Excuses or Blessings?

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: What you've been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, "Read this," she'll say, "I can't. The envelope is sealed." And if you give it to someone who can't read and tell him, "Read this," he'll say, "I can't read." Isaiah 29:11-12 [MSG]
• O: Excuses accomplish nothing.
• A: It seems that I get this from my own employees regularly. I ask them to do something and their first response is to tell me why they can't. Not to ask for further instruction. Not to ask for assistance. But to say that they just can't do it. And they are more often than not just lame excuses with no basis in reality. People who have received repeated training will try to tell me that they don't know how to do the simplest of tasks. Excuses. Not reasons. We can be like that with God. "I can't tithe because I have bills to pay." "I can't go to church because I have to work on Sunday." "I can't pray in front of a group because they'll laugh at me." All of them excuses, and God knows it. We are only fooling ourselves when we try these lame excuses. And what do we gain? A little extra fun money? A couple extra hours of sleep on Sunday? But at what cost? Since starting to tithe, I have seen God bless the 90% that I don't return to Him. I seem to have more money between paydays than in the past, and there is no earthly logical reason for it (especially with the cost of gasoline driving the price of everything up). Church has changed our lives -- you can see it in my entire family. The excuses cost you more than just doing what is right. And it's the same at work, as I've promoted newer employees because of their productivity while reducing the hours of tenured Associates. The excuses have cost them hours and money, while getting the job done has paid rewards to others.
• P: God, You've taught me a lesson that works both spiritually and professionally. By putting an end to the excuses and returning to You that which You have given me, I have been blessed. And by putting those same principles in place at work, I have seen Your blessings there, as well.

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Epiphany

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing." [Isaiah 29:13-14 MSG]
• O: Today was a very stressful day. The past week, in fact, has led up to it with some unusual happenings at work. First, last week there was a meeting of several District Managers and above at our corporate headquarters. This week, I have a visit scheduled with some people from our corporate headquarters and from a liquidation company that is coming in to pick up several clearance items as part of a test that will likely be rolled out to the entire company if it is successful in my store. I also received word that My District Manager and Loss Prevention Manager will be in my store on Wednesday to look into some high merchandise shrink numbers. And, there is a Store Manager meeting tomorrow for the entire District. It's been a hectic week. My company closed nearly three dozen stores several months ago, and has been struggling financially for quite some time. With a new CEO and Executive Council, the company is trying to reinvent itself. Any time a company is in this situation, it can be difficult not to worry about what might happen next -- restructuring, job eliminations, store closures, etc. All of the unusual coincidences happening at the same time have had me wondering a bit. I say all of that to say this: WOW! Did I have an epiphany today. After stressing over much of this and calling my wife to let out the stress, I sat in my car during a very short lunch and spent some time reading through the Bible. I read several chapters, and shortly after starting what I had planned to be the last chapter, I read the passage quoted above. It felt amazingly like God was trying to speak to me.
• A: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it." I want my heart to be "in it," but clearly there are distractions and preoccupations in life that tend to steal attention away from God and family. "Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it,..." Of course I worship God. But, when I'm in church, and we're singing, do I feel it? Am I worshipping and praising -- or just singing? And what of the rest of the week? Where is the praise and worship then? "I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears." The message is coming through loud and clear now. How easy it could be for my whole world to be turned on it's end by things such as lost jobs or store closures. "The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing." Now I know. See, I felt as if God was trying to get through to me, to tell me that I'm not quite living the life that He would want me to live. Like He had stood me on my ears with all of the uncertainty at work. When my wife and I were looking for our new house, we made several commitments to each other -- and to God -- that we haven't been doing a very good job of living up to. In some cases, we have actually used the new house as one of the excuses for not living up to these commitments. Through this passage in Isaiah, I feel that God has opened up my eyes and made me realize that there are some things that I need to be doing for Him. Funny thing of it is, when I spoke with my wife about it afterward and told her of my epiphany, she said she had been thinking the very same thing last night.
• P: God, I hear You. I hear You and I understand. Thank You for bringing me to the realization that we haven't been honoring our commitments to You. Whatever Your Will might be regarding the situation at work, I put my faith in You to see us through it.

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Preparedness

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

Today's SOAP inspired by The Leadership Bible

• S: Genesis 3:15
• O: God sees all, knows all, and has a plan for the future.
• A: From before the creation of the world, God had a plan. He knew that Eve would fall to temptation. He knew that man would struggle with sin. He knew that His Son would die on the cross to save us from our sins. And He knew that someday His Son would return us to take us to be with Him. Sometimes in my daily work, it's hard just to plan the activites for the current day, much less thousands of years into the future, as God has done. It can be difficult to get everyone else to align their plans with my own. It can be difficult to get everyone else to be productive. And it can be impossible to get those to whom I report to allow me to just run the business without their frequent interruption into the things that I know need to be done. Nevertheless, I can only be a successful leader if I'm always prepared with a plan. Rudy Giuliani said it in his book Leadership: you cannot always be prepared for what will happen, but if you prepare yourself and your team for what may happen, you are more likely to be prepared for any situation and will handle any eventuality.
• P: Lord, help me to be prepared. Not just in my career, but in the leadership you've called me to at home. Help me to be prepared for what might happen, so that when the unexpected happens, it really isn't so unexpected. Thanks to Your divine plan, I'm already prepared for Eternity. Help me, now Lord, to be prepared for today, tomorrow, and next week, and what the world might throw at me over that course of time.

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