This... will be my approach

On April 1st (no foolin!) I took over an additional sales team at work. I love my new company and I have enjoyed learning about the technology along with trying to start making a difference for my team. Well, not 4 months into the job I have taken over an additional sales team so I now have 2 sales teams- very diverse in their roles. I was happy to do this to help my boss and the company and I knew the Lord was leading this. I always know that whatever comes is from him so I see it coming and I take a deep breath and say, "lets go Lord".

Our company has a lot of complex processes (most companies do these days!) so I was already quite busy prior to taking over this new team; it was a challenge to keep up. So, what do I do when faced with the challenge of this new team and workload? Sure, I'm willing to work hard and turn up the dial- but the dial is pretty darn turned up already. So, what do I do put the kids down each night and then start working until midnight every single night for my job to keep up?

In the Bible we read of "idols" and I have always asked the Lord, "so... what are the idols today?" Well, I can tell you that it would approach the devotion of worship if I had to start living and breathing my job in order to keep up. Is that what the Lord wants me to do or wouldn't that become an idol for me?

I read so many scriptures that tell me to trust God and put him first no matter what. There are many scriptures that speak like this to me such as Proverbs 3:5-6"Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths". And I read scriptures like Psalm 37:3-6 "Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday." And there are countless other scriptures that tell us not to simply look at, believe, and submit to the surface realities that are so obvious in our lives. These scriptures challenge us to look at the stark realities we face and not ignore them but trust God IN SPITE of them. Another good one is from Jesus in Matthew 6:32-34 "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

So, 2 weeks ago on a Saturday night I hadn't prayed in a couple of days and I had just taken over this 2nd sales team and I was absolutely slammed at work and really feeling the pressure and stress of wanting to not let anyone down in my new role but I also felt a great need to meet the Lord in prayer. It was a clash of reality vs. my faith walk with Christ- what should I do, what COULD I even do?

I put the kids down and it was late evening 2 Saturdays ago. I had planned all day to just fire up my laptop and work late into the night to get caught up and (gasp) even get proactive. But the Lord is the very center of my life, my biggest priority, my highest dream, and I love him - I was missing him and here I was faced with a choice. I "should" work late but I "needed" time with the Lord and it made me sad to think I couldn't spend time with the Lord again...

I went outside and sat on the patio in the late evening stillness and brought my laptop and pulled up Biblegateway.com and started reading through Psalm 37 (my life's chapter) and praying those verses and many others to the Lord outloud. I militantly asked the Lord, "So, Lord is it true these thoughts I have in my head- that I will be toast if I don't work all night and not spend time with you? Can't I spend time with the Lord? Lord, your word says all these things about putting you first, trusting in you, seeking first your kingdom, etc- are those just fine-sounding words? Lord, I believe that you want me to actually make the choice to trust you here. I believe you want me to stand in front of this gun and say 'pull the trigger world, I am trusting God and putting him first anyway - with my job, with my family, with my time, and with my life.'"

So that night I spent reading the Lord his own words about putting him first, reciting them to him, telling him I believe them even if I don't feel anything - even if for some moments it felt like I was just reading outloud to myself. I challenged God to fulfill his word literally. I challenged him to respond to my "foolish" faith. I urged him and pleaded with him to protect me and help me as I sought him first according to his word. It was no easy feat to accomplish because when you are overwhelmed at work its the most natural thing in the world to want to plow into your work and just do whatever it takes to get the job done. And working very hard is a tremendously good thing to do- and Christianity even demands that we work hard- but our faith also says "unless the Lord builds the house its laborers labor in vain". So, I set aside the time and drew a line in the sand that I would work hard but always put God first.

The next day, Sunday, I didn't work at all (I never work on Sunday simply as a day to rest, spend time with the family, and express my faith in the Lord). I had the family pray for me during our family time on Sunday and we all asked the Lord to help and to fulfill his word.

That Monday I came in to 170 emails, a need to hire a replacement sales rep, and about 9 critical projects along with a whole new sales team. Let me tell you- I didn't even need caffeine to stay wired that day- you could have plugged me into a lightbulb and it would have lit up. Well, I prayed in my heart throughout the day and reminded the Lord I was trusting him and by the next day I had only 18 emails including handling everything for the day and things were going pretty well. I had plenty of snags but things were making progress. Every night that week I spent time with the Lord after I put the kids to bed- I kept up the philosophy of putting the Lord first and for my lifestyle the best time I can pray is in the evening. That week I was able to accomplish a lot, I was not overwhelmed, I had peace and calmness, I grew closer to the Lord - and I made a couple of impacts at a corporate level that seemed to help quite a bit.

This past week I continued the approach- nightly spending time with the Lord, worshipping him, reading the Word, getting to know my Lord and trusting him. I found that I was still very slammed at work- I am not going to sugar coat this- it has been very challenging still - but I have had peace, calm, and I keep getting ideas of how to do things better. And, I have been able to keep up the juggling act and not let things hit the ground. The Lord made this second experiment week a success as well, there are too many examples but they are all amazing for me to see and appreciate.

Seeking the Lord - this... will be my approach to life. The work may be overwhelming sometimes and the bullets will fly but somehow at the end of each season of trial I will see how blessed and protected I was- and my true prize is I get to know him.