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These Fran and Jesus stories have caught on; it seems we learn best from stories, and so that’s why I continue to use this story-form method. These are fictitious stories, but they are based on my experience and knowledge of the workplace through many years and because I’m in contact with so many of you.
In this episode Fran has to face a touchy situation. She arrives at work on a cool November morning, and as she gets settled in for her work, Marilyn, her boss, walks in.
“Fran, Human Resources is planning the Christmas Party for the office and they asked me to send a representative from our department. I’d like you to go to this meeting today and put your two-cents in for us, okay?” Marilyn says to Fran.
“Well…” Fran’s head is swimming as she tries to respond to Marilyn. She remembers the party from last year. She left after being there less than an hour, even before dinner was served, because the drinking and noise and conversation were just not acceptable to her. She certainly doesn’t want to be involved in that kind of activity, but Marilyn seems to be telling, rather than asking. Fran stammers a bit and says, “Well, I’ve got a very heavy workload right now, Marilyn, are you sure….”
“Yeah, I know, we’re all busy, but somebody has to do it and I think you’ll do a good job. So, show up today at 1:00 in the conference room.” And with that Marilyn walks out.
“Oh,” Fran says with weariness, “what am I going to do about this? I remember the awful party they had last year at Christmas? It was the next thing to X-rated! What am I going to do?”
Fran has learned at moments like this to simply stop and pray about her dilemmas. “Lord,” she says, “I need wisdom and insight to know how to handle this assignment. I didn’t ask for it; I don’t want it; but it appears I have it. So, please, let me know how you think about this issue.”
Fran begins to think about last year’s party. Why was it such an awful party? “Well, it was because Bill from accounting was in charge of it, and he’s a real party animal,” Fran thinks to herself. “Maybe if someone else was in charge of it, it could take a different turn.”
“But not me, Lord,” Fran thinks. “Not me. I don’t need this . . . I’ve got plenty to do. Not me, please, Lord.” But she can’t ignore that tug she feels inside of her head, and she can’t get the idea out of her head.
“Lord, are you suggesting I should get involved with planning this party?” Fran asks. “Lord, I’ll have to compromise my standards and beliefs if I do that.”
Then, as so often happens with Fran when she seeks the Lord for wisdom, he seems to plant questions and ideas in her mind. She has a question and answer period with herself: “What standards would you have to compromise, Fran?” she asks herself.
“Well, for example, serving drinks. That’s the major thing they do at these parties—drink. And I don’t want to be associated with anything that promotes this kind of excessive drinking,” Fran answers.
“Have you ever thought that maybe you could influence them not to serve alcoholic beverages?” she asks herself again.
“Not serve alcoholic beverages at the Christmas party?” Fran responds with a laugh. “Jesus, you just don’t understand these parties. They would laugh me out of the room if I suggested that.”
“Of course,” Fran says with a laugh, “you do understand the parties because you understand everything.”
Fran stops and thinks about what she has said. Again, God’s Spirit in her has reminded her that Jesus is all-knowing. Occasionally she gets caught in the trap of thinking that there are some parts of life that are unfamiliar to Jesus or out of his control. She is stunned for a moment as she digests the knowledge that Jesus knows about Christmas parties!
“I’m sorry, Lord,” she says quietly. “I didn’t mean you don’t understand, it’s just that these people equate Christmas parties with drinking…. but I guess you know that, too, huh?”
“Yes, but where is it written that it has to be that way this year?” she asks herself again. God’s Spirit is making her think beyond the obvious and see things through his perspective.
“It’s just one of those traditions,” Fran replies. “But maybe it’s time to start a new tradition.”
“Like what, Lord? Are you suggesting we have a religious service or have a manger scene or something? You know they would never go for that,” Fran says.
Then she begins to think of what Christmas celebrations mean to her.
“Family time, the children having fun, families getting together, stuff like that,” Fran thinks out loud. “I wonder if there would be any way to get them to have a family focus for the party this year? Maybe bring the kids and have gifts…” Her mind starts working.
“Jesus,” she says, “if we could have a party for children, it would be natural to suggest that only soft drinks and punch be served. And then we could plan fun things for the kids…”
“This idea is from you, Lord. Thanks for putting the idea in my mind,” she says to him. Then she remembers the verse that says she has the mind of Christ because she belongs to Christ. “I guess I just have to learn to let your mind in me control my thinking more completely,” Fran reasons.
“To think that I have the mind of Christ in me,” Fran thinks. “I’m sorry, Lord, but I just blow a fuse when I try to comprehend what that means. It’s too much.”
“Well, how does this relate to the Christmas party?” Fran begins to think out loud again. “I had an idea about how to approach the Christmas party differently, and now that I have this opportunity to influence the decisions, it must mean that I’m supposed to go to this meeting and let my voice be heard. That makes sense to me, so that’s what I’ll do. Thanks Jesus,” she says, and with that she gets back to her work.
At lunch she talks with her friend, Louise, about this meeting. Louise is a believer, too, and they meet once a week to pray for the company. Louise encourages her, “Fran, give it a try. Maybe they’ll listen to you, and it looks like God has given you this opportunity to try to change the Christmas party tradition around here.”
“Okay, Louise,” Fran says, “I’ll stick my neck out, but you need to pray for me while I’m in this meeting. You know the enemy is going to fight me on this; I’ll need prayer.”
“No problem,” Louise says, “at one o’clock I’ll take a break to pray for you.”
Fran gets back to her office just a few minutes before the scheduled meeting on the Christmas party. Quickly she prays, “Lord, please give me wisdom and discernment as I go into this meeting. I didn’t ask for this, but you’ve allowed me to be in this situation, so I accept it as an opportunity. But I’m scared and I need help, so please stay with me.”
As she leaves for the meeting, she is very aware of the presence of Jesus with her. She prays again, “I hope I can keep my cool at this meeting, because there will surely be some people who will be very upset at the idea of giving up their free drinking party this Christmas. And I really can’t stand Bill. I’m liable to say something abrupt to him. Please help me, Lord.”
The Director of Human Resources begins the meeting by explaining that they always form a committee each year with a representative from each department to plan and execute the Christmas party within the company’s budget. And the first thing they need to do is select a chairperson for the committee. “Who would like to volunteer for that position?” the Director asks.
The room gets quiet; Bill squirms in his seat, looking like he’s getting ready to say something, when the quiet inner voice of God’s Spirit says to Fran, “Volunteer.”
“Volunteer to be chairperson? Lord, I don’t need that hassle,” Fran replies.
“Volunteer,” she hears the instructions again.
Fran is so uncomfortable she doesn’t know what to do, but she knows Jesus has spoken to her, and before she realizes what is happening, she hears herself saying, “I’d be glad to volunteer for that position.”
The Director seems pleased, “Fran, that’s great; the job is yours.” Bill gives her a heavy look; he obviously was planning to get the job again himself, and Fran has beat him to it.
After some introductory remarks, the Director leaves and turns the meeting over to Fran, whose job is to plan the party and make assignments for all that has to be done. She can feel the palms of her hands getting sweaty, and her heart starts beating faster.
“Well, I was thinking that it might be a good idea to have a different kind of party this year, one that would include all our families, because all of us think of Christmas as family time, right?” Fran says with a smile. A few in the room smile back, but most sit there as if struck by lightning.
“What do you mean a family party?” Bill asks, obviously irritated. “We always bring our spouses and ‘significant others,’ so it is a family party.”
“Oh, right, but I meant the kids,” Fran continues with enthusiasm. “For instance, we could have gifts under the tree for the kids, have a Santa there to distribute the gifts, have some games for kids of all ages and prizes for the winners, have food that they like to eat, and invite the employees to bring the kids, grandparents – a real family affair.”
“Hey, Fran, I like that idea,” Elizabeth from Customer Service says. “You know, the party has gotten rather dull lately – same ole’ thing. This would be fun to get to meet everyone’s kids and have a real kids’ party.”
Several others chime in with their support, except, of course, Bill. “What’s wrong with the party we had last year? I thought it was fun. We have enough things for the kids at Christmas. We need something just for adults. Besides, not everyone has kids. What about those people?”
“You know, that’s a good point,” Fran says to Bill. “We’d have to be creative to plan it in such a way that we would not exclude anyone, but I think we could do that, don’t you Bill?”
“No way,” he responds. “I don’t want a bunch of little kids running around at the Christmas party. I want to have some laughs and drinks. That’s what a Christmas party is supposed to be.”
The room gets quiet; Bill intimidates everyone with his opinions and suddenly the support Fran had from the others seems to have dwindled. She feels like she’s out on a limb all by herself.
“What do I do now, Lord?” she asks in desperation. While she’s frantically trying to think, Bill continues.
“Besides, you don’t want to have little kids around the bar where people are drinking. Mothers wouldn’t like that.”
Fran looks around the room to see how the others are reacting. They aren’t making a move. She looks at Bill, who has the look of victory on his face.
“Don’t give up now, Fran,” God’s Spirit whispers to her. “Just because it’s tough, don’t cave in without a fight.”
“I don’t want to fight, Lord,” she says, “but now I’ve got myself into this mess of being the chairperson and I don’t have many options.”
Then she remembers that she didn’t get yourself into this; she was led here. She truly believes the Lord intended for her to take this position, so she determines to continue to obey him.
Reminded that she is here for a purpose, Fran bolsters her courage, looks Bill square in the eyes, and says, “I realize that for a family party it would not be appropriate to have a bar and alcoholic beverages, so we wouldn’t have that at this party. Just real good punch and soft drinks that the kids like,” Fran says with assertiveness.
Bill gets up from his seat and starts pacing. “Are you telling me you want a Christmas party without booze? Oh, I don’t believe you, Fran. Nobody would come.”
“Well, let’s see if you’re right, Bill,” Fran turns to Elizabeth. “Elizabeth, would you bring your family to a party planned around them, even though there wouldn’t be any drinks?”
“Oh, sure,” Elizabeth replies. Fran feels encouraged.
She turns to John. “How about you, John?” He is somewhat reluctant as Bill gives him an intimidating stare, but finally says, “I guess my wife would like it. She told me last year that she wouldn’t go to the party this year because,” his voice starts to trail off, “because it was too – I guess it was too noisy for her or something.”
“Too noisy?” Bill gets more upset. “What was wrong with last year’s party? It was fun!” He turns to Lynn. “Didn’t you like the party, Lynn?”
“Well, to tell you the truth,” Lynn replies, “I’d like to see a change. My little boy is four now and he’d love a kids’ party. Besides, Bill, don’t you remember all the trouble we had last year getting people home, so many were drunk they couldn’t drive. We had to call uber for several people and some of them got real nasty. It wasn’t a pretty scene there at the end.”
“I don’t believe you people,” Bill storms. “Well, if you want to have this namby-pamby party, just count me out. You let Fran walk in here and put her Sunday School ideas on you and you all fall for it. This is not church, Fran, it’s a business, but you’re the chairperson, so it’s all yours. I’m out of here,” and with that Bill stalks out.
Well, what’s going to happen to Fran’s great idea for a Christmas party? Did she do the right thing to jump in and volunteer to head it up? Right now she’s beginning to wonder if Jesus really spoke to her or not.
I imagine you’ve been in situations like that before. And she also has to deal with the “mob mentality” problem where people quickly abandon their support if it causes them any problems and you can get left out on a limb very easily.
You know, there are several things you can do on your job to bring the true meaning of Christmas back. For example, decorate your own work area with a manger-scene or something that points to Jesus. A friend of mine brought a beautiful crèche to her office and arranged it on her desk. It became a conversation starter, as many people stopped to comment on its beauty, and it opened up opportunities for her to focus on the real celebration of Christmas, the birth of Jesus.
Throw your own party at your house and have a program or devotional about the meaning of Christmas. Or give a party for the kids at your house and have a puppet show or let them put on their own play about the birth of Jesus. Invite your coworkers to your church’s Christmas program. It really is a good time of year to reach out to others and show them the real meaning of this beautiful season which has been so terribly perverted in our culture. I encourage you to get creative.