Yesterday, I was in a conference call in the morning that got a little tense. It was really no big deal in the scheme of things, and for the most part was just a misunderstanding of who was going to do what part of this project that we are all working together on. I felt good about the meeting, and I knew that this topic would come up. During the first minutes of the meeting I proclaimed to a coworker via instant message that I was going “to take a new tact”.
Then it got tense, and there we some mild disagreements and debates and I felt him coming back. Who do you ask? Me! The selfish, short tempered, brash me. And I could sense that others where seeing, or I guess in this case hearing him as well. ARGH! Now, I had a platform to stand on that was well positioned. More than likely I may have even been in the “right”. But really, it’s not about me, and the tone that was coming across the phone was changing the tone of the meeting in the negative in a hurry. ARGH!
Later in the day I watch a video clip about how we live lives behind veneers. The talk presented two views the human view and the God view. Interestingly enough the human view was about well, the human itself, and the God view was about all the other humans on this earth. It all ended with a fantastic summation and a challenge – are we exposing the human like veneer or the God like veneer? Is it about me, or is it about everyone else.
It seems to me that life actually works out better when we take the God like approach and focus on others. Somehow in some way, that way always seems to have some way of making it better in the end for us! Yet, we still want to put ourselves in the lead. It’s quite a paradox!
Well, I hope I was able to push myself back into the background as the meeting went on. What I do know is that the rest of the day, I felt like a black cloud of frustration was hanging over my head, since I know I let him back! The great thing is that I have a new day to start over and let God shine in my interactions.
How about you? Are you choosing the human like thing or the God like thing?
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Philippians 2:1-5 New International Version (NIV)
