I don't know about you, but I see people around me making mistakes all the time. Not huge ones, mind you. Nothing that will bring jail time or might really endanger someone. But those little mistakes that get under your skin and really annoy you. Those things that make life inconvenient or make you have to do extra work. You know the ones. Locking the door to the copy room at 4:30 instead of 5:00 so you have to go get a key when you're trying to finish up and get home. Leaving the coffee pot on when there's barely any left so the break room smells like tar. Parking over the line and taking up an extra parking spot. Poor performance on a report than you now have to redo. I'm sure you can continue the list with any number of things from your workplace.
Today, I was reading Romans 5, and Paul reminded me of how to respond to such mistakes. This is not a workplace-specific passage, of course, but I think it can apply to workplaces just as much as anywhere. Look at verse 8: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The older I get, as I see others who make mistakes, the more I think they need Jesus almost as much as me.
That's really the secret to humility and forgiveness in the workplace--knowing how much you've been forgiven. I think it's easy to compartmentalize our lives so that, even if we make mistakes in other parts, at work, we're all together. The problem with that thinking is that God doesn't make such distinctions. He sees your whole self. And He has forgiven your whole self. The only response is a gratitude toward God that motivates forgiveness toward others.
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