So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left. Genesis 13:8-9

No one works at the same place forever, they eventually move on or die. A person may feel their effectiveness in their current role at work has run its course—they are bored—and unless another opportunity opens up in the same organization they will transition out to a more challenging call. Hiring and firing resembles the same tension as leaving or staying. The latter represents the employee, and the former the employer. I am not the best hirer because I like people to like me, but often I need to hire team members gifted differently than me. So I am learning to trust seasoned staff to help me interview and select new employees. It’s so much wiser to hire slow and fire fast.

Abram and Lot found themselves in a dilemma: In today’s terms they were “running out of office space.” The growth of their family business forced them to make a relocation decision—so they decided to divide up their assets and go their separate ways. Lot deferred to and honored his uncle Abram, the more experienced, to define their disengagement choices and Lot selected which option he thought best for his family and work. He chose the well watered, green valley in the east and pitched his tent toward a sinful people, while Abram settled in Canaan and built an altar to God.

“If he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials” (2 Peter 2:7-9).

Continue reading Wisdom Hunters – Job Transition: Leave or Stay / Hire or Fire →

And Jesus said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15

I don’t particularly enjoy going to the mall. It’s a place that I typically avoid if possible, yet this week I had to return an item at a store that was located inside our local mall. Interestingly, less than 24 hours later, I came across Jesus’s words in Luke 12. With this experience fresh in my mind, I had one clear thought as I read this passage: as a culture we have let our guard down when it comes to possessions!

We scurry from store to store, busily looking for the latest fashion or the next unbeatable sale, and we do so at such breakneck speed that we rarely reflect upon how this lifestyle is shaping our hearts, lives, and desires. Without realizing it, we can create habits of consumption and acquisition that ultimately make us slaves to our possessions.

Simply put, you and I have too much stuff, and Jesus wants us to see how our stuff has too much of us!

In a culture that is driven by the accumulation of wealth and possessions, it’s incredibly easy to fall prey to thinking that our worth and value is tied up in the things we own. If we have lots of stuff, we have worth. If we have limited finances and resources, our value in society and as human beings must be limited as well. While this may be a common way of thinking in our culture, it goes directly against the values of God’s kingdom!

Continue reading Wisdom Hunters – Too Much Stuff!  →