day 1398: Messy Problems

While on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING.  Enjoy! - Rusty
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"But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,  I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.  The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Looking around our companies, our families, our cities or the world at large, most people are able to easily identify messy problems in desperate need of fixing. Be they economic issues, armed conflicts, physical diseases, bad leadership, dysfunctional systems or processes, there are a lot of areas in our world that don’t match “God’s will”. The question is, once we’ve identified those things that are out of alignment, what do we do?

I was re-reading the story of David and Goliath this week, and God illuminated something that I had not seen before. King Saul and all the Israelites were lined up to face the Philistines and their champion and every day Goliath would taunt them. The entire Israelite army could see ‘the problem’.  And I would bet that each of them believed that God could, in His power, liberate them from oppression. I would also bet that a good number of the Israelites believed that God wanted to see them liberated.  But, it was only David who believed that God could use him to accomplish the liberation.

When we encounter messy problems it is critical that we ask God to infuse us with not just his heart but also 

his vision, stirring up our faith for not just what God could do, but what God can and wants to do through us.

Reference: - 1 Samuel 17: 34-37

Ben Patterson 

day 1203: New Year Today!

"At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called to Saul, “Get up! It’s time you were on your way.” So Saul got ready, and he and Samuel left the house together."

I was thinking over the weekend that I have a different "New Year's Day" than when the calendar does.  Of course, I look at January 1 as the official New Years, but for me I count the year as September 1st - August 31st.  I'm not alone in using that calendar, but it's not because I am an anxious and giddy schoolchild looking forward, or dreading, that first day back to school.  For me, I have found this annual pattern because the beginning of September signifies when Patti and I come off of our summertime in New England and head back to the West coast.  Lots of new activities pop up, meetings are set for strategies and plans, etc.  For me, it feels like the beginning of the year and and sadly, the end of August the end of year.  Leaving my mental year at the end of the summer also always makes me appreciate what blessings we have in this life and how I can look forward to summer returning as quickly as I felt it flee.  Our businesses also may have fiscal versus calendar years so we get another new year put upon us.  Consider how fresh and new each month, each week, or even each day can be if we bring to it the feeling of the beginning of a new year.  So, on this Monday, let's look to the new year that is in front of us and start today in making the most of it!

The Bible tells us that all is new every morning and that we are to remember God's faithfulness to deliver us also anew each day.  Each morning can be a new year for us spiritually and as Samuel said to Saul, "It's time you were on your way".  Today, "it is time" to get up and get on our way.  Our way is God's way to bringing glory to Him in each and everything that we do.  Today is a new and fresh start.  Let's make the very, very most today of what we can of ourselves for Him!

Reference: 1 Samuel 9:26 (New Living Translation)

day 1189: Production Values

"Now may the Lord value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.”

While sports analogies can be overused and leaned on too easily, we can also learn sometimes from the sports world and bring that learning into our businesses.  What sports does better than most is measure the production value of players and teams very predicatively towards an ultimate outcome, a well-defined, win or lose.  Right now baseball is buzzing about the "long-term deals". These are the 10-year contracts at the time when a player's production values can fall because of age.  Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols are exhibits one and two right now.  As we age in the business world, we might want to say a thank you that there are not such tangible and easy to see measurements as baseball.  We might be very surprised at how we decline with age. But we should measure ourselves and be sure that we are still keeping up, fitting in and staying current. If we are not measuring and watching carefully, we need to know that others are and will make their own decisions for us, without us.  Consider what playwright and Nobel Laureate George Bernard Shaw had to say about the subject:

“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measure anew each time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect them to fit me.”

God does not grade us on a curve, nor does He every consider discarding us because of what happens to us with age.  But, He does expect that we continue to grow in our faith, regardless of age and circumstance.  Some of the most faithful people I know are the oldest and most mature, chronologically and in experience. God meets us where we are.  Are we seeing this today as a gift and not taking that gift for granted? Let's do a self-assessment today and be sure that we take a step forward in our faith and dependence on Him.  Our faith and sharing of His love and grace adds value to the Kingdom. We can bring glory to God in whatever we do today!  Let's do it!

Reference:  1 Samuel 26:24 (New Living Translation)

day 1175: Taking It To The Streets

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Benjamin Moore paints came up with this very cool marketing program where they committed to repaint 20 Main Streets in America through a crowd-sourced voting process.  They pushed out the marketing of the program on TV and print and then executed a great local ground program to get people in local towns to vote. The program caught my interest because the our closest Main Street to our home here in Rhode Island is Main Street, Westerly, RI.  So, both Patti and I voted online at their "paint what matters" website.  On Monday, Benjamin Moore released the 20 towns, and Westerly was one of them. You can only imagine what this does for a little town.  You might say, it puts them on the map.  Benjamin Moore nailed this campaign. They went big and broad and then got me and tens of thousands of others to take it to the streets for them.  When we think broadly and locally at the same time and put a program together that allows for both the air and ground game to work together, amazing things can happen.  It's worth thinking about what programs we have that could follow the same pattern and be very effective for our businesses.

I am struck by the lessons that we as believers can learn from something as simple as a business marketing campaign.  God tells us to not pay attention the outward appearances but to what is in our heart.  On the surface (pun intended) the Paint What Matters campaign is all about the outward appearance of a town and won't fundamentally change how the town functions effectively, or not.  Yet, there is a part of the outward appearance that Samuel recognizes that man does pay attention and if we are to win over the hearts of man for the Lord then that is part of the way into their hearts.  What I know is that if we think that others will be attracted and curious to what God is doing in our lives if our outward appearance is about laziness, unkempt, disrepair, inconsistent, or just plain not caring, then we will have a harder time in convincing others that the control of our lives is by a God who can do restorative work in them.  This is a hard one to balance, but it is worth exploring more, which we will do tomorrow in the next post.

Reference:  1 Samuel 16:7

day 204: Championing

In my experience, no great career is made without a "champion". A champion is a person, behind the scenes, who takes to someone and makes them their project to mentor, guide, support, challenge, put in the good word, and go out on their own personal reputation stake to ensure that the person gets extra opportunities. While at PepsiCo, I had a champion. This person, who was a senior executive at the time, selected me out of working in a field organization, brought me to headquarters and then taught me how to do his job by allowing me to work along side him and be in a support role for him. He pushed me, he exposed me to topics and discussions that were well beyond my pay-grade and he made sure that I got put into jobs that were good for me, even if I didn't like them at the time. He grew me and I knew that as long as I did my job as well as I could and I tried as hard as I could to never let him down, that he would have my back. I remember once when he called me into his office and had me sit down across from his desk. He then picked up the phone and proceeded to have an hour long conversation with the CEO of the company. I just sat there listening for an hour to one side of the conversation. I can't remember the topic now but I listened as he artfully and skillfully influenced the CEO off of a point of view to what my champion thought the position should be. At the end of the hour, he hung up the phone and he looked at me and asked me what I had learned. To my surprise I was able to repeat some of the ways that he made his points known and how he had balanced the conversation so well between pushing and talking to listening and be quiet. It also reminded me of a time when my Father told me that he wanted me to watch how he worked on a piece of equipment as I could learn as much by watching as doing. Having a champion inside of your business is an important ingredient to career success. If you do not have one , be thinking today about how to seek out and cultivate a champion for you. It is also important that you consider that you need God as a champion as well. God wants to be the champion of champions for each of us. In the book of 1 Samuel we are told the story of how David thought he had a champion in Saul and then loses him, but God steps in and makes sure that all goes to plan for David. In 1 Samuel 18:14 we read; "David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him.". What a great verse to reinforce the champion that God is for us. So, today, ask yourself do you have both a human champion and the championing of God in your work? Also, are you a human champion of someone else who you can then introduce the championing of God? We all need champions and we all need to call on the champion of champions to be with us in our lives and our work.

Reference: 1 Samuel 18:14 (New Living Testament)