April 3. I Call Foul. That Must Be A Foul!

There is no question, when you are a business owner, people are going to harm you or your business. It might seem that this is a ridiculous statement, but it happens. How are businesses harmed? Let us start with theft. People shoplift or take items from a business without paying for them. In a service business, people steal services as well. I have lived in a college town where I know of trash businesses that have dumpsters which are exploited by non-paying customers when semester ends. The businesses know that their dumpsters were filled by non-paying customers because of the normal patterns they see and the type of materials being dumped. Businesses can be victims of vandalism, rioting, and then there is also employee theft, including where productivity is stolen by not working their shift fully. How much time is spent on social media during work hours? Would anyone ever be caught looking at sports brackets in March? What about those funny viral video clips on YouTube? An entrepreneur can get frustrated and disappointed when this happens. Sometimes they get angry or depressed. But how do the customers want them to react? Do clients want them to close their doors and stop operating to deliver value? I do not think so. I think that they want the businesses to be focused on delivering value. The more time a business must spend on addressing shrinkage issues is time they cannot be focused on direct value for clients. That is costly because it is a 180-degree swing in thought from what helps the raving fans of the business. I want our customers and the members of our teams to be raving fans. When we are in the wrong mindset, it can be better to get ourselves quickly to the other. One way to get there quicker is to forgive. The process can start there. Is there some event in your professional life that forgiveness might help you move more people into a raving fan mode? What is the first thing you might need to

forgive somebody for at your business?

As a Christian, have you earned all your forgiveness yet? A better question for ourselves might be is there someone in our lives that has not earned our forgiveness yet? These could be the people that have harmed you. They are the ones that have not made what you believe restitution should be. They have not returned the rake they borrowed. It could be that they have not reciprocated an invitation or have not paid you back what they owed. We might ask if they are finally sorry. We might have been withholding forgiveness until we have been made whole. Then, and only then, do we forgive them? Maybe we have taken our eyes off the prize of our forgiveness that we have in Jesus when that happens. Forgiveness from Jesus is not earned. You cannot pay for the best forgiveness from him, and you cannot earn it. All debts of forgiveness have already been paid on the cross by Jesus. Now our actions are about the value proposition of a life which follows Christ. That too, is a 180 degree turn of attitude. Like rocks carried in a backpack, the weight of carrying those acts which can be forgiven, weigh us down. They might constantly remind us as the shoulder straps cut into our shoulders. As the rocks shift from side to side in the pack, so do our minds as they keep us from loving fully in our relationships. Could today be the day that we drop a few rocks from our packs? What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Jesus, we have done nothing worthy of the sacrifice that you paid for us. We cannot earn it with our words or thoughts or actions. What we can do is be in relationship with you. Help us to reflect on our own ability to forgive others this week. May we draw closer to you as you soften our hearts where they have been hardened. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,