Seriously God, that was not in the brochure!
Yeah, I think we can all relate to that headline in some way, particularly with respect to our work life.
With that context in mind, there’s a story worth hearing...one I pray will be useful in you drawing nearer to God in your work (and in the rest of your life).
I have a good friend who always struck me as a #1. Really he struck nearly every person he met as a #1. Meaning, he had the chops to run a company at the highest level. And when I met him, he was actually running a company...a multi-billion dollar company.
Yet, while me and most other people would consider this a high level (and it was), he viewed his situation as more of a milestone on a bigger journey.
On the surface, it was because the company was a subsidiary of a larger enterprise. That meant there was an executive layer between him and the board. And he wanted that next level.
I was always intrigued by his view of his professional world...which was difficult to frame because he was such a private person (which always gives me a chuckle because I’m quite the opposite).
Anyway, as our friendship grew over time, I learned how profoundly driven he was professionally.
I never really fully understood the motivation beneath the drive, outside the fact that he liked to fix broken stuff. He was a professional “fixer”.
And when I say stuff, the bigger the company and the bigger the problem, the more intriguing the opportunity.
He was excellent in his work. He was Harvard-educated, and has a professional ladder climb that rivals any Fortune 500 exec you could think of. Married, two boys, and a “healthy-enough” relationship with his extended family on both sides of the marriage.
Most importantly, he is a disciple of Jesus.
As I grew to learn more about him and about his motivation, one day I was struck with how unsatisfied he was...much of the time. While this sounds like I’m framing things in a bad light, bear with me for a moment.
In some ways, his motivation definitely produced some bad fruit. But who doesn’t have that as part of their sanctification? Today, we will focus on the good fruit.
He was also one of the most faithful men I’ve ever known. He was committed in prayer to follow God’s lead in his professional life.
As motivated as he was, he was patient with respect to working his roles to a satisfactory outcome, before moving on to the next role…almost always in spite of working inside environments that were more perplexingly flawed than not. He navigated some of the worst internal politics and bad acting stuff I’ve ever heard.
I was astonished that he could consistently decide to stay the course.
While not perfect, he also fulfilled his duties with a high level of operational integrity. The Bible was his standard and he submitted to it.
Then came the pool conversation.
The families were together for a meal and some chill time. As we caught some rays while treading water, he shared his thinking about the golden opportunity that seemed more like baked clay.
He received an offer for the CEO role for a company HQ’d right here in the Dallas area. The company was a bit of a dumpster fire. Declining revenues, a leadership revolving door, a household brand name that was tarnished...it was an ugly image even for a professional fixer.
The pros mostly fit into the right places. The cons were mostly obvious (to him anyway). But the one thing that seemed to be most difficult for him to accept…
It didn’t look like what he had envisioned...at all. In other words, he was asking God, is this really the one I’ve been waiting for?! It just wasn’t the perfect mess he’d hoped for.
After prayerful consideration and conversation with his wife, he took the job anyway. And, of course, he killed it. It’s truly a fantastic turnaround story. It turned out to be exactly the mess God determined for him.
So why share this story?
Because my friend’s modern day story shares characteristics with multiple stories in Scripture.
I believe drawing a line between these dots will help you (and me) better see how God is at work today much like he’s always been at work in the lives of his people...so we can be more motivated to read the Word smarter, to pray with biblical wisdom, and to grow closer to the Lord.
So let’s connect some dots. I’m sure there’s more than I can see. But this will get us going.
THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25.14-30), the Master went on a long journey, but before he left he set his Servants over his talents (money) according to each servant’s abilities.
The servants didn’t get to choose whether they would get to steward the talents at all, much less have a choice in the number of talents they would each steward.
When the Master returned, the servants were rewarded for their faithfulness in achieving results. The money was always the Master’s.
I encourage you to read the parable and pray for insights you can understand and apply to your work (and life).
Hopefully the intro story helps support your thinking as you seek wisdom from God.
My friend was provided talents in accordance with his (GOD-GIVEN) abilities.
He was faithful to turn talents into more talents and present them to the Lord.
He was rewarded for that faithfulness and repeatedly positioned for greater responsibilities and opportunity.
MOSES BEFORE HE FLED INTO EXILE
In Genesis (Acts 7 covers a nice exec summary on Moses), Moses was adopted as an Egyptian, and grew prominent in a pagan culture.
At the age of 40 he protected one of his Israeli countrymen from an Egyptian beating. He ended up killing the Egyptian. “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.”
“And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.”
Again I encourage you to read the Acts 7 account of Moses and pray for insights you can understand and apply to your work (and life).
My friend was a fixer. Fixers fix broken things. Broken things are broken for a reason. He didn’t seek praise from men.
In fact, he received a lot of the same lip and attitude that Moses received. While he didn’t require 40 years of living in exile before fulfilling God’s calling for him, I can assure you he had many frustrations and doubts along the his journey. Yet ultimately, he remained faithful to see the work through to a God-honoring outcome.
EZRA THE SCRIBE
And what about Ezra? Now there’s a faithful man of God. You gotta read Ezra. In short, Ezra came up enslaved in Babylonia (God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to sack and enslave Israel).
Ezra was “a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God if Israel, had given, and the king granted him all the he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.”
Under a pagan king, God led Ezra to lead the people of Israel back home to rebuild. Peacefully. There’s really not a modern day equivalent story.
But it would be like if China enslaved the people of Hong Kong, wiped out the infrastructure of the town, and made the people move to Beijing. Then after several years, the leader of China allowed the people and the new generations of HK people to go back to Hong Kong and rebuild the city.
This new role, the work...some of it was aligned with his past role and gifting. But the journeying, the managing of people, the supply chain preparation, the construction of the Temple...yeah, not really things he had experience doing.
But the hand of God was on Ezra. And he was fiercely faithful to discharge his duties with excellence. That conclusion is my own based on my reading of Ezra.
Again I encourage you to read the Ezra and pray for insights you can understand and apply to your work (and life).
My friend met new challenges with each role...things he had not technically done before. But he was faithful and prepared within that faithfulness to discharge his work to an excellent conclusion...especially when things were hard.
The one theme that rings throughout all these life stories...God is eminently faithful. And while our work (and life) endeavors may not seem to work out the way we envision or desire, I pray that each of us seek to change our desires to be a right relationship with God and a willingness to receive his will for our lives above all else.
There really isn’t a brochure at all. God does so much better. He gives us the ultimate handbook. Honestly that illustration grossly undervalues the immutable, the sovereign, the alive Sword of God. If you want to know what Scripture says about how to align better with him in your work, meditate on the following Scriptures (by no means an exhaustive list)…
If you want more fellowship and focused guidance on how to enjoy your work and make it matter more, join us for the next installment of Inflooent 101. You can find out more about it here.
To our sanctification brothers,
Peter