The whole time while I am working, I am thinking about this month’s scripture. A tough one I think to understand fully without taking offence so to speak from what God is trying to tell us here. But in the same breath, I want to say it is actually very simple.
Well, as I have said many times before, February is our busiest month, which means I work longer hours than usual to get everything that is required to be done, done and submitted on time. It is nothing new to me. I just feel sorry for my kids, because time with them is few and far between at the beginning of a year. Time to write feels even less. I decided, unofficially, the other day, that the first term of the year is just busy and NOTHING that I try to do about this, is going to change that fact.
Unless I do a career change of course, but, who wants to, at almost 42, take on something new and start from scratch? Ok, I admit, I DID start something new with Beroepsvrou, but not to replace my day job. Ok, back to the realities of being BUSY at work. Now, for us it is really very busy. It is financial year end for majority of our clients. There are important calculations that need to be done before 28 (or 29) February. Of course, the extra day in a leap year helps, only if it falls on a weekday though. None the less, we have 28 days available for 3 out of 4 years to do these tasks.
This scripture makes me think of what we do for a living, day in and day out and what we have stumbled across in our lives. People that are not always honest, not declaring everything. Potential new clients with ridiculous requests, that we stop in the first meeting, only to never hear of them again. We stand for righteousness. Tax must be paid, if you like it or not. I know I am wandering off, but I am trying to put everything into perspective about how things are in my life, what the expectations are and what the legal implications of everything is.
Back to the scripture. It can also be taken back to the smallest thing that you are dishonest about. I worked at a firm, years ago, where a senior staff member explained it to me once about how a timesheet works. His words were something to the effect of: When you work at Pick n Pay, and you steal sugar, you are stealing. When you work here, and you steal time, doing private things when you should be working, you are also stealing. I will NEVER forget this. Such a good example about what an employee is trusted with. Actually anyone doing work, whether for yourself or an employer. Theft is not restricted to physical items, but can also go to something like time – time billed on timesheets, invoices issued. The list of things feels endless.
Now I can sit here for days talking and debating about what is big and small and what one can be dishonest about. The long and the short is, if you do something private for 15 minutes, and you are actually stealing your employer or the client’s time for whom you are doing the tasks, or if you take one teaspoon of sugar from the canteen, well, it remains theft. I reckon that is what THIS verse is about. Now that we are caught up in financial year end, the following also comes up with me – what is really declared on returns? Are people truly honest about EVERYTHING in their lives?
If you can be dishonest about something small, then you can easily be dishonest with bigger things. This is the exhortation (I had to Google this word the English version of vermaan in Afrikaans – I have NEVER heard of it before) from God. Then, there is the proverbial tap on the shoulder in the first part of the verse – if you can be honest with small things, then you can be trusted with many bigger things. What image are you portraying to the world? People’s reputations usually go ahead of them. What is your reputation? Honest or dishonest?
Sjoe ja dit spreek direk met my.