day 148: White Knight

My wife and I had dinner last week with a long-time friend who founded and has run his own advertising agency for the past 16 years. This past year he was approached about potentially selling his firm to one of the largest advertising companies in the world. He struggled with this for a long time to see if he was really ready to give up his own company to become the employee of someone else. He made the decision to allow the company to be bought and to date he seems really happy with the decision. Of course, he owns the company so it was ultimately his decision to do as he wanted. When public companies get acquired it is many times because the acquirer puts enough leverage on the shareholders of the target company that the existing management team has to take the offer, even though they may want to continue to operate independently. And then sometimes, being bought is just the best thing all the way around. That is what happened to my company a year ago and had we not been acquired we would not have been able to stand alone and survive. And in those cases, you do what is best for the company, the shareholders and the employees and you trust in God that the right things will happen. In all the above cases some party believes they are the "white knight" who has come riding in to save the day. To the other side it may not look that way, but there is truth that in most cases, they are there to make things better. There are many times in our work lives where we are no longer in control and someone else comes in and "takes over". It may be the new owners of the company or it may just be a new boss that we are assigned. Our ability to flex with the situation is many times the difference between our success and failure after the change. We are given a word on how to handle these type of situations when Jesus speaks in John 16:33; "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." Regardless of your situation at work and life, we have the true and ultimated white knight on our side. He not only gets to takeover, when we let him, he also "overcomes" all of the issues that we have, regardless of the situation. So, today if it feels like someone else is trying to "take over" on you at work, reach to God's Words and hold on to them tightly. He will overcome whatever it is you are challenged with today.


Reference: John 16:33 (New Living Testament)