Grounded

Mental health is important. Life can be stressful and stress can accumulate. I am currently 3 months into a new role with work and although the people are lovely, there are some aspects of my role that I am still coming to terms with - mostly due to poor organisation and planning.... but I have resolved to delay judgement of such things for another 3 months and will just see how it goes. With a long weekend this weekend, I am just taking some time out to relax, pray and seek the Lord for perspective.

I was reading this morning, some writing from a classic preacher, evangelist and healer - Smith Wigglesworth. Maybe I was looking for some inspiration, but his writings and short and fairly simplistic - which they should be. He was talking about Peter knowing and declaring who Jesus was and Jesus building his church upon this rock / foundation in Peter's life.

Matt 16:15-19

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of Jonah, you are happy because you did not learn this from man. My Father in heaven has shown you this.

“And I tell you that you are Peter. On this rock I will build My church. The powers of hell will not be able to have power over My church.  I will give you the keys of the holy nation of heaven. Whatever you do not allow on earth will not have been allowed in heaven. Whatever you allow on earth will have been allowed in heaven.”

I was dwelling on this around the same time that I was askinig God about work - what do I beleive? And what is God's perpective about the situation? I am aware I am a little reactive / upset about the whole situation - probably a little unnecessarily, but I also haven't been well provided for as a new staff member. I really don't want to fall into a victim mindset.

I received a picture of myself packing down bown dirt - pushing it down and smoothing it in - building a firm foundation. The little battles to sort out some basic stuff alongside relationship building and trust building. I have already resolved to smile a little more, laugh, encourage others and contribute wherever I can. That is my way forward. But as a person who loves to build and change and create, I need patience in all of this and due diligence in my work. Changes will come, one little step at a time. In the meantime I will keep packing in the dirt.

1 Cor 3: 10-23

Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.  If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,

“He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness."

And again,

“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise;  he knows they are worthless.”

So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

I love this message from Paul to the Corinthian church who were being more concerned about the human leaders that they were following than anything else. It is a bit like me today boasting about which church service I go to on a Sunday and making comparisons.

Maybe in the workplace - which is completely secular, I need to just focus on my foundations and not get ahead of myself - at least for time being. Building relationships and getting the basics right. Not worrying about what anyone else is doing, or looking at what would be good to change / making comparisons to previous workplaces. Staying in my own lane, and humbly being the best me for my clients and colleagues.

Christ is the foundation of our faith, of the lives we live and of the way we conduct ourselves and we are temples of the Holy Spirit. I live and work for him.

My prayer then is for godly wisdom, Holiness and integrity in the way I go about my work and to stay in step with God's plan for my life. I pray I might build well on the firm foundation that I have in Christ, and trying not to worry to much about the other stuff in this season.

May I trust in God's grace on my life, whatever season I am in.

Amen