October 20

Less Straw, More Bricks? (Part 1)

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”   ––Matthew 15:7-8 

My friend KC spent more than 35 years in the corporate world. He talks about his experience of working for one Christian company: “The company was, shall we say, very careful with raises, but talked a lot about how we were doing God’s work. Unfortunately, their words often didn’t line up with my understanding of biblical stewardship. The owners and executives all drove very nice cars while the worker bees rode the bus or drove beater cars. But, they’d constantly tell us that what we were doing was ministry, thus low salaries. It was, essentially, a ‘less straw, more bricks’ scenario.”

KC’s reference is found in Exodus, where the Egyptian pharaoh who honored Joseph is dead, and Moses is now in the limelight.

That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. ––Exodus 5:6-8

Can you relate? Maybe you’ve been in a one-sided relationship where you felt you were the one doing all the work; or perhaps, like KC, you’ve worked for an employer who drove you really hard but rewarded poorly. They said the right things, but the actions didn’t produce. Whatever your “less straw, more bricks” situation, here’s the common denominator: it’s no fun, and it’s discouraging.

In my own personal “less straw” work situation, I finally had to leave that organization. It was a tough decision, but eventually the Lord made it clear that he had a new chapter for me. My prayer is that if you are currently in this type of situation, that God would make your next move crystal clear, and knock down any barriers for you to do His will in your next chapter.

In the key verse for today’s reading, Jesus quotes Isaiah to drive home the point that hypocrisy—saying one thing and doing another—is nothing new. For you and me in our twenty-first century world, it seems that this type of hypocrisy is only getting worse, not better. The danger for God’s man, when caught in a “less straw” scenario, is to become bitter and offended. That’s how our emotions typically flow when people say one thing but do another. But we are not called to flow the way the world flows—we are called to flow against the grain, so to speak, as God’s kingdom looks nothing like the world’s.

So in those situations where “less straw” is being given to you to produce the same amount of bricks, keen discernment is needed. What is your role in the situation? What are the controllables vs. the uncontrollables? This is a very good time to invoke the opinions of trusted, godly friends, and to turn to the Holy Spirit for precise direction.

Bad things are going to happen to us, and it’s up to us how we will react. It doesn’t mean we pretend that negative things aren’t happening, but that we deal with them through a Kingdom lens light on offense and heavy on thoughtful discernment.

Father, help me walk through my negative circumstances and also, may my words always match my actions, and vice versa.