Competence
In a recent article in Common Good Emma Wilkins analyzes challenging data from the Harvard Business Review.
Her research suggests that nearly 80% of workers don’t perform as expected. This begs the question: How does anything ever get done? While the data might seem discouraging at first, Emma ends her article with a message of hope.
“None of this should surprise people of the book. Our toil, whether under the sun or under fluorescent lights, takes place on cursed ground. Even when our intentions are good, our bodies are prone to weariness, our minds to self-interest and distraction.
When perplexed by the state of the nation and the world, by the fact humanity is so capable in some respects, and so incompetent in others, we can note that not every employee or executive, politician or president, does their job well — whether they realize it or not, whether they care or not. Remembering this won’t fix anything or explain everything, but it can help us make some sense of the mishaps we see out there and experience first-hand.
Scripture illustrates Emma’s thoughts with two great truths.
The first. Emma’s observations are not new. They are a tale as old as time.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-9 “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher. “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!” 3 What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth? 4 A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same through the ages. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries away to a place from which it rises again. 6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north; round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns. 7 All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. 8 All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing. 9 What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing truly new on earth.
The second truth: God is in control!
Colossians 1:15-20 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.