Principles and Whistles-Selah102-CMAW205

You may have wondered when you saw the title what principles and whistles have to do with faith at work

Perhaps you thought I would talk about living out your faith as a principal of a school, or since we’re in the middle of the NBA playoffs I might talk sharing Christ while blowing a whistle as a basketball referee.

Well, neither would be correct.

First of all the principles I’m talking about are spelled with an les on the end not an al.

I heard a message recently from a friend and teacher Roger Hadad including a portion on principles.

Values are very personal and temporary

Our society is driven by values, which are not attached to principles

Principles are impersonal, objective and eternal

Values are temporary, based on culture and subjective

Yeshua or Jesus showed how to take principles out of commandments, eg looking with lust is adultery

The principle behind the commandment is fidelity which can be applied to anything (faithfulness)

Turn the other cheek-teaching something higher than the commandment of an eye for eye which is love

Values can become something negative if not rooted in principles

We find principles in the word by asking what’s behind the statement we’re reading

So I’d like to challenge you be in the word regularly and devote some of your time while in the word asking yourself what is the principle behind what you’re reading.

Specifically as it relates to your work, what principles can you apply to your work life.

Another question you might ask while at work is whether your employer is encouraging you to adopt certain beliefs or you might say values or principles. If they are, see if you can find in the Bible verses which support what your employer is encouraging. If you can then celebrate that your employer is encouraging biblical principles even if they aren’t quoting Bible verses. If there is a conflict, you now have a filter through which you can receive and interpret these messaging you receive at work and hopefully you can start to have a conviction about what your work principles are and actively live Out those principles

So what does this have to do with whistles? Well, nothing actually but I wanted to share an ah-hah moment I had at work recently.

I was walking around my workplace and noticed a fellow employee was whistling. I let him know I thought it was great he was whistling and to keep it up.

In the past I’ve talked about simple things you can do to live out your faith at work. One of them has been to smile while at work. Another is to be encouraging to others while at work.

While I’d like to add to that list whistling. First of all, it’s hard to have a bad mood when you’re whistling. Second of all, there’s a good chance you could lift the spirits of a coworker without saying but rather by puckering your lips and blowing some air.