Will you be useful? Are you driven by a gigantic Question?

Professor Jim Collins is a giant in the world of Business literature.  Shortly after leaving a prestigious post at Stanford University to pursue a path as an independent researcher and business author, he met and made friends with another giant of the field, Peter Drucker.  The Austrian business thinker was already 86 years old but would still go on to write 6 more books before his death aged 92.

In a recent interview with Tim Ferris, Collins recalled two lessons he learned from his friendship with Drucker.  The first came shortly after the two first met.  Collins had just left a stable and tenured position at Stanford, a move he described as his "Thelma and Louise" moment.  If you've seen the movie, you'll remember the final scene when the two desperadoes drive headlong over the lip of a canyon in order to evade capture by the law.  "I was genuinely scared," recalls Collins.  "All we had was $10 000 in our bank account and there was no going back."  

The author of "Good to Great" recalls his first meeting with Drucker.  Indebted to the sage for so generously sharing his experience, Collins asked if there was any way he could repay him.  "I don't need anything," replied Drucker "but I do have a request - change your question a little bit.  It seems to me you spend a lot of time worrying about IF you're going to survive - you will probably survive.  It's the wrong question.  The question is how to be useful".  It was, said Collins, the last thing Drucker said that day.  "He just got out of the car and closed the door and walked away".

Another gem that emerged from Collins' association with Drucker was more of an observation than a piece of advice.  According to Collins, a careful reading of Drucker's formidable body of work (some 40 books over a 70-year career), reveals the mind of a thinker devoted to answering a "single, beautiful and gigantic question" namely:  "Can a society become more efficient and more humane at the same time?"  That's what inspired him, fed his curiosity, fuelled his extraordinary work ethic.

Collins has unquestionably followed suit:  Look at the sub-text to some of his great titles:

• Why do some companies radically outperform their peers?  (Good to Great)
• Why do some companies thrive in chaos and uncertainty?  (Great by Choice)
• Why do great companies fall? (How the Mighty Fall)

I have always been inspired by Jim Collins.  His insights are piercing, his writing engrossing.  There is a timeless wisdom to his work that few of his contemporaries can match.  I'm sure there's way more to his success but for now, these two nuggets will do:

• It's not a case of if or when I will succeed, it's a case of whether what I do is useful to others

• I am not a mercenary who takes on the highest paying job on offer.   My life is a single and epic quest for the answer to a beautiful and gigantic question.  Now it's just a case of figuring out what that is

Good Work/Bad Work

For some months I've been reflecting on work.  I am, to some degree anyway, like those people that Baz Luhrmann speaks about in his song "Sunscreen"

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life...

the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives

some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't

One thing I am sure of is the following:  while "consulting" has paid the bills to date, I'm becoming increasingly dissatisfied with it.  There seems to be so little about it that is concrete.  By this, I mean that I battle to see whether anything I work on is actually useful to society, whether it helps my fellow man to flourish.  Sure, there are one or two exceptions but as my builder friend, Tim once said: "So really your job is just hocus pocus".

I've been reading "Let my people go Surfing" by Yves Chouinard, founder of Patagonia.  I am fascinated by the company's uncompromising commitment to design, product excellence and sustainability.  Everything is designed to last.  Everything is built single-mindedly around the needs and lifestyle of the outdoor "dirtbag", the sort of person who's more likely to spend his remaining 5 dollars on transport to his favourite climbing area than on clothes.  When he buys an item it HAS to last.  Patagonia is "responsible for the total" i.e. sourcing, design, quality, wearability, washability, durability, repairability and, ultimately, disposability.  

I see much of Patagonia's ethos in a fascinating article written by Dorothy Sayers just after the outbreak of World War 2.  Here are a few gems that stood out for me:

• "A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on Trash and Waste, and such a society is a house built on sand"

• "In all the world there are only 2 sources of real wealth:  the fruit of the earth and the labour of men.  You estimate work not by the money it brings to the producer, but by the worth of the thing that is made"

• “We should ask of our enterprise not ‘will it pay?’ but ‘is it good?’; of a man not ‘what does he make?’ but ‘what is his work worth?’;  of goods, not ‘can we induce people to buy them’ but ‘are they useful things well made?’; of employment, not ‘how much per week?’ but ‘will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?’  We should fight tooth and nail not for more employment but for the quality of the work we do.  We should clamour to be engaged in work that is worth doing and in which we should take pride”

• "Work is not the thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do.  It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual and bodily satisfaction and the medium in which he offers himself to God"

• "We should fight tooth and nail, not for mere employment, but for the quality of the work that we do"

• "The greatest insult which the commercial age has offered the worker has been to rob him of all interest in the end product of the work and to force him to dedicate his life to making badly things which were not worth making in the first place"

As I go into 2019, I have come up with 3 sets of criteria to help filter the work on offer.  I hope I can live by them:

1.  Is the work on offer a legitimate outlet in which to express my gifts, talents and emotional energy.  Will I grow in and through this work?  Will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?
2. Is the outcome going to be measurably useful for i) the end customer?  ii) the client or intermediary?
3. Will the outcome be ethical and moral?  Will it help society to thrive, flourish and prosper?

The Fast (Part 2)

Wednesday 16th 

This fast is different to other shorter ones I've done in that I've had no cravings.  At least not until now when I opened the fridge and saw a favourite snack sitting on the bottom shelf.  On any other day, I'd eat it without a thought or shred of appreciation.  But now it taunts me.  "Still two more days mate" - it seems to say, "I'll see you Friday"

What makes short(ish) fasts so difficult are the cravings, not the hunger.  Craving is the evil second cousin of Hunger.  It burns with the ferocity of meth-fed kindling.  Hunger, on the other hand, is more of a smoldering, moody thing.  In a good way.  Godly hunger slowly begins to shape you.  Suddenly you see things more clearly.  You are more discerning about what you spend your energy on.  You become more contented, weaned from the petty annoyances that used to unsettle you.  Wrote David in Psalm 131:  

"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me"

That's the problem with cravings - they cause us to live too much of our lives in the future.  There is ever before us some finish line or destination beyond which we will be permitted to have something we don't have now.  Today often looks pretty grim and lifeless in light of what's waiting at the finish line.  We crave the finish line but then, when we reach it, every pleasure and indulgence we craved becomes just another everyday thing.  Like that tub of yogurt that's taunting me from the bottom shelf of the fridge.  By Saturday morning it will be just one refrigerator item amongst many.

A few years ago my brother was trying to come to grips with his wife's life-threatening illness.  He longed for a finish line that would see her whole and healed.  He wrote:

"... it occurred to me that today is our only reality. Tomorrow is not reality. Tomorrow may never come.  Further, my perception of tomorrow is an illusion.  Tomorrow does not exist as my mind imagines it, for tomorrow will always be different to what I expect. But today is today. I live in the present moment of today, not in the past or in the future.

Even though I'm starting to suffer,  “today” is no less a precious gift.  It's something that needs to be unwrapped with joy

The Fast (Part I)

6 a.m. Day 4 of a five day fast.  I'm on no sleep.  My heart is pounding, my stomach a frenzy of cartwheels.  Perhaps a shot of bicarb will settle it?  For a few minutes it does but then, a wave of nausea hits.  "I'm out," I call to Lisa, "I can't do another day".  We resolve to push on until just after midday, a day and a half short of the target.

Fasting is not a target.  Nor is it a stunt.  It's a journey, a vigil.   It's an invitation to come further up and further in. When Jesus embarked on his epic 40-day fast he was, according to Matthew's Gospel, led into the desert by the Holy Spirit.  Led, not pushed.  During that time he faced three tests all of which would prove decisive in the success of his ministry.  But what did I learn in the blur of those 4 days?

Tuesday 14th - 2am

Since turning 40, the prospect of growing old has haunted me.  It comes and goes.  Lately, it mostly just comes.  At this early hour, I am awoken by the terror, the hopelessness of impending old age.  Regrets plague me, exaggerated by the sleep.  "I'm nearly 50.  I'm neither a spectacular success nor a miserable failure.  What could I have done differently?  Will I have anything to show for it when I die?  Will anyone notice when I'm gone?  If only I had the last 20 years back again".

I try to read a bit but am too distracted.  I turn out the light. Half asleep, an impression quietly begins to form:  "this fast is, amongst other things, about uprooting that fear once and for all.  You are not finished.  In fact, you are about to start living".

The thought gives way to a picture.  Perhaps it's because I've been reading a Michener epic but I'm suddenly enthralled by the sweep of history.  The vision is of God sitting outside of time but leaning sovereignly, attentively and tenderly over the timeline of his creation.  He is immeasurably bigger than any and all of us together, bigger than history, bigger than creation itself, bigger than thought or ingenuity.  Reason buckles beneath the arithmetic.  "Where were you when...?" - God assails me with questions stopping short, as he did with Job, of crushing me.

In a motion that is simultaneously decisive yet perpetual, He sweeps his seamless royal robe over it all.  His eye is especially focussed on his followers - all stitches in his garment.  I am but one stitch.  I sense Him saying:  "You have this life - it's no more or less important than any other I have created redeemed and taken.  But it's every bit as precious.  Every bit as destined.  Every bit as wired to have more of me.  How deep will you go?  How much will you give?  How closely will you listen?"

I sleep.

My security is, as Piper once wrote, "not based on my grip on Him but on His grip on me".  Yet it is His grip on me that produces my pursuit of him.  

Leaf by Niggle - my tribute to a great allegory

In the autumn of 1988, I passed up an opportunity to watch Pink Floyd live at Denver’s Mile High Stadium.  It was, so far as I know, one of the band’s last world tours and it headlined their most recent album “A momentary lapse of reason”.  The next day, after hearing the excited chatter of classmates who’d been there, I knew I’d made a mistake.  By all accounts, the iconic song “Learning to fly” had brought the house down.  It wasn’t just the jaw-dropping light and laser show for which Pink Floyd was famous – it was the song itself: 

A soul in tension that's learning to fly

Condition grounded but determined to try

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies

Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit

Looking back I can imagine the spectacle.  A stadium full of young people – just barely out of life’s starting blocks, drunk with dreams and thrusting ambitions yet, at least for now, straining against the gravity of circumstance.  The words ring true of our condition regardless of age: our dreams are limitless but the years are few.  We embark on life’s journey with such high hopes only to be beaten back repeatedly by the waves of reality.  We are like Gatsby’s “boat’s against the current”, caught in the undertow of a future that year by year recedes before us and eludes us. 

About 45 years earlier, JRR Tolkien, though well on in years, was beset by a similar dilemma.  For almost a decade, he’d been meticulously crafting the epic that would one day be ranked amongst the greatest novels of the 20th Century.  Torn between his academic commitments and his great vision for “The Lord of the Rings”, Tolkien had nonetheless succeeded in breathing life into an ensemble cast of captivating characters and people groups.   He had also developed an elaborate tapestry consisting of 5 major storylines and at least 6 mythical language systems of the various peoples of Middle Earth.  Though the story was unfinished, it was technically a masterpiece already.  But then two things happened that threatened its completion.  The first was a bout of severe writer’s block.  How was he to resolve this welter of characters and storylines in a way that was both convincing and satisfying for the reader?  The second was the onset of World War II.  Would he, and for that matter his work, survive what was to become the greatest conflict of the 20th Century?  It was enough to send him into a deep depression.

Sometime later, Tolkien had a dream that would flourish into the now famous allegory.  Leaf by Niggle tells the story of a fastidious but only modestly talented painter who has realised he will not live to complete his artistic vision.  Though he dreams of a great tree on a majestic landscape, Niggle is permanently distracted by the needs of those around him.  He also knows that a great journey is imminent and that there will be no return ticket.  As the hour of his death approaches, Niggle works harder and harder to complete his work.  Despite many late hours and much painstaking work, death comes before the canvas can be completed.  The fabric ends up being used to repair a leak in his neighbour’s roof and only a small corner of it – a picture-perfect rendition of a leaf - finds its way into the dusty corner of a local museum (which later burns down). 

What, if anything, is Niggle’s legacy?  What discoveries await the little artist as he journeys into the afterlife?  From the vantage point of eternity, what does he learn about those many frustrating years as an artist in the old country?

In one of the most majestic portions of the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews reflects on a similar theme.  The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a tribute to the faith and perseverance of many Old Testament stalwarts who died long before they could see God’s promises come true in their lives:

“All of these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth…”

And then in a verse that would not be out of place in the conclusion to Tolkien’s stunning allegory, the writer adds

“…for those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them”

Pastor Tim Keller – whose book “Every Good Endeavour” is, at least in part, inspired by Tolkien’s allegory, has shared “Leaf by Niggle” with many frustrated creatives and entrepreneurs.  Some are believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and some are not.  All are moved and comforted by its message.  I hope you will be too.  (Tolkien himself acknowledged that the interlude was one of the main contributing factors to the completion of “The Lord of the Rings”).

The consoling truth for any Christian is that our pursuit of beauty, order and transcendence on this side of eternity is but a shadow of the real thing that resides on the other side.  And so to echo F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway in “The Great Gatsby”, though this beauty might partly elude us here “that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning….

So we beat on, boats against the current…”

What will you wear when winter sets in?

There is an old saying that greatly assists us in understanding the unity of scripture.  It goes as follows:

"The New (Testament) is in the Old concealed.  The Old (Testament) is in the New revealed"

The purpose of all scripture is to show how God is at work in space and time.  Because the Bible's ultimate subject is the Lord Jesus Christ, we should expect to see even the most obscure texts pointing to him in one way or the other.  Proverbs 31: 10-31, while by no means obscure, is no exception.

Let's look at what this "woman" does when tough times (winter) set in (vs 21 and 25 Amplified)

21She fears not the snow for her family, for all her household are doubly clothed in scarlet.

25Strength and dignity are her clothing and her position is strong and secure; she rejoices over the future [the latter day or time to come, knowing that she and her family are in readiness for it]!

I can't believe I'm writing this worn out cliche but Robert Schuller's "tough times never last, tough people do" comes to mind.  Does this mean our Proverbs 31 "woman" might have leaped straight from the pages of a self-help manual?  Heaven Forbid.  So where does her strength come from then?

The clue is that when winter (tough times) comes, her household is doubly clothed in scarlet.  We've already established in an earlier post that this woman is a dealer in royal and priestly fabrics (namely linen)...we've seen how her beds are even clothed in linen.  But now we see that in addition to this priestly fabric, her family puts on "scarlet" in winter.   

"Scarlet" was not only a colour or hue...it was yet another sort of rare and expensive fabric made from wool.  On top of this, the wool has been dyed in a special colouring made from the eggs of an exotic insect found only in Spain.  The thermal qualities of wool coupled with this richly coloured dye produced the "double clothing" mentioned in the proverb.

In Romans 13:14, Paul encourages us as follows:

"But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts).

It is only because of the Blood of Jesus that we can stand before the wrath of God.  Even in the depths of scarcity, need and hardship, the blood of Christ is a "double clothing" that declares us righteous and which qualifies us to come before the throne of God in our hour of need.   The blood of Jesus not only saves us from our sins but, as we grow in the likeness of Him, gives us strength, dignity and empowers us to rejoice regardless of the circumstances.

Her lamp does not go out at night...

During The Second Boer War fought at the turn of the 19th century between the British Empire and the Boer Republics, a key and bloody battle took place on a desolate hill near Ladysmith named Spioen Kop.  It began in the early hours of January 23, 1899, and after the first exchanges, it looked as though things had gone the British army’s way. 

But this was just the beginning. 

A lack of cover coupled with its failure to control the secondary peaks surrounding the plateau meant the Imperial army would be pinned down and suffer heavy casualties.  As the day wore on however, Britain’s numerical supremacy over the Boer force led to a stalemate that lasted well into the night. 

Dawn on the second day of battle brought a crucial turning point.   The Boers - unbeknownst to the British commanders - abandoned their positions and began to melt into the surrounding country.
The British front line commander – exhausted, dehydrated and traumatised by hours of sustained violence was completely unaware of this strategic development – and more importantly, completely oblivious of the fact that he had all but won the battle.  Even though 1400 reinforcements had been sent to help, he too ordered a retreat from the land for which he and his soldiers had paid so dearly.  A signaler stationed at a command post halfway up the slopes of the mountain was urgently ordered by General Buller to reverse the decision. But to add insult to injury, he found to his horror that his signaling lamp had run out of oil.  As Thomas Pakenham writes in his seminal book "The Boer War":

"The Battle was lost for want of a pennyworth of Oil"

Did you get that?  One of the most pivotal events in our country's history could have gone the other way had someone taken the simple precaution of making sure there was oil in a lamp.

The exact opposite is true of the Proverbs 31 "woman".  

"Her lamp does not go out at night" - vs. 18

She is like the five bridesmaids in Mark 25 who have been careful to bring enough oil with them to retrim their lamps.  As I contemplate her nature,  I see a woman who is "dressed with strength" - she is spiritually, mentally and even physically fit for the tasks that God has given to do.  She has always got a vial of oil in reserve...But what is the source of this oil?

Firstly, she knows that the tasks she does are not tasks of naked ambition but ones that God has assigned and ordained - a heavenly assignment if you will.  In this way, her work is not just motivated by WHAT she does but also by WHY she does it

Secondly, she "tastes and sees" that her work is fruitful -

"She tastes and sees that her gain from work [with and for God] is good" - vs. 18 Amplified

At the end of every day, despite the odious work of processing flax, spinning linen - of haggling with hard driving traders - she is able to reflect on the incredible reward of having spent her time labouring for the interests of her husband, her household and those in need.

For many employment seems meaningless, bogged down in tedium and low-grade stress.  They leave the office feeling sapped of energy only to crash in front of the TV to binge watch the latest season of whatever on Netflix.  By contrast, The Proverbs 31 woman is a flywheel of growing and ever refining energy because she "perceives that her merchandise (her output) is profitable" (vs. 18 ESV).  Imagine coming home from the office like that?  Your lamp would never go out either!  It would burn without flickering through the good times AND the bad -  

"but it burns on continually through the night [of trouble, privation, or sorrow, warning away fear, doubt, and distrust]"  Vs. 18 Amplified