Issue 038
How many mistakes have you made today? How many will you make this week? How many words will you say which would have been better left unsaid or said differently? How many times will you make a sub-standard decision or fail to live up to your beliefs? Some mistakes will be accidental, others deliberate, and still others because of tiredness, under-resourcing or poor practice. Whoever we are, we will make a catalogue of mistakes at work this week.
If you are a perfectionist this will irritate you. Your blood pressure will
rise and your blood chemistry change to reflect your irritable state. If
you have a sensitive conscience your guilt levels will rise and a small
weariness will link up with your disappointment to create a degree of
paralysis. If you let your mistakes get to you or get on top of you, you
will explode or implode; either way it will be destructive. If you blame
others you will create tension and resentment.
So what do we do with this daily or weekly catalogue of mistakes?
“At least don’t deceive yourself or pretend they don’t exist”, according
to Jesus’ best friend. He advised that we should confess rather than
repress our mistakes. God, it seems, is a specialist in turning our
mistakes around. They made a big mistake when they sold Joseph into
slavery, but God transformed the evil into good. Paul made a big
mistake when he persecuted Christians and Jonah set off in completely
the wrong direction in his work.
There is only one place to put our mistakes and it is not down to
experience. It has to be at the feet of God. Down at this level you can
look at another man-made mistake called the crucifixion. If you feel
like your mistakes make you fall down and your regret, guilt and anger
motivate you to fall at His feet in prayer, remember at work this week
that there is a time to get up. The risen Christ within you will
empower you to get up and carry on. How many times will you have
to get up? Just one more than you fall.
1 John 1:8
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim
sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Genesis 50:19
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me,
but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Philippians 4:13
13I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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