It's been a while since I last blogged and I have to say I have missed it. You see I let a lot of circumstances get in the way of things I should have been doing. From studies, to bible study, From Prayer to posting, and from knowing the will of God and doing the will of God, a lot of things began to take a back seat to things they shouldn't have.I think it actually all started the weekend of Becca's attack , which also happened to be the weekend we lost my sister. I just felt lost in a lot of ways over several things. Oh now, don't take me wrong, I wasn't walking away from God, but I wasn't being a good steward of the talents he has given me or the calling he has placed upon my life. My performance at work had even faltered, and I only had myself to blame to be honest.
But about 2 months ago something happened at work that got me to thinking. I was called in and told that the way I was paid at work was undergoing a change. I was now going from doing several jobs to only doing one. You see I had been doing back up finance, sales manager duties, trying to build a commercial division at work, answering the Internet leads , oh and trying to sell cars. Now I didn't mind most days but the one problem was I couldn't focus on one thing. So now my sole responsibility was to sell cars, New, Used, Commercial, it didn't matter, just sell cars. And since that was now the case, they expected me to step up my game and perform like they said they knew I could. So I was now expected to sell 20 cars a month, almost half of that was to be new cars, and if I did, I would continue to make the same money, possibly more than I currently was. If I didn't, well then my income would drop, depending on how many I didn't sell. Oh and the kicker was we were changing pay cycles so it would be a month before we got paid again. WOW! Talk about walking out of that office going OK A) what am I going to do because I can't go a month without a paycheck and B) 20 cars is a big number and I cant afford for my pay to go down.
Well after thinking about it and talking to one of my co-workers whose opinion I respect, I realized that I could now focus on doing one thing, and doing it good, instead of trying to do many things halfway. He told me that they wouldn't put that big a number on me unless they thought I was capable of doing that on a monthly basis. Then he told me that I should look at what had happened as a good thing and not something to worry about, because as he said, I was good at selling cars because I cared about people and knew what I was doing.He also said that by stepping back away from everything else and focusing on one thing, people would see what I was actually capable of instead of seeing a flash of what I could do. So I took a step back and said ya know what, he's right. No more do I have to worry about ordering trucks, or how many days they have been in stock. No more do I have to plan out a month by saying OK, on this day I am going to do finance, and on this day I am going to do this, and I need to make business cold calls on this day or that day. All I had to do was come in, answer my leads, follow up with MY customers and work every deal like it was the one that put in a bonus category or was going to finish making my car payment or house rent.SO at that moment I felt like a HUGE weight had been lifted off my back and I could stand up again.
That night after getting home and informing Angie about the changes, and assuring her it would be OK, I went to bed and settled in for what I hoped was a good nights sleep. During the night I woke up several times and could not figure out why, so the last time I woke up and rolled over, which was about 3 in the morning, I started praying. I started thanking God for the things he has given me in my life and for my family and all at once it hit me, like someone had slapped me. I had been doing so much and staying so busy, that not only was I doing a half baked job at work, I was being a half baked Christian. And there was no way that people were seeing Jesus in me. They were hearing me but they were seeing a half baked loaf of bread when they saw me. On one end they saw a delightfully golden crust with a soft interior but as they went down the loaf, it got whiter, gooey and finally lumped into a big ball of dough, waiting to be finished.
You see in Galatians Paul gives us the "crop" (as my study bible says),of 9 qualities that are produced by the Spirit in those who walk in dependence on him. These are traits that every Christian who professes to be born again and walks with our Lord should possess. Galatians 5: 22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;" He also in the previous verses gives us 15 traits that those who are not born again and walk in the ways of the world have. In Verses 19-21 he tells us "the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these."
As I look at these I actually think of the analogy of harvesting a farm. If I am a farmer and I have worked all through the growing season to water, and nurture and cultivate my garden, I cant wait to get the harvest over and eat all the good things I have grown. So imagine how I feel if i start in the first gatherings of the harvest and it all looks so good and delicious. Everything I can see looks so good and I just cant wait. So I dig down in the buckets a little farther and whats this.A couple of the items are a little off color but they still look good so I continue. I get to the house and I take a few of the fresh tomatoes out and I start to cut them up for a nice tomato sandwich. But as I cut, I realize its a little mushy, but the farther I cut the more I realize it is rotten inside. So I grab another one and start to cut it and I get the same thing. I repeat this with about 10 more tomatoes, and everyone looks great on the outside, but they are rotten when you get just under the skin. So I come to realize that my entire Harvest, may look good on the outside but under the skin, when you peel it back, it's rotten all the way down to the center, and everything I have done has been in vain. All the watering and fertilizing, weed pulling and nurturing has produced not one good tomato, regardless of appearances.
In Matthew 7:17-18 Jesus tells us that "every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit." These are probably some of the profound words that our Lord gives us, but we as Christians ignore them daily. Let's face it, the last thing a Christian wants to hear is that they are "bad fruit". We want to believe that the only "Bad Fruit" around us is those who are not saved and who are not attending church. But in reality, the worst fruit, may be in the church. It may be sitting on a pew next to you, or in the choir loft or even teaching Sunday School. It is even possible that the worst fruit could be standing in the pulpit. The saddest fact is that neither they or us realize it. We think the appearance is normal, when if we peel back the skin and reveal whats under it, we would see it's rotten to the core, in a sense, in a lot of circumstances.
You see I was "rotten" because the fruit I was showing looked good but wasn't up to par under the skin. I was letting all kinds of things get in my way from work, to unfortunate circumstances, to just plain being lazy. So I made up my mind I was going to stop producing bad fruit. I was going to start blooming new fruit and start cutting the rottenness out. Oh I am not completely there , and never will be until I step into Glory one day, but I am working that way. I thanked my lord for opening my eyes and showing this to me and then the very next day, my wife called me to tell me about something she heard on K-Love about people seeing a sermon instead of hearing one, and I truly realized then that it was time to start showing the fruit, not just talking about it to others at work.
Well here we are two months down the road and God has given me several opportunities to share my faith with others at work, as well as with Customers. I do have to report though that I did not sell 20 cars in the month of March though, which was the first month on the new pay cycle. I was blessed enough by God to sell 28 cars, split right down the middle between new and pre-owned, and I give all the glory to our Lord for that. I am nothing special when it comes to being a salesman, but in Gods eyes, I am special and by putting him first in everything I do (Matthew 6:33) he has rewarded me.Not because of who I am though, but because of who he is!
I leave you with a question and these verses out of Galatians 5:24-25"And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit", and Matthew 7:20 "Thus you will recognize them by their fruits". Are people seeing your good fruit, or would they find rottenness under the skin? God bless the reader of this word and if you do not know the joy of Jesus' salvation, please feel Free to contact me at cntrydadof3@gmail.com with the subject Good Fruit Blog in the subject line.
In Christ' Love,
Rev. Bill Roy
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