Oh, Those Excuses

In Proverbs 21, we read about the importance of having a right heart before God, which will produce
a heart of diligence, bringing glory to God:
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts.
3 To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
4 A haughty look, a proud heart, And the plowing of the wicked are sin.
5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.

What we do - how we spend our time, including our vocation - is intended by God to bring glory to Him.  He desires for us to have an attitude to please Him, and if that is our motivation in our workplace, then He will produce fruit that honors Him through our lives.  I believe that our attention to diligence and doing excellent work can speak volumes about the presence of Christ through us, and as we become trustworthy people, we develop a quality witness for Him.

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In Colossians 3, we see a passage that can inspire us to do our work diligently, with excellence, seeking to bring glory to God:
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
An increasing number of employees have indicated that they called in sick to work, according to a new survey released by CareerBuilder, conducted by the Harris Poll.  USA Today reported on the findings.

Thirty eight percent of U.S. employees did it within the past year, according to a survey taken a couple of months ago. The findings mark a jump from the 28% who admitted playing hooky in last year's survey.

Now, just over 1-in-4, 27% had a legitimate reason, or so it seemed: they had a doctor's appointment. The same percentage claimed they just didn't feel like working, 26% said they needed to relax and 21% said they needed to catch up on sleep. Additionally, the survey showed that 12% blamed bad weather.

The most popular months to call in sick are December, January, and February.  Now, fewer than 1 in 10 employees said that they called in sick during the year-end holidays. But the 68% of those who did said they used illness as an excuse to spend time with family and friends, while 21% said they just wanted to go gift shopping.

And, some employers are getting wise to their employees' schemes.  Most employers said they trust their workers, but just over two-thirds said they checked to see if the employee was telling the truth by asking to see a doctor's note, while just under half said they called the absentee at home.

The story reported that some bosses are checking up on workers online. About a third of all employers said they caught a worker lying about being sick by examining her or his social media accounts. Just over one-fourth of that group said they fired the offender, the survey found.

Some of the excuses border on the ridiculous, or even fall in that category. Some examples:
An employee said his grandmother poisoned him with ham. Another worker claimed to be stuck under the bed. One employee said he broke an arm while trying to grab a falling sandwich. And, still another said her cat was stuck inside the dashboard of her car.

Excuses can be a powerful - and harmful - tool in our Christian witness and our Christian walk.  Let's consider some takeaways from this survey:

First of all, I believe that Christians should be the best employees.  We are encouraged in Scripture to do all that we do for the glory of God.  So, how we do our work reflects how greatly we allow Christ to live through us.  We should demonstrate diligence and pay careful attention to excellence.   We should always do our best, with the intent of bringing glory to God.

This survey contains some rather tall tales, and the ditching of honesty here in some instances is contrary to our activity as believers.  Quite frankly, we should be known as people who tell the truth. We should be people of integrity, who keep our word, and who are devoted to making sure we can be trusted.

Finally, I think we have to guard against excuses - at work, in the home, and in our spiritual life, as well.   How often do we not pray or pursue spiritual activity because of other priorities; how often do we get distracted from our pursuit of God's best for us.  And, as humans, we are prone to make excuses and blame factors that really have nothing to do with the poor choices that we make. Excuses are not always fabrications, but if we have to make up an excuse, then we may be ignoring the real issue - that we made a poor decision.  There are reasons that we fail, and we have to own up to those, but often the responsibility is on us, rather than external factors.