Rounding

"Rounding" might seem like a strange title. But, if you remember, this blog is supposed to be promoting the concept of living in Christ which includes awareness and action.  God is all around us and I am trying to keep this front and center. That means that sometimes, weird things jump out and say, "Hey!  Look at me!" 

There was a customer order that popped up this week. We could not ship to this account as there was an outstanding balance. The amount was substantial and was quite old.  This was clearly a policy violation, so the results were firmly on our side.

Of course, sales responded in short order. 

Headquarters said, "Open invoice." Sales proclaimed, "Paid months ago!"

And the deep dive began. 

Envelope, please?  We were both right. You'll be asking how this could be possible. We're talking money. It is either paid or it is not. And yet.

Our system is not always in sync with overseas operations. So, perhaps there was an accounting error or time delay or some reason why the subsidiary sees paid and the headquarters indicates not.

There is a quirk in our stateside accounting program. It involves taxable computations which result in rounding issues typically recognized as +/- $0.01.  And then, I saw it. Where the system status showed unpaid, I found that a payment had been applied long ago but the status had not changed. This was due to the Euro equivalent of one penny.

BIG problem. Because of rounding, an order was refused. Thankfully, the salesperson intervened before any customer notifications were sent.

It is not possible to blame only the system, however. Payments are applied manually. In this case (and others), a journal entry should have accompanied the payment transaction to zero out the tiny discrepancy. Maybe the staff didn't have the ability to make this decision, but that would be shameful. 

Although this is probably not a one-off situation within this company or others, it did result in thoughts about rounding and God. 

Rounding makes numbers simpler which is often desirable. It is not perfectly accurate, but the difference is not significant for most applications. 

When taught in grade schools, rounding exercises normally center around two-digit whole numbers. If the last digit is less than 5, round down.  If the last digit is 5 or more, round up.

Easy. But life is about fractions. Life consists almost exclusively of grey areas. It is rarely this or that, up or down. In our lives, small changes, yes even minuscule changes will often matter greatly. 

With the volume of information that we are exposed to, our brains have learned to categorize, I'm guessing this involves some sort of non-numerical rounding off the edges. This might be expressed by, "I've seen this kind of thing before", even though you have never experienced the exact situation. 

This is common when we see other people Even though we have never met them personally, we make decisions based on our 'grouping' experience. We will mentally 'drop them into a category' without conscious thought and what's done is done. In our opinion, the decision has been made and it now becomes 'categorically' true. We have rounded. The question might be centered around whether we rounded up or rounded down. 

It would be nice to be able to decree, "NO more people-rounding." 

It would be nice to be able to stipulate, "NO category placements before sharing that first cup of coffee."

Well, a lot of things in life would be nice. Eliminating all evidence of brain-category filing is not possible. But we are not allowed to give up.

Perhaps we could start by focusing on the humble and yet impactful moments. It could be said that many of the things we might consider inconsequential are quite momentous for others. The reverse is also true. This mandates that we be aware that our every thought, decision, and action might very well involve one of these moments. And we will choose to either round up with kindness and love or round down by walking away - no action taken.

Granted, I am proposing a deliberate life, one that will not be easy. But as we follow Jesus, maybe the prospect of building treasure in heaven is more important. Time and time again, I see this God-man putting people in front of category rules. 

Each time we act in a way that looks like Jesus, we are adding to the goodness and grace that is the Kingdom of Heaven - right here on earth. Each time we 'round up' we are adding that small penny to the treasure.

Before long, it adds up; World-changing, perhaps.

"Your Kingdom come. 
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."