Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 324 – The Gift of a Near Miss When Terri and I ran our environmental consulting firm, we had a rigorous safety programme, inspired in part by ExxonMobil’s system. One of the tools we used was something called a Near Miss Report. Whenever we had an incident in which someone almost got hurt, or property almost got damaged, we documented it and discussed it with the team....

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 323 – Two Birds with One Stone  View this in your browser Throughout my career, I have often tried to prove the old saying, “Kill two birds with one stone.” When I attempt this, however, I generally miss both birds. Just today, I was trying to juggle attending the funeral of a dear friend’s mother and catching a flight immediately afterward. The timing would likely have required me to...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 322 – Making Waves View this in your browser I was swimming today, muttering underwater about the people swimming in the nearby lanes and all the waves they were making. Then I sensed Jesus swimming beside me. (He is a much better swimmer than I am; it is almost as though He can walk on water)… and he said. “What about the waves you are making?” I hate it when He does that. It reminded me that...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 321 – Mind the Gap, Part II In last week’s devotion, we talked about minding the gaps in our businesses, the empty spaces in our supply chains, customer service, administrative systems, and organizational structures. This week, let’s look a little closer to home. What weakness in my character, relationships, or spiritual life is undermining the work God has entrusted to me? Minding the...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 320 – Mind the Gap View this in your browser Recently my activities in London took me all over the city on the Underground and the train.  At every station, a familiar announcement reminded passengers: “Mind the gap”, the space between the platform and the train as one disembarks. The gap may appear small, but if we fail to notice it, we can stumble, fall, or injure ourselves....

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 319 – When Fields Need Fallowing I am working on our Seed Farm in north Kyrgyzstan as I write this. We have just acquired the land, and some of it is in rough shape. Before we received it, the land had been worked hard, plowed deep, and never given much opportunity to rest. The soil has been worn to the bone. Then I visited one of the nearby facilities we support. I saw something very...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 318 – Deep Soil I was in my happy place twice this week. “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”— Luke 8:15 On Tuesday, I was taking soil samples from metre-deep pits. I love profiling soils, seeing the history in the different layers, analyzing the texture, looking for contamination, and...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 317 – Eating the Darkness You have to eat the darkness. It is a hard phrase, I know. I do not remember reading it anywhere exactly that way. I think it came to me through a synthesis of Scripture, personal experience, the writings of Martin Shaw and kindred voices, and the music and reflections of Nick Cave. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 316 – The Compass That Is Christ I’m a biologist, comfortable working in the bush. One of my key tools, long before the advent of smart phones, was my compass. I would adjust it for magnetic north, depending on where I was in the world, and once that was done, I knew where North was. No matter how dense the forest was, no matter how limited my field of vision, with my compass and map or air...

Devotions for a Busy Business Person, no. 315 – Correcting our Aim Every business needs regular re-evaluation. In Scripture, this kind of re-evaluation is not merely strategic. It is spiritual. The biblical word for sin carries, among other meanings, the idea of “missing the mark.” Sin is not only doing obviously wrong things. It is also the gradual bending of our aim away from God. We may still be busy, productive, and outwardly...