“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted”
As many of you know I spent 28 years working for Marks and Spencer, there I had the privilege of doing many different jobs in many different locations and with many different groups of people. My life is richer for the breadth of experience but also for the wide range of individuals I have had the blessing to encounter. I loved managing people – well, most of the time! Thinking back I have probably managed 100’s of people over those 28 years.
Appraisals and personal development plans were a regular feature of this life. Interestingly, having had countless numbers of these conversations, rarely did I need to manage an individual’s view of their performance upwards! The vast majority of people believed that they were better at their job than in reality they really were. I imagine that the strongly competitive world of retail management and performance related pay meant that they were aggressive in their pursuit of being considered ‘Highly Effective’ or ‘Outstanding’ as both drew potential increases in salary. As a business we only ever had 10% of the workforce rated ‘Outstanding’, the standards were high, higher than most realised. I am sure that this is just not the case in retail but is true across most fields of working life.
It’s my conviction that this betrays a much deeper issue. I believe, in part, it is connected to our unwillingness to face the truth about our condition full stop! To admit we are wrong, that we have made a mistake or spoken out of turn is difficult. To apologise is even harder, we fear losing face and seeing our credibility reduced. Most of us from an early age are sacrificed to the altar of performance. Life’s reward systems are made to payout for top performers, weakness is despised and so we become trapped by this evil system.
Jesus of course, comes and turns this system completely upside down! He says living in His Kingdom, in His world, is totally different. “Blessed are those who mourn”. In other words, “happy are those who realise that they are not all they have been cracked themselves up to be”, “Joyful are those who realise their true condition”, “Joyously free are those who have admitted their mistakes and apologised for them”.
Knowing, admitting and asking forgiveness for our mistakes and errors leads us to a place of revelation of a better way of living, a Kingdom way, a Jesus way. Freedom and peace will never come through our desire to be a top performer!
May the Father help us to be the people He originally designed – may He teach us the glorious truth about ourselves and who we are in Christ – made perfect!