I recently took a staycation – you know, that unique experience of spending vacation time relaxing at home rather than an exotic locale. I hadn’t done this in years, but the Spring Break schedules of my wife and daughters did not synch up, so I decided to just stay home. The idea of lazing around the house for a week was thrilling. I imagined sleeping in ’til ungodly hours, watching too much TV, and eating excessive amounts of chips and... Read more
I made Chicken Cacciatore last night, which reminded me of this post from many moons ago. From time to time I will indulge myself in the tacky genre of self-help-leadership-development books. Usually I skim through the pages quickly to see if I can find one or two ideas of substance that might come in handy later on, perhaps some catchy quote I can rip off to make me sound smart and sophisticated at an upcoming cocktail reception. I’ve discovered that... Read more
The head of security, Fred, poked his head into my office the other day and asked if I was busy. “Uh…well, I’m going to lunch,” I said. It was 12:15, and my stomach was growling. Fred doesn’t usually show up around here in the executive suite, so it seemed a little suspicious. But, whatever. Maybe he was looking for a lunch date. He stood there at my office door, looking awkwardly down at the floor while pawing his foot into the carpet,... Read more
There’s a bright yellow band of construction tape blocking the administrative entrance to my company’s main building. Apparently there are a set of killer icicles hanging from the roofline forty feet above, threatening to bludgeon some poor, unassuming office workers arriving to work. That wouldn’t be pretty. In any case, I had to go around and use the main entrance to the manufacturing plant. I sighed deeply at the thought of walking an extra twenty yards out of my way. It was about... Read more
For years I was stuck in a mindset that placed an irrationally high value on ministry while under-appreciating God’s interest in using my talents, skills and interests to pursue His kingdom in a variety of alternate forms. God has created a pretty big world out there, but many of us Christians have a tunnel-vision tendency to block out a huge portion of it. We lose sight of the sacredness of work, the benefits of education, the spiritual value of a career, the impact of... Read more
I can’t tell you how disappointing it was when, at age 22, I finally made the decision to pursue a “secular” career instead of going into the ministry. Rather than embracing a bold confidence in my choice, I had this sinking feeling that I was somehow letting God down. The pathetic part is, I prayed, fasted, and tried every which way to make myself want to work in ministry – but it just didn’t click. There was this nagging intuition telling me it wasn’t meant... Read more
As some of you know, I spent many years in management consulting prior to landing my current gig as a Senior Vice President in a Very Nice Company. That consulting experience drilled certain propensities into my brain for processes, charts, and matrices. I love a good flow chart. So naturally, when thinking about solutions to help people connect business to spiritual life, I often approach matters in this way, looking for patterns or principles that can boil down complex ideas... Read more
Over the past four years of blogging, I have harped quite a lot on the benefits of taking risks, pushing forward, and taking responsibility for getting promoted at work. I believed this was our obligation as Christians in the marketplace – to be good stewards of ourselves by stepping out in faith, out of our comfort zones, in order to meet our God-given potential that otherwise might lie dormant and passive. “Don’t hide in the corner! Get in the ring!... Read more
At my bank Board meeting last week, the Chairman grimly announced that fraud has increased significantly from the previous year. “It’s the economy,” everyone said, nodding their heads as if that one word packed a Bernake speech’s worth of explanation. I suppose that when under financial stress, some may be tempted towards unseemly conduct that they might not otherwise consider, especially if their job involves handling money: a teller, for instance; or a cashier. Or the CFO. Speaking of which, later that... Read more
When the good people from The High Calling showed up at my office one day several months ago lugging their video cameras and equipment, I didn’t quite know what they were going to do with it all. We had scheduled an interview, and once they set up, proceeded to chat about this and that in front of two bulky cameras for perhaps an hour or so. Finally the one guy says, “That’s it! We have what we need.” I couldn’t... Read more
Shrinking the Camel
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