Forgotten and Resuscitated

After several moves and jobs later, I would forget about the “Workplace Ministry” concept. It would be a while before I would be reminded again that my job is my ministry. Once I was reminded, however, I again purposed to be more deliberate about it by praying for my co-workers before work and checking in with them about where they are at in this station in life.

It wasn’t long before people started telling me their life stories, along with their heartaches and triumphs. People just gravitated toward me. Occasionally, some would even come to church service with me.

Don’t get me wrong, my job isn’t perfect. There are times when I get aggravated and disappointed by the cubicle political atmosphere of the workplace. That’s no different from anyone else and happens in any company. But, those aggravations and disappointments lead to the real question, how do I react to those challenges?

It really is THE important question – How do I react? That’s what people around us in the workplace do, they watch our reaction. They get to learn our character by how we respond to situations. That’s where the opportunity to shine for Christ is. We could mouth off some expletives and belittle the people responsible, or we can choose pray and wait for the appropriate time to respectfully express our concern without any attitude (No, it’s not easy).

Scripture says that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger. I take that seriously. But,… it’s hard. It’s too easy to hold a grudge from the workplace.  Instead of taking the slight home with me, however, I will wait, cooling off for a few minutes, or a half hour. Then I will discuss it, or call a person into the back room to discuss it. Often times though, by choosing to wait to cool off, I’ve already apologized to God for my attitude, and forgotten about the perceived wrong. In all reality, if it’s forgotten that quickly anyway, then it isn’t worth bringing back up at the workplace in the first place.