Working With People When It Is Difficult

Our Mission

To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.

2 Chronicles 12.14 observes, he did evil because he was not determined to follow the LORD.

This past weekend I noticed some friends on Facebook taking a quiz that determined whether or not they would get to heaven. They all succeeded to earn their hoped for destination having their good deeds outstrip their sins by more than ten fold. No doubt this quiz was meant to be fun but it reinforces a couple of subtle but widely held beliefs.

First, is the idea that if my good outweighs my bad God will receive me into His heaven. The Bible unequivocally refutes this idea. It is the only religious source to make the claim that humanity cannot earn heaven through good deeds. Most people are ignorant of this fact largely because most people do not read the Bible or follow the Lord.

The second belief most people have is that they are born good but do bad things. Again, God states that our very DNA is corrupt causing us to naturally do what displeases God. We see this corruption most acutely in physical deformity but God states we all have the problem spiritually and therefore must be born again of the Spirit in order to get to heaven.

The Chronicler records for us in our verse the problem the king had was not following the Lord. This lack of obedience to what He commands naturally led him to do what displeases God. No doubt the king felt he was a good man, that he was doing right but the truth was, and is for us, that failure to do what God wants means we are doing what we want which makes us disobedient to God.

Disobedience to God is what God considers evil and therefore sinful. If we are not doing God’s will then we are disobeying God through the selfish pursuit of our own ends. The idea that unless we are obeying God we are disobeying God is hard for us to comprehend. We feel like we are free agents who get to choose what is right and wrong. We feel like we are morally neutral most of the time until we either do something good or bad. This is not God’s perspective.

We are morally bankrupt before God from birth. We need a declaration of pardon to be made right with God. We stay in right relationship with God as we pursue the doing of His will on earth as it is in heaven. If we want to do what is right we must begin by following Jesus.

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CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com

MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

December 18, 2017

Working with People When it is Difficult

by Robert J. Tamasy

Most of us spend more time at work than we do any other place. There we must interact with people to get tasks done, support coworkers, satisfy customers, and make contributions toward reaching organizational goals. Not all people, however, are easy to work with.

Yet Jesus Christ tells us that to love God necessarily also means to love our neighbor — even those we would consider more like enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). And the quality of love He calls us to extend to our neighbor is radical: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). To love someone the way we love ourselves essentially means our attempt to address the needs of others with the same sense of urgency and tenacity with which we seek to meet our own needs.

Jesus modeled this love for us throughout His ministry, and ultimately on the cross. He understood more than anybody the cost He was asking us to pay in order to love people to the degree with which we love ourselves: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27).

So how can we practice loving people, especially when it is difficult? Consider these two practices the next time you find yourself in such a challenging position:

Look Inward First. It takes courage to look within ourselves first when faced with conflict. In high-pressure situations, many people look outward. They find reasons outside of themselves for their problems. They blame others or the situation, and look for excuses. However, the Lord asks us to look inward. We are to take personal responsibility for what is happening and what needs to be done, even when circumstances or other people clearly play a definitive role.

When faced with difficult situations and people, routinely ask yourself, “What is my part in creating the situation, and what do I, personally, need to do about it?” The apostle Paul modeled such behavior when dealing with conflicts within the Church. Early in Paul’s writings, he said he considered himself, “the least of the apostles and [I] do not even deserve to be called an apostle …” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Later in his writings, Paul referred to himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). The apostle had keen self-awareness. Knowing ourselves enables us to make conscious, intentional choices about how we respond to people and situations.

Work with Compassion. Compassion can be defined as “empathy in action.” Being open to others enables us to face tough times with creativity and resilience. Empathy enables us to connect with people. It helps us get things done, and to deal with stress and the sacrifices inherent in leadership in powerful, effective ways. We are called to care enough to want to learn about other people, feel what they feel, see the world the way they do, and then do something with what we have learned.

The most challenging part about working with compassion is that we cannot assume or expect an equal exchange of compassion to be given to us. Compassion means giving selflessly. We find the capacity for compassion in Jesus, who said on the cross, while looking at the people who were crucifying Him, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). What an amazing request!

Copyright 2017, Workmatters. Mike Reading is Director of Workmatters Institute, a marketplace ministry that equips young professionals to develop a Christ-centric passion for work. He holds a BS degree from Ouachita Baptist University, an MA in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a DTL (Doctorate of Transformational Leadership) from Bakke Graduate University. To learn more about Workmatters, visit workmatters.org.

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 lansing.cbmc.com