365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 186

Not surprisingly, my office environment got worse yesterday. We have to badge in and out of our office including going to get coffee, breaks and bathroom. The badge mechanism has been very inconsistent. You go out but it won’t let you back in kind of thing. Management started keeping track of all the time we aren’t in the office at our desk working and decided we aren’t working enough. If we are under 7.5 hours, than it is because of these three things… blah, blah, blah. The email we received ruffled the feathers in us all. My thought was we are now ball and chained to our desk and it won’t be long before we will have to ask if we can get up to go to the bathroom. Sadly, it isn’t the tasks of my job that are unbearable but the lack of any appreciation and the complete dominating micro-managed control that management is doing. It was insulting to me because I work, work, work but I also feel insulted for my co-workers because I know they are working very hard too. I thought I did not love my boss and company owner with my anger but after more thinking, realized it is okay to be angry. You can love someone as a human being but not like or even hate what they are doing. The really funny thing about all of this is at lunch time a virus was discovered to have invaded our computer systems so we couldn’t work the rest of the afternoon as they tried to get it corrected. A co-worker called it “karma” but I like to think of it as justice from above. I am not bitter. Okay, maybe a little. I am working on it.

Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 23

I spoke a bit with a co-worker who called me yesterday to ask about how to do something for which she has been given the task to do at work. She, like I think most of us at work, is struggling with the negativity she feels towards our boss and the culture from which he is from which is so different from ours. I told her that I struggled with it too and looked to God’s word and was reminded that God loves all of us and Jesus calls us to love not just the easy to love but the hard to love. I have found that by simply praying for my boss that the negativity has diminished and I am remembering him more as a human being that God created. With my first day back to work today since being off for my shoulder surgery, I am going to start a daily prayer for my boss and other people I work for that trigger negative emotions and keep my focus on what Jesus calls us to do in loving all our neighbors. We don’t have to like what they do and say but we have to love them as God loves them and all of us.

Job 34:19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 299

Please excuse the way I think. I hope nobody will find this offensive in anyway but I worked an analogy in my mind on the way home from work yesterday. Jesus is like a pancake. Yes, I said, pancake. Let me break it down for you. The first side cooked on a pancake always seems to come out golden with a nice golden rim around the edge, kind of like a crown. hmmmm..... Than you flip it over and cook the other side. This side always looks different, often filled with little holes and is not the golden color but a combination of tans and white. The first golden side of the pancake is Jesus, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, son of God. The second side of the pancake with the holes is Jesus, the son of man, a human being, a person like all of us. Jesus is both of these sides of the pancake. He is the son of God come to earth in human form. Emanuel. If you have studied any other religions, you will know that this is the one and only true God who has come down to us.
Now pancakes can be made in different sizes. You have the dollar size, the standard size and king size. The dollar size pancakes are those people who have Jesus in their hearts but in a small way. They may only think about Jesus once a week at worship service or when a desperate need arises in their lives. The standard size pancake person is actively trying to consistently have Jesus in their lives and they do a pretty good job of it with bible study, worship and prayer. The king size pancake person is the kind of person where Jesus is the central part of their whole life. It is what motivates them in all they do and all they are. This is the person who not only does bible study, worship and prayer but also actively uses their gifts from God for God's calling for them. The good news is we are not stuck being one kind of pancake. Those dollar size pancakes and standard sized pancakes have the opportunity to choose to pour out a new pancake each day and make it bigger, letting Jesus become more and more the central part of our exsistence, our goals, our motivation. Even King sized pancakes can choose to keep being big pancakes but even add some special ingredients like peanut butter, chocolate chips or protein powder. This can give more impact to the King size pancake. So, the next time you are making pancakes or eating pancakes, I hope you will remember this analogy and let the Holy Spirit help you in becoming a specialty King size pancake for Jesus. If you are not yet a pancake, think about letting Jesus into your heart.
1 John 5:11-12 “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life”