I have worked for the last eleven odd years in the corporate world, the last 5 or so in management roles. After a very stressful year in 2006 my area was restructured and I was moved into a “project role”. Anyone who has been through this type of situation knows that this is the kiss of death, and less than a year after this, it was announced that my role was being made redundant.

Show me the money.

 I have been pretty cool with that, though you always have the thinking that says you are being made redundant because you are not good enough.

A passage I have been meditating on in light of this is Romans 12:3 which says:

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” [ESV].

Now Paul here is talking in the context of the various gifts that are given to God’s people in relation to serving and building up the body of Christ, but I have been relating Paul’s words to my own life in relation to my work.

There were many aspects of being a manager that I loved and was good at. I loved working with people and helping them to succeed. I loved thinking strategically and dreaming up new and better ways of doing things. But honestly I think the pressures involved in being in these types of roles did not sit comfortably with me. I wanted to protect my staff from being overworked, and in doing so sometimes took the workload on myself. Additionally from a relationship perspective, boss-subordinate relationships are always very different from peer to peer ones, and this effected how I related my faith to those I worked with day to day.

Anyway, I was supposed to finish up a couple of weeks ago, but in God’s providence I was afforded the opportunity to stay on for a bit longer to fill a staff gap. The truth is I have really loved being back in this type of role. It uses my skills, it doesn’t have the pressure of the management roles, and I can relate my faith naturally to my colleagues.

So I am trying to apply Romans 12:3 and not think of myself too highly, but to be sober in my judgement. I will be pursuing a staff level role rather than a management role. This will mean dropping salary levels significantly (circa 30%), but we can get by on the money. The upside is that I will not be completely stressed, and I will have more time and energy for things that are of greater importance like Jesus, family and relationships.