How Jesus says to prepare your career for a Category 5 hurricane

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)

It’s hurricane season here in my home state of Florida. And my most prepared friends are stocked-up on water, generators, plywood to cover windows, and more. Is there a hurricane on the radar? Not as I write this. But we all know one is coming.

Jesus says the same is true for your life and work. Storms will come—market downturns, mass layoffs, pressure to cut ethical corners, etc. But it’s not water and generators that will prepare you for these storms. It’s obedience to Christ’s commands—not just hearing his words, but practicing them.

While obedience to God on sunny days may look “small” and “easy,” Jesus suggests that this is the “big” work. Because every act of obedience today pours another yard of concrete into the foundation of our lives, making it much more likely that we will stand firm and obey God when a Category 5 storm shows up on our doorstep.

My friend Sherron Watkins experienced this when she “blew the whistle” on the fraud inside her employer Enron in 2002. In an interview for my book, Master of One, Sherron told me she was confident Enron looked through her expense reports to see if there was an error they could pounce on to fire her for cause. But as a follower of Jesus, she spent years developing the habit of being 100% honest in her expense reports. And so Enron had no cause to fire her.

I’m sure that being honest on an expense report felt like “small” obedience to Sherron. But God was using all her seemingly small acts of faithfulness to pour a foundation for the biggest professional storm of her life.

I typically end these devotionals with a practice or two—something new for you to do in response to the biblical text. But today, I’m not asking you or me to do anything new. Just keep doing what you’re doing. 

Be faithful to hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice in situations big and small. And know that every godly action you take today—every expense report you file honestly, every project you do with all your heart, every commitment you keep—is anything but small. Those acts of faithfulness are being used by God to make you ready for the coming storm.