day 1241: The Alignment Day

"In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable."

Every business has a day of the week that is best for meetings, planning and setting up the days ahead.  Usually that is Monday, but not always. I have been doing some consulting work with a company that executes their business primarily over the weekend and it's not until Tuesday when everyone can take a deep breath and get ready together for the coming week.  Regardless of the day of the week, there is one that we should be gathering to look back to celebrate and adjust and then to forwardly align and go into operational mode.  This day is really the first day of the week as if it is done right, all will flow from there.  If you haven't put that day in place yet, you are missing an opportunity to get the team all on one page and to ensure that everything is in place to get out there and win.

On one day over the weekend we are in church, worshiping, learning and gaining fellowship.Yes, this is the Sabbath, but it is also can be for us the first day of readiness of our workweek. This is our alignment day to get ready for what we will face in the coming week. Without this, we are weakening our ability to be strong and ready for the challenges that work brings to us that tests our faith.  Are we making the most of our preparedness and readiness for next week and planning on being in church this weekend?

Reference: Romans 14:5 (New Living Translation)

day 873: Born Ready?

"Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith it tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything."

There is always someone on a team that when someone says, "Are your ready?", they answer, "I was born ready". They are usually the cowboy and the daring type. It's a misnomer that one could be born ready. Readiness comes from preparation, practice, repetition, and from experience. Especially in our work lives we have too many examples of people thinking they are ready for an assignment or task only to find that they fail or are in over their head because they don't have the experience or preparation to be up for the challenge. While the adage "nothing ventured...nothing gained" is true, I still hate to see the failure that people have because they and someone else thought they were ready for something that they just weren't yet. That type of failure can end up haunting someone throughout their career and can stunt their confidence for years to come. Everyday we are getting prepared and readied for something that we will face in the future and we should be taking into account each day's learning and cataloging it for the future. Many times those readying experiences are not pleasant. They are come from the school of hard-knocks and we learn what not to do next time as much as learn what to do. And because of that we should not let the hard-knocks in life and at work get us down, but instead use them to add to our capability and strength for the future.

We use these moments in our lives to strengthen our faith and to be sure that we are placing our trials and problems in the right hands, the hands of God. We see this in the book of James where we are told that we must build our endurance in order to be ready for anything. Without the endurance to withstand the challenges and trials that will be put in front of us, then we will never be fully ready. James 1:2-4 says; "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith it tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything." Today, you are facing something at work that is a trial and a challenge for you. It may be something that has been lingering for a long time and you know that you need to invite God to work with you today to help you get it straightened out for once and for all. You may not have had the level of faith yet to let Him take it and for you to follow His direction, but today can be that day when that amount of faith is in you. Today can be the day of building the endurance necessary for you to be ready to face anything. He wants to give you that level of endurance. All any of us need to do is let Him and let our faith build in his assurances that all the endurance and strength we will ever need is ours for the taking. Count the blessing today of knowing that God truly wants us to be ready for anything.

Reference: James 1:2-4 (New Living Testament)

day 722: Message Readiness

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."

As we near the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I am reminded of how many companies who didn't have in place at that time a company-wide communication and message plan but now have them established and ready to go at all times. As I sat on the tarmac in Indianapolis on that fateful morning, after having flown out of JFK heading to SFO, there I was trying to coordinate a communication plan with the company from a low-battery Blackberry. Fortunately, we were not one of the companies that suffered the loss of employees in 9/11 and we were able to account for everyone, but we were unprepared to be able to communicate directly with our employees in a coordinated manner. We were not alone. Today, most companies and organizations have planned, reviewed, and practiced what it would take to get a message out and received. Being ready with a message, for whatever purpose, is good business practice.

When Paul wrote about message readiness, he was also coming from a place of distress. Paul didn't have an easy life. He lived most of his Christian life under persecution. Yet, regardless of the situation, he was ready with the message of the gospel. He taught that to his disciples and to the churches that he mentored. He was also teaching it to us. We are being told that we should always have our message ready as well. When asked, or given the opportunity, are we ready to fearlessly speak the gospel? Each day at work, we are provided with such opportunities, if we are listening and ready for them. In the next days and weeks there will be lots of water-cooler talk about 9/11 and where were, what it meant, how it happened, etc. Much of this conversation will come from a place of personal reflection and maybe some questioning about life and why? Let's be attuned for the opportunity to provide our story of why there is true hope and life to be had. Let's have our message ready.

Reference: Ephesians 6:19-20

day 188: Ready For Anything

There is always someone on a team that when someone says, "Are your ready?", they answer, "I was born ready". They are usually the cowboy and the daring type. It's a misnomer that one could be born ready. Readiness comes from preparation, practice, repetition, and from experience. Especially in our work lives we have too many examples of people thinking they are ready for an assignment or task only to find that they fail or are in over their head because they don't have the experience or preparation to be up for the challenge. While the adage "nothing ventured...nothing gained" is true, I still hate to see the failure that people have because they and someone else thought they were ready for something that they just weren't yet. That type of failure can end up haunting someone throughout their career and can stunt their confidence for years to come. Everyday we are getting prepared and readied for something that we will face in the future and we should be taking into account each day's learning and cataloging it for the future. Many times those readying experiences are not pleasant. They are come from the school of hard-knocks and we learn what not to do next time as much as learn what to do. And because of that we should not let the hard-knocks in life and at work get us down, but instead use them to add to our capability and strength for the future. We use these moments in our lives to strengthen our faith and to be sure that we are placing our trials and problems in the right hands, the hands of God. We see this in the book of James where we are told that we must build our endurance in order to be ready for anything. Without the endurance to withstand the challenges and trials that will be put in front of us, then we will never be fully ready. James 1:2-4 says; "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith it tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything." Today, you are facing something at work that is a trial and a challenge for you. It may be something that has been lingering for a long time and you know that you need to invite God to work with you today to help you get it straightened out for once and for all. You may not have had the level of faith yet to let Him take it and for you to follow His direction, but today can be that day when that amount of faith is in you. Today can be the day of building the endurance necessary for you to be ready to face anything. He wants to give you that level of endurance. All any of us need to do is let Him and let our faith build in his assurances that all the endurance and strength we will ever need is ours for the taking. Count the blessing today of knowing that God truly wants us to be ready for anything.

Reference: James 1:2-4 (New Living Testament)