After returning to work following a week off for the Christmas holidays a number of years ago, I found myself facing several deadlines that all of sudden seemed impossible to meet.  That night I was unable to sleep because of my anxiety over all the pressure I was facing. 

Appraisals of performance were due by the end of the week on employees reporting to me.  A speech for the annual kickoff meeting of our entire marketing department of over a thousand people was also due.  The finalization of our litigation budget for outside counsel covering a docket of over 1500 cases was yet another item.  On top of these things was the general negative fallout from my having declined to accept a new assignment a few months earlier because we believed it would have a negative impact on our family.    

I shared my anxiety with a small group of Christian men with whom I regularly met.  They encouraged me and prayed with me for peace and wisdom on how to practically deal with each task.  After seeking my own prayer I was able to establish a plan for the group of tasks.  By week’s end all but one of the appraisals were completed.  The speech was finished and our staff was able to do most of the work on the litigation budget. 

St. Paul reminds us that prayer guards our hearts and minds against anxiety.  He says, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.    Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7.

In looking back it is easy to see that I had lost my peace because I had not taken my anxiety to the Lord.  I started worrying and condemning myself for letting things slide.  I was not guarding my heart and mind with prayer to Jesus as St. Paul suggests. 

Jesus encourages us not to worry but to seek his kingdom and righteousness first.  He said, “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.”  (Mt. 6: 33-34)  The boundary between peace and anxiety is a thin line and easy to cross, but we have Jesus as a sentinel to guard our minds and hearts if we choose to call on him.  “I sought the Lord, who answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4) 

Do you take your worries and anxieties to Jesus, or do you keep them to yourself?     

“Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are—the Holy one of God!” (Luke 4:34)

These words were addressed to Jesus from an evil spirit who was in possession of a man in a synagogue in Capernaum.  Jesus had come to the synagogue to teach the people when he encountered the man “with the spirit of and unclean demon.”  He commanded the spirit to come out of the man. 

How ironic!  Many of the Jewish people – the religious leaders, those in authority, even the people from his home town, did not recognize Jesus for who he was—the Son of the living God.  Yet, throughout the gospels, we see reports of evil spirits who recognize Jesus, cower at his presence, and beg him not to destroy them. 

We should not be too critical of the people of Jesus’ day in not to recognizing him, for how often have we failed to recognize Jesus’ presence in our lives?  The world and its many attractions, demands, and cares often dull our senses to the presence of Jesus.  Our busyness causes us to overlook his work in us and others.  Our low expectations of God obscure his action in our lives.  The noise in our lives obscures his quiet whisper in our thoughts.

This past weekend I had the privilege of taking communion to men in the local jail.  I saw Jesus in the men who were eager to understand Sunday’s gospel readings.  They are searching for the truth in acknowledging their circumstances and in desiring to bring change to their lives. 

It is not uncommon for us to miss the presence of Jesus in our family and those closest to us.  When I take time to reflect, I see Jesus in my wife who has cooked meals for an elderly couple in our neighborhood or for people going through chemotherapy or facing other medical issues.   I see Jesus in our adult children who are all raising active families and passing on our heritage of faith to their children. 

Mother Theresa used to say that one of her motivations for serving the poorest of the poor was that she saw the face of Jesus in every one of them.  How many times have I failed to see the presence of Jesus in the people who intersect with my life? 

Do you recognize Jesus in your thoughts, or in the actions of others?

Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged” (Mt. 7:2)  How frightening!  God will judge us as we judge others. 

After Jesus was tempted in the desert, the Gospel of Luke tells us that he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and began his public ministry.  He taught in the synagogues of the region and news started to spread about him throughout the whole countryside. 

He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.  He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and read from the scroll of Isaiah where it is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of the sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:18-19)

Then he proclaimed that this scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing.  In other words, he was God’s long awaited anointed one, the Messiah!  At first the people were amazed about his gracious words, but then they started asking, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”They became furious with what Jesus was saying and claiming to be. 

How quick we are to judge and stereotype the people in our lives!

Sometimes we do this even with members of our own families or friends with whom we are most familiar.   We form a view or perspective about them, and then if they step outside our perspective or exceed our expectations, we refuse to accept what we see.  If they change, mature or exhibit growth in some way, we have trouble accepting their new state.  We make a judgment about someone based upon our experience with them or judge them by their appearance. 

We may recall the TV show, Britain’s Got Talent, when a singer from a small village in Scotland, Susan Boyle, appeared on the program.  She was 47, appeared to have a somewhat dowdy appearance and was a bit awkward in her speech and manner.  It was clear that both the judges and the audience had immediately formed a low, almost mocking reaction to her, until she started singing the song, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables.  

Almost immediately, their mockery turned into shouts of approval and a standing ovation for her beautiful voice.  Even one of the judges admitted afterwards he had never been so surprised by the performance of a singer.  Another judge apologized for her initial reaction.  Boyle became an overnight sensation on the internet and around the world.

How do you avoid judging others? 

“For our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”  (Eph. 6:12)

I have a good friend who spent most of his Army career in defense intelligence serving in Vietnam, Cambodia and in the preparation for Desert Storm.  I have always been fascinated by his stories of how he and his teams were able to develop and provide important intelligence to his superiors that guided our strategies in these various theaters of war. 

How ironic that we wouldn’t think of going to war without knowing our enemy and his plans, but yet we don’t even acknowledge that we have an enemy of life and one who is dedicated to defeating the purpose and desire that God has for each of us!  

We are all tempted by the evil one — even Jesus in the desert at the beginning of his public ministry; even Peter and the apostles at Jesus’ passion; even Paul who said, “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” (Ro. 7:19)

I know that I have been tempted by and given into all of the capital sins of pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth.  Sometimes, through God’s grace and mercy, and the power of the Holy Spirit, I have resisted them.  Let me share one example.  

In my work as an attorney for an oil company, one of our responsibilities was to represent the company before state legislatures on legislation impacting company operations.  As a result, we would develop and implement the lobbying strategies on the company position developed by our planning department.  One of the employees in the planning department started to critique our lobbying strategies.  At first his criticism dealt only with one issue, and then it expanded to all issues.  He was becoming a real thorn in our side, and I found myself engaged in constant battle with him. 

Then one day, I came across the above passage from Ephesians and I realized that my battle was not with him as a person, but with the pride that was at work in both of us.  I started to pray for him and that both of us could lay aside our pride and work in greater harmony.  After a few months, I noticed that his responses to our work were less critical.  I began to bring him more into the rationale of what we were doing.  We eventually became friends instead of rivals. 

As the Epistle James says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:7-8)

Do you recognize the influence of the enemy in your life? How do you resist him? 

“Small wonder that pride gives birth to division, and love to unity.” (St. Augustine)  Let me share two stories – one ending in division, and the other in unity. 

As an attorney for an oil company for most of my career, I saw many examples of St. Augustine’s statement play out in the corporate world, particularly in cases involving multi-party litigation.  In one such case a west coast oil company had filed a patent on a particular gasoline formula mandated by the state of California.  Since the gasoline formula was required by a state regulation, everyone assumed the formula was in the public domain and could not be patented.   Still, the company who filed the patent brought a patent infringement case against all other refiners selling gasoline in the state.  

So, we had one plaintiff company on one side and a dozen defendant companies on the other.  Sometimes there would be as many as thirty lawyers present at the defendants’ joint counsel meetings.  The pride of supposed expertise of a number of the lawyers made it difficult to establish a unified defense. As a result, a case characterized by some of the defendants as a “slam dunk,” was lost at both trial and on appeal. 

Let me offer a contrasting example.  When I retired, I went to work for Christians in Commerce, now d/b/a WorkLight, a Christian ministry to the workplace.   After about a year, we brought our executive committee together to pray about our vision and mission, and the direction the ministry would take in future years. 

The Executive Committee was made up of five people with very diverse business backgrounds, including leadership positions in banking, advertising, insurance, a former international airline pilot and myself.   In spite of our diversity, we all had a love for God, respect for one another and a desire to seek God’s will for the ministry. 

We spent the first day primarily in prayer and discussion with the following scripture becoming prominent in our thinking: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)  This gave rise to the belief that God wanted us to expand his kingdom by “being Christ in the workplace.”  We believed he was calling us to encourage and equip Christians to bring his presence into their workplaces in terms of how work is done. 

Our love for God and one another brought a unity of purpose at the time and into the future.  As the years advanced, this unity evolved into our mission, “to encourage and equip Christians to be God’s presence in the workplace by the power of the Holy Spirit, exercising faith, integrity and excellence.”

There is no limit to what unity in the love of God and one another can accomplish!

How do you strive for unity in your workplace?