Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought

One of the issues I've had to deal with since I started working is the work culture expectation that you should be selling yourself all the time. That you should be trying to get ahead and one-up your colleagues so that you're the one first in line for promotions and opportunities. And how this fits in, or not, with how the Bible says a Christian should live.

I do want to be recognized for my good work and rewarded for it. It makes me feel good when my colleagues or the client compliments me for the good work I've done. But I don't want to have to push myself and my accomplishments in people's faces. I don't want to get an inflated ego and think more highly of myself that I ought (see the verses at the bottom of this post; they came to mind as I was typing this). I want to take pride in my work, but be humble and give God the glory because I know that He is the one who enables me.

I've worked for the same company for the past 10 years, sort of. The original company that hired me sold off the Information Services division to another company, who then spun us off into a separate company so that we could have our own stock ticker symbol. Through all that I've been working at the same client site.

Over the years, various policies and procedures have come and gone. One year, around the annual review time, my manager at the time told me that she knew I was over due for a promotion, but that, per the current company policy, I needed to write up a proof or defense as to why I needed a promotion. Shouldn't that be the manager's job? Anyway I did it and got the promotion, but I sure hated to do it. It did not seem right. That requirement has gone away since then.

My feelings are that work should be a lot like school. You work hard, you learn and you make the grade or promotion or pay raise. It should be based on my merit not my salesmanship.

Unfortunately, there is often a political and salesman element to the opportunities in my work place. I have never worked anywhere else since graduating college, so I cannot speak for certain of any other work places, but I would imagine many of them have the same issue.

The manager I have now has been great about supporting me and giving me opportunities. However, she supports the work culture of salesmanship to some degree as well.

Two colleagues and myself have been working on creating a set of three MS Access applications for our company's use at this client site. Due to the tight time frame, we were given permission to focus on two of the applications and to let the third one be worked on after the other two were done. So one of my colleagues took the smaller of the two applications and the other two of us took the other application.

We are ahead of schedule, mainly due to myself. The other two both said that it would have taken them three days to develop what I did in a day. Boy, that will stroke your ego. I try to not let those kinds of things go to my head. I say thank you and continue to work hard. Each morning I ask God to give me wisdom for the day and when I climb into bed I try to remember to thank God for getting me through the day.

Since we are so far ahead, yesterday I turned over the application I was co-developing to the other developer, and I started on the third application. Today we had a status meeting with the committee responsible for implementing the overall solution. We showed them what we had so far. When it came time for this, I told my colleague to demonstrate the application since he was now in charge of it. The presentation went great and the committee was very impressed with what we had done.

Now my manager was not part of that meeting but she heard about it through the manager grapevine. At one point in the afternoon, after the meeting, she asked me why I had let my colleague present the application since majority of the functionality was a result of my work. I said I did that since the application was his responsibility now. She gave me a light admonishment for not taking the opportunity to promote myself (relating back to my comment that she supports the work culture of salesmanship to some degree).

I know she wants me to succeed, to shine, and to make her look good. But this development is a team effort, even if the work load is not quite balanced. I'm ok with that. I'm sure that I'll have my chance when it comes time to present the third application.

So, continuing the thought I started off the post with. How do I, as a Christian in a secular work place, behave? Obviously, I must obey God first. But how does that translate into every day work life? Do I just work hard and leave the results to God? How much involvement does God intend for me have in my career path and career development? These questions are related to what I see as another one of those balancing acts I have as a Christian. What is the balance between faith and action? How do I marry the two? Trusting God and doing what He wants me to do, but not to the point of relying on my own actions, strength and wisdom. How do I abide in Christ without striving but without being lazy or complacent? Being active in God's strength and according to His plan and not in my strength and my plan.

I believe the answers to these questions will come as I walk daily with God and grow in maturity. It's part of that miraculous relationship with God I have because I'm His child, purchased by the blood of Jesus. By His grace I will one day be able to navigate the secular work culture in a consistently Godly manner.

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Romans 12:3 "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

Ephesians 4:2 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."