Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said:
Shall the one who contends with the Almighty
correct Him?
He who rebukes God, let him answer it."
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
Behold, I am vile;
What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand over my mouth.
Once I have spoken, but I will not answer;
Yes twice, but I will proceed no further"
From the midst of this whirlwind discourse beginning in Chapter 38 and
continuing through Chapter 41, at the beginning of Chapter 40 the Almighty asks
Job this question and we see Job's response. While this question and response
must ultimately be placed in context of God's grace and blessing towards Job in
the remainder of the book, and that offered to all people in the rest of the
Bible, it does give us an insight into today's business or what we call the
enterprise environment which could be summed up in the question: Which is the
correct response; time is money, or time is God's?
All of us educated in the modern world have been taught that time is money
and really have not considered, the truth of the latter statement. Job, during
this experience will complete that understanding in his personal life, and we
have his first response when God allows him the luxury of an answer. It follows
also that if, time is God's, then the truth of the former statement must be
filtered through that paradigm of the last. "God allows us money in return
for our time, according to His sovereign plan."
If on December 1st, 1999 you would have bought according to the conventional
wisdom of that day, one thousand shares each of Microsoft, Amazon,com, and Real
Networks, leaders of Seattle's high tech business sector, those investments
would have cost you respectfully not counting commissions: $93,187.50 @ $93.19/
share; $85,000.00 @ $85.00/ share; and $70,750.00 @ $70.75/ share; for a total
investment of $248,937.50. At the close of trading December 1st 2000, one year
later, your investment would have been worth $94,810.00 (Microsoft @ $56.75;
Amazon.com @ $24.50, Real Networks @ $13.56) for a portfolio decrease of 2.6
times or just 38% of your initial outlay. Now following both paradigm
conventions you must assume that your yearly time, as related to this
investment was a negative value of $154,127.50. No matter how many hours you
worked last year, the whole thing seems a total loss. (A negative $77.06 per
hour in a 40 hour week.) Perhaps, it would be prudent to see if, with that
remaining ninety five thousand dollars, a different investment paradigm might
be available, one based on the concept that God is in control of all, including
time. While man does play a part, we must understand, as Job learned, that this
symbiosis can only be developed through wisdom of how God really works in the
world. Our fallacy is that man controls and makes is own destiny.
I did not have that $250,000 last year, nor do I have the $95,000 this year
and I suspect that most of you do not have those funds either. If I would have
had that type of money I surely would not have invested it in any of those
stocks, I would have invested it in my own company, which I believe fits that
symbiotic model just described, better than any other investment vehicle. The
interesting thing is that last year (or 15 years ago) I would not have
understood this paradigm and while I might be making the big bucks now, I would
not have fully understood my role in God's timing, for it would have not been
in God's timing, but mine. From the first verse of the Book of Job, we see
God's timing fulfilled according to God's plan, and the righteous Job learning
some lessons in God's sovereignty he could have learned no other way. At the
end of it all, Job was more blessed than he was before, and more importantly,
I'm sure he used his blessings with better stewardship than he did before his
wilderness opportunity.
Since we American's still do not have a president and the outcome is
essentially in the hands of the courts, so that we all don't get too
uncomfortable with our similarity to Job lets look at the election somewhat in
that light. "Who would of thunk it," after almost a month the United
States still does not have a President-elect. If you look at who voted for who
and where, what you should notice is that the election was quite similar to one
200 years ago when Thomas Jefferson, a Republican became president by defeating
Aaron Burr. The following from Microsoft Encarta
might provide insight:
In the election of 1800, Jefferson and his
fellow Republican Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral votes, thus
creating a tie and throwing the presidential election into the House of
Representatives. After 36 ballots, the House declared Jefferson elected. (The
Constitution was then amended to require a single electoral vote for president
and vice-president.) Jefferson replacing John Adams the second
president and a strong Federalist (plain text mine). As had Adams before him, Jefferson faced opposition
from an uncompromising faction within his own party as well as from the
Federalists. He steered a steady course between these two extremes, appointing
some qualified Federalists to office and refusing a wholesale purge of
officeholders inherited from the Adams administration. He supported repeal of
the Judiciary Act of 1801, which had created a costly tier of federal appeals
courts and would have encouraged appeals from state courts, but he opposed any
assault on the independence of the Federalist-dominated judiciary; Jefferson's
three appointments to the Supreme Court, made between 1804 and 1807, were all
strong nationalists and upholders of judicial independence.
So we see "Who would have thunk it?"
revisits to some extent the same ground we see in our early history. While the
Federalist Party ceased to hold political power by the 1820's, their concept of
government has been the dominate theme of the development of the United States,
especially in the last half of the twentieth century. When the United States
was a rural economy, the federal government really had little effect on the
lives of ordinary citizens, especially before the era of the Federal Income
tax, enacted essentially in its present state in 1913, but it really was not
all that important until World War II.
On election day we had Al Gore (in the Democrat-Federalist tradition) and
George W. Bush (in somewhat of a Republican-Federalist tradition) running
against each other. But as we have pointed out earlier, this election's results
will be determined by an appointed Federalist type judiciary, and none of the
decisions will be made outside judicial review. This will even be true if
Florida's legislature votes and sends to Washington D.C. its own set of
electors as it is proposing. Monday, judicial rulings tended to uphold the
election of George W. Bush, but the real battle seems to be that most of the
Democrat-Federalist, believe that Bush's "compassionate conservatism"
is just a front for a real Republican-Republican agenda. While my own
sentiments pray that this is true, more importantly if you look at the times,
in the world you see everywhere a decrease in the power of central governments.
Except in the EU (European Union), where there is some prophetic occurrences
taking place, the rest of the world is being divided as it seems by some divine
plan. Could that actually be God's timing? Keys of that understanding can be
gleaned from looking at the diversity of creation, but that would just do more
to further upset this governmental change now taking place.
In the same aspect as with the great high tech investments, all political
theory of the experts is again wrong. The only ones operating on the time is
money paradigm in this political contest are the lawyers, having no monitary
interest in seeing the situation settled quickly.
Neither of our two paradigm examples fit within the context of what
conservative Christians call America's Judeo-Christian religious heritage,
which was never a significant part of our constitutional legacy, as any reading
of history will point out. Even in New England, the Puritan's 16th century hope
for creating a New World heaven on earth utopia, had been almost completely
abandoned. The founding fathers sectarian beliefs were deist at best, but
played lip service to Puritan dogma, which most believed legalistic and
unworkable. Everyone was into doing "what was right in their own eyes."
God became the "Big Dude up there" or the "Jesus Essence"
in modern terms, created by and for those too weak to take care of themselves.
The framers of the constitution have seen their hopes for a true democracy
fulfilled, until this election. Perhaps, one should wonder what God is rotting?
But if there truly is a God that has given mankind a book about himself, and
redemption is found only in Jesus Christ as that "Good Book" points
out. If "Time is God's," then all this political junk and material
stuff could be destroyed in any way, and at any time God so merits,
instantaneously, or over hundreds of years. The Bible has many examples
throughout that whole time spectrum. Those who came out the best in those
trials were always the ones who looked to God for their provision, and not the
time is money, exclusively by their own efforts, paradigm. God in control, is
not entirely a new standard for living your life in this world, but it is
something that really has not had a lot of practical examples in many centuries
except in isolated instances, perhaps God will make it a requirement for true
success once again. Our two examples do point in that direction, the question
is what if any steps do you plan to take if you believe that "time is
God's" to be true?
At the end of the Job scenario I mentioned,
right now I feel that I am perhaps at that point where Job was, when God
questioned him, I know that this has been a rough time for me, really just a
big trying circuit through a wilderness of many years and many trials. I am
really not that different and my understanding of who God truly is has not
changed that much, I would truly do the same things I would have done fifteen
years ago, but today I would do them much differently, very differently than I
would have just four weeks ago.
As I reported last week, two weeks ago the stuff kind of appeared as to the
path forward, this last week it was the method, or the focus, which I had
struggled with perhaps more so than with the stuff. This week it would seem to
me that the means would be an appropriate response from God. After all, down
deep in some hidden chamber I still harbor thoughts that my time is money. But
I have understood through all this in a new and fresh way as reported by Paul,
"That God's grace is sufficient." It is just I have trouble
understanding that sufficient, is enough. I have places to go and people to
meet and God just does not get it, or perhaps I will learn it this time. Please
intercede for provisions towards that end, for my requirements are really quite
insignificant to His greater provision and blessing