Working with your neighbor

Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. – Romans 13:8

Do you work with your neighbor?

We all do.

Well, maybe not the one next door or across the street or maybe not even the one that lives a couple of houses down that you just waive to as they drive by but in the context of the Bible it’s the person in the cubicle next to you. Your manager down the hall. That person in the lunch room that you secretly wished had a different break schedule then you.

The workplace is one of the best environments that will test your will to love. It is the place where not only will successes be shared but where things will not go as planned, co-workers will disagree, and change will bring out our not-so-nice personalities.

So, how do we go to church on Sunday, ready our Bible, and know that we are to love our neighbor as ourself yet work in an environment that we spend the most of our time during the week?

One that will test our patience.

One that at times will push us to our edge.

Today, as you go about your work routine and you run into someone ‘at the water cooler’ remember these couple of things in hope that they may calibrate your thoughts so that you may speak life and love your neighbor as yourself.

1. Purpose: Remember, God created us all. We all have a soul and a heart that desires to feel needed even when we are not acting as we should or over-reacted in that meeting the other day. We feel the drive to succeed and we were all hired to do a job. We seek approval and just want to know and feel we are doing a good job. Unfortunately, our desire for approval and purpose can sometimes drive us against each other.

2. Strengths/Weakness: If we all were the same, we would be robots. Just mindlessly going about our routines but we were given things by our Creator that can be quite a bit different than who we sit next to. Your co-worker may just be able to do things a little bit better than you or just the opposite. They may need for you to help them along in areas that are not their strengths and this maybe a repeating cycle. So, in either case, know that we are to encourage and lift up those with strengths as well encourage and support those in their weakness.

3. Forgiveness: You have asked for it… and you will ask for it again. The biggie here is we often don’t want to offer grace to our co-workers that didn’t agree with the decision that we made. Or, we hold a secret grudge for something that was done to us and we just can’t let it go. But we have to. In the most loving act ever executed, God forgave us for our failures and sins so why can’t we forgive that person down the hall?

4. Pray: Go to God and ask that He give you the discernment to manage through your feelings and the situation. There are often time when God maybe trying to use us in a difficult situation or to push us to grow more in His image by the circumstances laid before us. Ask Him to reveal your purpose in the situation and go to Him with selfless direction.

As we leave our homes in pursuit of another ‘day at the office’ remember that your neighbor works with you whether they car-pooled with you or not.