You’re Not the Boss of Me!
I was walking back to my apartment from the laundry room
when I heard it. Two little boys were doing their best imitation of a swagger.
One said, “She’s not the boss of us!” The other agreed. “Yeah, she thinks she’s
the boss of us, but she’s not. “ It made me think about obedience and who is “the
boss of us”. Let’s start with the dog. While my husband was in the hospital the
last couple of weeks, he decided that he was the alpha dog, not me. On walks he
would put on the brakes and I would nearly trip. I would stop and strongly
encourage him to come on. He might, but he also might lean the other way and
throw his head like a mustang, or plant his feet and not budge. Then he came up
with a new trick. He was behind me walking on the leash and people started
laughing and pointing. I turned around and saw why. He had straddled the leash
and was his feet were moving the same direction I was, but he was facing the
other way. I believe this is the
difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
Now for the hard part. Let’s leave the dog alone and look at
ourselves. We have trouble at work. It is hard to have the right attitude at
work, sometimes more than others. In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,
one of the habits is “Begin with the end in mind.” The rough translation of
this is “Deal with it. This is a temporary situation filled with flawed people.
Use some grace and do your job.” True, but very difficult. This is a challenge but we do know who is in
charge at work. More difficult is with the people we live with. Whether with
small children, teenagers, grown children, spouses or aging parents, it is
often difficult to navigate changing roles and changing rules. More important
than either of these, though, is our relationship with GOD. We know the rules
that God has given us to live by and we know the work he has planned for
us. We still might say no to them. We
might just refuse to budge and we might lean as hard as we can in the other
direction. Much more dangerous, perhaps is that we might act like the dog. We might
technically be doing the right thing but not doing it with our whole heart. We
might be singing during worship while thinking about what we want to do after
our nap. I confess. I had to take Candy Crush off of my phone because the
temptation to play instead of listen to the preacher was too much. Even when we
are doing ministry, we may have our heart in the wrong place.
If we are walking with God he has done two things for us. He
has given us guidelines (rules) and he has given us his spirit. It takes both
to accomplish what he has planned for us.
He does have a lot to say about work and our attitudes. For example in
Colossians 3:23, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working
for the Lord, not for human masters. He has more to say about how we worship
him. In Isaiah 29:13, he grieves, saying, The Lord says: “These people come
near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are
far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been
taught. This is the root of the problems we have at work and at home. This week
use the tools he has given you to do the work he has given you in the manner he
wants. By sacrificing his only son, he has earned the right to be the boss of
us.
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