Turn it off

“I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: Noise, Hurry and Crows…Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”
-- Jim Elliot

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”
Luke 5:16

Mark Driscoll (of Mars Hill Church) has a terrific piece in Relevant magazine called “Sound Wisdom.”

Driscoll documents his life – he wakes to an alarm, turns on his blackberry, checks his email, listens to the radio while showering, watches TV while dressing, turns on the radio while driving to work. Once at work, his laptop plays songs and his cell phone vibrates all day.

And on and on it goes. He is surrounded by constant noise.

Driscoll finally found a way to say “enough.”

He found some example in Jesus, who took an entire 40 day period of silence in the desert before His public ministry.

Driscoll takes an entire day away from all things electronic each month. Each hour, he takes a five minute break just to cleanse. Marcus Goodyear, our friend at the High Calling also took a social media sabbatical.

And in light (hah!) of last Saturday’s “lights out hour” , perhaps we are just a little too comfortable with the electricity-driven noise that surrounds us. You don't have to do it for the planet, but maybe we should do it for our souls.

So…what do you think about shutting down and turning out? Can you do it? How long? Leave your thoughts here.

“I challenge you to spend the next 5 minutes in silence -- "unplug" from your electronics, turn out the lights, close the door and simply stop whatever it is you're doing -- and then just sit and bask in the silence. I think it's safe to say that God is at work even when we're not.” – Mark Driscoll

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Anger in the workplace – is it ever appropriate?

Violence in the workplace really gained prominence 15 years ago with a rash of shootings from pizza parlors to factory floors to office buildings.

At the time, the Workplace Violence Institute released a study that showed more than 110,000 incidents of violence in the workplace resulting in deaths of more than 750 workers.

Something had to be done.

So employers formed workplace intervention groups, hired counselors and employees trained.

We have never been more sensitive, more averse to emotion, or more cautious to reactionary outbursts. We have squeezed emotion out of the workplace. Yet still, a recent survey says that four out of five of us get angry with coworkers for not pulling their weight.

Righteous anger is a tool that Jesus used to clear the temple, but to be honest, rarely are we put in those situations.

So is it ever appropriate to get angry at work? What kinds of situations would it be appropriate?
Anger is an emotion – and a God-given one at that. Is it possible to be angry at work and not sin – and still avoid the workplace-hostility-emotion-police? Tell us what you think here.

“Be angry, but do not sin,”
Ephesians 4:26

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Shout to the darkness

The story is told about a television circus show that highlighted a Bengal tiger act. Like the rest of the show, it was done "live" before a large audience. **

One evening, the tiger trainer went into the cage with several tigers to do a routine performance. The door was locked behind him. The spotlights highlighted the cage, the television cameras moved in close, and the audience watched in suspense as the trainer skillfully put the tigers through their paces. To the dismay of live audience and the millions watching by television, a terrifying thing happened. For thirty seconds, the lights illuminating the studio went out, a result of a blown circuit. In the darkness the tigers could see the trainer, but he could not see them.

The trainer’s whip and small kitchen chair seemed meager protection under the circumstances, but he survived. In fact, when the lights came on, he calmly finished the performance. In an interview afterward, he was asked how he felt through the chilling experience. He first admitted the fear of the situation, but pointed out that the tigers did not know that he could not see them.

He said, "I just kept cracking my whip and talking to them until the lights came on. And they never knew I could not see them as well as they could see me."

Darkness for many of us a real and vivid. Its tentacles reach out to us and grasp. The grip of darkness is a choking reality. Life situations can enclose upon us and we feel like that trainer, fighting tigers in the dark. A million things peer through at us, inspecting us, waiting for us to fall. Our problems have us all figured out, yet we often have not even seen all of them. It is decisively unfair. It is undeniably part of life.

The unknown is a journey that is fraught with despair. We grope and we crawl and we search for reason. Questions outnumber answers and the mind is a pool of doubt. Yet there is hope in God.

Corrie Ten Boom, who hid in walls in a home from the Nazi murderers has this insight. "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

The workplace and our schools and our world are dark places -- there is so much uncertainty and confusion. But we have to act as if we are in the light, because we are. We have vision. We can see.

When you are plunged into a dark room of tigers, what do you do? Leave a comment here.

** Lane Butts, Tigers in the Dark.

The Upside of Down

There is anguish all around us.

In our own back yard people are losing their jobs, losing their homes, losing their hope. The ugly smell of fear wafts through the cracks in the wall between “us and them” and we know that it might not be long before we join their ranks.

The pitch black of night is not a place we ever thought we would be. Even the day’s are dark. Despite the frenzied pitch of political campigns of “hope” and “change,” despite happy faces on the leaders and the admonishins of the preachers, we are still down.

But there is an upside to the down

David, hiding out in a dark cave was similarly hurting.

Hunted like a wild dog, his friends had left him, his King wanted him dead, and his God seem far away.

But then a question tugged at his heart,
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”

there is a reason to press on
“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.”

The updside to down is that it causes us to look to the things that are important.

"God, help me find a job"

A Sacramento-area church has ventured into the arena of helping job seekers prepare for the brutal employment market, believing that God can help.

The church offers workshops on finding God’s will, finding jobs specific to giftings, and helps keep the unemployed from despair.

The ministry is called “Career Coaching” and is in response to increased unemployment. More than 200 job seekers have been part of the program and a number have found work either during or after completing the program.

Readers of this blog know the emphasis we place on faith and the workplace, but this is an entirely new question. Does faith GET you into the workplace? Is it possible that a proper spiritual perspective just might lead you to a job? What about those who have lost a job? Is God part of that as well?

As the economy continues to drift downward, will the church need to shift away from programs and buildings and staff and become more focused on the very real and present needs that will grip our nation?

Good questions all – but are we prepared for the answers?

People of the dash

Here lies John Harper. Jun 12 1908 - May 18, 1972.

The simple grave marker is all that most people will ever know about John Harper. It's a simple testament to a a 64-year old man who was born and who died.

It should provoke questions.

What kind of life did he lead? Was he simply a victim of circumstance to be commemorated only with a cold piece of stone? What on that tombstone could he have changed?

The name is one given through birth or marriage -- There's no going back and fixing that

The date of birth was the result of the union of two people -- No changing that one either

And date of death was almost certainly the result of some external force

But the one thing on those tombstone John Harper -- and billions of others like him could control -- was the dash. The dash that represents the years between the birth day and the death day.

The dash represents a life lived.

The dash represents a thousand decisions, a thousand lives impacted, a thousand chances to change their world. The dash represent days live for some causes, some purpose, and some good

We need to be a people of the dash – not being trapped by the prison of circumstance or birth or events or even death.

Maybe you were born poor.
Or were raised in a house without love.
Maybe you are a minority.
Or suffer from a disability.

You cannot choose these things. So quit fretting over the things that you have no control.

Instead live for the dash. These precious moments that God has given you to do something for His glory.

We need to begin make a difference in our neighborhoods, our schools and our workplaces.

The king and The King

Todd Wilkerson has perhaps one of the strangest acting jobs in America.

He's the man who dons the plastic mask, red cape and white tights with a faux crown and spreads the gospel of Burger King.

This mascot is, well, a little creepy. But at the same time, he was wildly popular as the ad gurus for BK put him in football game, in stranger's beds, working on skyscrapers, playing pro football, worksites, in press conferences. Well...he was everywhere.

(Check out this workplace situation.)

He's worked on Law and Order and will be in a comedy called, the Dueling Accountant.

But while Wilkerson wears the mask of the king, his heart belongs to the King. He's the nephew of famous Times Square preacher and World Challenge founder David Wilkerson. He even entered Bible College.

Todd has a reputation a solid and faithful Christian in the nefarious world of acting -- he's living out his faith in a profession not known for outspoken Christianity.

What do you think about Christians going into dark places? Comment here.

It's a fact: 90 percent of us are in the top 10 percent

In a Business Week survey, some interesting results came out about worker esteem.

When they asked employees “Are you one of the top 10 percent of performers in your company,” 90 percent of employees said, “yes.”

Do the math.

91 percent of men answered “yes,” as did 89 percent of women and 93 percent of those over the age of 55.

Middle managers scored the “lowest” with a paltry 84 percent.

It seems that we have an elevated opinion of ourselves.

And we know that this kind of thinking isn’t reserved to just the workplace. Romans 12 says this. “I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Are you in the top 10 percent? What do you base your answer on? Do we need a ‘reality check?” Drop us a note here with your thoughts.

Sacred idleness

"Work is not always required... there is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected."
-- George McDonald

What do you think about 'sacred idleness?' Choosing rest is one thing, but when it is forced on you -- by sickness, calamity, or unemployment -- it can be unsettling. We are interested in what think about this concept? Click here to comment.

Oblivious

"I had no idea it was that bad."

We’ve all said that when we have had friends or coworkers who went through a major emotional change in their life. A marriage on the rocks. An attempted suicide. A deep depression. A loss of hope. Who knew?

We were oblivious to their need.

Most of our daily interactions are strictly surface relationships. We barely scratch below the well-crafted façade. A quick chat in the elevator or a hello past a cubicle. Nothing to it. Our verbal banter fills the airwaves with hollow talk. Listen to the conversations. “How are you?” And of course, we are all “fine.”

But we’re not.

As Red Letter Believers, we need to stop and listen. We need to get beyond the breezy banter to the hearts of those around us. Rather than moving from one shallow conversation to another, we need to be better about asking questions – and listening for answers.

Given the chance, most of us will jump at the chance to minister to those around us. But if we wait for the obvious to hit us between the eyes, it may be too late.

What kind of questions do you think we should be asking those around us, at work, at school and in our churches?