“I have worked hard to provide materials for building the Temple of the Lord—nearly 4,000 tons of gold, 40,000 tons of silver, and so much iron and bronze that it cannot be weighed. I have also gathered timber and stone for the walls, though you may need to add more.”

I recently had a customer service issue with an airlines (welcome to the club, you say?). Just after the issue I tweeted the airlines to let them know my displeasure.  They were great and asked me to report it to the customer service website.  After asking way too much information I was able to distill down my complaint into the number of characters that their input field allowed.  I checked the box that I would like to hear back from them.  Off the message went and I didn’t really expect to hear anything back, but today I did and it was a very understanding email, with a “goodwill gesture” (their words, not mine) of a few thousand frequent flyer miles.  But, they missed the point of my complaint so I clarified to the person who had written the note (her name was Brenda) what had made me most unhappy and then hit send on the reply email.  The tone of Brenda’s email to me was that of wanting to improve so I thought I would lend an extra few minutes for the clarification. A second after I sent the email,  the email bounced back saying that this inbox doesn’t accept incoming emails and directed me to the customer service website, which of course wanted me to start all over.  The lesson?  It’s the last part that matters.  Almost is not good enough in customer service, or in much of our businesses.  Cutting that last corner, or not closing the loop fully can be worse than never starting it at all.

I like to write about the importance of believers and followers of Jesus being people who follow through and do their work as best humanly possible. I do this because all of the world around us is taking the short cuts and are okay with “almost”.  If we are to be bringing glory to God in our work and in our lives, then for those things that we can control, “almost” is just not enough.  I’m not talking about sin or failings, which we know we all have.  I am talking about tasks and earthly work with which we are entrusted.  The extra hours and effort that we put in to provide excellence in what we do, is the example that others will watch and demand when it comes time to talk about what it is that drives us to be our best.

Reference: 1 Chronicles 22:14 (New Living Translation)