Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 300 – Keeping your heart soft

This devotion is an elegy for John Vrolijk — a reader of these reflections and a friend.

Recently, John stepped from this life into the nearer presence of Christ. There are many things to say about John and his walk with the Lord. But this is a business devotion, so let us consider what John’s life teaches us about leadership.

He was a tough businessman who kept his heart soft.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” — Proverbs 4:23

There were many times as we worked together that John had to tell me things that were difficult to hear. Sometimes he was right. Sometimes he was wrong. But he was always honest. You knew his decisions were made with the intention of keeping his enterprises sustainable and ethical.

He had to make the kinds of decisions leaders recognise immediately — letting partners, staff, and suppliers go; negotiating difficult deals; restructuring organisations; walking away from opportunities that did not align; holding firm when compromise would have been easier.

He made those decisions with integrity.

And he kept his heart soft.

“I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” — Ezekiel 36:26

That soft heart was most evident in his work with First Peoples through the Amiskwaciy Cultural Society. His work with the Head Start Programme to provide better educational outcomes for First Nations, Métis and Inuit children has shaped a generation. Many young lives carry the imprint of John’s faithful stewardship.

Strength and tenderness lived together in John.

Three hundred devotions in, I am convinced that the true measure of a life is not scale, revenue, influence, or even output. It is the condition of the heart, growing and maturing in Christ. It’s loving God and loving people. It is, in the end, faithful stewardship. 

John’s life reminds us to keep our hearts soft.

Soft enough to forgive.
Soft enough to repent.
Soft enough to hope.
Soft enough to trust Christ at the edge of death itself.

“For we do not lose heart… For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” — 2 Corinthians 4:16,18

Thanks, John.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, 

Guard our hearts as we lead.
Keep us firm in conviction yet soft in spirit.
Where we have grown guarded or brittle, renew us.
Where grief lingers, comfort us with the hope of resurrection.

Teach us to steward well what You entrust to us,
until we too step into Your nearer presence.

Amen