Ending on a good note

Leaving on a good note rarely happens.

This is how Paul left the letter of 1 Corinthians 16:23-24…”The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

This past week I had a friend Matt Troyer move from his church to a new church where he felt God calling him to go. On Wednesday he had a going away festivity at the church. It was awesome to see a good group of people there to see him go. The church took up a collection for him. People stood up and had nice encouraging words for him and his family as they left. How often do we get to leave on a good note?

Most people don’t leave on a high note. I think of professional football and it’s rare someone leaves when they are on top of their game. Often they weren’t the star player and got cut. I remember stud Brian Urlacher and when he retired this past year in part no team really wanted him. Tim Tebow just wanted another chance to show he was a winner. I remember when Barry Sanders retired and thinking NO! He had good years left. It’s tough to leave on a positive note. I think of people that retire way past there prime or when someone gets laid off or cut and they were good employees. We often in life don’t always get to leave on a good note. Sometimes it’s within our control and sometimes it’s not.

Paul leaves his letter on a good note. He wrote the letter trying to work on conflict that came up in the church and had to say some harsh and be pretty blunt with the people. Through it all, he did it out of love. Through all the conflict and harsh reminders he had to give he reminded them he loved them.

When you leave do you leave on a good note? No matter what Hailee and I have this agreement. Whether we are fighting or not, when we leave each other whether it’s going to work or to pickup the kids from school to leave saying I love you and meaning it. You never know when it’s your time to go.

How can you leave on a good note? Whether it’s going to work/school when was the last time you told those close to you, you love them? Paul ends this letter on a good note. How are you going to leave?

Have a great day.

It's 9 o'clock! I QUIT!!!!!!

It’s 9 o’clock! I quit! At this moment I took off my apron at a local pizza establishment hung it up and proceed to walk out of my job making pizzas. Let me roll back a couple of hours. My brother Zach was coming into town later and I told him that we would play ice hockey that night. It was six months since I saw my brother. There was one thing that kept me from possibly meeting up with my brother and playing hockey…WORK.

I had to work at 4 and I was a good worker for a pizza establishment known for crappy workers. The previous day an assistant manager came up to me and said “Man, it’s great you’re here. The only time we have people come in and actually want to work is when they are working to become a manager, it’s nice to have someone to come in and work without further their career.” I responded, “Thanks, I guess.”

I told my brother I had to work but I will make sure I get out of work early enough to go play hockey. He said it was no big deal, I told him I missed him and for the next three weeks we would spend every hour possible together starting tonight. So I walked into work at 4 for my shift knowing they don’t put when we finish and if we get slow (We usually did about 9) people get sent home. So I asked my boss, hey my brother is coming into town tonight and I wanted to go out with him can I get out at 9? Usually what happened, he would keep me because I was better then two of his awful employees (I am not saying I am the greatest worker in the world, but these people were very bad employees and did not do a good job) and he could send both of them home. So he told me we will see.

At 7 pm, I asked again can I go at 9? He went into his office and said, “Oh I have you scheduled to close.” Everyone knows he didn’t put end times on our shifts. I told him if I don’t get out at 9 I might walk out. He laughed at this comment. 9 came around, I took off my apron and said loudly, I QUIT!!!!! Originally everyone thought I was joking, until they saw me starting to walk out.

The manager came over and said, “What are you doing?” I responded, “Quitting.” He then started to lecture me, “You know Clarrisa, two days ago she got mad quit and two days later came in here begging for her job back. Do you want to do that and have to come crawling back?”  I said there is one major difference, “I am already starting a new job on Monday and I will make $6.25 an hour instead of the minimum wage of $5.15. His facial expression changed greatly. He said, “Well, wait a second, you can have tonight off but I will seeya for your next shift on Sunday right?” What a change of heart.

This job sucks is a statement most have made. It feels like the job we are doing might not have much point to it. It’s a question we have to ask ourselves repeatedly are we doing something for the right purpose? What are some of the pointless jobs you had? Or a job you felt kept you from doing what you wanted to do?

I wasn’t a Christian and didn’t act with a Christian heart at that job I quit. I would take back how I would quit, as it’s never good to leave on a bad note. Yet we all have to look at what we do and is it worth it? Is what we do for labor worth what we go through?

Paul shares this in 1 Corinthians 15:58…

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

In the past people used to stay at companies for 30 years. They say the average someone stays at a job today is about three. I think people struggle to see a purpose and stay at a job making them miserable. I have seen stats they show between 80-90 percent of people work at a job they don’t want to be at. We can fail to see the purpose of a job.

Working and living for Jesus can be tough. As a church leader you can see some of the beautiful things in people and how they can overcome or transform their lives. At the same time you can see some idiots complain and respond in the most unholy of ways. I have seen many people leave a role of church leadership that were not for immoral reasons but rather they fail to see the point of their leadership.

People can get frustrated and leave in tough times when they don’t see the purpose. In the church we can see the pitfalls of people and they can overcome us. I met with a leader of a church about 15,000 people and he said if his elders just focused on divorce in the church they would not accomplish another thing in the church. There were that many couples struggling with divorce.

God has a purpose for each of us and this includes leadership. We have to be humble but realize that there is a great goal for the church. That what we do can make the difference from someone going to heaven or hell. It can be the ability to see the change of heart in the people. Through all the bad we see in our jobs, there is a beautiful side of each job. We have to realize we can learn from each job and each experience we go through.

Are you working not in vain? Are you working with a purpose and a goal in mind? As a leader in the church we always have to be reminded the tough decisions we make are not to please people but to please God and see people coming to know him more. Are you learning from your job or do you need to move on? If you need to move on, do it in a better way then I left my pizza place.

Have a great day.