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Sunday, February 28, 2010
God Wants You to Know...
On this day, God wants you to know that you are blessed. You may think you have challenges, but you have so many blessings. Sometimes it takes only a moment of conscious effort to recognize those blessings. Once you focus on the gifts instead of the problems, your whole perspective will change and you will see blessings everywhere.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Be an Excellent Work!
How can we measure up to become an excellent work? According to Jon Escoto in an article on Kerygma Magazine dated May 2005, there are three "things" to become a good performance on your work: (1) Find the connection; (2) Find your right place; and (3) Find the real BOSS.
I. Find the Connection
Two masonry workers were laying bricks on two separate ends of the construction site. One worker was sluggish and miserable. The other was energetic and motivated. Both were asked: What are you doing? The miserable worker answered: "I'm laying down bricks." The positive worker answered: "I'm building a church!" Guess who worked excellently? Guess who found the connection?
Work isn't always glamorous but it's glorious, because God is in it and uses it to bless others. If you're involved in farming and the food industry, God is using you to nourish people. If you work for a car company or a repair shop, God is using you to help people travel where they need to go. If you're a parent cooking, changing diapers or wiping runny noses, God is using you to care for precious children. If you haul garbage awau from people's homes or mop floors or clean toilets, God is using you to make a cleaner, fresher, healthier environment for people to live in. Again, whenever a person works at something worthwhile, God himself is working.
II. Find your Right Place
According to Rick Warren, in his phenomenal book The Purpose Driven Life uses the SHAPE way of understanding how God designed you, and eventually "find your place" at work.
SPIRITUAL GIFT/S. What would members of your spiritual family say you're good at? "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men (1 Corinthians 12:4-6). " Believe it or not, God wnts to use your spiritual gifts even outside the walls of the prayer meeting.
HEART. The Bible uses the term "heart" to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interest, ambitions, dreams and affections you have. Your eart repreents the source of all your motivations - what you love to do, what you care about most. Your heart reveas the real you. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. The corporate dictinary calls it "enthusiasm." Passion drives perfection. Your passion is your power! God calls us to "serve the Lord with all your heart " Deuteronomy 11:13).
ABILITIES. Your abilities are the natural talents you were born with. Natural abilities are as spiritual as spiritual gifts since both came from God! (Psalm 139:13-14). Are you good with numbers? Or with music? or in business? Or in speaking? What I'm able to do, God wants me to do - for His glory (see 1 Corinthians 10:31).
PERSONALITY. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you love routine or variety? Some people are "thinkers," some are "movers," some are "feelers." Some work best with a team, some deliver best when alone. Don't pursue a career in comedy if you hate being laughted at!
EXPERIENCES. Your person has been molded by family, educational, vocational, spiritual, ministry, even painful experiences. These will give your insights on how you can maximize opportunities to meet the needs you were made to fulfill. This is not just some "self-actualization" pitch. Accepting and enjoying your SHAPE is the path to real servanthood - relevant, effective and excellent, that is.
III. Find the Real BOSS
Man was created not to work for himself, but to work as a coworker with God. God placed man in the garden "to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:8, Genesis 2:15). Ultimately, God is the real BOSS. The Bible hints that our PA (Performance Appraisal) measures excellence in at least three KRA's (Key Results Areas): Competence, Justice and Love.
COMPETENCE. I've been doing currently work at SPI Technologies Inc.-Laguna as data analyst for almost a year now. Yeah, I know... I know our current work situation is way, way far from the "original garden" that God has supposedly put us in. The entrance of sin into our first parents "work area" made even our "dream jobs" more difficult, sometimes dull or even humiliating. Work relationships suddenly are not absolutely rosy and "thorns" can prick relationships. Employers may mistreat workers and pay them less than they're worth. Employees may not care about those they work for, and become lazy and sloppy. Can I just settle down in a grim routine of slogging my way through the mediocrity ambiance, just like everybody?
"Whatever you do, work at it will all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Colossians 3:23)
Competence is a matter of the heart - my heart. not of my employer's or co-workers' heart. Competence is ability plus my willingness. It's skill plus my attitiude. Its facets can include:
The Lord abhors dishones scales, but accurate weights are his delight. (Proverbs 11:1).
LOVE. "And the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). The apostle Paul identified love as the greatest human virtue. Loving our neighbor (yes, even the business neighbor) is the second most important commandment (Matthew 22:37-39). Without this, a solid relational foundation necessary for work success will never exist. Partnets must get along, supervisors must engender loyalty among subordinates, and suppliers and distributors must be brought into a supportive network. Love provides the relational framework in which such cooperation flourishes. Without it, our sinful tendency to exploit one another takes over. Long-term excellence and success dies.
Do I celebrate my co-workers joys and shoulder their burdens? Do I encourage my staff? Leadership guru John Maxwell says "Before you can ask for the hand, you need to touch the heart!"
Find the connection, your SHAPE and the Real Boss. What else? Excellence is a habit or it's not excellence at ll. You can't be excellence tody and run-of-the-mill tomorrow.
Co-workers of God, aim for perfection! If you "miss" perfection, at least you attain excellence.
Finally, in the workplace, God is the final judge of excellence. The applause of heaven is what matters most. It's useless to do an excellent work, if what you do is not God's work.
Jesus answered "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:29)
I. Find the Connection
Two masonry workers were laying bricks on two separate ends of the construction site. One worker was sluggish and miserable. The other was energetic and motivated. Both were asked: What are you doing? The miserable worker answered: "I'm laying down bricks." The positive worker answered: "I'm building a church!" Guess who worked excellently? Guess who found the connection?
Work isn't always glamorous but it's glorious, because God is in it and uses it to bless others. If you're involved in farming and the food industry, God is using you to nourish people. If you work for a car company or a repair shop, God is using you to help people travel where they need to go. If you're a parent cooking, changing diapers or wiping runny noses, God is using you to care for precious children. If you haul garbage awau from people's homes or mop floors or clean toilets, God is using you to make a cleaner, fresher, healthier environment for people to live in. Again, whenever a person works at something worthwhile, God himself is working.
II. Find your Right Place
According to Rick Warren, in his phenomenal book The Purpose Driven Life uses the SHAPE way of understanding how God designed you, and eventually "find your place" at work.
SPIRITUAL GIFT/S. What would members of your spiritual family say you're good at? "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men (1 Corinthians 12:4-6). " Believe it or not, God wnts to use your spiritual gifts even outside the walls of the prayer meeting.
HEART. The Bible uses the term "heart" to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interest, ambitions, dreams and affections you have. Your eart repreents the source of all your motivations - what you love to do, what you care about most. Your heart reveas the real you. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. The corporate dictinary calls it "enthusiasm." Passion drives perfection. Your passion is your power! God calls us to "serve the Lord with all your heart " Deuteronomy 11:13).
ABILITIES. Your abilities are the natural talents you were born with. Natural abilities are as spiritual as spiritual gifts since both came from God! (Psalm 139:13-14). Are you good with numbers? Or with music? or in business? Or in speaking? What I'm able to do, God wants me to do - for His glory (see 1 Corinthians 10:31).
PERSONALITY. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you love routine or variety? Some people are "thinkers," some are "movers," some are "feelers." Some work best with a team, some deliver best when alone. Don't pursue a career in comedy if you hate being laughted at!
EXPERIENCES. Your person has been molded by family, educational, vocational, spiritual, ministry, even painful experiences. These will give your insights on how you can maximize opportunities to meet the needs you were made to fulfill. This is not just some "self-actualization" pitch. Accepting and enjoying your SHAPE is the path to real servanthood - relevant, effective and excellent, that is.
III. Find the Real BOSS
Man was created not to work for himself, but to work as a coworker with God. God placed man in the garden "to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:8, Genesis 2:15). Ultimately, God is the real BOSS. The Bible hints that our PA (Performance Appraisal) measures excellence in at least three KRA's (Key Results Areas): Competence, Justice and Love.
COMPETENCE. I've been doing currently work at SPI Technologies Inc.-Laguna as data analyst for almost a year now. Yeah, I know... I know our current work situation is way, way far from the "original garden" that God has supposedly put us in. The entrance of sin into our first parents "work area" made even our "dream jobs" more difficult, sometimes dull or even humiliating. Work relationships suddenly are not absolutely rosy and "thorns" can prick relationships. Employers may mistreat workers and pay them less than they're worth. Employees may not care about those they work for, and become lazy and sloppy. Can I just settle down in a grim routine of slogging my way through the mediocrity ambiance, just like everybody?
"Whatever you do, work at it will all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Colossians 3:23)
Competence is a matter of the heart - my heart. not of my employer's or co-workers' heart. Competence is ability plus my willingness. It's skill plus my attitiude. Its facets can include:
- Responsibility (Do I take ownership of my work and its results?)
- Consistency (Am I reliable and dependable?)
- Initiative (Do I think and take right action without having to be told?)
- Creativity (Do I come up with innovative ways to solve problems?)
- Loyalty (Do I defend and support my company, its products and cause?)
- Faithfulness (Do I constantly adhere to the company credo, ethic or values that I agreed to uphold?)
- Patience (Am I steady, presevering in performing tasks or responsibilities?)
- Thoroughfulness (Am I accurate and painstaking with regards to details of my work?)
- Productivity (Do I work efficiently and maintain a good record of consistent output?)
- Self-control (Do I exercise control over my emotions, actions, feelings and general work demeanor?)
- Punctuality (Am I always prompt and timely? Do I carefully observed appointments and hours of employment?)
- Cost-consciousness (Do I practice sound management of resources and materials assigned to my care and keeping?)
- Courtesy (Am I polite and gracious, considerate of others and respectful?)
- Industry (Am I skillful, clever, earnest and steadily hardworking?)
- Honesty (Am I truthful and trustworthy? Straightforward and free drom deceit?)
The Lord abhors dishones scales, but accurate weights are his delight. (Proverbs 11:1).
LOVE. "And the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). The apostle Paul identified love as the greatest human virtue. Loving our neighbor (yes, even the business neighbor) is the second most important commandment (Matthew 22:37-39). Without this, a solid relational foundation necessary for work success will never exist. Partnets must get along, supervisors must engender loyalty among subordinates, and suppliers and distributors must be brought into a supportive network. Love provides the relational framework in which such cooperation flourishes. Without it, our sinful tendency to exploit one another takes over. Long-term excellence and success dies.
Do I celebrate my co-workers joys and shoulder their burdens? Do I encourage my staff? Leadership guru John Maxwell says "Before you can ask for the hand, you need to touch the heart!"
Find the connection, your SHAPE and the Real Boss. What else? Excellence is a habit or it's not excellence at ll. You can't be excellence tody and run-of-the-mill tomorrow.
Co-workers of God, aim for perfection! If you "miss" perfection, at least you attain excellence.
Finally, in the workplace, God is the final judge of excellence. The applause of heaven is what matters most. It's useless to do an excellent work, if what you do is not God's work.
Jesus answered "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:29)
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