December 11th - A season for places and things

The story...

People invested much of their lives building, improving, and sustaining that manufacturing plant.  They learned their first job after practice and soon became an integral part of the team.  They learned how to do some maintenance and later were able to diagnose what was likely wrong.  They campaigned for, and helped install, that new machine that would help them produce more product with accuracy and precision.  They wore their plant logo on their hat and their association with that plant formed much of their identity.  "I've worked at the _____ plant at company A for X years."  It was s part of who they were.

Then the decision came to shut down the plant.  They'd heard rumors before yet the decision came as a shock.  Hadn't they done everything they were asked to do?  Wasn't their life investment valued?  What do they mean when they say that our plant was no longer competitive?  Whose responsible for this?

The manufacturing plant was a tool for producing products that customers wanted and needed.  It was a tool, purchased with borrowed capital $, to produce a profit.  Leaders of the company were responsible for investing the limited capital funds to both pay the bills and to reward the people - those who worked the processes and those who loaned their capital $ for a season. Capitalism does incent change and growth - change and growth is hard for many of us humans.

The only church in town will have people who will want to "do church" just as their parents did.  They want things to be as they remembered - something that you can count on.  They will be excited about new movements like "Promise Keepers" was in the 1990s - it was wonderful and right in its time and place.  The Aim remains the same yet the places, processes, and ways of doing stuff must change. 

Just for today...

"Since there are difficulties with which I must live, the only real answer is to seek the serenity to accept the things I cannot change . . .  Money won't buy serenity; in fact, I'd probably have a whole new set of problems and decisions if a fortune ever did fall into my lap."  Courage to Change (p. 346)