Saving Grace

I have been struggling with motivation at work lately. Not because I am not motivated to do a good job or because I dislike my company but because I have become disheartened and discouraged. I finally understand the Dilbert cartoon. It's not that I didn't understand corporate America before but I didn't realize how quickly a company can turn into that environment. I have been with my company for almost fifteen years and seen it grow from two people and we have between 50 and 100 people now and I am finding that the growing is very difficult. I am finding out the differences between management and vision and that you need both of these in people to be successful.

People, especially in the engineering professional, don't enjoy managing because it inevitably has conflict. And it has conflict because it has people. My job involves working with a lot of people in managerial positions and as much as they enjoy technically managing projects, they don't enjoy managing people. And there is the rub...Projects require people unless you are a one-person outfit.

My approach has been to try to be as non-confrontational and speak in measured tones to help managers work with their people. Honestly this has not always been my approach but I have tried to act the way God would desire and exercise patience and try to understand things from others' perspective. And sometimes I see God working and sometimes I stand in His way. I think that lately I have been standing in His way and allowing my frustration to crowd out my ability to see the progress. What seems obvious today as I read a devotional is that I cannot give God a timeline. I cannot allow myself to get frustrated because after all my efforts I don't see change. The truth hit me today as I read the Book of Acts, Chapter 20, Verse 24:

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."

God has not called me to turn engineers into managers. Or force people to be at work on time. Or train people to not do things at the last minute. Or teach an old visionary new tricks. He has called me to testify to the gospel of grace. He has called me to see PEOPLE - NOT plans, projects, budgets, organizational charts, agendas, customers, or contracts. These are things I am required to work with in the context of my job. However, in the context of my purpose is the ability to exhibit grace in spite of the circumstances. In that fundamental realization, I am safe at home back in the arms and protection of my Savior. And making requests to Him with gratefulness and letting Him guard my heart and mind (see Phillipians 4:6-8).

Amazing Grace - so simple and yet often forgotten but not forgotten today.

Santé

If You Never Did, You Should...

"If you never did you should. These things are fun. These things are good."
~ Theodore Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss)

I received an e-mail this morning from a close friend calling my attention to the fact that today is the birthday of the man known to us as Dr. Seuss. I think back about the big influence he had on my life growing up. I grew up as an only child and thus I had to find ways to amuse myself. Reading became a big part of my life and I can remember checking out book after book written by Dr. Seuss in grade school. The simplicity of his language communicated thoughts and ideas that resonate in me now.

"A person's a person no matter how small." - Horton Hears a Who

"I speak for the trees! Let them grow! Let them grow!" - The Lorax

"It's high time you were shown/That you really don't know all there is to be known." ~ On Beyond Zebra

"I know up on top you are seeing great sights, but down on the bottom we, too, should have rights!" ~ Yertle the Turtle

"You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in." ~ You're Only Old Once

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. / You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. /And you will be the guy who'll decide where you'll go. /Oh the places you'll go. ~ OH, the Places You'll Go! (one of my all time favorites)

and other Seuss-isms that just ring true:

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

If you have never read a Dr. Seuss book, go directly to your nearest bookstore and pull one off the shelf and begin reading immediately. Because...."Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way."

Santé