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A THOUGHTFUL MANAGER
by Mike Brisky

Growing up, I had dreams of sinking a 10-foot putt on the last hole of a US Open golf championship to beat Jack Nicklaus, arguably the greatest golfer ever. Well, I never got a chance to play against the great Jack Nicklaus, but I did have an opportunity to make a 10-foot putt to win a PGA Tour Tournament. 

However, I didn’t make that putt, but I did take valuable lessons from my golf career into my next one. I played for seven years on the PGA Tour before the Lord opened the door for me in ministry at Gateway Church. Throughout those seven years, I went through a lot of caddies. Caddies are the people who carry a 40-pound bag for five hours or more serving the golfer who hired them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t firing caddies because they didn’t work well with me. On the contrary, it was I who couldn’t work well with them. You see, I expected the caddies I hired to be knowledgeable and learn my habits and needs without me having to say a word. In other words, I wanted them to automatically be the complete package while I invested little into their lives. I didn’t realize until my golf career ended and I was working at Gateway that I had mismanaged people. I had to look at myself and say, “What am I doing?” That’s when I began growing in my ability to manage and oversee people. 

The gift of stewarding people is not something a person is born with; it is a talent that increases over time through your investment in your relationship with God. It should be our primary investment. Knowing that our relationship with Him is our source for being a good steward of the resources and gifts He has given us—especially people—is the key. 

In Colossians 2:2, the apostle Paul explains that as we encourage people in their hearts, they grow more in the revelation of who God is. As we love and encourage the people with whom we work and do business, they will grow in their relationships with God. This doesn’t just go for people we manage. We are called to steward our relationships with those who manage us and those we work alongside. But it can only be done through a position of humility. Just look at Joseph and his boss Potiphar in Genesis 39. While Joseph is tempted and ultimately wrongly accused by his boss, he still kept his attitude of humility even as he sat in prison. In the end, he was promoted to second in command of an entire nation. 

The people we work with were put in our lives by God. To understand how to steward our relationships with them, we must first have a relationship with Him. Simply look at today’s verse. When we understand the ways of our Master by investing in our relationship with Him, He will inspire us to be great stewards of the people He has given us in our workplace. How are you stewarding the people He has given you in your workplace?

PRAYER
Holy Spirit, help me realize more and more that the most valuable resource I have to steward in my life is people. Help me to see people the way You see them and to love them the way You love them. May my investment in my relationship with You be revealed and reflected in full measure in the relationships in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.  

MEMORY VERSE
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. PSALM 24:1 (NLT)