“The workplace has become a psychological battlefield and the millennials have the upper hand, because they are tech savvy, with every gadget imaginable almost becoming an extension of their bodies. They multitask, talk, walk, listen and type, and text. And their priorities are simple: they come first.”

Watch the video:

Do you feel this report accurately reflects the mindset of the millennials? Should workplaces be expected to accommodate an employee’s desire for a balanced life? How much would be too much?

More of This
Career search: Finding your passion
First day on the job: What to expect
The shocking cost of success

In today’s economy, you may be struggling with trying to find a new career or job. Perhaps you do not feel fulfilled in your current job. Pastor Harvey Carey brings a passionate message of encouragement for getting out of that rut and moving toward God’s vision for your career.

“If you keep doing the same thing the same way you’ll get the same result.”

Over the last few years there has been a lot of talk about people switching careers.

Here are four practical steps towards coming to terms with why you do what you’re doing. Take some time to think about it, and you might be surprised by what you find.

1.  Realize that your job does not define you, but how you do it does. Any job can be done well, done with compassion, done with care. Your attitude at work and the way you treat people — even your mood — does not go unnoticed.

2.  Stop focusing on the money. Getting paid is only one small part of what you do, your work has to be more than just a paycheck to be fulfilling.

3.  Find the significance in what you do. Ask yourself “how is this job done differently because I am doing it?” Perspective plays a huge role in personal satisfaction and sense of well being. Try to remember why you took the job in the first place.

4.  Dare to ask yourself if it’s worth it. Do you need to be doing a different position within the same company? Are additional responsibilities taking you away from the work you were hired to do? Maybe all that’s needed is some refocusing.

You can read the full article for more information.  How is work going for you?  Do you love the job you’ve got?

More on work:
Find a mentor
Success is personal, its not just business

“Stop!” Samuel said to Saul “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night” (1 Samuel 15:16).

We found it by accident. After a brisk winter walk in a park north of New York City, we were ready for a hot cup of tea or coffee. After parking the car, we began walking toward the town center. And there it was—a cozy tea room with small tables, friendly staff and quietly conversing customers. The thick menu described hundreds of teas and several appetizing food items. With our selections finally made and the aromatic brews poured, we visibly relaxed. With a plaintive sigh, our daughter asked, “Why don’t I stop for this every day?” She is a high school teacher and her many responsibilities and relationships seem to fill every waking moment.

Time for a cup of tea—or coffee or hot chocolate—or it may not involve any beverage at all. The importance of the ritual involves stopping. For the follower of Jesus, stopping is crucial—stopping the whirl of activities, stopping the ever-present household or career responsibilities, stopping well-meant ministry. Just stopping. Stopping to hear and drink in the quiet voice of God.

We read that Jesus often left the crowds with their deep physical and spiritual needs to stop. He even stepped away from his disciples to whom He would soon entrust the Kingdom. We must do no less. When will you stop for your cup of tea today?

Lord, stopping seems so unproductive! I have been trained to believe that to stop means an interruption in moving forward toward success. Please continue to remind me that I will only hear “what the Lord said to me” if I stop.

Questions: What are some ways that you take the time to “stop” and listen to what God has to say to you? Why is it important to you to take that quiet time with God?

About the Author Marilyn Ehle

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Becoming like Jesus is a Slow Process, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog

My cell phone rang on Monday morning

Just the previous Sunday afternoon, Del and I had been talking about his job. Over a period of time there had been significant leadership changes in his company, resulting in increased stresses and frustrations that hindered him from being able to do his job well. Many times Del would come home with a bad tension headache after a long day at work, not to mention the extreme fatigue he was feeling. He told me he wasn’t sure if God was trying to tell him it was time to find another job, or whether He wanted him to persevere in this job. We decided he should update his resume and start sending it out to some recruiters, and we would see if God would open any doors. Then the decision was taken out of our hands.

When I arrived home, Del was sitting in a chair in our living room just staring into space. I have never felt so inadequate in all my life! I sat down in his lap and we both started to cry. After we shed our tears (at least for that time) we prayed together. We acknowledged God’s sovereignty and plan for our lives, and we asked for His peace in the midst of all the uncertainty.

Thus began our journey – one that would change us both individually and also our marriage forever.

So as the wife of a man who no longer has somewhere to go everyday, where do you start in showing your support?

1. Teach him how to do the laundry!

We both recognized that, for the foreseeable future, Del would be available to help out more at home. He was always very willing to help me in whatever way I needed him – he just wasn’t always available. So, he asked me to show him how to do the laundry since he now had the time. I’ll always remember, during his first week at home, him leaving the dinner table upon hearing the dryer buzzer and announcing that he needed to go and “fold his towels!” Del was also able to help with the groceries, the morning school drop-offs, and with dentist and orthodontist appointments. I was so grateful for his willingness to help with my load. One caution in this area, though – do not give him so many things to do that he doesn’t have time to look for a job!

On a more serious note…

2. Encourage him!

There were many days when Del needed me to be his greatest encourager, while he struggled with thinking that he was not good enough to get a job to take care of his family. I needed to remind him how important he was to our family, how proud we were of him, and how much we loved him. He needed to be reminded that, just as we had prayed and acknowledged God’s sovereignty in those first few hours, it was God who was in control and He was worthy of our trust. God would open that door of employment for him when He knew best – which is also why it was so important to….

3. Pray for him!

What greater gift can I give to my husband than to pray for him; to commit him to the protection and care of the One who knows him more intimately than me, and who loves him even more than I ever could? Many times I would not know what to say to Del when he was feeling down or frustrated. I knew that his feelings were real, but I also knew that Satan wanted nothing more than to keep him feeling that way. Psalm 145:14 says “The Lord helps the fallen and lifts up those bent beneath their loads.” I often had to ask God to meet Del’s needs, because I knew I couldn’t!

4. Communicate with the kids!

Del losing his job affected the whole family, not just him. When Del lost his job, our children were 11 and 15 years of age. Any time that Del or I wanted to spend money, our 15-year-old son Ryan would tell us not to. He would say “I know it – we’re going to be living in a cardboard box!” Recognize the need to let the kids know how you are doing, as it is appropriate to their age. Tell them when Dad has a job interview, or even when he gets a call for a potential opportunity. And most of all, pray with your children. There were many nights we gathered as a family in our daughter Lauren’s room as she climbed into bed and prayed together. We would thank God once again for His provision and care for us, and ask again that He provide a job for Dad. On more than one occasion I heard Del thank God in prayer for doors that the Lord had closed when he was not chosen for a job, even after several interviews that looked very promising. Del was able to model to our kids the Scriptural principle that “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

5. Be willing to adjust!

As much as I needed to support my husband, his job loss did have its affect on me as well. Having had the privilege of being a stay-at-home mom while the children were younger, and running my own accounting business as they got older, I am used to having time at home – by myself! All of the sudden I had my husband around constantly. Yes, it had its advantages with regards to his help, but it was just not normal.

I was used to my routines: getting lunches made, children to school, household chores done, getting out the door to see clients – all the things I had been doing for the past 17 years. But now Del was home in the mornings, and it always seemed we’d get into conversations about things right when I should have been heading out the door. And then I’d come home later in the day prepared to go about my usual routine (reading the mail/e-mails, making some phone calls, or exercising on the treadmill), only to find Del in our home office, working away on the computer. So I would spend some time with him and then start dinner early, as we no longer had to wait for him to get home.

I found myself longing for time on my own. It’s not that I didn’t love him and enjoy being with him, but I needed some time to myself once in a while. I found I was beginning to resent the fact that he was there all the time. But I also had to recognize and be sensitive to the fact that he did not want to be at home either. We both had to be willing to consider each other’s feelings in this matter.

6. Communicate with each other!

As a wife, a lot of my security and stability came from the fact that I had lived in the same place for the 20 years we had been married, my husband went to work everyday and earned an income to pay the mortgage and the bills, my children were happy in their schools, and I had family and friends all around me. Now it became apparent to me that all of that might change! Not only that, but I found myself wondering what Del was doing with his time – how hard was he looking for that job? Was he allowing other things (church involvement, household tasks, etc.) to interfere with his job searching? It was critical that we communicate with each other, so he knew how I was feeling and I wasn’t creating expectations for him that he did not know about.

7. Seek God together!

More than anything, though, this was the most important change that came for the both of us. Praying together as a couple was always a sporadic thing for us over the years. But when God brought this change and uncertainty to our lives, there was no question that we needed to draw together and especially pray together if we were going to make it through this. Now we pray about everything, whether it’s a decision to be made, or just about whatever we are feeling; we bring it before God together. We also pray together for one another. It’s a tremendous way to demonstrate our love for each other, and to feel like we are tackling the challenges of life as a team.

A few months after Del lost his job, God gave me a verse from the Bible that became my promise for this period of time we were going through. Hebrews 10:23 says, “Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.”

I can’t say there weren’t tough days. It wasn’t always easy to keep trusting and believing that God had a plan for us. But in the end I knew God could be trusted and that He was faithful; that His plans were for our good and not to harm us. One of the greatest blessings that we have found in our journey of the last three years is that God has taken what we both knew to be true in our heads and has now imbedded it in our hearts. Sometimes the most important lessons in life are learned through our hardest trials.

Have you or someone you love lost their job? Talk to a mentor who can pray and support you through this time.

The Canadian Forces took me, Major Wes Bowers, around the world.

I was raised by Christian parents, but when it came time to make my own decision to believe in Jesus Christ, I have to admit, I cut corners. I really only took out the “proverbial fire insurance salvation policy.” I believed only because it would get me to heaven. I didn’t really care for a relationship with God. I didn’t recognize Jesus as the Lord of my life. Instead, I began to move gradually further and further from what my parents taught me.

Fortunately, before going too far down that road, I married a Christian girl.

But as I continued my education and then moved into the workforce, I started to forget about God. I began a career as a teacher after finishing university, but the lure of a life of travel, adventure, and excitement changed my plans and I joined the Canadian Forces in 1973 and received pilot training.

The wake-up call

Three years into my flying career I made another change in my life, but this time the consequences would be eternal.

During a routine flight over a remote region of Ontario, the weather turned sour and I decided I needed to land my helicopter immediately. But I quickly realized I was trapped in a steep-walled valley with increasing clouds and pouring rain. The helicopter I was flying was not properly equipped to fly in cloud so I had to remain within sight of the ground. To make matters worse, I was rapidly running out of daylight and there was no safe landing area to be found.

I thought to myself, I could die here! I had a strange sense of being “one step from eternity.” Yet, I did not feel prepared to stand before God after I died and give an account of my life. And now finally, God had my attention.

It all comes home when you have a test in your life. Alone and in the tiny cockpit of my helicopter, I made a decision that would change the course of my life: I turned my situation over to the Lord, whether I lived or died was up to him. I said out loud to God, “Lord, I realize I don’t have the right to ask you for any favors. But if you give me a second chance and show me the way out, this time I promise to follow your leadership.”

Saved

God heard my prayer and gave me a chance to prove my sincerity. Suddenly, and inexplicably, my anxiety left and I felt quite calm as I placed my life in God’s hands. As I continued to circle the valley, strangely, the sky seemed less dark in one area and I somehow felt drawn to fly in that direction.

I managed to navigate out of the valley and ended up landing at the nearest farm. When I landed I did two things: I thanked God for saving my life and then I told him I would need his help to keep my part of the deal.

Things gradually began to change in my life after that day and my concept of trusting God began to grow. And for this military officer and his wife Gail these changes were long overdue.

The importance of family

Some military men have a tendency to value their military career more than their wife and children. I had to learn how to talk to my wife and how to love my wife better. It’s a significant task to build a marriage and family. I’ve learned that you’re in it together.

I also decided that spending Friday evenings at the bar with my pilot friends until late at night was not healthy for my marriage and family. It was a struggle for me to give that up, but I realized that I would have to choose to follow God’s leadership on a daily basis and this was what was best for my family and me. God gave me the power to change.

Today, Gail and I have been married for almost 40 years and we take joy in spending time with our grandchildren.

Content with life

After 20 years of flying for the Canadian Forces, I retired from active duty in 1993. I returned to academic life for a time and attended seminary.

In 1995 I joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and began working in the Leadership Ministry. I currently work in the TruthMedia Internet Ministry, taking the gospel message to people around the world through the Internet. For Major Wes Bowers, this is the ultimate promotion. I’ve gone from being a Peacekeeper to working for the Prince of Peace.

What about you?

My life experience has taught me that drifting away from God is harmful to one’s self-worth as well as to relationships with family, friends and co-workers. I wish I knew then, what I know now—the key to a growing sense of fulfillment and a sense of purpose in life is to learn how life-changing it can be to follow God’s leadership through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

If you know, like I do, that you need changes in your life, you can ask God to change you today. God gave his only Son Jesus Christ to us. Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins—every time we’ve lied, stolen, cheated, hated…the list goes on. After three days, Jesus rose from the dead. He offers us complete forgiveness and the gift of grace. We just need to believe in him. You can know God personally. Ask, by faith, for Jesus Christ to take control of your life and he will do as he promised. If you don’t already know Jesus, I encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive you as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person you want me to be. Amen.

Is it the desire of your heart to make this prayer yours? If yes, pray now and according to his promise, Jesus Christ will come into your life.

For most of us, work means a job.

There is a long history behind this feeling about work.  For our culture, it starts with the Greeks. There are several ancient words associated with the idea of work, but the central one is ergazomai, a verb form of the word ergon.  We get the English word ergonomics from this Greek root.  Ergonomics is the study of work and motion.  Ergon is the word for deed, action, achievement, practice, business and work. Another form of this Greek word is energeia.  Its obvious that the English word “energy” is a direct descendent of this old Greek word.  It means “force”.   Related Greek words that make their way into our culture are synergos (a fellow-worker) and euergeteo (to do good).  We get synergy and eulogy from these roots.

Very early in Greek history, the word for work was associated with specific occupations like farming or being a soldier.  It draws a picture of someone actively engaged in production or achievement.  The antonym is inactivity on the one hand, and mere words (as opposed to deeds) on the other.

The Greeks considered work an important value for men.  While they hoped one day to enjoy freedom from trials and troubles of this life, they did not think of another “heavenly” world where they were rewarded with idle time.  The blessings of success were to be sought in this world.  Work was an essential part of this goal.  Many of the Greek writers coined phrases that are still in use today – phrases that define who we are in terms of our work.  “Man is known by his works”.  “Work is the pathway to riches”.  “Excellence is the perfection of work”.  When we meet someone, we often use the greeting, “What do you do?”  This is a thoroughly Greek concept – a human being is defined by the work that he performs.

Of course, we don’t intend to imply that work is all that makes up who we are. But the phrase is significant.  With a little reflection, we must admit that judgments of human value are easily associated with the answer to this question.  We give more status to the person who answers, “I am a doctor” than we do to one who answers, “I work at Burger King”.  A friend of mine owns a Dairy Queen.  He is quite a successful young businessman.  He commented once that when he is interested in a girl and she asks what he does, he answers that he works at a Dairy Queen.  He does not tell her he owns the store.  Within a few seconds, he is able to determine the character of this potential date by the way she reacts to his reply.  The fact that it is such a standard way of assessing human worth indicates how deeply Greek our culture is.  The bottom line is that we use work as our measuring stick.

But there is something deeper than this measuring stick quality in the Greek idea of work.  It is that we see work only within the context of what it means to be human.

The Hebrews had a different perspective on work.  For them, work begins with God. “In the beginning, God created” is the foundation of all thoughts about work.  God is a God of action.  He has work to do.  God’s work starts with words.  There is no separation between the activity of work and the words of work for the Hebrews.  God accomplishes his tasks through the words He speaks.  Work and word go hand in hand.

God is also continually active. The history ofIsrael is a witness to God’s interaction with men.  God’s work shapes history itself.  God’s work directs the course of all events and activities in the human realm to suit His purposes.  Work is never outside the context of God’s sovereignty.  Work was seen as the assignment God gave to men.  The first man, Adam, was duly assigned work, even in the Garden of Eden.  Work is not the fulfillment of human potential as much as it is the fulfillment of divine commission.

Because God rules all creation, including the work of all men, God is the final judge of the value of work. The original sacrificial system involved presentation of the results of work as an offering.  Work was an expression of the sacred recognition of the lordship of God.  It was not simply a measure of the worth of a human being.  Work was the fulfillment of the purposes of God.  Many of the heroes of Israel performed menial jobs as part of their fulfillment of God’s greater purposes.  Moses and David were shepherds.  Joseph was a slave.  Noah was an amateur shipbuilder.  Abraham was a nomadic herdsman.  Many of God’s chosen leaders were farmers.  Few were wealthy, famous or powerful before God picked them.  God gave them jobs to do – not only for them but also for Him.

The Greek Bible uses three different words for our English word “work”. These are ergon, poieo and prasso.  Only ergon is used to describe God’s divine work.  The same word is also used to describe the activity of human beings, especially in connection with acts of religious significance.  A derivative of this word is used to support the idea that the believer is one who works in partnership with God.  We are called God’s fellow-workers.

The word also describes human actions that are evil and that will be judged by God.  Paul says that every man will stand before God and be judged according to his works.  Obviously, the umbrella of meaning stretches far beyond my job or career.  It encompasses all of my actions.  Finally, the New Testament uses this word in opposition to the idea of righteousness by grace.  Trying to work our way to holiness is folly.  No human activity can make us acceptable before a God who demands holiness.  Only faith in God’s gracious gift of redemption can solve this problem.

The second Greek word for work, poieo, is the basis of our English word “poetry”. It means “to do or make”.  It is found 3200 times in the Old Testament and 565 times in the New Testament.  One reason for its frequency is that the Hebrew language has very few abstract words so, in order to translate Hebrew into Greek, many times it became necessary to combine a concrete Hebrew expression with a “helping” verb like “to do”.  Expressions like “to do good” or “to make a vow” are combination words.

Poieo reiterates the basic tenant of the Bible, that God’s activity is the foundation for all creative action on both the divine and human scale. This word is used to emphasize the thought that no human action is neutral.  Every act is either an act of obedience or disobedience.  Paul can say, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”.  Jesus expresses the same moral content to all activity when he summarizes the commandments into two moral imperatives – love God and love your neighbor.  Love is always associated with action.  “If you love me, you will do these things” places right action at the center of discipleship.

Finally, prasso, from which we get practice, pragmatic and occupation, carries the idea of a method of operation. Compared to poieo it is used very rarely, and almost always with reference to evil works that God will judge.

The Biblical record is clear.  Work is human activity under the rule of God.  Both God and Man have work to do.  In fact, Man’s role in God’s universe is pre-eminently about the work of care taking.  The first commandment, to subdue the earth, is a word that implies the work of a fastidious gardener, not an exploiter.  For a Christian, the Lordship of Christ can only mean that every action taken by a believer is part of “working out our salvation”.  Nothing is exempt from the purposes of God.

This fact overcomes a common mistake.  We are often told that our spiritual calling is to devote time and energy to the work of the church.  This might lead us to conclude that we have jobs on the one hand and spiritual tasks on the other.  Even Rick Warren, in his excellent book, The Purpose Driven Life, says:

“Regardless of your job or career, you are called to full-time Christian service”.

“One reason why you need to be connected to a church family is to fulfill your calling to serve other believers in practical ways”.

“There are no insignificant ministries in the church”. [1]

This creates an artificial dichotomy between the work world and service to the church.  But notice that Jesus did not minister in the church at all.  In fact, the local synagogue rejected him.  Jesus fulfilled his ministry by accepting God’s calling no matter where it took him.  And it usually took him to places that the good church-going crowd avoided.

If God engineers life, if He is the operating agent behind every detail of my life, then God places me in every one of my circumstances, including my career and job.  I don’t live in two worlds – one where I work and the other where I serve.  Work is an expression of my submission to God where He puts me.  I am called to serve Him everywhere in my life.  My assignment extends to every part of my life – my job, my home and my church.

Under God’s authority, all work is sacred. Is there any difference between how I demonstrate my gratitude and humility before God in the office or in the sanctuary?  Doesn’t Jesus’ ethics of the kingdom apply equally in both environments?   Why have we made the “church” the exclusive realm of Christian service?  Jesus spent nearly His entire ministry with non-believers.  He didn’t relegate his religious activity to behavior inside the synagogue.

There is no dualism in the world of work. We are not spiritual workers for the church on Sunday and human laborers for the rest of the week.  Our lives are to be expressions of the character of Christ in every activity.  No matter where God puts us, we are to “be about our Father’s business”.

Now that we realize that all work is part of God’s purpose for us, and that every action is an opportunity to develop the character of Christ, we can ask some other questions:

What behaviors does God expect of me in the place where I have been divinely assigned?

How am I to act in this assignment so that God is glorified?

How will I use my assignment as an influence for the purposes of God?

Today is a day of celebration for Erna and me. Exactly ten years ago today we were in the Winnipeg Clinic at the ophthalmologist. I had just been subjected to a bunch of tests on my left eye. After looking into my eye with his various instruments including an ultrasound the Doctor gave us his diagnosis.

“You have a large cancerous tumor in your left eye and the only treatment is to remove your eye.”

I was stunned and all I could say was, “I think I’m going to barf,” while Erna asked, “How do you know.” I had the distinct feeling that I would faint if I stood up.

I sat there with the garbage can in my lap as Erna took over the conversation.

The drive home was a blur as I lay in the passenger seat totally shocked. We couldn’t talk–both lost in our own thoughts of impending doom.

A second opinion a few days later confirmed the diagnosis of choroidal melanoma, a tumor at the back of my eye that had to be treated by enucleation, i.e. removal of the eye.

However, we learned that there was another option; radiation, which could not be done in Winnipeg. Within 2 weeks of that black Monday we were in Philadelphia for radiation. The radiation did its work as it slowly fried the tumor. My eye was saved but I lost my vision because the procedure damaged my optic nerve which had been expected.

Before I was discharged from the hospital we had a session with a counselor. I was again my usual jocular self, but she pulled me up short with the words:

“This is not about your eye, this is about your life.  You have melanoma and it can easily metastasize to your brain, your lungs or your liver.  You have to distress..”

Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in Cambridge, England in 1910 said,

“of course a man has to take the advantage of opportunities but the opportunities have to come. If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not the great occasion, you don’t get the great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in times of peace, no one would know his name now.”

My life has been filled with opportunities. This was the most challenging one of all.

Frankly, I did not initially see this as an opportunity at all but as time went on and particularly now that I have the privilege to look back, it was a great opportunity and it still is.

Transparency with employees

I had always believed that a leader should be transparent and should keep the employees informed. Regular meetings were common in our business where we shared the latest news including topics like; profit share, areas that needed improvement and future goals. This was a completely different kind of sharing. It’s easy to share good news but bad news is not what anyone wants to hear especially about the boss. I was encouraged by some of our people to wait until I really knew what was happening.

Erna and I both knew, we had done the reading, we had talked to the right people and we knew how serious my cancer was. However, I knew that if we didn’t share with our people the rumors would be worse than the truth.

At that time we had more than 1000 employees and before we went to Philadelphia for treatment I shared my story. I said to them, “I know that many of you pray and I ask you to pray for me in this time of need.”

Because of my candor people did not avoid me in fact they kept telling me that they were praying and that members of their extended families were praying as well. What a blessing it was for us and still is. The support was overwhelming; To this day people still ask me how my eye is doing. Cancer is not a word people feel comfortable saying.

Many leaders believe that they should be the invincible supermen and they miss the wonderful experience of people caring and that they want to help as much as they can. Leaders do not have all the answers, in fact it is the people in the trenches who know more than anyone else and yet leaders think they are a failure if they admit that they need help to solve a problem.

Since my diagnosis I have had many meaningful encounters with others who had cancer. One of them was already in the advanced stages of this terrible disease. He contacted me after he heard about my cancer. Interestingly I had tried to touch base with him before I knew about my cancer to encourage and pray with him. He had not responded, but now he came to MY rescue.

Another one asked me, “Herb, how did you feel when you found out that you had cancer?” That began a deep time of sharing.

A third one was diagnosed with melanoma in his eye as well. This was highly unusual because cancer of the eye only affects 6 people out of one million. We were able to talk at a very comfortable level about similar treatments and how we were doing.

Four of my cancer buddies have already died and all were younger than I. By the grace of God I was able to help them along in their spiritual pilgrimage. I am confident that I will meet all of them on the good side of the other side some day in the future.

Furthermore I have a special bond with anyone who has or has had cancer. We are a special group.

What a tremendous opportunity my cancer has given me and I am so grateful that I did see this as an opportunity to help others. The proverb:

“He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed” is certainly true for me.

Five years ago I was a 42% survivor with my type of cancer. Today Erna and I are celebrating 10 years of being cancer free. I continue to be tested every three months and my results continue to be very good. Praise God.

Leadership

It seems to me that I have been in leadership most of my life.

1. captain and coach of the high school hockey team starting in grade 10
2. moderator of our church for more than 15 years
3. owner and cofounder of several businesses
4. board member of numerous organizations
5. mentor to other leaders

When I look back it seems to me that I slowly drifted into leadership and the role suited me quite well.

Are leaders born?

Are they made? Do some have leadership thrust upon them? Yes, yes, and yes. There seems to be no definitive route into leadership. No one particular personality determines who will be a leader.

When I reflect on my journey in leadership I realize that I do have some innate qualities that suit me for leadership. Those would include encouragement, charisma, a strong drive to succeed, steadiness, and patience and risk taking.

I also have learned much from watching other leaders, I read a lot, and of course trial and error have been my greatest teachers. I have not been afraid to try something new. If the idea fails I make sure that, that won’t happen again.

Many people have encouraged me into leadership. They have done that by choosing me as the leader. I guess one could say that I have had leadership thrust upon me.

So who can be a leader?

Well, if you look at leaders in government, churches, businesses, schools and colleges you would think anyone could be.  The meek, the mild, the opinionated, the cruel, the rude, the gentle, the optimists and pessimists, the cheats and liars are all in the ranks of leaders. You name it you’ve got it, for better or worse.

It’s like jazz. It’s all over the place, anything goes, sometimes it’s pleasant and sometimes it’s not.

If you are a Christian, we have a great challenge. The biblical standard is very high and whether we are leaders or followers we cannot succumb to the often crude and unethical behavior of the world. Sadly, too often we have Christian leaders who are the worst examples of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Sadly this not only includes leaders of secular businesses but leaders of Christian organizations as well.

In his book, Finding Flow, the author (Mealy Csikszentmihalyi) talks about the tension between our work and our times of leisure. The conundrum is that many people don’t find joy (flow) in either one. How do we find flow?  He says, “it is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur , or to something resembling a work of art”.

Clearly, all of us want our lives to be a work of art that is pleasing, we want to paint a wonderful picture with our lives but too often our work of art IS a blur. The headlines are full of examples of ordinary people and leaders whose work of art is a formless blur.

If you are a Christian, you have no option but to paint a pleasing picture. We have to do our best to emulate his teaching in our daily lives.

My parents were immigrants from southern Russia, now the Ukraine, arriving in 1924 in Manitoba, my father 20 and my mother 15. My father was a maintenance man all his life and it was his dream to own his own machine shop. It never happened. It seems to me that he did not have the courage and confidence to pull it off, but I do know he had the reputation and talent to forge out on his own. I believe he also had the connections to help him financially and he certainly was well known as the man who had the golden hands to repair any machine that was broken.

I fulfilled my parent’s dream of getting a University degree and entering the teaching profession.

Herb’s first business ventures

I had financed my way through University by running  a small business with a friend   pouring concrete sidewalks and driveways and even while teaching, this business was going strong during our spare time after school, weekends and summer holidays. Of course the business shut down during the cold winter months in Manitoba, Canada.

However, I was restless. Even though I enjoyed teaching, I felt restricted working in a very controlled environment. I loved the outdoors, the independence and the challenge of business. I had also learned the power of multiplication on the bottom line when one has employees.

Opportunities

And then an opportunity appeared. A small precast concrete manufacturing plant which included a 30ft by 40ft building, a cement mixer and some molds was for sale. I took that opportunity to quit teaching and go full time into business. Together with one employee we manufactured concrete lawn ornaments, flower pots, bird baths, concrete laundry tubs and sidewalk blocks.

The risk was minimal; I had my permanent teaching certificate so I could easily get back into teaching if the business failed. My partner continued to teach, working in his spare time on sales without his salary affecting our overhead. I would be earning the same salary as I would in teaching.

My wife Erna encouraged me to give it a try. She was a registered nurse, so of course she could keep bread on the table if our earnings were meager. Our needs were not great, we had a moderate bank loan to finance the business, and we were idealistic like I know most of you are. It was perfect. We just knew we would succeed and yet we were cautious.

Our business grew quickly and within one year my teaching partner joined the business full time and we took the opportunity to purchase a well equipped precast concrete plant that was for sale just down the road from us.

Around that time I established my business philosophy: I will glorify God in my business.  I will do that by applying Biblical principles in everything I do.

Since then I have come to realize that the best principals to run a business really are Biblical, be the business secular or Christian.

This was certainly an idealistic goal. I failed often; blurring the picture I was painting making it plumb ugly. You can imagine the blur with poor colors, jagged lines. I think it is called dissonance.

I cannot understand the present lack of integrity and the deceit that is so prevalent in government, business and so called religious enterprises. Yet at the same time I can see how easily it can happen. The temptation to stretch the results to please the bank or shareholders, the ego that must be fed, the fear that bad news will ruin your reputation with loss of employment. The greed to earn exorbitant profits motivates us to compromise what we say and what we believe. “After all,” we say, “we’ll correct our little lie in the next quarter.”

But the lack of integrity should come as no surprise. In a recent survey of 632 students at thirty two graduate business schools in the USA and Canada, 56% admitted cheating. MBA graduate students are the greatest cheaters. Cheating can help them get great internships and high paying jobs at big name companies. (USA Today, Oct 10 Business with a Higher Purpose)

The writer goes on to say that the real problem is that business needs to serve a higher purpose than making a lot of money.

For sure that has always been a big challenge for me in my years in business. The bottom line is money and if a business does not generate a profit it will fail. This is as true for schools, colleges and religious organizations as it is for business. Excess expenditures over receipts will on the long run signal the demise of the organization.

I quote Alan Giagnocavo from his article in the latest Marketplace magazine published by MEDA. He says the following, “I love making money honestly and with integrity. I love the results money can bring.” I resonate with that.

Our businesses have always been profitable. We have never had a year showing a loss but there were some close calls. At those times Erna would say, “I thought you said that this would be year that we were really going to do very well.” Pressure!

We were blessed and early in our life we were always able to give money away to worthwhile causes encouraging others in doing so.

I remember the excitement as we began our first contract under the fine business name of BULLER AND RADEMAKER CONCRETE CONTRACTORS.  ED4 3816  and  LE3 2296

Integrity

We were calculating our hourly wage as the day wore on. In the first hour we already knew that we were earning twice the salary that we had earned working in our hourly job. As the day passed it only got better and as spring turned into summer we were into big dollars. Life was good.

And then one morning the supervisor showed up. He was livid. His face was red, he was gesticulating wildly and of course he was shouting almost incoherently but the message came through loud and clear. “If you guys do one more shoddy job like this one, you have lost the contract for the rest of the project!”

You can imagine our shock and concern. This was our only customer. He had given two teenagers the opportunity of a lifetime by giving us the contract to pave all the driveways and sidewalks for all his houses. The loss of this contract could mean disaster for us.

And now we had an opportunity again, this time to prove to our customer that we were worthy of his business.

The next driveway was a new ball game. We paid no attention to the time it took rather we paid detailed attention to the quality of the work that was expected. We watched Willy the foreman’s face as he inspected our work. He smiled his approval and walked away. He became our greatest fan and steered more than one customer our way after that.

I have never forgotten that lesson. Do what you say you will do. Under promise and over deliver became our motto. Since that lesson in integrity (because this really was an issue of integrity) we would hear the compliments again and again about our workmanship and when we did falter we were told that we were the only sub trade that responded to service calls. We always made sure that we corrected the problem.

The concrete business was good but the problem was the winter months. That business is dead in winter and the only thing we could do was to build inventory stretching our bank loan to the limit. Of course it was a good time for holidays as well but we were aggressive and wanted to keep on growing our business.

Another opportunity

A friend in the furniture business suggested an opportunity in manufacturing kitchen cabinets. We jumped at this opportunity. It made a lot of sense. We had experience in business, we had gained some confidence in our business skills, the customers who used our concrete products also needed kitchen cabinets, one of our new partners was building apartment blocks so he would be a captive customer, and our other partners were in furniture manufacturing They could give us all the help we needed to learn about wood.

Thus in 1971,  Kitchen Craft of Canada Ltd. was born and today even though we sold the business it continues to be a leader in supplying quality cabinetry in Canada and the United States.

Woody Allen made the following statement: “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” I love that line because is so true and yet so false.

The statement is true if you believe that success is just being there like a pylon on a race track not making one bit of difference in the organization. You have no desire to grow; you never want to experience the thrill of achievement, never be acknowledged for a job well done and never be surprised with a bonus or a substantial increase in salary. It’s also true if all you want is to win the perfect attendance award.

Picture of your life

But it is false if you want to move ahead and paint that extra special picture, a picture that you can look at with pride at the end of your life. It certainly is false if you want to be a leader of distinction. I have always looked for the person that gave more than 80% because those are the people who make the difference in an organization. Please don’t confuse this with people who work long hours just putting in time thinking that they are making a difference and showing loyalty by being their longer than anyone else.

As someone has said you have to show up with muscle and hussle.

In a letter to his son, Theodore Roosevelt said, “without hard work you certainly cannot make a success in life.”

I agree, and it has been my experience that hard, focused and intelligent work makes a huge difference in the success of a leader.

Hard work is another word for sacrifice and leaders do sacrifice much to make the organization successful. Erna and I remember the planned trips we had to cancel because of business pressures, the events we had to forgo due to other deadlines, the late meals while waiting for me to come home because an emergency had kept me much longer than we had planned and the numerous times Erna had to miss her events because of me. But the greatest sacrifice was the trips I made leaving Erna with our teenage boys for more than a day and sometimes even for a week. Those were the toughest of times for her and for me as well when I phoned home and heard about the latest escapade. Too often success comes at the expense of family and our society is strewn with the wreckage of broken homes and delinquent children because of it.

I must say that we are blessed with a strong family and great relationships. Thank God and thanks to my wife Erna who kept everything together.

Opportunity to give back

In the spring of 2002 we were invited to an HIV/AIDS conference in New York. It was sponsored by World Vision and we were challenged by the speakers and interactive discussions to do our part in helping to alleviate this terrible disease. This was again an opportunity for us. It moved us into a brand new arena of experiences.

We came home determined to do our part. We thought we could organize a fund raiser. Erna’s idea was to have a small group of people, let’s say 40 or 50 hear the challenge and get involved. My idea was to host a large banquet to raise a substantial amount of dollars. For a change I won and we planned a gala dinner which was sold out with more than 500 people in attendance.

The speakers included an HIV positive lady from Zambia and Canadian Stephen Lewis, the special envoy to this epidemic for the UN. We raised more than 1 million dollars that evening and all of the money is being used very effectively in an African village called Nanoko in Zambia.

A clinic has been built, health care workers have been trained, schools have an HIV/AIDS prevention program, houses have been repaired, clean wells have been drilled, animals have been purchased and the people are learning trades like carpentry, welding, tailoring and agriculture. It’s a 15 year project and because of the partnership with World Vision and the local leadership it is an ongoing success.

Even though we are supposedly retired we are very active with ongoing projects that help those who are less fortunate. I am still active in the business world as well. New opportunities present themselves daily.

I have to say as well that we are very impressed with the leaders who come to us for funding. They know what they are doing, they are passionate, they are prepared, and they work hard. Many charitable organizations are in the hands of great leaders. We are very thankful, because it is exactly that, that gives us confidence that the money will be used wisely and judiciously.

We have been blessed with the ability to help others. Giving brings us joy, for as I said before, “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” We pray for wisdom as we negotiate the many requests that come in for funding.

I am now officially retired, as I have turned sixty-five. I wonder what my work of art looks like at this point in my life. Is it a fine work of art or is it a meaningless blur? I think my dad would be happy and proud even if my painting does have the odd smudge.

The challenging and more important question is this. Does the work of art please my God, the Creator? The question you must answer is, “What does your work of art (your life) look like?  Is it a fine work of art and a meaningless blur?

If you would change the picture of your life, you can. Like Herb, you can decide to  follow Jesus Christ and apply Biblical principles to your life and business.  You can start today by praying this prayer.

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

Is it the desire of your heart to make this prayer yours? If yes, pray now and according to his promise, Jesus Christ will come into your life.

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina – a town named by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the 30 best cities for small business in America – Bobby Dobson seemed destined for business success. Sure enough, he eventually rose to the top of his game as a tax lawyer. But Bobby’s achievements came at tremendous cost for both him and his family, eventually leading him to walk away from business for good as he discovered an entirely new way to define success.

Positioned well – in high demand

Choosing the unique career path of acquiring both a law degree and a CPA certificate, Bobby had positioned himself well from the start. “There were very few people around in those days who were both CPAs and attorneys, and I was in high demand,” Bobby says.

As Bobby’s business expanded, so did his family. But Bobby didn’t allow his six children to slow him down one bit. He often worked 18 – 19 hours per day, causing his family to brand him a workaholic. Says Bobby’s third son, Michael, “If I or any of my brothers wanted to meet up with him, we would call his secretary and make an appointment. He was just money, money, money.”

Involved in fraud

This situation seemed destined for failure, and fail it did. It started in 1980 when Bobby’s marriage fell apart. This personal crisis was followed by a major setback in Bobby’s professional life.

At the time, tax shelters were all the rage, and Bobby was helping a number of his clients take advantage of them. But when he accidentally got involved in a tax shelter that turned out to be fraudulent, one of his clients filed a grievance against Bobby’s firm that was to haunt him for the next several years.

What else, God?!

By 1991, this situation was still not resolved. But then came the big blow: Bobby received news that his adopted daughter had been killed in a car accident. Bobby finally broke. “I was a wreck,” he says.

The night of her funeral, Bobby lay in bed literally burning with anger and disappointment. In his anguish, he asked God to help him. “When I said that prayer, I felt a cool water pouring over my head, like all the anger and all of the bad feelings just washed out of me, and I instantly went to sleep.” The next morning, Bobby awoke a changed man.

After coming to Christ, Bobby wanted his second wife, Beth, to share his experience, so he prayed for her and tried to live his own life as an example, hoping she would notice the change. She did, and soon she also became a Christian. But Bobby wasn’t out of the woods yet.

A sign from God

In 1993, the verdict finally came in on the grievance filed nearly a decade earlier. Bobby was found guilty, and his law licence was suspended for two years. But rather than lament the fact, Bobby took it as a sign from God that he should do something different with his life.

The natural place for him to turn was a ministry started by his own father fifteen years earlier. It involved distributing audio Bibles and tape players free of charge to seniors’ homes so they could have better access to Scripture. “I decided to devote my life to making it bigger, to touching and reaching more people,” says Bobby.

Bobby threw himself into this new venture with all the gusto he had given his business. Today, funded entirely by the Dobson family, Dobson Ministries provides a wide variety of spiritual materials to thousands of elderly people in nursing homes and to 1,500 children per year in children’s care homes.

Instead of making money, Bobby is now giving it away. And he has never felt so good.

Has financial success taken on too much importance in your life? If so, perhaps it’s time you asked Jesus to reveal your true calling. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

John C. Tompkins, President of News Media Corporation, must have been born with printer’s ink in his veins. Not only did both of his parents come from a newspaper background, from the moment John was old enough to ride a bike, he was working in the business, too. But John was not satisfied with simply working at a newspaper; he wanted to own a piece of the action for himself.

“I had read a book called The Young Millionaires and it talked about a lot of younger people in their twenties and early thirties who had built up large companies,” says John, “and that fascinated me, because to me, if somebody’s already done something, then I know it can be repeated.”

Caught his vision

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To prepare for his future career, John studied business in college while continuing to work part-time at his father’s newspaper. However, it was during a church service one morning that John finally caught hold of his vision.

“The pastor taught a sermon on the seven steps of success…very practical steps. And while I was sitting in the service, the whole blueprint for how to construct a national newspaper company just came to me.”

By then, John was married to his high school sweetheart Cindy. She recognized that he was more driven than most individuals.

“I can still see him sitting at the kitchen table in our first apartment with napkins all over, because he would make notes on napkins, papers, and books. He was putting together a plan. And so, from early on, I was used to him studying and preparing for that job.”

[See post to watch Flash video]

Once John had his strategy in place, the big question became how to get started. John found the answers he was looking for in Purdue University’s library. Says John, “I believe that everything is written down somewhere, and if you just look hard enough, you’ll find it.” Find it he did, everything from how to form a corporation, sell stock, and get other shareholders on board. Now all he needed was money – and a newspaper on which to spend it.

After borrowing money from family members and his bank, John purchased The Rochelle News Leader, a twice-weekly publication in Rochelle, Illinois. The deal also included a weekly paper in Oregon, Illinois. John and Cindy moved from Indiana to Rochelle so John could run the new business. They also brought along John’s younger brother Mike to help with editorial and circulation.

Getting to work

John was under pressure immediately, because the papers were losing money at a rate of about $40,000 per year. At a mere twenty-one years of age, John was also younger than everyone else on staff, so he had trouble earning their respect. Nevertheless, lay-offs, increased advertising revenues, and a lot of advice from his dad enabled John to make his newspaper profitable within the first year. Within four years, he had paid off his ten-year bank loan and purchased his mother’s shares in the company, giving himself majority ownership and the power to take his business in whatever direction he saw fit.

What John wanted most was to purchase more newspapers so he could reproduce the formula that had worked so well in Rochelle. After picking up two more newspapers and making them profitable as well, John was beginning to feel like he was finally getting somewhere.

Success…with attitude

But John’s success also began to affect him in other ways. “I was starting to feel pretty cocky about myself, pretty much like I was hot stuff, that I had arrived,” he says. Unfortunately, this attitude as well as John’s focus on his business, began to have a detrimental effect on his family life.

“I wasn’t the most sensitive guy at the time,” says John. “I had gotten even less sensitive because of my business success. I think I was getting further and further away from a dependence on God. The result was that my wife and I grew further and further apart.”

The stress on their marriage was compounded when John’s father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. John and Cindy were also in a bad car accident where someone was killed, and their son developed a near fatal lung condition. Finally, Cindy had enough. She asked John for a divorce.

Spinning out of control

When Cindy broke the news, John realized suddenly that his life had somehow spun out of control. His conflict with Cindy also began having a negative impact on his business as well.

“You must pay attention to details on these small newspapers, so if there’s any distraction from your focus on that, details start to slide. The people underneath you begin to realize you’re not watching, so they stop watching.”

Realizing things were quickly moving from bad to worse, John took decisive action.

“I went and saw a pastor. The minute I sat down with him, he told me what my problems were. It was like God was speaking right through him. A couple of them, I knew about already. But one of them – pride – was new to me. So I started to pray more, and I got my hands on a book about how to pray expecting results.”

Back on track with the desired results

Within two weeks, John got exactly the results he wanted: Cindy met with John and told him she wanted to get back together. John was elated.

“We both knew it was not God’s will to break a family up. He wants the father, mother and children to be together.” In an effort to rebuild their marriage, John and Cindy started attending a church in a nearby community. They went through counseling with the pastor and attended Bible studies. During the time their marriage was falling apart, they had pulled back from other Christians. Now they saw the church as the only hope for rescuing their floundering relationship.

With his personal life back on track, it was time for John to refocus on his business. Soon, he was back in a profit position and acquiring even more newspapers, all thanks to the new perspective he had gained by putting God first in his life.

Today, News Media Corporation employs 625 people. Total circulation is 307,000, which adds up to over one million readers. With 54 newspapers in total, News Media’s annual profits are in the millions and rising steadily. Despite his success, John is not afraid to admit to his own shortcomings along the way.

“I often say that I’ve made about every mistake you can make in business, some of them more than once. In spite of that…God kept pushing me along, even when I would turn my back on Him. So I can say that any great successes I have had have come strictly from God’s interference in my life – in a good way, that is.”

Could you use some godly “interference” in your life? If so, why not ask Jesus for help? If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be.