If you want to make a bigger impact on the business world for Jesus Christ, start by examining your perspective. The word perspective comes from the Latin word perspectus which means to “look through”. The idea is that we perceive things based upon the lens that we are looking through at a particular time. Our perspective is shaped by many factors including how we were raised, the environment that we’re in at the time and what our motivations are, all help determine our perspective. On Sunday we look at the world through our spiritual lens. On Monday morning, unfortunately, many Christians pull out their Clark Kent glasses and head off to work.
In his book Business as a Calling, Michael Novak quotes a Christian businessman, who at the time was Chairman & CEO of a very large U.S. corporation “I was, and am, a strong believer that one of the most satisfying things in life is to create a highly moral and ethical environment in which every individual is allowed and encouraged to realize their God-given potential”.
Wow! How cool is that? You might be thinking that it would be refreshing to work in such a Godly business environment. Well, you will probably be surprised to know that the business man that was just quoted is Kenneth Lay the ex-Chairman and CEO of Enron. Enron was once the 7th largest company on the Fortune 500. In less than one year, Enron’s stock price went from $80 a share to $0, wiping out $60 billion dollars of market capitalization and causing thousands of families to lose their life savings. Kenneth Lay was convicted on six counts of fraud & conspiracy for his role in this business disaster. The allegations claim that Lay continually made false statements about the financial state of Enron at a time when losses were being disguised in one of the biggest accounting scandals ever. I use this as an example to illustrate that there is a major breakdown in corporate America between people’s stated beliefs and their actions in the workplace. At some point, greed probably caught Ken Lay wearing his Clark Kent glasses.
I am so glad that God doesn’t give up on us and our human condition. While I was always aware of God’s presence in my life, early in my business career I conveniently tried to pigeon-hole Him into only one day of the week. On Sundays, I was the righteous believer. But the rest of the week, I became the person I thought I needed to be to reach the corner office. I came to realize that I had been approaching life during the work week with my Clark Kent glasses on. I began to live my life for Christ every day of the week instead of just one. As I was faithful, I experienced first hand the blessings that God has for us if we allow Him to be a part of every facet of our lives.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment