Even Success Doesn’t Make You Invincible

Profile on: Ed Bjurstrom, Vice President of Engineering for Amgen, the largest biotechnology firm in the world

As the vice president of engineering for Amgen, the largest biotechnology firm in the world, Ed Bjurstrom has reached the pinnacle of his career. When he started out at Amgen a mere 15 years ago, the fledgling company was barely getting by from month to month and Ed’s future there was shaky at best.

But today, all that has changed. As the company has grown and prospered, so has Ed. He is now responsible for overseeing Amgen’s construction projects around the world, which, this year, means managing a budget of around $2.5 billion!

Getting priorities straight

But Ed’s success has not insulated him from some of the other challenges life has thrown his way. Most notably, it failed to prevent him and his wife Wendy from realizing they had been caught up in a cult for most of their lives. God eventually set them free, but not before the cult had seriously derailed their faith in Christ.

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Ed grew up in the Lutheran church, and he credits this upbringing with giving him a strong work ethic. But as a teen, he felt the level of spiritual commitment in his congregation was shallow. When he encountered the World Wide Church of God (WWCOG) at age 17, he thought he had found the dedication and spiritual fervour he was looking for.

Impressive level of commitment, despite….

Although the WWCOG was focused on the Bible, it did not fall under the banner of mainstream Christianity at the time. Instead, it focused on the Old Testament, even adopting Saturday as the Sabbath instead of Sunday. Despite some of their unusual beliefs, Ed admired the dedication he saw amongst the members of this church. “People would sit in services taking notes. I found people willing to put their businesses and livelihoods at risk in order to observe Saturday Sabbath. That level of commitment was impressive to me,” Ed says.

While Ed was in college, he met Wendy – who had grown up in the WWCOG – and the two were married soon after graduation. Simultaneously, Ed landed a job with an engineering firm, where he stayed for nine years, but he eventually moved on to Amgen so he could focus exclusively on biotechnology.

Truth recognized

Throughout this time, he and Wendy continued to attend the WWCOG, this despite the fact that Wendy’s experience in the cult had been anything but fruitful. “It was truly abusive for me,” she says. “I was abused mentally, physically and spiritually. They made you feel guilty, like you were never good enough. It was like having a huge weight around your neck 24 hours a day.”

In the mid-1990s, the WWCOG experienced a change of heart and publicly acknowledged that it had operated as a cult. The leadership changed its doctrine, and the church became more Christ-centred. Needless to say, this was a difficult time for members who had staked their lives on the church’s beliefs. “I’d say seventy percent of the people left,” says Ed. “They couldn’t handle the new approach.”

Journey to freedom

As for Ed and Wendy, they were excited to see that God was moving in the church. While they also had to revise their beliefs, they recognized that making Jesus central was what being a Christian was all about. Eventually, the couple also left the WWCOG and joined a congregational church in their community. Today, they still use their experiences to help others who are caught up in cults. Says Wendy, “Through my life, I’m able to empathize with people that are going through the same thing I’ve suffered. I just tell them that God has a plan for them, he loves them, and they can go on that journey to freedom.”

Are you caught up in a belief system that has caused you to drift away from Christ? If so, perhaps it’s time you re-evaluated things and put Jesus first. 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.

One Response to “Even Success Doesn’t Make You Invincible”

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• Kevin Harris says:

  June 9, 2015 at 9:52 pm

  Success is an attitude and achievement under which we are getting different types of solution for our work. But still after getting success we are unable to come under invincible there is some hurdles and barriers that we should take over. Here in this article we have found some facts about success and how after getting success still we are suffering from different issues regarding invincible.