Problems at Work

Do you ever have one of those days at work, when everything goes wrong? You say the wrong thing to the boss, a coworker misinterprets a situation and thinks badly about you, your top client decides to go with someone else, and on and on the list goes. It might as well be a sad country song on the radio.

I was reading something that really put days like that into perspective. Isaiah 40:6-8 says "A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.'"

James makes a similar comparison when he says that our lives are like "a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (4:14). It's hard to think about our time on Earth being like grass that only lasts a season or like a fog that rolls in and then is gone. And if your focus is only on this life, it can be depressing. When we're young, it can feel like we'll live forever, but aren't you glad we don't?? If we lived forever here on Earth, then the problems that you have now might literally last forever. If we lived forever here, then the people who persecute you would also likely be able to persecute you forever. Isn't it great that these things will pass?

The next time you have a bad day, remember--each day is one day closer to the end of the season, when the grass will be gone. The problems of a bad day, even the ones that seem to ruin everything, are only a speck in the stream of eternity.