not a believer, but in her situation, she acted like one. As believers and followers of Jesus, we have to be the same way. If you are right now covered with coveting, today would be the day to throw off the covets and let your true faith and assurances shine through.

Reference: Exodus 20:17 (New Living Testament)