What is Productivity?

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4 (KJV)

Hi folks, it is good to be back and I trust you had a fruitful week, today we want to continue our journey on productivity; we want to focus on what exactly is productivity. This topic brings to mind an experience a former colleague at work told me some few year ago. This colleague is a British of Ghanaian parentage, her experience was about the rude shock she had the first time she arrived in Ghana as a working class adult. 

Having grown up in England, a country where time is valued as the most important resource, generally people spend time doing things that are productive to them. People live to work or engage in things that add on to them, the system doesn’t promote those who idle around. Mostly, hanging out is sometimes seen as a waste of precious time because one could be learning something or keeping abreast with the latest development in their fields of endeavor. 

And if you don’t keep up, someone else will win the next promotion or good job because employers want employees to know so much stuff. To them in the western world, time is money so it is in the psyche of everybody from the little child to the head of state as well as from the private sector to the public; hardly would you see normal people walking slowly, jesting and wasting precious time on things that do not add value to them, everybody is on the go.

Recounting her experience, my colleague told me that when she landed at the Airport in Accra, Ghana’s capital, she was shocked to her skin to see the way people were generally relaxed walking as if they had all the time in this world; she noticed the busyness and the brisk walking in the cities of England did not have any semblance to what she was seeing with her eyes in the street of Accra. 

Having settled, she realized that the general lack of value for time is the psyche of the average Ghanaian; people generally spend most of their time doing things that are counterproductive and the situation is very alarming in the public sector, hence the reason why systems in Ghana do not seem to be functioning properly. Although, Ghana has the potential and resources to develop and be rich, poverty and under development is the order of the day. 

This colleague told me about her frustration at getting things done at the government agencies, this situation turned her to complain a lot about the general attitude of Ghanaian's towards time and being productive. But guess what? This is how she ended her story to me “Wisdom, with the passage of time I also started walking slowly just like the average Ghanaian” and we together laughed it off. You know when she told me this encounter, my immediate inner reaction was why is this lady fussing about being busy all the time, but I think now I perfectly understand her. My brothers and sister time is the precious vital commodity that we have in our hands.

The bible said “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4 (KJV) and Ecclesiastes 9:10 (KJV)  “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” These two scriptures are referring to the productive use of time, our Lord Jesus knowing his specific assignment on earth was time bound. 

Thus he said “I must do the work of Him who sent me” he made this statement six months before his death; he knew his days on earth was so close he needed to deploy his fullest potential of doing the ministry work within the frame work of time. He said “the night cometh when no one can work” just to emphasize the fact that no matter how talented, knowledgeable, gifted, anointed, privileged one is, there is nothing one can do when death lays hold on us. The scripture in Ecclesiastes 9:10 also adds steam to this truth - one must make most use of time. 

What we must understand is that our Lord Jesus Christ was never spent his time doing things that does not enhance his assignment on earth. He never wasted time on unproductive stuff as most of us in the third world are doing; he was a forward thinking and moving person as far as his assignment on earth was concerned. He was focused on his assignment, he did not have time to envy, gossip, or engage in other unhealthy stuff, he buried himself in just fulfilling his assignment. That was why he said in Mathew 13:12(KJV) “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”  

This all important scripture is a call to account for all the resources at ones disposal; it is a reminder of the day when you and I have to give an account of how we are using the time, potential, talent, money, advantage, beauty etc. at our disposal. As a country blessed with so much natural and human resources as well as the precious resource of time, our leaders will one day give an account of their time in office to the Lord; they will give an account of how they used the resources available to them to develop the country.

The reality we must all come to terms with is that we are stewards of everything that we have, the bible says “Who made you superior to others? Didn't God give you everything you have? Well, then, how can you boast, as if what you have were not a gift?” 1^st Corinthians 4:7 (GNB) and “Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful”. 1^st Corinthians 4:2 (KJV). Faithfulness to a course or resources is what brings the beneficial results. 

As a public servant, how are you using the resources of time as well as all the other resources at your disposal to ensure that your agency achieves useful results to the benefit of the country and to the glory of God? Or are you the type of public servant who is supposed to be at work by 8 am and close at 5pm, yet you habitually get to the office at 10 am and close by 2 pm? Besides, when you get to the office that late, instead of using the resources available usefully, you end up using the scanty office hours to watch the latest movie on the office laptop? 

Or do you spend that time facebooking or whatsapping? Or as a person working in the private sector and occupying a very sensitive position, are you also using your position to engage in activities that are inimical to the survival and the growth of your company? Instead of working well to make your company efficient and competitive you also spend most of the working hours on facebook , WhatsApp or on other stuff that do not add to the competitive edge of your business? 

Are you also that kind of Christian worker, who gets to the office and instead of using the working hours productively, you pile the work on your desk and go to a prayer meeting expecting a breakthrough of promotion? As Pastors who have been called into the Lord’s vineyard to advance God’s kingdom to the rest of the world, are we using the gifts, opportunities, money, human resources and other resources available to us in a way that will bring useful results to the kingdom of God? As a prophet are you using the gift the Lord has freely giving you to exploit people in your church? 

As a teacher in your church are you using the gift of teaching to take the people of God out of ignorance or you are using it to put fear in them and keep them in perpetual ignorance so as to control them? As a ministers of the manifold grace of God are we using the gifting of the Holy Spirit to advance the frontiers of the kingdom of God? If your answers to this questions is yes, then know that you are very far away from being a productive person in the eye of God.

Productivity is mainly defined as the efficient use of resources especially time, labour, and capital, land, materials, and energy to produce useful or beneficial outcome. In the context of the Christian narrative, I want to define productivity as the efficient use of first of all the precious gifts of time, talents, the gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit coupled with other resources available to achieve an outcome that is congruent to our specific calling in a way that brings glory to God.  

As I had intimated earlier on, Apostle Paul said “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.” Romans 12:6-8 (KJV). Productivity within the Christian context is identifying your specific calling and then using all the resources available to you to achieve a maximum useful result.

As Christians one of the thinking that we should be used to is the fact that everything that we have was given to us by God and we have to give an account of how we used it. Unfortunately, I have to stop here, so that we can continue with the journey in our next edition. God willingly we would be looking at “The benefits of Productivity”. God bless you for listening or reading, if you have any questions or comments you can leave it below, or you can also send me an email via- wisafawubo@gmail.com or send me a WhatsApp message on 0233868205.