God in the Workplace

This past week at work, I had two situations that were creating a lot of stress. In both situations, I though of "the usual" - praying that God would help me deal with them, not be overly worked up, handle well as a Christian - providing a good witness.

As I was dealing with the first one, though, I started thinking about why wouldn't God change this? Why did I have to go through this? I remembered that He usually allows trials in our lives in order to help us grow. James 1:2-3: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." So, I thought, "What are You trying to teach me?" What I realized is that God wanted me to truly turn the situation over to Him - not just my feelings or reactions about it.

The situation involved my team being asked to implement a system extremely quickly - which introduces very high risk of something not working well. Some of the executives involved in the request also have a perception that my area is difficult to deal with - slow to produce results. So, I decided to ask God to move in the situation - deal with the demands, help the project to go well, and deal with the people and their perception of my team.

Later in the week, we had a meeting to review the project. Within this meeting, the time frames discussed, while still rapid, were much more reasonable and attainable - including time for dedicated testing. The executives also made specific comments at how quickly my team had begun the initial ground work - complimentary in the same issues they've typically been critical regarding.

The second issue arose the following day. Our company recently hired a consulting firm to evaluate the costs of several areas in the company, and compare them to data from other firms. A large part of what my area does is new and unique - other firms are not doing this, yet. The consultants had stated they had no comparative data. But in their report, they "created" a comparative measure, and showed us to be much more expensive. Within the company, we were being asked to address the difference in costs - potentially by significantly reducing staff.

Remembering the earlier experience, I asked God to work in this situation, as well - not just to help me not to get upset about it, but to work in it. Within a few minutes, I got word that the consultants had removed the invalid comparison "data."

I don't know that God will always choose to work so quickly and with results that are so pleasant - but He's clearly helping me learn to really engage Him in prayer in the specific issues and challenges in my work place.