Face the Son by Ella Kimbrel
I was fired once, well, sort of…years before I began my career in HR. I had resigned my position and the company for which I worked decided to honor my resignation without allowing me to work out my notice. I was angry. I felt they owed me the time to work out my resignation.
When the HR Manager, Haide, called me to her office, I had no idea what was coming, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good. She gently delivered the news and I cried. I had been prideful in giving my resignation. I had let the things going on inside the company work up a storm inside of me. I was hurt by what was happening around me. Haide’s news hit my pride hard. But here’s the thing: At the end of our brief meeting where no amount of begging for more time was going to change her mind, she said to me, “Ella, may I pray for you? I know this news is hard for you, but maybe working here is not God’s best plan for you. Maybe His best plan involves a new job, a new career.”
Do you see what Haide did there? She pointed me back to what’s MOST important. She reminded me that I needed to face the Son for growth and direction, that maybe there was a bigger purpose to what was happening. But I was so self-absorbed and fueled by self-righteousness that I could not see beyond the moment.
I needed that redirection from Haide. I needed to turn and face the Son. Did you know that young sunflowers always face the sun? It’s called Heliotropism which is the motion of a plant in response to the sun. When young sunflowers wake up, they face east and follow the sun all day. At night, the young sunflowers reorient themselves to face east again anticipating the sun’s morning return. As young sunflowers reach maturity their movement slows and most often remains facing east.
I want to be like the sunflower following the Son all day and anticipating His morning return. I want to be like Haide, not afraid to point people to the Son, and to pray with them. This perhaps is one of the biggest challenges for HR professionals who are Christians, or as I prefer to say, Christians who are HR professionals. The very nature of HR is to avoid politics, religion, or any other topic that might exclude someone. HR professionals are supposed to embrace diversity and inclusion. I hate that, really. As a Christian, I’m called to love with the love of Jesus (because I cannot possibly love people without Him). As a Christian, I am called to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37. It is THE greatest commandment. “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:39
As the Christian HR professional that you are, be encouraged today to love on people. If you need help, pray and ask God to reorient you to the Son. He is our greatest strength. Through Him, we can love on our people and we can pray for them – openly with their permission – or in the quiet of our prayer closet. Stay focused on the Son all day as He moves in you and through you. And at night, reorient yourself to the east in anticipation of seeing Him again in the morning.