Gaining Perspective
If today was your first day in the work world, you may be surprised to discover that work sometimes can feel annoying and pointless.
No, really. I have seen it many times. Sometimes it happens many times in the same day. And nothing makes work seem more annoying and pointless than when you’re preoccupied dealing with a “real” issue at home.
The “real” issue can be lots of things. It can be big things, like a death in the family, an unexpected diagnosis, or a crisis with one of the children. Or it can be small things, like a missing checkbook, a bully at the kids’ school, or recall notice for the new car. There are lots of things that can arrive to mess up our plans and jolt us out of our routines. (In the Bible translation I’m developing, Proverbs 16:9 – “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” – is “Y’all can think you’ve got it figured out, but God just might have other ideas.” I’m really expecting my version is going to knock the NIV off the top of the bestseller list. Take that, International Bible Society! Bwah-hah-ha! But I digress…)
And while these “real” events can provide instant clarity on what’s important, my experience is that they also make the other stuff seem really, well, annoying and pointless.
This week, our family said goodbye to a long-time family pet. Our cat had been with us for 14 years, longer than either of our children. So it was pretty traumatic for us when we came home and discovered she’d apparently suffered a stroke. It was a time of sadness and recalling fond family memories. The children – and we parents – are getting through the grief surprisingly well. But working through the sadness and tenderness at home really makes it hard to get too worked up about silly stuff at work. For instance, things that seem particularly unimportant now include:
- Who gets top billing on the PowerPoint presentation
- Who is seated at the head table at the company picnic (don’t ask me why there’s a head table at a picnic…)
- Who gets the most glances from the executive during the staff meeting (people track these things)
- Who gets John’s parking space now that he’s retiring (not for another year, but it’s never too early to ask).
It would be easy to have a royal meltdown when the real issues of life make the goofy issues of work seem even more goofy. It’s at times like this that I find great truth in Paul’s counsel in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
I’m pretty sure Paul wasn’t talking about company picnic head tables when he wrote that.
No, really. I have seen it many times. Sometimes it happens many times in the same day. And nothing makes work seem more annoying and pointless than when you’re preoccupied dealing with a “real” issue at home.
The “real” issue can be lots of things. It can be big things, like a death in the family, an unexpected diagnosis, or a crisis with one of the children. Or it can be small things, like a missing checkbook, a bully at the kids’ school, or recall notice for the new car. There are lots of things that can arrive to mess up our plans and jolt us out of our routines. (In the Bible translation I’m developing, Proverbs 16:9 – “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” – is “Y’all can think you’ve got it figured out, but God just might have other ideas.” I’m really expecting my version is going to knock the NIV off the top of the bestseller list. Take that, International Bible Society! Bwah-hah-ha! But I digress…)
And while these “real” events can provide instant clarity on what’s important, my experience is that they also make the other stuff seem really, well, annoying and pointless.
This week, our family said goodbye to a long-time family pet. Our cat had been with us for 14 years, longer than either of our children. So it was pretty traumatic for us when we came home and discovered she’d apparently suffered a stroke. It was a time of sadness and recalling fond family memories. The children – and we parents – are getting through the grief surprisingly well. But working through the sadness and tenderness at home really makes it hard to get too worked up about silly stuff at work. For instance, things that seem particularly unimportant now include:
- Who gets top billing on the PowerPoint presentation
- Who is seated at the head table at the company picnic (don’t ask me why there’s a head table at a picnic…)
- Who gets the most glances from the executive during the staff meeting (people track these things)
- Who gets John’s parking space now that he’s retiring (not for another year, but it’s never too early to ask).
It would be easy to have a royal meltdown when the real issues of life make the goofy issues of work seem even more goofy. It’s at times like this that I find great truth in Paul’s counsel in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
I’m pretty sure Paul wasn’t talking about company picnic head tables when he wrote that.
posted by Tom Petersen at 10:40 PM
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