day 1357: Seriously?

On our jobs we are constantly reinforced to be growing, developing and improving. In many companies each year we get set down with our boss or HR person and given an annual performance review. We have spelled out to us the things we are good at that we should continue and the areas we should improve. Together these become a grading of comparison of our peers and we get rated and ranked. If we do what we are being asked then we double down on ourselves and we take our talents and we try and become better and better. There is nothing wrong with that, to a point. When is it that the focus becomes too much on ourselves that it gets in the way of working well with other?

 There is a good lesson in C.S. Lewis' classic, "The Screwtape Letters" . The book is a set of instructional letters on how to corrupt and gain control of the soul of a man. It is written from one devil (Screwtape) to another devil (Wormwood). On the topic of our talents and focus, Screwtape tells Wormwood this: "To anticipate the Enemy's (God's) strategy, we must consider His aims. The Enemy (God) wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy (God) wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents." Wow. Of course, that is what God wants. He wants us to be selfless and never to take ourselves and our talents so seriously that it gets in the way of our caring for others and our love and relationship with Him. When we start to focus so much on ourselves that we begin to get in the way of others or worse yet, we become competitive, envious or jealous, then we know we have crossed the line.

It's clear in the Ten Commandments that we are not to covet anything of others, that would be their talents and skills as well. So today, think through, just how seriously are you taking yourself? Is it healthy, or have you crossed over and begun to put yourself too far up the pedestal? If you find yourself making comparisons (position, title, salary) to others in your profession and fretting when someone else gets an assignment and you don't, or worrying about what it is going to be like if someone else gets promoted over you, then it is time to take the test of yourself and then stop taking yourself that seriously.

Reference: Exodus 20:17 (New Living Testament), C.S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters"

day 638: Now (Redux)

"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps."


First published on Day 127 - Friday, April 3, 2009

We just finished the first quarter of the year and started the second. And for sure already in boardrooms and offices across the country companies are making their projections for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarters and for the full year. This is how business works. We don't live in the present. We are always planning and forecasting the future. The future can be exciting and become consuming and we want to get there as fast as we can. Sometimes the future can be bleak and full of expected trouble and we know we have to go there but we go with worry and trepidation. The future can get in the way of living for the present and enjoying and working with the life that we have been given. In C.S. Lewis' classic book, "The Screwtape Letters", the devils' undersecretary named Screwtape explains to his agent and nephew named Wormwood that God doesn't want us to work and live in the future if it is going to get in the way of glorifying God in the present. Read along as two devils correspond on what we as humans shouldn't do: "To be sure the Enemy (God) wants men to think of the Future too - just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is now straw splitting. He (God) does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasures in it. We (the devil) do (does). His (God's) ideal is a man, who having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded in the moment that is passing over him. But we (the devil) want a man hag-ridden by the Future...we want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present". We are told in Proverbs that the plans that we have for our future are not in our hands anyway; "We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." As we plan our future business and our jobs, we should remind ourselves that the earthly future that overtakes our ability to focus, live and be who are to be in the present is not the future we should be pursuing.

Reference: Proverbs 16:9 (New Living Testament), C.S. Lewis: "The Screwtape Letters"

day 132: Taking Ourselves Too Seriously

On our jobs we are constantly reinforced to be growing, developing and improving. In many companies each year we get set down with our boss or HR person and given an annual performance review. We have spelled out to us the things we are good at that we should continue and the areas we should improve. Together these become a grading of comparison of our peers and we get rated and ranked. If we do what we are being asked then we double down on ourselves and we take our talents and we try and become better and better. There is nothing wrong with that, to a point. When is it that the focus becomes too much on ourselves that it gets in the way of working well with others and living to our purpose? I recently made a reference from C.S. Lewis' classic, "The Screwtape Letters" and I want to do so again today. The book is a set of instructional letters on how to corrupt and gain control of the soul of a man. It is written from one devil (Screwtape) to another devil (Wormwood). On the topic of our talents and focus, Screwtape tells Wormwood this: "To anticipate the Enemy's (God's) strategy, we must consider His aims. The Enemy (God) wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy (God) wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents." Wow. Of course, that is what God wants. He wants us to be selfless and never to take ourselves and our talents so seriously that it gets in the way of our caring for others and our love and relationship with Him. When we start to focus so much on ourselves that we begin to get in the way of others or worse yet, we become competitive, envious or jealous, then we know we have crossed the line. It's clear in the Ten Commandments that we are not to covet anything of others, that would be their talents and skills as well. So today, think through, just how seriously are you taking yourself? Is it healthy, or have you crossed over and begun to put yourself too far up the pedestal? If you find yourself making comparisons (position, title, salary) to others in your profession and fretting when someone else gets an assignment and you don't, or worrying about what it is going to be like if someone else gets promoted over you, then it is time to take the test of yourself and then stop taking yourself that seriously.

Reference: Exodus 20:17 (New Living Testament), C.S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters"

day 127: Now

We just finished the first quarter of the year and started the second. And for sure already in boardrooms and offices across the country companies are making their projections for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarters and for the full year. This is how business works. We don't live in the present. We are always planning and forecasting the future. The future can be exciting and become consuming and we want to get there as fast as we can. Sometimes the future can be bleak and full of expected trouble and we know we have to go there but we go with worry and trepidation. The future can get in the way of living for the present and enjoying and working with the life that we have been given. In C.S. Lewis' classic book, "The Screwtape Letters", the devils' undersecretary named Screwtape explains to his agent and nephew named Wormwood that God doesn't want us to work and live in the future if it is going to get in the way of glorifying God in the present. Read along as two devils correspond on what we as humans shouldn't do: "To be sure the Enemy (God) wants men to think of the Future too - just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is now straw splitting. He (God) does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasures in it. We (the devil) do (does). His (God's) ideal is a man, who having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded in the moment that is passing over him. But we (the devil) want a man hag-ridden by the Future...we want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present". We are told in Proverbs that the plans that we have for our future are not in our hands anyway; "We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." As we plan our future business and our jobs, we should remind ourselves that the earthly future that overtakes our ability to focus, live and be who are to be in the present is not the future we should be pursuing.

Reference: Proverbs 16:9 (New Living Testament), C.S. Lewis: "The Screwtape Letters"