Kairos Consultancy Group

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16 ESV

You don’t need to stand on top of your office desk and preach a sermon to your workmates to be a light in the workplace.

I’ve regularly shared my belief that changing the world looks like influencing/affecting one person at a time for the better with the ordinary things we do every day.

Something as simple as giving someone a ride from point A to B so they don’t have to worry about their commute that day. Saying please and thank you. Being considerate in how you handle someone. These are things we can all do if we so choose.

Today I want to focus on a significant part of making that choice.

Work culture predominantly comes about as a snowball effect.

Person A takes out their anger/frustration/disappointment/etc on person B. Person B takes it in and adds a bit of their own mix of feelings and passes it on to person C. Person C takes it in, runs into you and you bear the brunt of everything Person A, B and C were carrying.

At this point, you have a choice you can make. One that we make all the time without even thinking about it.

You can choose to continue the vicious cycle and throw a fit at the next person who has the misfortune of crossing your path.

Or you can choose to take everything thrown at you and lay it at the feet of Jesus. And instead, let His love take deeper root in your life and find expression through you to the next person who comes your way.

It’s one thing for us to speak about the unfairness and injustices that exist in the workplace. But what role have we played as believers in encouraging, enforcing and participating in the very things we’re called to stand against?

Dealing with the person who’s mishandled you will require wisdom in different shapes and forms. Being Christian doesn’t make you a doormat that deserves to be treated any which way. Yet, ours needs to be a Spirit-led response not an emotion-driven reaction.

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will reward you.

Proverbs 25:21-22 AMPC

We belong to a kingdom that handles things very differently from the world around us. So much so that it often seems like foolishness to follow God’s lead. Yet, we cannot claim to be the Church – the Body of Christ – if we cannot trust and follow the direction given to us by the Head of the Body – Jesus.

A dark room doesn’t need more darkness. It needs light.

The dark spaces of your workplace and in your workmates’ lives don’t need more darkness. They need the light of Christ to illuminate their lives and their hearts. They need to experience the unconditional love of Christ all the more when they least deserve it. You didn’t just happen to be there and in their lives. God has positioned you like a lamp on a stand. But He cannot force to function as a light.

Are you willing to lay down your pride, look foolish and allow God to use you in unorthodox ways? To love the unlovable and do the unthinkable in His name?

May we be the reason people run towards Christ and not away from Him.

Take The Challenge:

Be intentional in leaving people better than you found them this week. Whether you’re interacting with them through a phone call, written messages on email or text, or in person.