One Small Step
My time on the greenway this morning started out really badly. I was so focused on what I wanted to get out of my time there that I completely lost sight of why I go to the greenway in the first place.
God calls me to the greenway to spend time with me. He wants to connect with me, and He does that through my appreciation for His creation. He draws me to this place filled with animals of all sizes, flowers, trees, streams, sunshine, cool breezes, and the scent of early morning air. This is where we communicate. He places these things in front of me for me to enter into a time of worship with Him. These interactions fill me with awe and wonder. They fill me with gratitude and hope. God speaks clearly and directly to me through my time there.
This morning I made this place, our special place, all about me and what I wanted. I became selfish and completely focused on what I hoped to gain from my time there. I ignored God’s promptings. I refused to leave space for Him to move and speak. I closed myself off from allowing Him to interact with me and thus change me ever so slightly. I am not proud of it, but thankfully God always leaves me the option of starting over…even in the middle of my morning.
All of this got me thinking this morning, have I made my work all about me too?
I believe that God has called each of us to the work that we do, whether it is in an office or in our home. It is really easy to approach our work in a selfish manner. Our job can become all about us and what we want to get out of it. Maybe it’s a paycheck. Maybe it’s a promotion. Maybe it’s a bigger house or better car. Rarely do we approach our job as a place where God wants to interact with and through us to bring His kingdom to earth, but I believe that is exactly what He wants to do.
So how do we make the switch? How do we stop seeing our work as a means to a selfish end and start seeing it as an opportunity for God to move and work in us and through us? That’s a great question, and I have one practical suggestion for you to try.
I finished reading through 1 Corinthians last week, and one particular verse jumped out at me in chapter 16. Part of 1 Corinthians 16:18 reads, “...they refreshed my spirit…”. God highlighted these words in this verse and it stopped me in my tracks. It got me thinking, do people say that after an encounter with me? Do I leave people with the feeling of a refreshed spirit, or do I leave people feeling drained after an encounter with me?
This is really difficult for me. I am an internal processor, and as such, I often come across as being angry, stand-offish, judgemental, and just plain rude. None of those things are very refreshing. Usually, once people get to know me they understand that I am just thinking about things, but sometimes it still comes across that way even after someone knows me. I am not trying to be rude. I just don’t say a whole lot until I have taken the time to think it all through. Regardless, this is my issue and something that I have to work on.
Jesus left people feeling refreshed after an encounter with Him. How? He spoke truth through love, compassion, and empathy. He thought about the needs of the other person, and He met those needs through the interaction.
Physical touch is at the top of my husband’s list of love languages. It is possibly dead last on mine. I have to be intentional about hugging him and reaching out to hold his hand sometimes. Those things don’t come naturally to me, but I know that those are the things that fill him up. He needs that from me, and I was created, as his wife, to build him up and bring life to him. Those things help accomplish that. It is not about me all the time. It is about him and what he needs from me through our interactions. It is about how I can ensure that he walks away from an interaction with me feeling refreshed and not drained.
The same thing is true at work. I need to consider how I can ensure that people walk away from interactions with me feeling refreshed and not drained, even if it means moving out of my comfort zone. Am I complaining all the time? Am I negative all the time? Do I point out the good in my coworkers? Do I compliment them on a job well done? Do I thank them and show appreciation for the work that they do? Do I stop what I am doing and give them my full attention when they approach me? I need to think about the needs of my coworkers over my own sometimes, the same way that Jesus thought about the needs of others over His own.
I am not saying that you have to be fake and pretend to be happy all the time or pretend to love everyone and everything all the time. I mean, even Jesus flipped the tables when the situation warranted it. And I am not suggesting that you throw everything about yourself out the window and commit to being something that you are not. For goodness sakes, no one wants that! All I am suggesting is that you think about what you can do this week to leave people feeling refreshed after their interactions with you at work and see what happens. See how the tide shifts. See if people don’t start noticing that there is something different about you. And, most importantly, see how God begins to work through your interactions.