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As I am doing devotions today, I am aware that I need to call a customer imminently. He called yesterday afternoon when I was out and I feel pressured to call him back immediately this morning.

Wanting to focus on devotions and NOT on the work that must begin soon, I prayed “Lord, free me from the expectations of others.” My immediate thought was…I need to be freed from the expectations I put on myself first. In reality, it’s unlikely that the customer I need to call in a few minutes is really sitting by his phone waiting for the business day to start and watching to see if I call him at the stroke of 8am. (Well, 8:15 really, because I consider it a little rude to call before someone has time to get their work-head together, which I figure takes the first 15 minutes of the day!)

In the strive for excellence…notice I said excellence, not perfection – perfection is not attainable, only God is perfect; excellence is attainable – it doesn’t mean without error, rather with minimal error and a plan for correcting and making recompense for those errors. In the strive for excellence, I can often put more pressure on myself than others do. Perhaps you are like me. How do you deal with it?

 I find that I must continually do several things:

1) Evaluate the source of my striving for excellence. If it comes from a desire to impress or please other people, my focus is probably wrong. My job (both at my place of employment and in my personal life) is to please the Lord. Sometimes that means NOT pleasing other people. If I find that I have been operating from wrong motivations, I must turn to God in repentance, asking Him to forgive me for caring more about what people think than what He thinks.

2) Remind myself that God is in control of my business, not me. Sometimes I fall into the trap of believing that I’m responsible for the success of my business. The truth is that I do lots of the work, but God is the source of my ability to get work, my ability to accomplish it, and the favor shown to me by my customers. Again, repentance is often required here when I realize that I have again fallen for the enemy’s trap.

3) Consider my life and whether it is in balance (or at least some semblence of balance). I know that when my life is in balance, there will always be work that doesn’t get done. There will always be one more request that a customer makes or one more accounting task to complete before it’s time to say “I’ve worked enough today. Now it’s time for family.” If that customer call came in because I was pursuing other things the Lord has called me to, sometimes the most appropriate thing to do is thank God for the life He’s given me, ask for grace with the customer and call him back at the earliest opportunity.

That’s my remedy for dealing with the pressure I put on myself. If you have other suggestions, let me know. We can all learn from each other. As for me, I gotta go call my customer!

Here’s the last paragraph from my blog on July 5, “Jumping Off the Anxiety Track:”

One other idea…I’ve decided to use the ring of the telephone at work as a reminder to praise God. Often when I’m over-busy, the telephone is a source of stress. That’s wrong thinking. Without the telephone I wouldn’t be able to talk to the clients God sends our way. The telephone is a source of blessing, giving us opportunities to meet our customers’ needs in a way that brings glory to God. Sounds like a good reason and opportunity to praise God. Imagine how different my day will be when I thank God every time the phone rings. I’m looking forward to it!

Wow has that been a good thing! I don’t always remember to do it, but every time I remember, whatever expression was on my face changes to a smile and a degree of peace enters my heart. Why didn’t I start this sooner? My next task is to find a visual reminder that I can put on my telephone that will help me to remember to praise God every time the phone rings.

I thought of the smiley face, of course, but that’s just a bit too cheesy for me to put on my phone. It’s fine in an e-mail, but on my phone? I don’t think so.

My preference would be something ethereal that reminds me of God’s shekinah glory.

There are also benefits from a business perspective. Since I was answering the phone on the first ring, now my clients have to wait 2 rings before I answer – no big deal. But when I answer, I’m more sincerely cheerful and full of positive hope than I was before. The rule in the office has always been to smile before answering the telephone. It changes your voice and communicates across the telephone lines. I’ve found that the true, inner smile that comes from having spent a few seconds praising and thanking God infuses my voice with an even greater degree of confidence, peace and pleasure that customers can sense.

Try it, folks! Praise God, thank Him or just worship Him before you answer every phone call.

I’ve joined a business referral organization recently. I meet with this group of folks each week, and every week each person stands up and teaches the rest of us about their business so that we can appropriately and intelligently recommend their services to those we meet. Another of the disciplines the group strongly encourages is that each member meet with each other member one-on-one to get to know one another on a more personal level. We meet for about an hour and learn about their family, their values, their goals, their lifestyles, their hobbies, and their business and customer base.

I can’t help but think that both of these features would make the Church a better place. If I made a commitment to learn as much as I possibly can about each person, wouldn’t it spur me on to pray for them, help meet their needs when I can, rejoice with them, grieve with them, and just generally do all those “one another’s” we’re supposed to be doing? I think it would. Wouldn’t it also help newcomers to feel more welcome and accepted when I invite them to a “one-on-one” so I can get to know them better? I think it would.

One of the things I’m getting out of this business referral organization is an understanding that I need to change my mindset. I need to have a “how can I help grow your business?” mindset. Perhaps my church mindset needs to change a bit, too. I need to have more of a “how can I help you grow in Christ this week?” mindset. Instead of letting my mind focus on ministry activity, I need to focus on ministry — meeting the needs of others.

I agree that we need to be careful about bringing too many business practices and principles into the Church because an overabundance can squash the Spirit…but perhaps these business practices would help us be more like Christ to one another each week. And as Martha says, that’s a very good thing.