Emotional reminders of our insufficiency

Today was an admittedly challenging day. I looked at our bank account. (When your unemployed this can be a discouraging thing to do.) While I know that it is God that supplies our needs sometimes I get hit with a tsunami of emotion when I contemplate the gravity of it all. After applying for what seems like hundreds of jobs one begins to feel a bit rejected. My pride quickly kicks in and begins to feel injured. Thoughts like "No one wants me", "I'm just not good enough" and "Perhaps if I had just contacted this person or that one". All of this is really an emotional roller coaster that takes off from the platform of self, climbs the mountain of pride and quickly plunges into the maddening spiral of self in the pit of pity. Thank God for His grace, and the examples that we have in His precious word. Paul talked about being buffeted by a messenger of Satan. He requested that it be taken away. God's responded that His grace was sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). God's grace is just as sufficient today. These times of my failing are valuable reminders of my insufficiency. They cause me to depend even more on Jesus. Without Him this time of challenge would be truly overwhelming. Because He has so graciously granted me a heart that desires to focus on Him, He saves me from myself. The Holy Spirit draws my eyes to my magnificent God and plants my feet on the solid rock of Jesus. If you find the trials overwhelming turn to our Lord and use our insufficiency to embrace the sufficiency that can only be found in Him.

Why the God focused life is the best one to hire

I am going through a job search. I was struck by the emphasis on what your online profile says about you in a job search. What came to mind is the number of people I know that are really web savvy. These people could put an outstanding profile out there but that does not make them a good worker. What drives a person to become a good working is more important that what they look like online. The person who lives their life everyday realizing that God is there and their actions are performed before Him is going to be an excellent employee. There goal will always be to perform in an excellent manner. Why? Because they realize that they are representing God to the world. They understand that it is by God's grace that they even have their job. This person will be passionate about seeking to be excellent to the glory of God. I am not saying that all people who call themselves Christians fall into the category of living lives as if they are living before the face of God. What I am saying is that the Christian who lives their lives before the gracious God who has forgiven their sin and granted them eternity will be an excellent employee. They will not steal because that would be an offense to God. They will be encouragers. They will work hard and extraordinary results will follow. But most of all they will be focused on bringing glory to God by their life.

Christian business?

I had what has come to be an uncomfortably common experience today. A business that shall remain nameless, called to answer some questions I had about an item I was receiving from them. Previous conversations had led me to believe that they were making every effort to correct the problem. However the phone call I received was to tell me that the problem could not be corrected because it was caused by their software automatically. This is where I have a huge disconnect. I do video work on a professional level for high end corporate clients. I could never get away with telling a client that the problem can't be fixed because the software did it automatically. Somehow since I am a Christian and they are a Christian business I am supposed to just take their comment in stride as if they have done their do diligence and oh well that’s just the way it is. In the secular marketplace where I work, my vendors would have told me to get new software or get lost. Far too often Christian businesses get away with doing poor work. We should be the reference standard for excellent work. People should want us over everyone else because of our integrity and excellence. When Christians work they ultimately work for an audience of one. If the widget you make or the service you provide is not done for the King of kings then who are you doing it for? A God focused life will drive us to work as to the Lord Jesus and not men. Os Guiness in his book "The Call" talks about Justin Martyr recording that over 100 years after Jesus' death, plows he had made were still in use. Plows made by Jesus and Joseph were the best. They are the ones that people wanted. They were so well made that they were still in use after all those years. What kind of work do we do? Is our work done with the goal of pleasing our Lord Jesus?