day 2849: What T&E?

No accounting of this money was required from the construction supervisors, because they were honest and trustworthy men.”

I was talking to a guy I know who runs a very large Private Equity fund in NYC.  We were reflecting on all of the changes since March and one of the things he said that caught my attention was,  “I haven’t signed a T&E report since the end of February and I doubt I’ll be signing one for the rest of the year.”  There’s nothing terribly profound about that, other than if in his firm, and he himself, there have been no travel or entertainment expenses for the past four and a half months then we can clearly see through that to the dismal earnings of airlines, hotels and restaurants. The other observation we made was that in corporate America there have always been those who “pad” their T&E to benefit themselves with an offset to what should be their own expenses. It’s the person who is always taking someone else to lunch and when on a trip, Starbucks shows up on the expense report, etc. when they would have always gotten Starbucks when at home and would have eaten lunch anyway. It will be interesting to see how those people find a new T&E expense to submit.

The Bible is filled with examples of those who were trustworthy in the eyes of God and others.  We get those examples and accounts because God is challenging us to be the same. I love that in 2 Kings that this is called out so explicitly that these workers were so honest that no accounting was required.  Imagine being able to work like that?  We can, if we strive to be that honest, that straightforward, that transparent in all that we do. We are all being challenged now to reinvent who we are and how we will work and live going forward.  Let’s today think hard on all that God wants us to be.

Reference: 2 Kings 12:15 (New Living Translation)

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