“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.”

Train and airport clubs and terminals are the best place to hear about what is going on in business. I guess you might call it eavesdropping but I like to listen to the conversations around me. I was sitting in a train station in Baltimore this week waiting on the train into D.C. when I heard a woman, who it sounded like was talking to her boss, explaining the side-by-side proposal she had sent in. She was detailing the left hand side of the proposal as the worst case scenario and the right hand side as the best case scenario. I have no idea what kind of business she is in, but the proposal had to do with a sales prospect. After giving the overview of what she was thinking, she then went through both sides. I had to leave then to catch my train, but I was reminded about how many times we are asked to play both sides of an argument to make our point or to explain an approach. To do this well, we have to actually be able to put ourselves into the worst and the best cases and play them out as if they really were happening to us. That is not easy to do, and be realistic. But, we have to if we are going to be successful. It’s something for us to think about as we prepare for anything in our work. We have to become adept at seeing all sides of the issues and to be able to complete thoroughly every side-by-side.

King Solomon tells us that we have our own side-by-side that we must always be cognizant. Those two sides are our attitude and our spirit. Let me cut to the chaste; when we are up, others around us are up; when we are down, others around us are down. It’s that simple. The Christian life is not one of only mountain tops and happiness. But, it is a life of hope and optimism with the security of eternity. So, when we allow our spirit to be broken we are turning our back on what has been given to us. Imagine getting all of the support, financial backing, upward progression, and job security you could ever imagine. And then walking into your bosses office each day down, disgruntled, dissatisfied. For how long would she/he put up with it? Not for long my friend. Our Lord never kicks us out of the office, but does expect that we find a cheerful and positive heart. As we get closer to celebrating and receiving His most special gift to us, let’s be sure that we do a side-by-side evaluation and be on the best side for Him.

Reference: Proverbs 17:22 (NLT)