How many times have I started a project at work and thought shortly after – Why did I ever start this? What was I thinking?
Have you done that?
It seemed like a good idea. I knew it was necessary, or at least beneficial, but then I would find myself in the middle of a mess and think – “Oh, man, why didn’t I leave well enough alone?”
Because “well enough” is not good enough is the short answer. It needed done and the mess was part of the fix.
Important “rule” in life: The mess is often part of the fix.
If I had the mentality to avoid the mess, then I would not be the employee that I should be. I could still do much of my job and do it very well, but I would leave out important things that help our company.
Another thing is that I could avoid the mess and most people would not notice because of the more routine things that I accomplish day-in-day-out.
But I made a commitment when I began working for this company again in 1996: That I would be an excellent employee.
I was a good employee the first time I worked for them but now good is not good enough. The bar has been raised, part of my thankfulness and appreciation for having a job.
How do I live this out spiritually?
I don’t dodge opportunities to serve God by avoiding the mess.
And that is what I am dealing with right now. I believe God is calling me to the mess again. Oh, boy!
Here is possibly a description of this process of success.
Good idea (well thought out; a good thing to do) ->
Begin project ->
Dismayed with the mess (“What was I thinking?”) ->
Keep going (it was a good idea and needed to be done) ->
Make the best decisions you can and keep at it ->
Possibly more “Oh, no’s” ->
Things start coming together ->
Immense satisfaction over a necessary job well done.
As I thought through this, I tried to think of a project that as I look back that I really wish I had not started. And I have started many “Oh, no, why did I start this” projects. I can’t think of one that didn’t work out. There is probably one or a few but if there are, they are not significant enough to have been captured in memory. The closest thing I have is rerouting a ramp for a sand stockpile and discarding the idea later, but even in that “failure” I was given insight in how to solve another problem with water drainage in that area.
Whether you apply this to excavating and the earth you are working with doesn’t seem to cooperate, or whether you apply this to speaking the truth in love to a brother or sister in Christ and the relationship seems to deteriorate, the principle seems to hold true.
I am not saying every project is a good idea. I am not saying we are able to execute every good idea. I am saying that it seems that if we begin with the right motivation and planning that we need to keep going.
We must understand that “the mess” does not necessarily mean we started down the wrong path. It could mean that but very often it means just the opposite, so we must not misinterpret the mess because we have a wrong view of Christian life and service.
Immense satisfaction over a necessary job well done.
We can be very skillful on the job and not be the employee we should be or be very skillful in serving God and miss our holy calling. We can do things well – A job well done. But there is a difference between a job well done and a necessary job well done.
Are we doing what is necessary? Are we doing what God calls us to? Or are we doing church well without serving God in crucial areas?
Jesus calls us to die, to give up our lives to receive them.
(Luke 9:23 NKJV) Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
(Luke 9:24 NCV) Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for me will have true life.
Unless you are different than me, you want smooth and easy, clean and neat, no jagged edges, no mess.
But if you are like me, you have made a commitment even greater than being an excellent employee.
That is to please God and be pleasing to him, to hear his “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I don’t believe this will come from merely doing church well but from serving our Creator and Redeemer well, pressing on through the mess to fulfill our necessary calling.
We can be very skillful in our service but not be pleasing to God.
The mess calls for faith. And that is what scares me.
(Hebrews 11:6 BBE) And without faith it is not possible to be well-pleasing to him, for it is necessary for anyone who comes to God to have the belief that God is, and that he is a rewarder of all those who make a serious search for him.
(Isaiah 29:13 NCV) The Lord says: “These people say they love me; they show honor to me with words, but their hearts are far from me. The honor they show me is nothing but human rules.
