Saturday, January 21, 2012

How not to kill your co-worker...

Yesterday was Annoying Co-Workers last day. As per usual, he was annoying. But I find it bothersome that I did not have a lot of time to be the better co-worker with him that I *could* have been. I know I tried to be better, but now I won't see the fruit of that work.

It's frustrating.

I wonder if that is part of what let to Paul needing to chastise the Church in Corinth. I say part because the church obviously had other issues, but look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul and Apollos both were large figures in the church there, and I imagine that there were elders who commanded some similar respect. Both had somehow, and almost certainly without their consent, attracted a set of followers who held them as the "Giver of the *true* faith." People wanted to be better, but they felt they needed this person or that person around to feed the drive to be better, and when the person left, they responded by having that person there in their minds, substituting God with a man. They figured that if they always based their actions on how they perceived Paul (or Apollos) would want them to, then they would become good people. And of course, they would never ever convince themselves that their ideal mentor would allow them to do something that they felt might be just over the line of sin. Oh no, never.

Paul, of course, smacks this down hard. He approaches the issue from another angle, properly humbling himself and Apollos in comparison to God, and equating himself as a servant with the believers in Corinth. it is pretty hard to look at an equal and worship them.

Of course, the difference here is that the believers in Corinth wanted to become better by who they followed, and I wanted to become better by who I was nice to.

I think I may have come at this the wrong way, or rather with the wrong focus. I don't need to be a better co-worker to Annoying Guy, though that is true, but I need to be a better Servant. Whether it's to the co-workers I like, the ones I don't like, my supervisor, my boss, or the people on the other end of the phone who I just wanna strangle, I need to serve them, not hold one or two up as the person(s) I will be better with, and thereby be a better Christian because of it. If I choose to focus on Joe Schmoe and not give the same love and service and respect to everyone else, I have failed to serve Christ, which was the whole point to begin with.

It would be easy to call this semantics, and I know that. There are legitimate times where I need to work on my relationship with a given individual. But not with the intent of being a better christian. It must be because I am compelled to serve Christ. Not to serve my own self interest.

In the service of Christ, we may never see the fruit of our work until the end of days. And if we aren't okay with that on some level, then you might need, I might need, to re-evaluate what we worship, and who we are really trying to serve.

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