By Jennifer Davis Rash
I’ve always been taught to leave a place better than I found it. While this well-known saying most often refers to a physical location, it also can play out in relationships and team experiences.
Am I pulling my weight on the team? Is the team better because I’m a part of it? Am I willing to help others when they need extra assistance?
Do I make a positive difference in another person’s day? Or are my attitude, actions and apathy bringing others down?
Consider Person A who preceded me in an internship role when I was in my early 20s.
I was confused why she had not made any progress on our assigned project. I even wondered if she had actually worked at all when the supervisor told me after my second day on the job that I had accomplished more in two days than she had done in weeks.
A few years later I met Person B who was super speedy and ran circles around the rest of us on the team but 9 out of 10 things she did had to be redone. She was fast but she had poor results when it came to quality of work. She ended up costing the rest of us time having to go behind her to correct her mistakes.
And then there was Person C who spent more energy trying to avoid doing the job he was hired to do than it would have taken to just do the job. I’m still perplexed how he slept at night knowing the extra weight he caused us to carry because he wasn’t doing his part. And it wasn’t only during the time he was on the team but his dishonest and sloppy job affected various parts of the work for years to come.
You might have guessed that my patience wears a bit thin when it comes to purposeful dishonesty, sloppiness and slacking — in any situation.
But I’ve also learned that while some people know exactly what they are doing and purposefully mistreat the team or relationship, it is not the case with everyone. Sometimes there is a deeper concern at play. It might be a health issue or an emotional problem. The person could be overwhelmed with a personal crisis.
It could be as simple as lack of training, poor communication or negligence on the part of the team leader in establishing clear expectations. And sometimes people merely are promoted beyond their strengths — the Peter Principle, a concept made famous by the late Canadian researcher Laurence J. Peter who wrote a book about it in 1969.
If we discover that any of the above scenarios have occurred, then we make the place better than we found it immediately by owning up to what is happening.
Team leaders, slow down long enough to know your team members and understand their struggles, their situations and their needs. Your job is to empower them to do their jobs. You are responsible to provide the training and resources they need. Create an environment that allows for achievement, confidence and security.
If you recruited them for your team, then protect them while also pushing them.
Team members, take responsibility for yourselves. Be willing to ask for help, seek proper medical or psychological attention and figure out what you need to do to be a cooperative and contributing team member.
Everyone on the team can be part of the solution. Along with determining to be the best you God has created you to be, encourage and challenge those around you to do the same.
Why waste your time — and that of everyone around you — being part of something if you aren’t willing to contribute toward making it the best it can be?
The ‘what ifs’ of life
By Michael J. Brooks
I’m convinced many of us are tormented with “what ifs” in our lives.
“What if I’d gone to the doctor sooner?” or “What if I’d not driven that route that day?” or “What if I’d been morally stronger?”
Alas the “what ifs” plague us but there’s nothing we can do to alter the course of the past.
No one of us, no matter how strong, is strong enough to pull back the hands of a clock.
This is why Paul’s word in Philippians 3 has always been one of my favorite texts in the season of New Year. “Forgetting those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of Christ,” he wrote (Phil. 3: 13–14).
We do learn from the past, to be sure, but Paul’s word is to forget the failings that discourage us and to infuse our lives with a new and greater purpose.
The message of the Christian gospel is that there need not be any “has-beens” in God’s kingdom.
He is a God of mercy who specializes in restoring His wayward people from their failures and dashed hopes.
And He promises to be our partner in building a meaningful life of service to God and others.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Excerpt from Reflections, a weekly column by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster.
Thoughts about being a pastor
By Pastor Scott Slayton
Chelsea Village Baptist Church
Scattered thoughts about pastoral ministry and being a pastor:
- Walk with Jesus every day. The Father called you to be His child before He called you to be a pastor.
- Be a good neighbor to the people who physically live around you. Know their names, talk to them when you see them and help out any way you can. Don’t awkwardly try to get them to come to church the first time you meet them. If you are a good neighbor they might just invite themselves.
- Get up early on Sunday mornings to look over your message. This way if there are crises to deal with when you get to church you won’t be freaking out about your sermon.
- You will not magically find time for anything. What needs to be done will only be done by making time.
- Stop looking for a magic bullet to make your church “succeed.” Pray, preach, disciple, care for people and love your neighbors. This bears much fruit in the long run.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Excerpt from One Degree to Another blog at scottslayton.net.
“The key to living without fear is not believing that nothing you fear will happen but that nothing will happen apart from God’s intervening grace.”
Jennifer Kennedy Dean
“Live A Praying Life Without Fear”
“As Christians it’s important that we have discernment, but it’s also important to stretch ourselves. We should dialogue with those we disagree with — to better understand their perspective and better understand why we believe what we believe.
“Growth can happen in a lot of ways, and one is learning from those who don’t see the world the way we do. … We should be humble enough to realize we don’t know everything and aren’t always right. … Let’s have discernment but remain teachable.
“Imagine how things would be different if we weren’t afraid of people who might believe differently from us.”
Cameron Strang, founder and publisher of Relevant
“First Word: A letter from the editor”
May/June 2016 issue
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
“The themes themselves in the book and movie are universal. Themes of redemption, of forgiveness, of love. We are human, we are flawed and it’s coming to terms with those flaws. How do we drop our baggage and look into the future rather than looking into the past?”
Jack Huston, lead actor in 2016 version of the movie “Ben-Hur,” comments from Relevant magazine article “Jack Huston is taking his place in history”
“Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9
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