The Art(lessness) of Negotiation

Readings: Jeremiah 23:16-29, Romans 8:12-17, Matthew 7:15-21


The Art of Negotiation, The Art of the Deal...two book titles among the hundreds that are found on bookshelves of booksellers these days. Making deals and having negotiations have seemingly come to the forefront of most everything we do anymore.


While compromise is sometimes the only viable solution, we seem to have taken that idea to limitless extremes. Our court systems are full of lawsuits where one group has taken liberties with another group and are now in negotiations to handle damage control; many a teacher has sadly walked away from education after realizing that we have raised generations of potential great minds that think first of negotiation down to the lowest common denominator of work needed to pursue knowledge; we all grouse about poor service, poor products, poor quality, yet we will jump at the first opportunity to negotiate a "real deal" on something...


Sometimes it works--sometimes it just doesn't.


Our daily lives have become a beehive of these activities. We spend time in endless negotiations and have little to show for it except stress, anxiety, and frustration.


Turn on a TV, radio, or open a magazine and, once again, we're bombarded with negotiations...but they seem to go too much to the extreme. How many commercials are on each day that first plague us with worry, concern, or anxiety and then assure us with product "x" all will be well? It used to be funny to watch because it was no more disconcerting than a dirt ring on a collar or a husband who preferred someone else's coffee enough to accept a refill. Now it's our health, our safety, our homes--most everything--that is being put on the table for negotiations. We're told that home invasions abound, that we're a stroke or heart attack waiting to happen and no one will be available to help us, etc. Then the negotiators come to the rescue. If we buy product "x" or subscribe to a service being advertised then all will be fine and we'll never have another worry. I don't know about you, but I'm not buying it--literally nor figuratively.


False prophets abound. They play on our worry, our fears, our stresses...things that the Bible tells us repeatedly are issues of the flesh, not the of the spirit.


How do we deal will all this needless negotiation from all these false prophets who assure us that things will be "just fine" only if we follow their every word? It's simple...we just follow our Father. We are assured that not only are we his adopted and beloved, we are also his heirs. "Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory" (Romans 8:17). No negotiations nor power struggles are necessary--we already belong to a Father that will watch over us...no contract needed. No negotiation for limited services. All is well in His watch.


Peace be with you.