Getting it right - 1/2

We all want to get it right, and there’s nothing better than making a good judgement call on the share market, at the TAB, or in business. When we get it right, the money just rolls in.

Choosing the right partner in business or the right product is also a good feeling. There’s something so rewarding about getting it right. It’s good when you make a judgement call on someone else and get it right. Knowing that a particular client is a jerk going to cause your staff trouble, can save your business a lot of time and money. Assessing a product or service and picking a good one can even justify our presence in a job.

I recall a client a few years ago to whom I gave extra special service for his website. He lived around the corner from me and called in frequently on his way home from work to get more favours and redevelopments, getting it to look just exactly how he wanted. That in itself wasn’t the real problem. The problem was that he didn’t pay his bill when he promised, had a condescending, cavalier attitude toward it and really caused me a major problem at the time.

When his contract was up I just told him that we didn’t need or want his business any more. He didn’t like it, but tough-titties. I got it right, because this leopard would never change his spots. People who screw squeeze you on one little thing will do it on the bigger things too. It’s better to cut your losses and cut them loose.

I mix in circles where it is the done thing to talk religion. I’ve been in more arguments about philosophy and faith and theology than I care to think of. It seems like everyone has their own beef about this God thing. Phew, can they get worked up about it, or what!? It would be nice to see someone who’s got it all right.

When I first studied the bible, I wanted to get everything right. I would research away and track back every biblical commentary I could find, and then sit back and say “Now I’ve got it!” only to find out a year or two later that there was yet another dimension that came into my understanding, and while I may have been pretty close to “getting it right” there was always just something else that someone could contribute to enlighten me even more.

For a guy with a big-picture outlook on life, I found it enormously stressful, even impossible to get it right in all the details, all the time. There are different ways to approach this quandary. We can give up, push on to get the final answer in every detail or lean on those we trust. I do all of them.

Solomon’s father (David) wanted his people to get it right and gave them the following advice:

Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God.
1 Chronicles 22:19a

Now that’s getting smart. It seems that we have to seek something here. In order to get it right, we have to look for something first.

I’ve noticed that I start to see things all come together when we put our heart and soul into seeking the Lord. Hey, it doesn’t mean that I’m always right, but it certainly helps me get some important things right.

That’s VICTUS IN AMBITUS thinking.