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Fixing the world

 

I Corinthians 1:17:  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

 

So-Whats for Work: When sin entered the world, it messed up not just humans, but all human institutions as well, including work.  When Jesus entered the world, He did so not only to redeem humans, but through them to redeem human institutions. 

So-Whats for Home:  Today's Bible verse is a reminder that we're to teach our families God's wisdom, not our own.  Sure, we teach each other tricks for living life, but the priority of those lessons come after making sure they know God personally.

So-Whats for Community:  The world is broken and can't be fixed by human remedies. Hard as it is to believe, the only answer to what ails the world is surrender to the work and will of Jesus Christ. History shows with vivid certainty that all other efforts fail miserably.

 

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Calling

 

I Corinthians 9:16:   Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

 

So-Whats for Work: If God has a specific assignment for you, you'll know it. 

So-Whats for Home:  After God, the commitments we make to others take priority over our own wishes and whims.  If we marry, then we surrender our will and desires to serving and loving our spouse first; and when we add children to the mix, they move in over us, too, in the priority scale. 

So-Whats for Community:  Sometimes God calls people away from commitments that would make it more difficult for them to accomplish His purposes; in other words, some among us are called to be single.  The idea that being single is somehow second-class isn't Biblical; in fact, the Bible has much to say, in very positive terms, about men and women who have the ability and humility to choose to obey God by being single.

 

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Fixing culture

 

I Corinthians 4:9-13:   For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!  To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.  We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

 

So-Whats for Work: We're not supposed to fit into work culture, we're supposed to lead it. 

So-Whats for Home:  The hardest place to be faithful to the tenets of our faith is in our family relationships; and yet the most important place to be faithful is in our family relationships.  For every time the Bible tells us we should provide for our families, there are ten passages mentioning we're to teach them about God. Which do you believe God values most?

So-Whats for Community:  If we fit in to our culture, then the culture never realizes it needs Jesus.

 

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Public faith

 

II Corinthians 5:14: For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

 

So-Whats for Work: There's a difference between being embarrassed about our faith and being offensive with it.  Jesus doesn't want us forcing Him down anyone's throat, but He doesn't want us keeping quiet about Him either.  Here's another thing: The more we talk about our faith, the more that faith changes us.

So-Whats for Home:  The more we talk about God in our homes, the easier it will be for us to talk about Him outside the home.    

So-Whats for Community:  People don't want us to shut up about our faith; they just want us to be savvy and respectful when we talk about it.

 

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Insignificance

 

Philippians 2:17:  But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

 

So-Whats for Work: The best and most valuable team member is always the one willing to surrender credit and glory to see something accomplished.  In my years as a human resource manager, I rarely saw the right person get credit for a company's success, or for a department's success.  The people who step up to take the bows and receive the applause almost always overshadow more worthy workers.  A savvy manager fills his team with the glory-averters and avoids the gloryhounds.

So-Whats for Home:   One of the joys of growing old is looking back on the story of our life and discovering the unnoticed moments when family and friends gave up something of themselves because it was good for us.  What better way to say thank you for that legacy than to pass it on to our family and friends?  

So-Whats for Community:  The people who talk about saving the world have already lost the battle.  If you want to "save the world", silence is the first prerequisite. 

 

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Contentment

 

II Timothy 4:6: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.

 

So-Whats for Work: Someone once said "the world has yet to see what one person totally committed to Christ could accomplish."  Paraphrase that to fit your profession: The world has yet to see what one scientist totally devoted to Christ could accomplish in science.  Or trucking. Or acting. Or selling.

So-Whats for Home:  Or parenting. Or being a spouse.  

So-Whats for Community:  Or as a politician. Or as a volunteer.

 

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Trust in trial

 

Luke 24:21: …but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

 

So-Whats for Work: Want to be a good manager or leader? Cultivate a culture the enables your workers to trust you like we Christians are to trust God.  Make it your reputation to take care of your workers so they can focus on taking care of your customers and shareholders. Work through your workers the way God works through His children.

So-Whats for Home:  What our family members believe is our highest priority shapes how they view the world.  If they see us serving them as God would, seeing and loving them as God does, they will feel safe and will feel free to explore their skills and talents and creativity, becoming all God made us as humans to be.  If, however, they see money or power or fame or influence or self to be our highest priority, they will believe they have to take care of themselves, and life becomes a defensive and fearful exercise, instead of a creative and joyous one.  This is not just true of children; either spouse can destroy the spirit of the other; leaving them feeling unprotected and worth less, often even worthless.  This much should be written in stone for every family member: God expects more of us as family members than He does of any other part of our lives.  Are you a great manager and a poor husband? Then don't check your "credit score" with God 'til you've turned that around because the rating will have fallen well below zero.

So-Whats for Community:  The storms in our lives are the moments when everybody is watching Christians; especially the storms that come without immediate and apparent answers from God to our prayers.  How will we handle them? If we trust God to know best and we can wait on Him through the continuing onslaught, we bring not only glory to Him, but we'll also discover a string of unbelievers trailing along behind us eager to meet the Savior.  Christians who stay faithful in the storms are pied pipers for Jesus.

 

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Worldview

 

I Thessalonians 5:23-24: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

 

So-Whats for Work: When a Christian seeks to be one with Christ (to see the world through Jesus' eyes), every job they do has meaning and eternal significance.  When a Christian decides to settle for hell-insurance-faith, they're never really sure if any job they do has meaning and eternal significance.  Fence-straddlers are always miserable.

So-Whats for Home:  Most of us inherit the faith (or lack of faith) of our parents.  What gift are you giving your children: Part-time, half-in, straddle-the-fence-and-cover-all-bases faith, or the power of unabashed affection for the Savior?  Most spouses surrender to the weakest faith in the household. What faith are you forcing on your spouse?

So-Whats for Community:  The world doesn't know Jesus because Christians are selling so many different versions of Him. The only real version of Jesus is Jesus Himself, and the only way to "sell" that version is to surrender ourselves to being one with Him; to seeing the world through His eyes and living life through His body; and therefore teaching the world His thoughts instead of our edits of those thoughts.

 

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Burnout

 

Isaiah 40:28: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

 

So-Whats for Work: If our work forces us to sacrifice our relationship with God, our work isn't glorifying God. 

So-Whats for Home:  The best marriages, families, parents aren't built on people selling themselves out to each other; they're built on people selling themselves out to Jesus.  Then they know how and when to care for each other best.

So-Whats for Community:  Crusaders and let's-change-the-world-Christians often grow shrill and their message sounds harsh or brittle because it isn't tempered with the daily reminders of God's love and gentleness that comes from our quiet times with Him.

 

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Inspiration

 

Isaiah 40:26: Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

 

So-Whats for Work: Our work must not be wasteful or destructive; as His redeemed stewards, we must seek to redeem the consequences of sin as they are played out in nature and in humans.

So-Whats for Home:  The concept of stewardship is learned, and the classroom with the most impact is the home.

So-Whats for Community:  Christians must be in the forefront of ecological endeavor; it is a command from God.

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How big is God?

 

Isaiah 26:3:  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

So-Whats for Work: When Scripture tells us we were made in God's image, it means we're also invested with kind of creativity and majesty that set the planets moving in an awe-inspiring ballet of precision, and that paints a continuously mind-numbing panorama of ever-changing sunsets.  The power to create is directly linked to the power to imagine, both gifts from an powerful, imaginative, creative God.

So-Whats for Home:  Unless we teach our children God is the author of Creation, they will forever believe humans are in charge of destiny instead of God, a hope-drowning reality that makes God seem small at the time in life when our children need to see how big He really is.

So-Whats for Community:  The world believes in a small god because they believe we believe in a small God.

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Spiritual maturity

 

Exodus 20:19: ...and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."

 

So-Whats for Work: Obeying God's commands is hardest in the workplace, where the pressure to fit in adds itself to the natural tendency to ignore God's Word.  And yet, the workplace offers us the best chance to transform and redeem the culture God sent us to tend.

So-Whats for Home:  Obedience is a theme for every healthy family; so, too, should we understand that to be true for us as children of God.

So-Whats for Community:  While sin messed up Creation, and continues to do so; it is the disobedience of Christians which exacerbates that damage.

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Discipleship

 

I Samuel 3:10: The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

 

So-Whats for Work: The only way to hear God while we're working is to train ourselves to hear Him AS we're working.

So-Whats for Home:  Just as listening to our spouse, our children and even extended family members is a signal to them that we love and respect them, so, too, is listening to God the same sign of love and respect…or not.

So-Whats for Community:  Only the Christians who hear God daily are equipped and qualified to change the world in ways that please God. All other efforts are human folly; the effort to do what seems right in our own eye.

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Stress

 

Matthew 10:27: What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.

 

So-Whats for Work: Most Western Christians believe the Bible only speaks to the private side of their lives. Not so! He who created the universe left most of the instructions for how best to tend it in the verses between Genesis beginning and Revelation's end.

So-Whats for Home:  In dark times, families need to hear God together, not individually. Be sure you help your family approach God together in dark times.

So-Whats for Community:  The world watches us more in the dark moments of our lives than they do in the bright ones.

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Avoiding isolation

 

Romans 14:7:  For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.

 

So-Whats for Work:  The world tries to tell us faith is a private matter, and doesn't belong at work. Not so!  God wants to be ruler over every area of our life, especially work. 

So-Whats for Home:  Our children form their picture of God by what they see in us. If they see us as stern, they see God as stern; if they see us loving unconditionally, they see God loving unconditionally.  No part of our lives as parents doesn't influence what our children think of God.

So-Whats for Community:  II Chronicles 7:14 teaches us that the way to fix our culture is to fix ourselves by applying humility and prayer.  Until we do so, the influence we have on our culture is disruptive and unhelpful.

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Perseverance

 

Ephesians 5:14: …for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

 

So-Whats for Work:  Why are you chasing what you're chasing at work? The answer to that question has eternal consequences for each of us.

So-Whats for Home:  The couch potatoes and gamers among us are often simply people whose broken dreams weren't replaced by God's inspiration.  Walk closely with God and he'll replace your broken dreams with His redeemed purposes.

So-Whats for Community:  The world will never be fixed by Christians trying to fix it under their own inspiration.  It's the broken among us who will discover the power to transform a culture, a climate, a cubicle or a corporation.

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Crisis management

 

I Kings 19:5: Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.  All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat."

 

So-Whats for Work:  What a gift a manager gives a worker after a failure when he or she moves alongside them and gives them small, manageable, step-by-step instructions for working their way back to full productivity.  The way God manages us is often a useful tool for understanding how to manage others.

So-Whats for Home:  Some of the most memorable moments in truly loving families are those times when we've reached out and helped each other back up after a fall or failure. Soothing words from someone who loves us unconditionally stops the free-fall and panic, helping us "breathe" and gives us the strength for the next step.  It is among the most important times in our loved ones lives.

So-Whats for Community:  We Christians should be the first ones to get our legs back under us after a crisis; we should be at the forefront in comforting our community and our culture; not with trite phrases that try to explain evil, but with comforting step-by-step instructions for how to get back up, spoken by people who are solidly linked to eternity and the God who controls the universe.  We need to get ready for that next crisis, be it mass layoffs or economic recessions or even world-shattering news.  When the world needs hope, we need to be visible and bold.

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Coping with failure

 

Matthew 26:46a:  Rise, let us go!..."

 

So-Whats for Work:  Failure, and the despair that follows it, must never be an excuse for not trying.

So-Whats for Home:  What a gift we give our families when we extend to them the kind of forgiveness Jesus extended to His disciples, and that God extends to us. Especially after the big failures, can we be the loving family member who races to embrace the repentant prodigal yearning for restoration?

So-Whats for Community:  Oh that the world could see us mirror the power of Christ's forgiveness? Oh that they could witness us getting back up after failure and despair, and seeing it is Christ who gives us that strength!

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Noble work

 

Isaiah 60:1: "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

 

So-Whats for Work:  All labor, done with an awareness of God's presence, is worship in its most glorious fashion.

So-Whats for Home:  Let no person suggest that stay-at-home parents aren't workers; in fact, the most devilishly underpaid workers in any culture. But let no person suggest, either, that stay-at-home parents don't have the best job in the world.  After all, the duty of caring for God's crowning creation-human life in the form of a child-is a high calling indeed.

So-Whats for Community:  When we see our labors as holy, the world around us will, too.

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Active faith

 

John 14:31:  " …but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.  Come now; let us leave."

 

So-Whats for Work:  Meditation sets us up to do our work for the right reason in the right way, and the mix of meditation and action makes our relationship with God both fulfilling and satisfying.

So-Whats for Home:  What better way to introduce faith to our children than as an active and vibrant experience? There's nothing dull or mundane about a walk with God, because that walk always turns into a sprint; the kind of sprint that appeals to the young and idealistic in ways that make it life-changing and meaningful.

So-Whats for Community:  Our families, our friends, our neighbors and our community are eager to discover a faith that matters, and sit-down-faith matters to nobody.  When Jesus says "Arise" it's because He expects His children to be moving at the pace of life itself.

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Discipleship

 

Mark 14:6: "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

 

So-Whats for Work:  I'm always amazed at the short-sightedness of managers and companies who seek to increase productivity to near 100%.  Even if they succeed, they assure themselves that when a crisis hits, as it inevitably does, their workers will have no reserve to draw on to meet that crisis.  Just as Jesus surprised the disciples with His response to this woman, so too should we Christian managers be taking the long view in our relationship with our workers.

So-Whats for Home:  If God desires spontaneity and passion in His relationship with us, how much more so do our family members yearn for it from us?

So-Whats for Community:  Early in  a dating relationship, as a couple is falling in love, the whole world knows the thing is happening, even if the couple never announce it.  So, too, should our love for God be evident to the world around us.

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Tenacity

 

Psalm 46:10:  "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

 

So-Whats for Work:  In construction, a timid carpenter generally worked too slow and made more mistakes than a confident worker.  Faith and labor share the same urgent need for bold confidence.

So-Whats for Home:  One of the most important leadership roles we parents play in our homes is exuding a bold and unwavering confidence in God, and in the truth of His Word.

So-Whats for Community:  The world needs men and women with the tenacity, courage and confidence to declare boldly the truth they have encountered in Jesus Christ.  Mumbled faith is bumbled faith and bumbled faith is fumbled faith.

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Leadership

 

Matthew 20:28:  "…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 

So-Whats for Work:  The same leadership principles the Apostle Paul requires for elders and overseers in the church should be principles required for leadership in businesses and companies.

So-Whats for Home:  When we serve and love family members based on their feedback to our efforts, we undermine the concept of unconditional love. We also paint an improper impression of God's love for us.

So-Whats for Community:  Most modern views of leadership reflect a quest for power, influence, money and fame; in other words, it's a search for what the leader gets from being a leader. God wants community and political leaders who are looking to give up those things for the chance to serve.

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Selfless service

 

II Corinthians 12:15:  So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?

 

So-Whats for Work:  How often do we join in the gossip and disdain heaped on unlikeable coworkers? It seems harmless, and we do it without thinking often, but each time we do, we bring shame on ourselves and our faith.

So-Whats for Home:  Sometimes, even family members can be hard to like; harder to serve.  Teaching ourselves to love and serve them in the same sacrificial way Christ would serve them might just open the door to improved relationships.  

So-Whats for Community:  We gain nothing if we lose the battle for hearts en route to winning the battle of rules.  How we treat the people with whom we disagree is as important as right stances and holy living.

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Leadership

 

II Corinthians 12:15:  So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?

 

So-Whats for Work:  God wants people in the workplace who will be great for Him; while the world wants people in the workplace who will be great for them. Who do you serve?

So-Whats for Home:   Our loved ones learn to be abandoned to God, or timid about Him, from us.

So-Whats for Community:  The world measures how big God is by how much we're willing to give up to serve Him.

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Trust

 

John 4:11:  "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

 

So-Whats for Work:  Doing business strictly the way God's Word teaches it should be done will put us at a competitive advantage in a culture that doesn't measure itself by God's standards.  But it is our job to be faithful, and His job to use that faithfulness.

So-Whats for Home:   We keep saying this, but it bears repeating. How we are around our children is how our children think God is; and what we think of God becomes what our children think of God.

So-Whats for Community:  If we think of God as small, the world thinks of Him as small, too.

 

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Transformation

 

John 4:11:  "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

 

So-Whats for Work:  If you want God to bless your work so you benefit, you're on your own. If you want God to bless your work because it's best for the world, or because it's best for the workers, or because it's the best way to steward His creation, or because you love Him, watch what wonders He will work through you!

So-Whats for Home:   Do you love your family for what they do for you, or do you love the opportunity to do for your family because of your love for them?  The former is the human condition; the latter is the best evidence we were indeed created in God's image.

So-Whats for Community:  Change the world God's way or don't try at all. Christians who are trying to change the world on their own terms are often more damaging than people who don't know God at all.

 

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Godliness

 

John 16:31:  He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-you and your household."

 

So-Whats for Work:  It is not enough to know how to do our jobs; we must know God while we're doing them if we want to be good stewards of His Creation.

So-Whats for Home:   To be godly spouses, godly children, godly parents, godly family members, we must be those things in the presence of God.

So-Whats for Community:  The world challenges us only to be good; God says that's never enough, we must be good God's way.