GEO Principle Blog

We're all in this together

One thing that is clear as a result of the difficult economy of the last 18 months is that we are all in this together. Sometimes, we might be tempted to think we can succeed at someone else's expense, but eventually those kinds of efforts sink everyone.

Overly ambitious mortgage bankers in the mid-2000s thought they could get ahead by pushing mortgages onto people with poor credit. The originators who made those subprime mortgages initially made money, as did the investment folks who packaged them into securities with top-grade mortgages. But look what happened. As high-risk borrowers stopped paying on those subprime mortgages, the mortgage-backed securities market fell apart; home values dropped, other credit markets froze, companies began laying people off, those looking for work had more trouble finding it, and consumers slowed their spending. Collectively, Americans lost about 20 percent of their wealth. This is a simplistic overview, I admit, but it illustrates the point that you cannot act in a vacuum. Your actions matter for yourself and for those around you.

In my faith tradition, this concept is called solidarity. It is actually an encouraging notion. It shines a spotlight on the significance of the actions of every individual. And while my example illustrates the point in a negative fashion, it is interesting to think about it in a positive fashion. When you do something good for another person, the effects of your action may extend far beyond that one individual. I know a doctor, for example, who helped a man suffering a heart attack. The doctor saved his life. The survivor happened to be a wealthy man and he was so grateful that he funded the construction of a new wing on the doctor's hospital. Perhaps thousands of lives have been saved as a result. That's a particularly dramatic example, but the point is you never know what the full impact of your actions will be. They may be much more than you initially expect.

Happiness is nice, but seek joy

Apparently, only 45 percent of people in the workforce are happy with their job. The Associated Press provides the details of a recent survey that turned up that result. It is unfortunate that more people are not happy at work. Maybe this explains the surly service that I so often get at retail stores and fast food places.

Gretchen Rubin studies happiness and runs something called The Happiness Project. Her material is worth reading. Here is a recent Wall Street Journal piece about her, and here is something Slate magazine ran.

We all want to be happy; our founding fathers even declared the pursuit of happiness to be as important as life and liberty. But I want to suggest that we can do better. There is something better than happiness to be found in life and on the job -- joy.

Happiness is an emotional state of being that comes and goes. Everyone's life includes a few unhappy moments -- a friend or relative gets sick or dies, a disaster strikes, serious problems come up -- you name it, these kinds of things occur in everyone's life at one point or another.

Joy, on the other hand, is more constant than happiness. Joy is not an emotion, it is a state of being that comes from having a relationship with Christ. Joy is meaningful even when things around you are sad. I have known many people who have suffered through illness or tragedy, yet remained joyful through it all. That doesn't mean they were inappropriately giddy, but it means they were able to maintain hope when others thought things were hopeless.

The Bible calls joy a "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22). Whether you are at home or at work, look for joy, and when you find it, share it with others. If you do, I am willing to bet there would be more happiness all around for everyone.

Christmas, Jesus, the stable and your office

Now that December 25th has come and gone, I can finally slow down a bit and enjoy Christmas. Although the culture would have us believe the Christmas season starts well before Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas day, the real Christmas season starts with Dec. 25 and runs through the first part of January.

Christmas provides a wonderful example for us in terms of bringing God to work. The same way Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to that stable in Bethlehem, we can bring God to our place of work. A stable is an ordinary place. No one at the stable was expecting God or looking for Him. The animals there and the people that frequented the stable were just going about their business and Jesus came to them through Mary and Joseph. The place was not holy before Jesus came, but after Joseph and Mary brought Jesus there, it became a holy place.

Most offices are kind of like that stable. People in most offices are not necessarily looking for God, nor are they expecting to encounter him. The office is just an ordinary place where people are going about their business. But if you bring God there, He can make the office holy. God just needs you to bring Him there.

As you return to work after a few days off for Christmas, be sure to ask your colleagues about their Christmas break. Share with them your Christmas experience. Relay an interesting point or two from the message delivered by your pastor or minister during Christmas Mass or service. Make reference to the Christmas season extending to the arrival of the Kings (Jan. 6) or even to the Baptism of our Lord (Jan.  10).

It is easy to think of Christmas as a historical event, but it also is a current event. Sure, Jesus was born some 2000 years ago, but He is also made manifest in our world today. You can be part of that manifestation, in your home and in your place of work.

The Lord's Prayer at Thanksgiving time

As many Americans sit down to a Thanksgiving Day meal tomorrow, the Lord's Prayer gives us a framework for considering the importance of gratitude. I find one line to be particularly meaningful to those of us in the work world.

 

When we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread,” we acknowledge God as provider. Acknowledgement is the first step toward gratitude. Before any of us is likely to thank someone in gratitude, we have to acknowledge that he or she is giving us something.

 

Given how hard most of us work, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we provide for ourselves, entirely on our own. But in fact God provides and all we have comes from Him. God lets us participate in the process of providing, typically through work, but we would have no work at all if it weren’t for the generosity of God.

 

Notice that the prayer has us thanking God for our “daily” bread. In business, we tend to think in terms much longer than a single day. In the corporate world, people often focus on the next quarter’s results. Most businesses form strategic plans that consider the coming year or two. I know engineers who work on projects that are years in the making. And many people focus on retirement, which may be a decade or more away. But Jesus doesn’t ask us to think so far ahead. He asks us to focus on today – not because the future is unimportant, but because the present is so important.

 

Bread might seem like a small thing, particularly compared to the things we typically dream of, like a new car, new home or exotic travel. But, of course, bread is an essential thing; those big things are not. Reading Matthew 6 where Jesus gives us this prayer, I get the sense He is urging us to look at the little things. He wants us to appreciate all of His creation, not just the big, exciting things. And since our lives are filled with little things, He is really inviting us to find joy in our everyday lives. Joy should not be limited to a few spectacular moments in a lifetime.

 

Gratitude is not something that comes naturally to many of us. Like any virtue, gratitude is something we need to cultivate. This is something we can do with prayer, not only at Thanksgiving time, but every day. When we pray with gratitude first thing in the morning, we set the tone for the entire day. There is peace that comes with knowing God loves us so much that He gives us so much – everything we need, including His only son.

 

Gratitude is about focusing on what we have; it is the best defense against materialism, which typically results from focusing too much on what we want. Excessive focus on wants can leave us blind to our blessings. We all know people who live very comfortably yet spend most of their time complaining about what they don’t have. These are unhappy people. Gratitude offers a path to a much happier life.

 

At Thanksgiving time, we focus on what we have, while remembering those who have less than we do. No matter what our situation, we can think about how fortunate we are. We take time to consider the things we may overlook the rest of the year, starting with our own family members, home, health, intellect, friends, work and our daily bread. 

 

Living your faith at work is really about restructuring your life

Every now and then when you go to church, you are likely to get a sermon on the importance of praying every day or of making regular donations to charity. Those are good things to do all by themselves, but what those sermons are really urging you to do is to get your life in sufficient order that you can pray daily, or so that you can make regular donations to charity.

In order to pray every day, you have to plan for it. You have to establish a time, and then make sure you are ready every day at that time. That may mean getting to bed at a reasonable time the night before, or it may mean saying "no" to opportunities for recreation or other forms of fun. In order to make regular donations to charity, a person has to budget. A person has to carefully consider his earnings against his expenses in order to be able to set aside some for recurring donations. So while there is benefit to praying and giving, the greater benefit may be the lifestyle and habits they force you to adopt.

It is the same thing when this blog urges you to "bring your faith to work." Of course there are benefits to bringing your faith to work, but the real benefit may be the adjustments you have to make to your life that will make it easier to bring your faith to work. In order to really succeed at bringing your faith to work, you have to think ahead, seriously consider the challenges and opportunities you face at work, and plan for making the most of those challenges and opportunities.

Consider the structural changes you might make in your life to make it easier for you to live your faith at work:

First, when looking for work, you might look for a job with a company that offers a working environment consistent with your faith and values. For example, a Christian who wants to work in retail might choose a company that does not rely on overly sexualized advertising to sell its products.

Second, no matter where you work, you might think really hard about how to serve your colleagues and customers. Loving others means serving them. Take time to think about what that might mean in your situation. How do you do your own job well while helping those around you?

And third, develop your faith enough so that you can talk about it comfortably with others, even those who believe differently than you do, or perhaps don't believe at all. Knowing your faith at that level requires a lot of work -- study, prayer and contemplation.

Bringing your faith to work is really more of a lifestyle than it is a singular activity. It involves carefully considering each step on your career path, coming up with great ways to serve those around you, and developing your faith life at home.  

Look for God when times are good if you want to see Him more clearly when times are bad

Earlier this week in my state, there was a hearing at the Capitol featuring several bankers. They told their stories. I want to share a little bit of it here because I think it provides fodder for thought about where God might be in our lives. Consider these two situations:

 

The owner of a bar and restaurant wanted to expand his business in 2005. The town had a major employer –- a company that employed 1,200 people who worked all three shifts. At the end of each shift, many of those employees would stop into the bar/restaurant; business was good. It seemed like a good time to expand. Based on 2005 cash flow and modest growth projections, the owner obtained a loan from a local bank to construct a new building.

 

The banker explained that since then, the major employer has reduced employment to 200 people. No one stops into the restaurant after their shift anymore. The owner’s cash flow is no longer sufficient to cover the loan payments on the new building. Needless to say, he is behind on the loan.

 

In a second example, the banker introduced us to a husband, who worked at the major employer, and a wife, who ran a daycare center in their home. The housing market was strong in 2005 when they decided to move into a bigger home. The bank qualified them for a loan based on his income and her daycare revenue. Today, the banker explained, the husband is without a job and uncertain about when or if he will be called back to work. The wife’s daycare business is off substantially because many of the children she used to care for had parents at the major employer. Many of them have been laid off, too, so they no longer have need for daycare services. The couple can no longer afford to make mortgage payments.

 

A lot of people are suffering in these examples: 1,000 people who were laid off; a restaurant owner who wanted to expand, a couple that wanted a nicer home, and a banker who made loans that went bad. Nobody wins in these situations. Yet, during this recession, these kinds of scenarios are playing out all across the country.

 

God is in Every Occupation; where was God when the restaurant owner decided to expand? Where was God when all those people got laid off from the major employer? Where was God when the couple decided to buy the bigger house? And where was God when the banker made these loans? It is very difficult to answer these questions for someone else, but I think if we find ourselves in a difficult situation we need to answer the question for ourselves. The answer might not be obvious, but there is an answer. God is always there; but He is not always easy to see. The better we know Him, the easier He will be to see. Sometimes, we begin to look for God only after things in our life have fallen apart. God's place in our life can usually be seen more clearly if we also look when things are going well.

 

The economy is very difficult to predict. Times change. There will be good time and bad times. We will do a lot better if we focus on what is constant rather than on what changes.

It takes lots of faith to succeed in work world

I have been told that I am trying to force a square peg into a round hole. In other words, others have told me that you can't force faith into the work world. The thinking is that faith and work are really two entirely separate things and that it is unrealistic to talk about the two as if they can be integrated, or as if they go together.

But I maintain that faith and work go together, naturally and beautifully. They are not from two different worlds, but I am convinced they both come from God and they should both point us back to God; ideally, they will do that together.

Consider all the faith it takes to make it in the commercial world. You study for years in school, devoting a lot of money and time to learning, all because you have faith that the market will value your acquired knowledge and reward it with work in the form of a good-paying job. There is no guarantee that a college grad will get a job; those college students are acting on faith -- even more so today as they rack up thousands of dollars in debt to do so.

The entrepreneur really acts on faith. An entrepreneur looks around and tries to figure out what society will value more than the money it has. When an entrepreneur thinks he has figured out an answer, he invests his own time and money into creating that new product or service. Then, he offers it to the world, on the faith that the world will respond. The entrepreneur does not know to what extent the public will respond, but he has faith that it will be sufficient to make his effort worthwhile.

My point is, those who succeed in business have to have faith. You have to have faith in your own ability to deliver, and you have to have faith in others to value what you have to offer, whether that be in the form of a company that hires you or in the form of the public that decides to pay for your work.

The first step to believing in God is to believe in something outside of yourself. Believing in God means believing that the world is about more than just you; it means seeing yourself accurately in the world and understanding, at least somewhat, what your role is in the world. In order to succeed in the job market, to succeed in the business world or to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to understand others and you need to believe in others, plus you need to know yourself well enough to identify your role in the world. This understanding puts a person well on their way toward establishing a relationship with God.

Think about the things that are permanent

I recently had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of David Zach, a futurist based in Milwaukee. I invite you to contemplate something he said, something I have been thinking about for the past few days.

Zach commented that people typically start their day getting the news. They watch the morning news programs on television as the eat breakfast and prepare to go off to work, or they read the morning newspaper. News is a summary of things that change.

Zach said that rather than focusing so much on things that change, we should spend time thinking about things that don't change, about the things in life that are permanent. That a significant suggestion.

Consider the kinds of things that change, that fill our newspapers everyday: what team won last night, where the bad weather is expected to strike next, which government official is saying what, and what celebrity is getting married or divorced. Now think about the things that don't change: truth, beauty, right and wrong, God. These things are permanent. They don't change so they don't get much attention in the media but Zach says we should give them a lot of attention. 

I think it is a great message. Sometimes, we focus so much on the things that change, that we forget about the permanent things all together. That's a huge mistake. It is the permanent things that give the changing things context. If we don't consider the permanent things, our consideration of the changing things is very likely to be off base.

The best way to make sure you take time to consider the permanent things every morning, is to start each day with prayer. This is key counsel from The GEO Principle. If you find you don't have time to pray in the morning, but you are spending time reading or watching the news, take some of that time devoted to media and use it for prayer. If you take time to contemplate the permanent, you put yourself in a much better position to understand the things that change.

Don't wait for disaster before calling on God

Captain Brian Udell tells a tremendous story. He was a pilot in the Air Force who ejected from his fighter, which was speeding toward earth at 780 miles per hour. His instruments went bad on him during his night flight out over the Atlantic Ocean. It was a training mission and when he lost control of the aircraft, he ejected -- less than a second before the aircraft made impact with the water.

He survived the ejection, although sadly, his co-pilot was killed. Captain Udell now holds a world speed record for successful ejection from an aircraft. You can hear more about Captain Udell's story here.

I got a chance to listen to Captain Udell talk about his amazing ordeal at a business meeting recently. After ejecting, he was lost at sea. He was severely injured and it was really a miracle that a Coast Guard airplane spotted him and was able to facilitate his rescue. 

I share this story with you because Captain Udell told the audience that he prayed while he was floating in the cold ocean water than night. He said he did not consider himself to be a particularly prayerful person, but that night, in that situation, he found meaning in his faith and he prayed. And God answered his prayers.

Sometimes it takes a life-threatening situation to make God meaningful in your work. But let's hope that's not true for most of us. Let's not wait until we are facing death before calling on God for help. He wants to help us all the time. Whatever you do for work -- whether that's flying an airplane or cooking meals or teaching or writing or anything else -- invite God along to your work.  

Lessons from Enron, part 3

Here's another story from Enron, this one almost too incredible to believe:

Enron executives were touting Enron Energy Services (EES), then still relatively new, to Wall Street analysts. Leading the analysts through a tour of Enron's headquarters, the company pulled 75 EES workers -- including sales reps and secretaries -- from their actual jobs and had them pose in the fake trading center on the building's sixth floor. The goal was to show the analysts that EES was a real and busy business. The company moved phones, computers (some not working), and family pictures to the desks of the fake trading floor. Lay and Skilling reportedly helped orchestrate the ruse, and even led a rehearsal the day before the analysts tour. When Lay and Skilling led the analysts through the area, the EES team "at work" gave the impression of a busy, dynamic operation. It was one more example of Enron's emphasis on appearances and spin. "Enron: The Rise and Fall" by Loren Fox, page 238

What an audacious example of deceit. Of course, if your faith is going to mean anything to you at work, you need to be honest. You shouldn't present yourself to the world as one thing, when you are really something else.

It is clear to see that the managers who orchestrated this charade were off base, but how about those 75 sales reps and secretaries? They participated only because they were told to. This wasn't their idea. Yet, you get the sense that employees should be sufficiently engaged in their work that they understand what they are doing. As employees, we have an obligation to understand our work, and if we don't, then we are obligated to find out about it. If we discover that we are being asked to participate in a ruse, then we have a serious situation to deal with. It would be wrong to knowingly deceive others, and it would be wrong to stand by and let colleagues do so, even if you don't directly participate.  

We know the troubles brought to our economy by the massive fraud that took place in the mortgage industry a few years ago. Lot's of people were pushing unsuitable mortgages on borrowers. Some borrowers were encouraged to make up income figures and other facts in order to qualify for particular mortgages. Now, mortgage-backed securities are referred to as "toxic." It seems like deceit always catches up with you, even if it seems to pay off in the early going. It certainly caught up to the folks at Enron.