Soundbites

Do we behave differently at work?

Christians often find themselves doing things at work that they’d never do anywhere else — treating people with contempt, losing their tempers, stealing time or supplies, cutting corners or fudging what’s right and wrong. When we decide that our jobs don’t really matter to God, we’re less careful to keep God at the front of our minds when we’re dealing with others. We no longer think to ask ourselves, “What would please God in this particular situation and circumstance?” We find ourselves, without even realizing it, doing our work without thinking about Jesus at all. How would your work change if you began to approach your job as an arena for God’s glory and your own growth and discipleship? It changes everything. — Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert in The Gospel at Work: How Working for King Jesus Gives Purpose and Meaning to our Jobs

Lethal tranquillity

There’s a false belief in many organizations that tension and conflict are signs of an unhealthy team. In many cases, this couldn’t be further from the truth! An effective team consists of people willing to fight for their ideas, challenge others when necessary, and stand their ground when confronted. In the end, however, those same people must be willing to bend to the ideas of others and submit to the decisions made by the leader, knowing that they can’t win every battle. Unfortunately, managers are often uncomfortable with these fits and spurts and attempt to squash team conflicts so as to preserve the peace. There’s a false belief that tranquillity equals health, but a tranquil team is often a sign of imminent death because it may mean that no one cares enough to make waves. — Todd Henry in Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day

More time

Time management techniques are designed to maximize what time we do have available. But why do we want to gain all this time? Often, it’s to do more of what we’re already doing! To have more meetings, read more e-mails, and meet more customers.... “Time management techniques don’t require us to challenge our fundamental views of time,” writes Robert Banks. In short, time remains the idol that rules our life – time management is just an attempt to squeeze more out of it. — Ken Eldred in The Integrated Life

Chit-chat or gossip?

One of the challenges about gossip is there isn’t strong consensus about what exactly constitutes gossip. Ask a group of people and you’ll get a group of different answers.... For instance, some people believe a statement is considered gossip only if it contains untruthful remarks. Others believe gossip is any statement that speaks about an individual and/or an employer without their presence. Still others suggest a statement would be considered gossip only if it includes disparaging remarks, criticism, rumours and/or consists of a range of behaviour, right up to a malicious form of attack bordering on workplace violence. On the other hand, a review of several dictionary definitions identifies a more toned-down view. Gossip in a dictionary is described as idle talk and/or a rumour that reveals personal or sensational facts about the lives of others.... In any case, most people find gossip is more harmful than helpful, especially in the workplace. — Career consultant Barbara Bowes in the Winnipeg Free Press

Double whammy

Children growing up in poverty tend to do less well in school and, over a lifetime, earn less. Some evidence suggests that poor children are more susceptible to depression, substance abuse and disease later in life. Nurturing parents can offset some of these negatives, but an 11-year study at the University of North Carolina that followed mostly rural poor children showed that parental stress — poverty included — leads to a diminution of nurturing and support by the parents. By the time a child is age three observers can detect that vocabulary, working memory and executive functions have declined in relation to the amount of stress experienced by the parents. — New York Times

How the Bible speaks

[W]e are left with the logically perplexing but morally empowering paradox that the Bible is both grossly irrelevant in direct application to current economic problems and incredibly relevant in vision and principle for grasping opportunities and obligations to make the whole earth and its bounty serve the welfare of the whole human family. — Old Testament scholar Norman Gottwald in The Hebrew Bible in Its Social World and in Ours

Send us a memo -

Got a “faith memo” to share?

We’re collecting nuggets of faith and business, and we’re inviting your help.

We’re looking for short (100-200 words) bits of business/faith wisdom, something that helped or enlivened your daily work.

Take a few minutes to jot it down, then send it to us. If we get enough, we’ll put them in a book. Maybe we’ll call it The Marketplace Book of Business Wisdom. Or something like that.

Don’t be shy. Send to wkroeker@meda.org