Challenge of Personal vs. Business Spirituality

We live in a very broken and sinful world.  There are countless examples of depravity that pervade our lives.  We find it in politics where power and influence is the order of the day leading to decisions that benefit the powerful at the expense of those who don’t have the power.  In the marketplace we are overwhelmed with advertising that tells us we aren’t happy and our life is not full because we don’t have what they offer.  Even in the world of sports we find allegations of cheating by doping and trying to gain an unfair advantage.  Unfortunately this broken world is our home.  It is the place we dwell and it is not only impractical but often impossible to escape its influence.  

Juxtaposed to that is our spiritual life.  We are called by Jesus to live counter-culturally; the way Jesus lived his life.  This means being a servant leader, laying our life down for and sacrificing on behalf of others.  I find that I am either not willing to do that or just can’t do it.  Understanding my sin and coming to grips with being in a place where I have to make choices is hard.  I have often been put in a place where I have to make choices that forced me to choose between two bad options. I am going to hurt someone either way. I hate being in this place. There are no good choices.  The tension that resides there is at times ‘gut- wrenching’ and ‘stress generating’.  I am convicted by God’s word to live the incarnate life of Jesus but working that out is not black and white but a vastness of gray.  Being the messenger of pain, not doing what you CAN do to alleviate that pain, taking advantage of others for your own benefit are some of the challenges of being a leader 

Helping others navigate this minefield is one of the challenges that God has set before me in this new ministry.  So many business people I know are unprepared for these challenges.  They prefer to leave their spirituality at church on Sundays and then live their business life without reference to their faith.  It just seems easier not to ‘go there’. The problem is that Jesus asks us to ‘go there’.  That is what I intend to explore in the months and years to come. 

The Top 1% Challenge

Recently I was doing one of the L.C.I. Exercises on gratitude and God impressed upon me where I am in the overall social order of the world, not something we think about very often, today was one of those days.  When you consider that there are over 7,000,000,000 people in the world (that’s a lot of people) I am very much in the ‘privileged few’.  Let’s look at the facts: I am a 61 year old, healthy, white, married male, living in the United States. I graduated from college and completing my master’s degree.  I was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, own my own business with employees, and a pension.  I own 2 cars, a house, an office building and more personal property than I can use. We have 3 successful married children and 7 healthy grandchildren.  The death of my father 7 years ago is the only immediate family member I have lost to date. 

 

In other words I have economic capital, social capital, political capital, emotional capital and physical capital.  When you look at the vast majority of the other 7 billion people and their circumstances, I am in the unique position of literally being in the top 1% of all this world’s citizens.  Here’s the catch; I can look at this like many people do saying “I am where I am because I am smart, hardworking, diligent, gifted and wise”.  That is certainly one paradigm that many people like me use to explain why they are where they are.    For many years I believed all that, I thought that was why I was successful. There is a problem with that paradigm; it is void of the grace and work of God.  That view was foundationally rooted in pride, arrogance, self-righteousness and egotism.

The ‘truth be told’ I did learn how to work the system, was incredibly fortunate to have been born into the family and world I was born into and was surrounded by countless numbers of people who loved, supported and encouraged me.  Most important I have a God who was protecting me and guiding me through all the various phases of my life. Quite literally, much of what I have is an unwarranted gift from God.  I really didn’t deserve any of it. 

The bigger question for today though is; what have I done with this incredible gift that God has given me?  How have I ‘paid it forward’ and given this gift to others rather than consuming it on myself?  These ‘dark-side, ego-based’ sins are at the foundation of my soul.  In and of myself I fall very far short of giving God the glory and extending His grace to those around me.  He continues to convict me about all of these concerns. He is progressively moving me toward a greater care and compassion for all those who are less fortunate, who have less capital than I do, who are suffering through life because of lack and depravity.  I am only beginning to understand how a top ‘1%er’ might live into this truth.

A Process of Faith and Finances

         Moving into full time ministry has been a ‘faith’ transition for me.  I have had a stirring for quite a while about moving into full time ministry but for a number of reasons and personal resistances I wasn’t able to make that move.  The decision to make the move was precipitated by a couple of significant conversations with my brother and a friend from the past who had recently made the move into full time ministry.  They were within 2 days of each other and was a wake-up call that God had something new and different for me.  There followed lots of prayer and seeking God’s direction and within a month we had made the decision that I would retire from the insurance business and move into full time ministry.  The problem boiled down to ‘when’ that would happen.  

              

       I set an arbitrary date associated with my 62^nd birthday because my pension would be at it’s fullest and I could contribute for another year into my 401(k).  I received my Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation 10 years ago and have focused on helping people with retirement planning.  I know what that needs to look like for someone to retire and do the things they want to do.  I figured by then we would be okay but the problem lay in that I left God out of the planning.  He had a different timetable for me. 

      With the encouragement from my friend Brian I sought God as to the right date.  I did that and went through an interesting process where God helped me acknowledge that I had done well with my retirement planning but when it becomes His plan it might look a little different.  First, I have no idea how long I am going to live or how much I am really going to need in retirement.  Second, with the fragility of the market God could take away the entire amount in the matter of a day or two leaving us totally dependent upon Him.  Third, that dependency would require that I have to trust Him for providing our resources totally and possibly permanently.  Fourth, if He did that it would be for my growth and development and would have a redemptive nature to it. 

      It’s kind of funny that once I was able to make that connection the worry and fretting about finances disappeared, my level of faith in God’s provision increased dramatically and there was a renewed zeal to make this change sooner than later.  It was a great experience to give the balance of the  process to God and be able to have faith in His ability and desire to provide for us and lead us into a deeper walk with him.  A hard bit of wrestling with God but the outcome has been peace and a greater confidence in His provision.

Tales of Knowledge Lost

          Transitioning from a career of almost 40 years is inherently difficult.  There is the ‘already but not yet’ aspects of moving into new requirements, practices and knowledge. It is exciting and stimulating.  Whenever I stretch my mind to new possibilities and opportunities the creative juices flow and I am revitalized.  It is great.  But then there is the current job.  As I continue to work in my insurance agency I am becoming keenly aware that I know a LOT about the insurance and financial services business.  When someone asks me a question I can not just answer the question but give background information about why that's the answer.  I have 40 years of experience, education and errors that I have grown from.  It was sobering to think that this will soon be less relevant information and in a sense ‘lost’ to the world.

          That reminded me of another transition I made 32 years ago when I left the Air Force.  At the time I was an aircraft commander, instructor and flight examiner pilot in C-141 Starlifters, the workhorse of the Air Force fleet.  I knew that airplane inside and out and was able to diagnose almost any system problem with the airplane and was teaching others how to do the same.  It was a great feeling of competence and confidence.  When I left the service all of that information was useless.  It was brought home in a more profound way recently when I visited the ‘boneyard’ at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.  I found that they had destroyed all but a few C-141’s.  There are a few in air museums around the country but they are basically gone, so much for being an expert in a piece of hardware that no longer exists.  As I recently took my grandsons on an inside tour of one of those museum pieces I could still tell them lots of details and facts about the airplane but who really cares anymore. 
              
 

           The Jack Nicholson movie ‘What About Schmidt?’ really captures the essence of personal obsolescence.  The truth of the matter is that we are all on the verge of being obsolete.  Resting in the knowledge and expertise of the past is ‘outdated currency’ not worth the paper it is written on.  Fortunately I have not fallen into the trap of obsolescence and have been ‘retooling’ myself to enter the ministry for the past 5 years.  The question is, how are you becoming obsolete, what knowledge that you currently have will be worthless in the near future.  It’s not too late to begin the retooling process.   

When the Hurricane Hits

              We are in the midst of an epic storm here in the Northeast.  Monster hurricane 'Sandy' slammed into both the east coast and a Nor'easter storm. On top of those two facts add the full moon which causes exceptionally high tides.  When you put all of those things together you have the makings of massive flooding, trees blowing over, dangerous traffic conditions, power outages and very disrupted lives.  The 'unpredictable' factor adds a high level of anxiety to the mix.  Should we evacuate, board up the house, buy lots of staples to survive for a week or so, buy that generator we were thinking about and many more decisions?  The size and complexity of the decisions and their potential impact makes them exceptionally excruciating.

               On top of all those factors there is the ever looming fear of the 'Monday Morning Quarterbacks' who will second guess every decision that was made.  There is extra focus on the things that were not done or done poorly.  There are those who jump in and take advantage of the situation by price gouging and providing poor service in the process.  Those who are least able to handle these tragedies are the most impacted.  Nobody is exempt from the pain and deprivation of these types of events.  We are all inconvenienced by the disruption and nobody is happy. Tempers are short and giving grace is a rarity.

               Whether it is a natural disaster like 'Sandy', a family crisis of a serious auto accident or cancer diagnosis, or a business situation where some event, competing product or financial crisis has attacked the very core of the company's existence it comes down to where our heart is.  Whatever is in the core of our heart comes out during these times.  If we are prideful, afraid, controlling, arrogant, and vengeful, our reactions will reflect that.  On the other hand if we are filled with God's spirit, dependent upon Him for direction, able to hear His still small voice we will be able to respond in a way that is redemptive even in the midst of the chaos.  This isn't something that you can just turn on when you need it.  It is built over time by responding well to these adversity situations.  Looking to these disasters, big and small, as classrooms for grace, will go a long way to our spiritual growth.  I am reflecting on how I handle this storm in that light.