“For God watches how people live; he sees everything they do. No darkness is thick enough to hide the wicked from his eyes.” (Job 34:21-22 NLT)
I didn’t study logistics management. Therefore I did not think about detention charges when I worked at a large distribution center. Oh I attended the daily morning manager’s meeting where 7-8 of us discussed how well we did, or did not do the previous day, in meeting our key performance indicators. Maybe I was meditating or making my way to the point of being fully awake, but I don’t remember any mention of detention charges. I recall discussions about output per hour, trailers loaded or unloaded, trailers shipped, trailers in the yard, HR matters, maintenance updates, and safety issues. I remember going around the circle in our stand-up 8:15 a.m. meeting and how each manager gave an update, shared need-to-know information pertaining to their specific area, or they opted to pass, indicating they had nothing to say. The latter was frowned upon. But one thing I don’t remember being discussed was detention charges. Detention charges for the corporation probably costs the company a great deal of money, but I just don’t recollect the topic being discussed at our location or during annual meetings at the corporate headquarters. Detention charges varied by the trucking carrier and after negotiations with each carrier there was an agreement on how much would be charged when we did not meet the terms and conditions of our agreement, specifically related to only keeping the carriers’ trailers on our property for an agreed amount of time. I never heard anything about it! But you want to know something, I’m sure the person at the top knew and to this day I’m sure whoever is at the top knows.
It’s a good thing we have a Person at the top who knows when we don’t meet expectations. He has an exact knowledge of our daily performance as a child of God. He knows when we let the Holy Spirit have control right on schedule and He knows when we run into obstacles in our own personalities that keep us from delivering quality Christian behavior at the time our discipleship says we should. He knows when we do not meet expectations because of absenteeism, not physical absenteeism, but being absent spiritually, the times when we intentionally “call out,” take some time off, and thus we fail to distribute love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in a timely manner. If we had to pay detention charges because of our failure to live up to our agreement, when we came to the Lord by faith, agreeing to be one of Jesus’ disciples and, as we expressed it openly, agreeing to be a follower of Christ, we would be in trouble, or as the expression goes, “We would be in hot water!” It is a good thing we do not have to pay the great quantity we could be charged, a quantity so great I know we really can’t pay it anyway. But wait a minute now! Somebody had to pay for our poor performances! Somebody had to pay for our falling short! Somebody had to pay for our failure to meet expectations. For surely, the Person at the top knows! The Person at the top: God, Our Father, The Lord Almighty, Yahweh…He knows! So thank God for the One who took care of our debt for an accumulation, insurmountable amount of detention charges! Yes! Thank God for sending Jesus to cover us! But listen, let’s not take advantage of that fact and by doing so add even more detention charges. Paul wrote these words, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died in sin still live in it?” Our challenge today and going forward in life is not to add anymore detention charges! Let’s do the best we can! Let’s us make some progress! Meeting the Lord’s expectations is just what we need to do! Let’s get started right now! Have a good day! Excel in your Christian living! Be God-conscious! Be blessed!
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8 NKJV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King