by Dawn Thompson
There are times when deadlines at my job fall on or near Holy Days. I submit in advance the dates for Holy Days so there is plenty of notice to prepare for my absence. There are “blackout dates” on our calendar and on those same dates is my name for time off. My teammates don’t understand Holy Days and when those days fall close to or on deadlines, they think I should stay and work, stating “God will understand.” I just respond with, “that’s not how it works. God and His way is first, everything else is after.” Silence follows.
At times, I experience my teammates criticizing my regular actions with heavy sighs or unapproving glances, even though my activity is no different than theirs! The regular actions I’m talking about are: talking to other co-workers; taking a personal call; scrolling on my personal phone and responding to messages. They all do it but I’m exempt from being able to do those things because on that other level of life, I choose God’s rule over work where they think work should be the priority. They don’t understand the Godly rules that apply to me, and so they translate that to mean that the casual rules that apply to them cannot apply to me.
All of this is trivial and I know I am not alone in the struggle to live in this world according to the rules that apply to God’s true followers. I long for the time we will all live in one accord and joyfully follow the rules that apply to us all.
