Jul
23
Survive the Fire
Filed Under Devotional
High Tech can be a funny business in some ways. One of the hardest things to get used to is how fast the market moves. We can plan to write software that will only run on the latest versions of the target systems. But, by the time we ship, that’s already out of date. There’s definitely a moving target aspect and, sometimes, the moving target moves very unpredictably.
I’ve heard stories about year-long projects being on the verge of release only to have a competitor beat them to market by a few weeks and consume all of the pent-up demand. Suddenly, the sales projections are cut in half and instead of bonuses, the company is talking about tightening the belt.
I’ve been part of many projects that were envisioned to be big sellers and help the company do well, but turned out to be flops. Since I don’t do the market research, it’s always a shocking disappointment. It can feel arbitrary and unfair. You go through a couple of events like that, and you can feel despondent and be convinced that there’s no way to win.
I think I was feeling a bit of what Solomon was when he wrote Ecclesiastes:
“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’
says the Teacher.
‘Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.’
What does a man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.” Ecclesiastes 1:1-3
Translated, he’s saying, “What’s the freaking point?!”
The point is that everything on earth is a meaningless pursuit. So, our pursuits have to be for things above the earth:
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
It’s not the actions that have meaning in themselves. It’s the actions done for the right motivations.
Do you have the right motivations? Will your actions survive the fire?