Bernard Moon and I are attending a businessmen’s conference called Time Out at the beautiful Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey, California.  The hotel was, until recently, owned by our colleague, Bill Hooper. It’s a spectacular setting (my wife just reminded me that she was shuttling our daughter to soccer practice and expecting a freeze tonight back in Colorado) and this gathering provides some vital insights into what is needed to integrate faith, a biblical worldview, and a life in business.

Time Out started in 1994, growing out of a lunch conversation that now encourages over 650 men in their lives of faith lived out in the world of business. The Time Out conference is unique in that it is not the extension of any ministry organization. Time Out has no agenda to raise money or recruit people to some program or cause. It simply exists to be a safe place for men to gather with peers to reflect, discuss, pray, and encourage each other to live according to biblical priorities — seeking that elusive work-life balance — and to use their God-given gifts, abilities, and resources to make a difference.

A unique highlight to me the first evening was the introduction of the participants. This was not a generic, shake hands with someone at your table introduction. There was time to introduce every single person and have them answer the question, “What is the one thing in your life that is keeping you from being completely committed to following God?” This is the level of authenticity that Time Out strives for and is largely successful in achieving. Titles and accomplishments are not the issue. You come as a person humbly seeking to live a faithful life of commitment to Christ…just as you are.

This morning’s session — the first of three — was taught by Dr. Ken Boa. His lesson was that spiritual life and growth are a process, not an event. This may seem obvious, but this is not the way many successful men perceive and live their lives. Life is, to us, all about events, goals, and accomplishments. That’s why we ask a stranger, “What do you do?”  so we can, at best, find common ground for conversation, or more darkly, size up the person to compare ourselves in terms of position, prestige, accomplishment. Boa says “What do you do?” is the wrong question. The right question is, “Who are you?” And that is a question that most — even the most successful — men cannot answer clearly.

Who are we? The Scriptures would tell us we are children of the living God and that success is not measured by the pile of stuff we’ve accumulated or the power in our grasp, but by our faithfulness in the journey of faith here on earth. Who are you? Who am I? Have you thought about that recently?  Have you ever asked that of anyone?

Boa explained that a trap of living for the usual goals and objectives gets us always living in the future.  This results in what he calls “product living.” We live from goal to goal, accomplishment to accomplishment. We achieve one, and then our minds are reset onto the next. The tragic result is that — for decades at a time — we are rarely alive to the present moment. Our lives are pervaded by a lack of contentment because we live in the delusion that contentment only exists in the future, only by achieving our next goal or acquisition.

But a life of faith in Christ is a life lived in the moment, in the present — present with God, and present with the opportunity of the moment. And these present moments are largely relational. It’s the opportunity to speak the right word to someone, to offer a helping hand, to give a gift, to serve, to love. In fact, the key to living in the moment is not an issue of faith but of love. Hope looks to the future. Faith stands on the past. Love keeps us in the moment with the relationships around us, that intrude into our lives. Is it any wonder that the Scriptures say, the greatest of these is love…

Jesus managed to live the most significant life ever lived, not by being the highest achiever, but by living in all the moments that God had planned for him. His life was lived for others.

My takeaway from this session? To live as a Christ-follower in business is not merely about having “holy” goals. It is about what Brother Lawrence called, practicing the presence. It’s about living every moment of every day in my work life, aware and alive to the presence of God with me in all the daily, mundane details and decisions. It’s about being aware of how God wants me to think and respond moment by moment. And it’s being alert to the encounters with people throughout the day and to respond to them as Christ would. And no amount of technique or technology or programs will get me to this point. It requires building a relationship with Christ.

Think about it. The infinite and eternal Christ could suddenly reduce his whole focus, instantly and fiercely, to one person on the side of the road, ignored by everyone else. In that moment, nothing…NOTHING…was more important. And nothing else achieved the will of God but being in that moment.

More later…back to the next session.