Almost three years ago I was reassigned to a different manager.  At first I thought no big deal.  Same work to do, with the same people, but now I have a different boss, but it was only a matter of weeks before my happy meter went from 95 to -105!  When I had my first face to face meeting with her she actually said, “I’ve heard about you.  You like to give 120%.  I’m going to bring you down from that.”  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

During the next few weeks, which turned into months she questioned everything I did, or tried to do.  Nothing was ever right or good enough.  The pressure would start the very moment she walked through the door.  There was one day I came so close to standing up and telling her, “I QUIT!”  If I had done so I would have been throwing away 18 years of work.  There were many days in the mornings the very thought of going to work would bring tears to my eyes.  I begin crying out to God to do something.  Anything, I didn’t care, I just wanted out from under the stress, and the oppression.

I thought of many ways God could answer my prayer, but I knew from experience that His ways are higher than ours (ISA 55:9).  I tried to transfer out of my department to no avail.  Then I finally begin to realize God might just have a plan.  Well, years have gone by since this ordeal started, and just this past week I heard these words come out of my boss’ mouth, “Mark, you bring real value to our team.  When you see something that needs to be done, you take care of it.”  It was all I could do to hold back my emotions.

By consistently trusting God, which wasn’t easy, and knowing I had placed this in His hands, the end of the ordeal has been realized.  I have made it through the storm and have safely reached the other side.  The outcome?  I have learned to trust in God in a greater way.  I have learned that standing up for ones rights does not always achieve the desired results.  But
perhaps the greatest achievement is this; my boss now respects me, and maybe now I have earned the right to be heard.  I now have a platform to stand on when I share Jesus with her.  God can now cross this one off His to-do-list.  Thank you Father.

1.  Touching Lives

The other day I sent a “Thank you” note to one of my co-workers who likes to celebrate people and their lives / achievements.  She also is the first one to head a campaign to gather items for the less fortunate.  In my thank you I mentioned I appreciated her heart.  Then I took a risk.  I also said, I celebrate who God has made you to be.  Why was this risky?  Well, from her own mouth I get the very strong indication that she is not living for God.  Yet she expresses love for others more than some Disciples of Christ that I know.  She wrote back that the note “warmed her heart.”  Was a seed planted?  Was the door to Jesus cracked opened?  I hope so.  Take time to touch lives.

2. The Cost

I just opened a bag of snacks.  My new crave, “Snyder’s” flavored pretzel pieces.  Something a lot of writers do.  We tell ourselves it helps keep the creativity flowing.  After I opened the bag I looked at the price.  I said to myself, I paid 3.69 for this small bag?  WOW!  Although they are really good.  Then it made me think, do we consider the cost before everything we do and say?  I hope so.  Everything we do and say affects something, or someone else.  Is it worth it?  Will the cost to fix it be more if it is wrong?  Can it even be fixed?  Maybe not, but when we turn it over to Jesus it can always be forgiven.  Count the cost.  (I had to get a drink because, “These pretzels are making me thirsty!” Jerry Seinfeld)

3. Tired of Religion?

This is Labor Day weekend 2015.  Are you tired?  Are you resting?  Are you tired of rubbing against the daily grind?  Tired of fighting an uphill battle?  What about fighting “religious rules”?  You will never get it perfect.  You will never be able to satisfy a list of “Do and Don’ts” to get into heaven.  That is why Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 (MSG) “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.”  Jesus is saying, just get to know me.  Have a relationship with me.  Doing so does not tire you out.  It is not a struggle.  It’s not a “religion” or being “religious”, but having a personal “relationship” with Jesus.

This week has had a particular theme to it.  “Cleaning Out” At work I was tasked with cleaning out cubicles and cabinets once used by employees before they retired.  At home going through every place one can put things and asking, “Do I really need this?”  This is particularly hard for men who think they will use anything someday to fix something.  Butt (typo intended) also personally cleaning out this week as I went for my first colonoscopy.  Talk about things you really don’t need!

As I had lots of time to sit and think, and realizing this week’s theme, I begin to ponder what spiritual stuff am I hanging on to that I need to clean out?  The list started growing.  After one cleans out, gets rid of things they don’t need, like life style choices, habits, etc. they need to take one more step.  If this one step is not taken one will only clutter their life again.  That one step?  Change the way you think, or nothing will change at all.

Romans 12:2 puts it like this, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (MSG)

Me?  I plan on walking more, and changing my eating habits even if my lab results come back with a good report.  I want to stop letting what other’s do and say bother me at all.  This is going to take a lot of changing, but change for the better.  If I can do this with God’s help my heart will be less cluttered and have more room for Him.

There are a lot of prophets (so called men of God) out there right now making a lot of noise.  Have you ever considered where they get the stuff they are saying?  Do they truly hear from God, or from themselves?  I have been reading from the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament of the Bible.  I came across some interesting verses I feel speak to us today.

A Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies: “Don’t listen to the sermons of the prophets. It’s all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies. They make it all up. Not a word they speak comes from me.
They preach their ‘Everything Will Turn Out Fine’ sermon to congregations with no taste for God, Their ‘Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You’ sermon to people who are set in their own ways.
“Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true GOD? Bothered to take in what I have to say? Listened to and then lived out my Word? (Jer. 23:16-18  MSG)

The only real way to know if a man of God is speaking truth from God’s word is to…are you ready for this?  Know God’s word for yourself.  Read it daily if you can.  Your eternal life may depend on doing so.  The truth is everything might not turn out okay.  We live in a sin filled world, but I would rather go through pain and heart ache in life with God than without any day.

Jonathan Gainsbrugh once said, “Read your bible.  It will scare the hell out of you!”