Employee Benefits

Recently, I was planning a family vacation to Vancouver. Flights to Vancouver from Calgary are relatively cheap. What is not cheap is the actual vacation in Vancouver. I had paid for the non-refundable ticket when I realized our vacation would be much more expensive than I had imagined. The decent average hotels I saw in my first online search were running between C$1800 - C$2000 for four nights. Car rental costs were no better. Feeling defeated, I closed my computer and chose to let it sit for a few days. We had paid for non-refundable, non-modifiable tickets; so, we had two very simple options: go for the trip or lose the cost of the tickets.

A few days later, I returned to begin my search for a good hotel at a reasonable price. I didn’t mind if the hotel was located a little bit further from the airport, as long as it was a good place to vacation and won’t put holes in our pockets. I hadn’t searched too long when I saw a Best Western Plus hotel about a 7-minute drive from the Vancouver International Airport for a little over our budget. Of course, you know what I did (Haha). I jumped at it, began booking the space and as I did, sent my husband the link to the hotel via Teams to tell him, “I’m not asking for permission. I am going ahead to book this place for our trip.” Sure, he thought it was a great idea and along with his “go-ahead” response, he sent a link. I finished booking the hotel room on booking.com, took a deep breath, and smiled big, thinking in my head, “Yes. Thank you, Jesus. Now, on to car rentals.”

Just before I began my search on car rentals, I decided to click on the link my husband had sent via Teams. It was the link to a page of employee benefits, including travel discounts that employees of the organization we both work for could enjoy just because we were employees. I immediately clicked “Travel” and then “Car Rentals”. Following a few more clicks, I found myself on the enterprise.com website about to put my details in to book a car for C$220 that would have otherwise cost us over C$750, had I not gone through the employee benefits page. I was in awe. Of course, again, you know what I did (Haha). I immediately locked the deal before they or my company changed their minds.

Later that afternoon, after work, I began to think about what had happened as I drove home. And this dawned on me, “Many believers lose out of our heavenly benefits out of ignorance.”

In honesty, I had stumbled upon that benefits page before on the company website, but I never went through anything there. At the time, I had not needed anything from the page, and I did not even glance to see what it offered, so it never registered in my brain that my company had such employee benefits.

Some of us believers are like that. We have the Bible sitting on our nightstands or shelves or our electronic devices, but we do not read them enough to know our benefits in Christ. We sail through life, paying the costs of things that were already paid for us. We go through hardships that we are not supposed to go through. We suffer the same sufferings (or even worse) as people who say there is no God. We are beaten down, battered, bruised, etc. only because we have refused to acknowledge our privileges as children of God.

And this is not the worst of it. Unfortunately, some of us have opened the “company benefits page”. We have read all our benefits, but we have refused to believe that they are true. Imagine if I opened that “Benefits” link my husband sent me, and I read and saw the advantages I had as an employee, but then I closed the page, went on my browser to enterprise.com, and searched for car rentals like any other regular person? I would have paid over C$500 more for the same services and products. Don’t get me wrong there is something called Christian suffering, even for the believer who knows and utilizes their benefits in Christ. Christian suffering refers to suffering due to one’s faith in Christ, which can be a result of several things (1 Peter 4:12-19; James 1:2-4). That’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about losing out on benefits not because of persecution or trials but due to sheer ignorance and/or refusal to use what we have in Christ.

Believers have an advantage on this earth, and it is true. A few months back, I wrote an article on the advantages we have in Christ: The Jesus’ Advantage. The Bible is full of realities that only believers can experience. For example, how do you explain “peace that surpasses all understanding” to a non-believer? I remember a few years ago when I had to withdraw from my university to start over at another school. I remember one lady looking at me and saying, “I honestly do not understand how you can put it together in a time like this.” I always reference that period of my life as the time I came to understand what Nehemiah meant when he said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). Only believers can relate.

When we are sick, we have the promises of healing through the stripes of Jesus (1 Peter 2:24). When we are in need, we have promises of provision from our superabundant God (Philippians 4:19). When we are burdened and heavy-laden, we can cast our cares on Jesus, exchanging our loads for His (Matthew 11:28-30). When we are not certain of our security, we can count on the fact that God is watching us, keeping us, and ensuring that no evil comes near us (Psalm 23:4) … And so so so much more.

I encourage you today to get acquainted with the benefits you have in Christ Jesus, believe that they are indeed yours, and begin to enjoy them, for they are all yours.

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