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| Where I worked for "the man" |
I haven’t always been this
carefree (ha!) artsy-fartsy, “I’ll just spend a couple of minutes on Facebook,
an hour on my blog,” self-employed gal. Yes, that’s right – I once worked
for “the man” aka, a big company. I enjoyed great health insurance, a credit
union, a “breakroom,” a not-too-shabby Christmas bonus, and the support of
wonderful and hilarious co-workers (RIP Nancy Michelle – I miss you!) That
said, I now enjoy the freedom to be the aforementioned carefree, self-employed,
yoga-pants-wearing work-at-home/own-business-owning mom.
Having been away from the
corporate climate for seven years, I am not sure what the new trends in employee
betterment are. I have vague memories of completing a group course based on the
book, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Remember that gem? It must
still be a thing, because there’s a web site. If I remember correctly it was
about some mice in a maze who freak out because their cheese is suddenly not
where they last saw it. It’s supposed to help people learn how to deal with
change without stressing out. (Come to think of it, when an organization has
its employees take this course, shouldn’t that be a red flag that someone's about to start shuffling the cheese around?!)
Another time we were all
ushered through a famous course of study called “Covey Training.” Based on the
best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R.
Covey, a self-help book published in 1989. Looking it up on Wikipedia will give
you a fairly tight synopsis of the seven habits, which include pithy nuggets
like, “Put First Things First,” (Habit 3) and “Think Win-Win.” (Habit 4)
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| Who, indeed... |
Sitting there in the
conference room with people from up and down the food chain at my corporation, I was
excited by these easily absorbed and remembered (albeit obvious) concepts, but
also found myself kind of surreptitiously looking around the room at the other
participants thinking, “Sure I’ll give it a go, but how far will it get me –
y’all will still be a-holes.” It’s not a thought I’m proud of…. I’m just
saying… Sometimes a workplace seems more like a tug of war between opposing
departments than a group of people working toward the same end.
That said, even working for
myself sometimes seems like a tug of war… between my clients, their clients,
me, and my family… I gotta say, though, it’s still much nicer than putting on an
actual outfit and going to a job all day every day.
Anyway, that LONG intro is
just to bring us to the point where I can tell you that back when I was coerced
into learning to use the seven effective habits, the part I most remember was
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind.
As part of working this step, we were instructed to devise our own mission
statement, and I was all over that. I
was young. Energetic, even. Gung ho. I did a lot of aerobics. I declared (on paper – we didn’t have
to share with the group) my grand and lofty purpose to be part of what they call
the Shema. It’s in the Bible in Deuteronomy, and then Jesus repeats it in
Matthew 22:37, when someone asks him to identify the greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength.”
Like Jesus said,
it’s the greatest commandment, and so, a worthy goal. And being the gung-ho, energetic young Christian I was, embracing this seemed like a
perfectly reasonable life purpose. And it was. I’m not saying otherwise… but…
Fast forward about
15+ years… to find me here, still gung-ho in my own way, but … much older, and
much tireder. In the intervening years, I’ve moved several times, married, birthed and
cared for a child, started my own business and written nearly 200 blog posts.
I’ve watched myself, the church and society as a whole go through a lot of
changes. In accordance, I have two reflections on my previous mission
statement.
First of all, if
you read the entire blurb of Jesus’s discourse in Matthew 22, you see that he
also mentions the second greatest commandment.
“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.””
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| You can get the Shema on a plate! |
You see,
besides all these experiences, my extra years have included many relationships
– close and loose contact with all sorts of people, and I have learned that the
two great commandments go hand in hand. I couldn’t just love God and ignore the
people around me (or call them a-holes in my mind or otherwise as I did at the
time.) I’m not sure how else to say it, but … God is easy to love, in theory.
He’s perfect. He’s not even visible. But to love Him means to love what He
loves… and that is everybody.
When I declared my life’s purpose to be
the Shema, I didn’t exclude loving my neighbor as myself on purpose, but I
think you have to include this part ON PURPOSE… because it’s not always the
natural thing to do. Even the best people can be annoying, am I right?
That said, even my new and improved purpose,
ie: one which incorporates both love for God and love for neighbor, is no
longer my mission statement/motto/slogan. After years of striving and failing,
I know that it is an impossible hill to climb. Even at my most buoyant, I
couldn’t put a toe on that towering pinnacle.
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| In keeping with the Martin Luther quote, maybe my bucket looks like this! |
No, knowing what I know now, I find
myself desiring to do this, but ultimately having to rest on a different
cushion. So… I have a new motto. It comes from 2 Corinthians… In this passage
Paul talks about some hardship he’s going through.
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”And that’s my motto: “His grace is sufficient.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)
Some goals are achievable – lose weight, quit smoking, become a manager, write a book… I guess when I was young and wild, I thought loving God with my whole self was a realistic goal. Now I know that it is not… not without His love and grace.
I guess a good metaphor for this would involve a huge bucket that needs filling. My own efforts to love, work, acheive... sort of dampen the bottom of the bucket – it’s more
like a token gesture. God fills the rest to overflowing with his infinite supply of love and grace.
Just this morning I read this awesome
quote:
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| Martin Luther and his little glass of Wittenberg bear |
"It is reported that Martin Luther once said, 'While I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer, the gospel runs its course.'* Surely this is one of the truest and most reassuring things ever said about beer and God in the same breath. Our relationship with God is not the result of our efforts. Rather, a loving and gracious God acted on our behalf, granting us a most benevolent gift.” – Fil Anderson, Running On Empty
Anderson
refers here to our relationship with God, but I find that no thing that I
attempt or achieve in any arena – being a wife and
mom, working, just getting through each day - is due to my own efforts, but to God’s grace. And
it is sufficient. It kind of has to be... because I am definitely not.
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