Issue 100
What has been your experience of loyalty at work? Employment experts talk about people having four or five careers in a lifetime moving around and following beneficial career paths. In this context there’s not a particular loyalty to one employer, but rather to one’s own needs.
On the other side of the table employers seek the most cost effective workforce, shifting work to countries where wages or salaries are lower. National or local loyalties to employees are low down the list. In this marketplace, clients, colleagues or managers find themselves facing forces which put loyalty on notice, make it redundant or at least encourage it to take early retirement.
Yet we crave loyalty, we appreciate commitment and prefer to feel that there is some stability in our working relationships. This is especially true when we are under pressure. It is when work is tough – which is of course quite a high percentage of the time – that we want someone to stand with us or by us, or stand up for us. We do not want to scatter in the face of difficulty or find that ‘abandon ship’ and ‘everyone for themselves’, is the order of the day.
This is especially true of our relationship with our immediate boss or employer. If our manager will stand with us, we feel a sense of being covered. It creates a sense of security and stability. The more senior and influential the manager, the more his or her loyalty creates this sense of security. When we pray “Father”, we are not merely crying out for help. We are not just asking for comfort, but we are expressing our conviction that our ultimate security is contained in our relationship with him. We are placing ourconfidence in his commitment to us. We are trusting to his loyalty.
The fact is that there is no-one more senior to whom we can Appeal; his commitment and loyalty to us is absolute. The evidence for this is to be found on the cross where his love, loyalty and self-sacrifice express themselves in the ultimate fashion.
This is not just a theological proposition; you and I take this to work with us. This is where we find our security. This is why we have the freedom to act rightly and with conviction. Whoever else abandons the ship, the Father will not. He will never leave nor forsake. He has signed loyalty papers in his blood. He did not walk away then and he will not walk away now and nothing is able to take it away from you.
John 19:25-27
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 17:1-5
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: 2″Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to allthose you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began
Luke 11: 1-4
1One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: ” ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation
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Geoff Shattock
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