Sixteen years ago today, I was on a consulting job out in Washington state. Without going into too much detail, I was asked to determine why their new product pipeline wasn’t full of products and I was to help with some team dynamics training while I was out there. Suffice it to say that it was a tough assignment and it wasn’t long after that the company decided to shut down. It was a real tragedy but not the first, and certainly not the last, time that a company failed to adapt with the times.
Back then, there was some real competition for new products coming to market, ahead of schedule and under budget. The corporate world, especially in the tech and medical space, was highly competitive. I was fortunate to have worked with more than 19 various biomedical device teams that were involved in major breakthroughs during that era. And they were from a cross section of well known companies across the U.S. Several years later we saw the bottom fall out of many companies and that changed the landscape of corporate America rather quickly.
Many of those years, from 2000 on, I was involved in changing my own kind of work as well. That’s because Janet and I had decided that it was time that I attend seminary and I began my studies in earnest right after the turn of the century. In fact, I was in school for more than 8 years, primarily full time.
We went from having a company with many hundreds of employees to me writing papers on theology and doing Greek homework at 1:00 each night long after Janet went to bed. I would usually get to sleep around 3:00 a.m. and woke up at 5:30 to get ready for my first class that started at 7:30 a.m. about an hour from our home. It was a very tough grind that lasted for years. Every once in a while our son, Andrew, will mention how he would wake up in the middle of the night and hear me writing on the computer or talking on the phone with one of my classmates, usually Paul, checking our Greek and Hebrew homework.
As tough as they were, I wouldn’t change those years for anything. My seminary experience was the highlight of my career and absolutely transformed the way that I thought about business. I was driven to attend seminary because I realized that there was only so far I could go under my own power. Furthermore, I wanted to have a deeper relationship with Jesus and the rest of the Godhead, who created me. The only way to do that was to spend time learning about and in relationship with the Trinity – that is exactly what I did.
Little did I realize that my life would change as much as it did. Both Janet and I believe our lives took a turn that was the best possible thing that could happen to us. Since that time, I have continued my education and become more involved in ministry initiatives while I still keep a hand in the corporate world as well.
Two important things that I have learned along the way. God doesn’t waste anything; and God never moves us to another assignment until we have learned whatever it is that we were supposed to learn from our last job. Trusting those two biblical truths can be daunting, but rewarding.
Our verse for tonight is one that reminds us of who we really work for, and it’s not our earthly employer. Paul wrote to his church as Colossae and wanted to affirm that they understood who they served. He tells them, in Col. 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”
My encouragement this evening is that every believer is to serve the Lord, the best “employer” we could ever have. My prayer is that we will all consider the bigger picture and know that God has us covered as we progress through our lives learning whatever it is that the Lord wants us to acquire along the way. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…