“Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”

Every business or organization has its own business cycle that it follows. For some it can be a long cycle of product development, review, approval, customer acceptance, etc. For others, it is opening the door and counting the customers and cash register receipts by the hour. Regardless, there is a beginning that is filled with expectation and hope and unlimited upside; there is a middle of assessing and adjusting an necessary; and there is a conclusion of measurement and reconciling. For those who believe in continuous improvement, there are also postmortems to decide what worked well and what didn’t and then an application to the process, design or service to make things bigger and better for next time. The best businesses do it all. They know and prepare for a starting point and rally their organization towards that day or moment. They are watching from start through middle to end to recalibrate if need be, and they know how to conclude and celebrate in a way that brings the troops back for the next time.

We are the same way in our own jobs and the different aspects of our lives. We have cycles and seasons that we have to understand and manage. Having just experienced my first true hurricane season event, I found David’s words so true. With each morning as we prepared for Hurricane Irene; through the start of the blowing winds; through the passing of the middle of the storm, to the aftermath of nearly 90 hours without power; it was each morning waiting expectantly to see how the day would unfold. David teaches us to bring those requests and needs to God each morning and let that be our cycle, start to finish. His words and God’s promise are good ones. If we can string together day after day of listening for his voice and bringing ourselves to Him daily then from start to finish of the day, we will be as prepared for own work and life cycle as we can be.

PS: Thank you for the prayers, notes, support and encouragement this past week.

Reference: Psalm 5:3 (New Living Testament)