Christian Foundations
Ok, so you’re here in university. You’re in year one, two, three, four or if like me, you don't want to say how long you've been here.
And you are studying your heart out preparing yourself for a successful and glorious career in your chosen field. There’s no doubt. You are going to be a success, we know that. But whatever you are studying, one way or another you’ll be entering into, or walking alongside, the big wide, wonderful world of BUSINESS!
You’ve been working on the side. You’ve been waiting tables or selling stuff, working a little or working a lot just to pay your way. So you know something now about tips and food service or mail rooms or selling shoes or underwear or whatever, but do you know what you’ll soon be getting into in your chosen field?
And more important, what kind of foundation are you laying for your spiritual future? Hey, don’t get me wrong. Every one of you are fantastic in my eyes. You are laying a good foundation. You’re here, you’re learning, you’re not in jail, that’s a good thing. I didn’t lay a worthwhile foundation until two houses fell on top of me. You guys and gals are the greatest.
But think about this. You are here in university. You are Christians and you have Christian values. You are laying a secular foundation for income and employment and a valuable career. But have you thought much about your spiritual foundation? What kind of a spiritual foundation are you laying?
Are you digging down to bedrock or have you thought it out that far yet??
By now you know your field of study and you’re anxious to get out there to make some money , to build a reputation, to build an empire or two. That’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with that if your head is screwed on straight. There’s nothing wrong with that if God is your partner and Christ is your mentor. There’s nothing wrong with that if you’ve taken serious steps to build a spiritual foundation along with your secular one. You don’t want it all to come crashing down around you just when you think you’ve made it.
Here are some statistics for you.
·In round terms, 40% - 50% of marriages in Canada/US will fail.
·According to Brian Head, Economist with the SBA Office of Advocacy "as a general rule of thumb, new employer businesses have a 50/50 chance of surviving for five years or more."
Not great odds for marriage or business is it? There’s about a fifty-fifty chance you’re going to lose.
OK, nothing to do with you, right? Wrong. Keep looking.
Look what happens when you don’t try and do it all on your own.
Ironically, businesses who begin life in an incubator environment have an 80+% survival rate …(www.sbae.com ) So you’ve gone from a fifty percent chance of failure to an eighty percent chance of success.
So what does an incubator business have to do with you?
Well, if marriages and businesses are failing at anywhere from 40%-50% without incubation, yet have an 80% success rate with incubation, what are your chances of failing as a Christian once you leave this university environment and get into the business of business for the first time without help? There is a parallel here.
What happens to you when you don’t have a thousand other Christians around you, when you don’t have parents at your beck and call or teachers and counselors and friends and family to build your spirituality every day?
Career pressures will wash against your foundation just like the waves following Katrina washed out thousands of homes, dozens of lives and who knows how many businesses in 2005.
You see, the university isn’t an incubator mall, it’s a family. You’ve yet to be isolated and relocated into real business. Believe me, you will be assimilated. If it can happen to Captain Picard, it can happen to you. Don’t ever believe it can’t.
You have yet to be inundated with the pressures and the joys and the glories and the aggressiveness and competitive challenges of business. You have yet to complimented and pampered and celebrated and toasted and congratulated and wined and dined by managers insidiously molding you into the perfect corporate android. And you won’t even know they are doing it.
Why do corporations hover like buzzards and vultures outside of university graduation classes? Why are there job fairs and Career days and employment seminars almost always for the young but not the experienced? Connect the dots. Modern corporations want your young and pliable brain, they want your vitality, your drive, your solutions, your soul … but not necessarily your spirituality. Not yet anyway.
No, you’ve not yet really been on your own. You need incubation.
Satan picks off stragglers one by one. He waits until you’re on you own, until you are weak, until your head is filled with everything else but God and then he pulls you down. What are you then but a statistic? Camera foddage for National Geographic.
Surviving as a Christian depends upon building that spiritual foundation on rock, not sand. It depends on incubating or having spiritual support no matter how long it takes. It depends upon you recognizing that there is a real danger to striking out on your own. It depends upon you. Period.
And where you do you find that support, that security? How can you boost your spiritual survival rate by 80%? The answer? By building a solid foundation in Christ that can never be washed away.
So what are you doing about it?
What materials are you building your foundation with? How about concrete? Try this. A good strong mix will need one part Portland type cement, one part gravel, two parts sand and .55 parts water.
So you leave university and you get that first great job at XYZ Corporation. They like you and they give you some pretty nice incentives, good wages, great benefits. That’s one shovel full. (of cement of course) One part.
They also give you a laptop, and a parking pass. That’s one part of gravel. They also give you an education allowance and occasional tickets to basketball games. That’s one part sand.
Next they treat you with respect, you go out with the boys on Friday night and even the managers are interested in your input. That’s the second part of sand. Hmmm things are looking good. You’re really building a strong career foundation. The only thing left is the water.
They only want you to work as hard as you need to in order to accomplish your task each day, so in fairness they pay you by salary. That’s the .55 parts water. You have your perfectly strong mix.
You’re just starting out so things take a little longer to accomplish than management would like but they are very understanding. They appreciate that there is a learning curve. You work through lunch and late every night. Add a little more water.
You’ve decided to buy a car, new furniture and you’ve got a really great penthouse apartment so now there’s a little pressure to stay on the good side of your new employers. You work a little more overtime. Add a little more water.
You’ve met some girls at the office and you’ve started dating a few of them just casually but it does take a lot of your spare time and money. Add just a little more water.
Wednesday is hump day, You’re over the “hump, you are halfway through the week. All the single workers and even some of the married ones go out for a drink or two after work usually on Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night. Sometimes you don’t get home until the wee hours. You haven’t called your family in months. Add more water.
What happened to your mix? How strong is it now? How strong is it going to be when the manager comes up to you year after year urging you to find ways to cut costs because the project you’re responsible for is way over budget. What effect are the waves having now on your watered down concrete foundation?
Did you build a spiritual foundation at all? Or were you planning on adding your spirituality to your career mix later? Where would you fit it in?
You can’t just “fit it in”. You can blend your spirituality with your career if you stay connected with God in that incubator but you can’t get out of the incubator until your spiritual concrete is set and cured.
For every part of career cement you need, you need one part of spiritual cement. For every part of sand, you need a comparable part of spiritual sand and the same with the gravel. Only with these equal proportions can you become a good business person and a strong Christian.
Oh where does it all end? When do you ever stand on your own two feet?
Hmmm … let me put it this way. I’ve got some good news and some bad news? No, that doesn’t sound very positive, let me just remind you that Satan never takes a holiday. He keeps working and working because he just loves his job.
I guess this means that you can’t stop either. To stay ahead of Satan your spiritual building is perpetual. In life, building never stops either. Anyway it’s no different in business. In careers, as in Christ, once you stop laying that foundation and building upon it … it will immediately begin to deteriorate and wash away.
So in answer to the question, “can you ever stand on your own two feet?”, the answer is "No", "Nay" & “Never.”
As a Christian in business, there’s just no way of getting out of the incubator mall.
And as a Christian in general … why would you ever want to?
***********
Discussion
Ok, so you’re here in university. You’re in year one, two, three, four or if like me, you don't want to say how long you've been here.
And you are studying your heart out preparing yourself for a successful and glorious career in your chosen field. There’s no doubt. You are going to be a success, we know that. But whatever you are studying, one way or another you’ll be entering into, or walking alongside, the big wide, wonderful world of BUSINESS!
You’ve been working on the side. You’ve been waiting tables or selling stuff, working a little or working a lot just to pay your way. So you know something now about tips and food service or mail rooms or selling shoes or underwear or whatever, but do you know what you’ll soon be getting into in your chosen field?
And more important, what kind of foundation are you laying for your spiritual future? Hey, don’t get me wrong. Every one of you are fantastic in my eyes. You are laying a good foundation. You’re here, you’re learning, you’re not in jail, that’s a good thing. I didn’t lay a worthwhile foundation until two houses fell on top of me. You guys and gals are the greatest.
But think about this. You are here in university. You are Christians and you have Christian values. You are laying a secular foundation for income and employment and a valuable career. But have you thought much about your spiritual foundation? What kind of a spiritual foundation are you laying?
Are you digging down to bedrock or have you thought it out that far yet??
By now you know your field of study and you’re anxious to get out there to make some money , to build a reputation, to build an empire or two. That’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with that if your head is screwed on straight. There’s nothing wrong with that if God is your partner and Christ is your mentor. There’s nothing wrong with that if you’ve taken serious steps to build a spiritual foundation along with your secular one. You don’t want it all to come crashing down around you just when you think you’ve made it.
Here are some statistics for you.
·In round terms, 40% - 50% of marriages in Canada/US will fail.
·According to Brian Head, Economist with the SBA Office of Advocacy "as a general rule of thumb, new employer businesses have a 50/50 chance of surviving for five years or more."
Not great odds for marriage or business is it? There’s about a fifty-fifty chance you’re going to lose.
OK, nothing to do with you, right? Wrong. Keep looking.
Look what happens when you don’t try and do it all on your own.
Ironically, businesses who begin life in an incubator environment have an 80+% survival rate …(www.sbae.com ) So you’ve gone from a fifty percent chance of failure to an eighty percent chance of success.
So what does an incubator business have to do with you?
Well, if marriages and businesses are failing at anywhere from 40%-50% without incubation, yet have an 80% success rate with incubation, what are your chances of failing as a Christian once you leave this university environment and get into the business of business for the first time without help? There is a parallel here.
What happens to you when you don’t have a thousand other Christians around you, when you don’t have parents at your beck and call or teachers and counselors and friends and family to build your spirituality every day?
Career pressures will wash against your foundation just like the waves following Katrina washed out thousands of homes, dozens of lives and who knows how many businesses in 2005.
You see, the university isn’t an incubator mall, it’s a family. You’ve yet to be isolated and relocated into real business. Believe me, you will be assimilated. If it can happen to Captain Picard, it can happen to you. Don’t ever believe it can’t.
You have yet to be inundated with the pressures and the joys and the glories and the aggressiveness and competitive challenges of business. You have yet to complimented and pampered and celebrated and toasted and congratulated and wined and dined by managers insidiously molding you into the perfect corporate android. And you won’t even know they are doing it.
Why do corporations hover like buzzards and vultures outside of university graduation classes? Why are there job fairs and Career days and employment seminars almost always for the young but not the experienced? Connect the dots. Modern corporations want your young and pliable brain, they want your vitality, your drive, your solutions, your soul … but not necessarily your spirituality. Not yet anyway.
No, you’ve not yet really been on your own. You need incubation.
Satan picks off stragglers one by one. He waits until you’re on you own, until you are weak, until your head is filled with everything else but God and then he pulls you down. What are you then but a statistic? Camera foddage for National Geographic.
Surviving as a Christian depends upon building that spiritual foundation on rock, not sand. It depends on incubating or having spiritual support no matter how long it takes. It depends upon you recognizing that there is a real danger to striking out on your own. It depends upon you. Period.
And where you do you find that support, that security? How can you boost your spiritual survival rate by 80%? The answer? By building a solid foundation in Christ that can never be washed away.
So what are you doing about it?
What materials are you building your foundation with? How about concrete? Try this. A good strong mix will need one part Portland type cement, one part gravel, two parts sand and .55 parts water.
So you leave university and you get that first great job at XYZ Corporation. They like you and they give you some pretty nice incentives, good wages, great benefits. That’s one shovel full. (of cement of course) One part.
They also give you a laptop, and a parking pass. That’s one part of gravel. They also give you an education allowance and occasional tickets to basketball games. That’s one part sand.
Next they treat you with respect, you go out with the boys on Friday night and even the managers are interested in your input. That’s the second part of sand. Hmmm things are looking good. You’re really building a strong career foundation. The only thing left is the water.
They only want you to work as hard as you need to in order to accomplish your task each day, so in fairness they pay you by salary. That’s the .55 parts water. You have your perfectly strong mix.
You’re just starting out so things take a little longer to accomplish than management would like but they are very understanding. They appreciate that there is a learning curve. You work through lunch and late every night. Add a little more water.
You’ve decided to buy a car, new furniture and you’ve got a really great penthouse apartment so now there’s a little pressure to stay on the good side of your new employers. You work a little more overtime. Add a little more water.
You’ve met some girls at the office and you’ve started dating a few of them just casually but it does take a lot of your spare time and money. Add just a little more water.
Wednesday is hump day, You’re over the “hump, you are halfway through the week. All the single workers and even some of the married ones go out for a drink or two after work usually on Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night. Sometimes you don’t get home until the wee hours. You haven’t called your family in months. Add more water.
What happened to your mix? How strong is it now? How strong is it going to be when the manager comes up to you year after year urging you to find ways to cut costs because the project you’re responsible for is way over budget. What effect are the waves having now on your watered down concrete foundation?
Did you build a spiritual foundation at all? Or were you planning on adding your spirituality to your career mix later? Where would you fit it in?
You can’t just “fit it in”. You can blend your spirituality with your career if you stay connected with God in that incubator but you can’t get out of the incubator until your spiritual concrete is set and cured.
For every part of career cement you need, you need one part of spiritual cement. For every part of sand, you need a comparable part of spiritual sand and the same with the gravel. Only with these equal proportions can you become a good business person and a strong Christian.
Oh where does it all end? When do you ever stand on your own two feet?
Hmmm … let me put it this way. I’ve got some good news and some bad news? No, that doesn’t sound very positive, let me just remind you that Satan never takes a holiday. He keeps working and working because he just loves his job.
I guess this means that you can’t stop either. To stay ahead of Satan your spiritual building is perpetual. In life, building never stops either. Anyway it’s no different in business. In careers, as in Christ, once you stop laying that foundation and building upon it … it will immediately begin to deteriorate and wash away.
So in answer to the question, “can you ever stand on your own two feet?”, the answer is "No", "Nay" & “Never.”
As a Christian in business, there’s just no way of getting out of the incubator mall.
And as a Christian in general … why would you ever want to?
***********
Discussion
Christian Universities - Christians in Business
Session Two - Christian Foundations
Session Two - Christian Foundations
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Book early for Speaking engagements - email: speaker@toughworld.net
For Book Orders order now via - email: books@toughworld.net
For information email: mc.mills@ns.sympatico.ca
For Book Orders order now via - email: books@toughworld.net
For information email: mc.mills@ns.sympatico.ca