I just wanted to yell "Quiet Please!!!"

But I refrained. They probably wouldn't have heard me anyway. Sitting in an open office environment has its challenges. I work best in solitude and silence. But, that's not my current office environment. Now, when I work from my home office, I work diligently ... quietly. It's just me and my thoughts. And, under the pressures of presentations and deadlines, I come through with the aid of the Lord. I just experienced this once again so I know that it's still true.

Yet, when I'm in the office, I deal with people talking on their speakerphones in cubicles, people dropping by when I'm really, really, really busy and ignoring my cues that I'm busy (I don't make eye contact, I barely speak or I say that I'm really busy, but they still stand there...). I can't be the only one facing a deadline or if I am at that moment, surely these same people have faced this before. Surely they know the social cues? Right?!!!

Well, maybe they dop and maybe they don't. I still have to treat them with courtesy and respect. So, I stop what I am doing, acknowledge them; encourage them; and then I get on with what I'm doing - attending to my deadline. Visitors aren't a bad thing - at least they were thinking about me.

But, sometimes my flesh wants to scream out! I still get aggrevated by those folks with the speakerphone conference calls. What gives!?! It's an open environment but that does not mean that I need to be apart of your conference call. It's aggrevating and distracting. So, instead of thinking about what I'm supposed to be thinking about, I get pulled into the conversation blaring on speaker. Oh, brothers and sisters, pray for me!

But, that's when I also take yet another break to pray for my speakerphone-loving-colleague. Working in an open environment will humble you, make you pray when you weren't thinking about it and drive home the whole idea of community. We are not the same but we are all still valuable in the Lord's eyes.

May I be used to shine the light for Christ in my open-office environment - and may I ever be aware of exactly what is happening in the spirit realm and use every opportunity to glorify the Lord.