Taking Someone's Position (2)

If you know me long enough, you'll know that I don't dream big myself. I don't have dreams of setting up my own epic business empire or such. My life goals are much more niche!

That said, I am always very keen to see the people around me dream big, set big goals for their lives, and go out boldly to pursue them. Now because life has bashed my head against the wall quite a few times, and because I am a keen student of the mistakes of others, I have some sense of what is necessary to make things happen. Not everyone else has that same sense...

A boss recently talked with me about one of her new hires, an employee who wanted to leave her small company after less than two weeks on probation. Reasons he gave include 'This company is too small, I cant see any progression. I dont want to be photostating stuff. i want to lead'.

(No, I did not miss the typos in the texts, I left them there on purpose.)

He told her he wants to do business. He wants a lot from his life. And when that is given as a reason for leaving her employment, it's clear he thinks he is not going to get anywhere working at her company.

Good thing David did not think that way.

When we last saw David, it was in 1 Sam 16:12 when he was anointed king by the prophet Samuel. And very soon in the Scripture account, David had his big break, his first open door, so to speak. He was appointed official court musician out of nowhere, it seems. And it was one huge step towards his destiny, yes?

1 Samuel 16:19-22 (NIV) - Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul. David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.”

But what if David disdained the opportunity? If he was anything like the young man mentioned earlier, David could have said that he was meant to be king, and wanted to be groomed as such, and not have to waste his time as merely an entertainer or just a musician.

Thank God David was too humble for that!

1 Samuel 17:17-18 (NIV) - Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them.

By the next chapter, we discover that even the court appointment was not a full-time gig. He had to go home from court at times, and when he was at home he went back to his menial duties. Over here, we see that David had to do GrabFood delivery!

David had to cycle being available to minister unto Saul and going back to his original shepherd job. He could have let the lowliness of the situation overcome him with resentment. He could have even pulled rank on his family, so to speak, by reminding them he was anointed to be king; he ought not to be thrown the work the rest of his brothers refused. David did not do that.

1 Samuel 17:28 (NIV) - When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

The passage implies:

1) his brothers did not take seriously the call upon David's life;

2) David himself was unassuming, doing whatever he was ordered to do by his father. His promotion in the eyes of God did not fill him with pride; he remained in submission to the authority of Jesse, his father.

Important

Even David's first big break, being appointed Saul's personal musician, did not come out of nowhere either. Consider this passage.

1 Samuel 16:18 (NIV) - One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him.”

We can argue about the spiritual and practical significance of the criteria David fulfilled to be chosen for that job. But this is indisputable: David qualified for his first official appointment through all the work he put in during his shepherding days. We will see from the rest of his journey to the throne that after his first appointment, he still had other tests to pass along the way. Some of those tests were not as straightforward to overcome!

The point of what I am saying is this: a lowly position is where you get to build up faithfulness. That is where you get to practice and try out skills AWAY from the harsh glare of public scrutiny. That is where humility and patience are trained and cultivated. Why? Because if you make any mistakes in humility and patience at that point, matters are less likely to blow up in your face than if you make the same mistakes when you are in a higher position.

Conclusion

I am not saying that you should always choose the lower position if doors open at the same time and you get to decide. What I am saying is that if you find yourself stuck in a lowly position, or if the opportunity you have is the only one that is available to you, then don't despise it. Don't look down on doing cleaning, low grade paperwork or even just zapping enough copies of lesson materials for children's classes.  

If all you have to do is run errands, then run errands. Use the opportunity to pray and look out around you for things to notice and people to observe (and maybe help). In the course of the mundane life, you do not know when your burning bush experience will come, when God uses something a little out of the ordinary to catch your attention and speak to you. You do not know when the mundane tasks will turn out to be training you in skills you need in the future, or if the smaller challenges you have to overcome now in private are preparing you to overcome your Goliath in public.  

Luke 16:10 (ESV) - One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

This one single passage is probably responsible for almost everything of worth I have achieved in my life so far. May it encourage you in your own journey also. There is still more to share about David's journey to being fit to become king in Saul's place. See you at the next post!

Lessons from my Day-job

The biggest change to my life this year is working at an office for the mornings during the weekdays. I’m doing paperwork in the conveyancing department of a law firm, which means day in, day out, my mind is on the buying and selling of property.

Not quite the kind of stuff that gets me up in the morning all excited and raring to go, right?

But the interesting thing is that I get to see how differently people behave when it comes buying their homes, often the biggest purchase of their lives. And it IS very interesting, because those who have more money to spend on this and those who have less behave very differently.

For the benefit of the non-Singaporeans reading this, Singapore has a forced savings system called the CPF. Deductions are made from the working Singaporean’s salary and put into his or her CPF account, and that sum of money is set aside for either retirement or paying for housing.

The typical Singaporean couple, when purchasing a flat to live in, will have to take a bank mortgage, make an initial payment from the CPF towards that loan and then continue to service that loan with the regular deductions from their CPF account (maybe with payments from their salary). Since the prices of the flats are so high, buying a flat involves using large sums of money from CPF and coordinating it with one’s salary in order to pay for a very heavy mortgage.

So when they came in the lawyers to work out all the legal details of the purchasing, I got see the difference between those who have more money and those who have less!

Most people would buy the flat as joint-tenants, which meant that the ownership of the flat would automatically pass to the spouse if they die before they finish paying for the flat. The richer, however, were more willing to go as tenants-in-common – each spouse had a pre-decided percentage ownership of the flat. That allowed them to will away their share of the flat to their heirs (and might make it easier to divide the property in the event of a divorce?).

I haven’t had the time or energy to research into which was a better option. I’d suspect it depends largely on the couple’s specific situation. But what I am certain of is this: the richer went to the lawyer’s table having already thought through and discussed such issues. I sensed no uncertainty whatsoever on this from either the husband or the wife.

It also shows a willingness to think through and plan estate matters, how their possessions will be divided should either person die an untimely death. Morbid topic, but the richer face up to it more willingly.

Proverbs 13:22 (ESV) - A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children…

Another thing also: the richer tended to have their insurance agents on call, and they would call their agents in the middle of meeting with the lawyers. They knew how much they were covered for and expected their insurance agents to be able to give them good advice on how to coordinate their insurance coverage with the mandatory insurance required by CPF.

Here’s a good tip for insurance agents – if you want to have wealthier clients, you had best be prepared to advise them well on such important matters. Why should they get insurance from you if you can’t give them better advice, specific to their situation, than the next agent waiting in line for their business?

When I noticed all this, I first thought, “Of course the wealthier can afford to be fussy and meticulous about insurance and estate planning, they have enough money for it!”

Luke 16:10 (ESV) - One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much…

And that is the point, right? If I am not serious about such things now, even if I have more money I won’t be serious with them either. I’ll just be lazy and try to hire someone to settle all these matters for me. The richer consulted the professionals, discussed the pros and cons with their spouses, then made up their own minds and took the final responsibility for their own decisions.

They didn’t just hand the money over to some stranger and put it out of mind!

Proverbs 27:23-24 (ESV) - Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?

Finally, the clincher: husband and wife were in agreement. They already came to the meeting prepared to service the mortgage as partners. Both of them knew they had to work together in paying off their home.

This was the case even if the wife wasn’t working (rare, in Singapore, but it happens). As long as she has worked before, she would have money in her CPF account, and the wives in the more affluent marriages wanted to make their contribution also. That is even if she did not have the earning power or as much savings as her husband.

I don’t see wives trying to get away with doing less just because their husbands can do more!

As a side note, I will strongly discourage men from marrying any woman who has no working experience, who goes from school or college straight into marriage and wants to be a home-maker. If that happens she will have no idea of the working world, as well as no inkling of what it really takes to make a living in the real world. She may end up as someone who knows the price of something, but not its value.

Proverbs 31:10, 16 (ESV) - An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels… She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

Proverbs 31 paints a picture of the biblical super-woman, an excellent wife. Notice how she gets involved with property and real estate investments? That is what I got to see in person so far.

Conclusion:

All the above came from me observing the upper-middle class people. I know that there are the really rich, who in Singapore will buy landed property or condominiums. Do they have different rules or different practices, so that they will preserve and even grow their wealth? Maybe. But I suspect God just wants me to learn from the upper-middle class for now. And if I am faithful with learning and practicing those lessons, maybe then God will entrust me with the wisdom of the really wealthy?

Be blessed!