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Men of Integrity, Nov/Dec 2000
Lessons from a Business Crisis
This Week's Theme: Surviving Storms
Saturday, December 16
Q. Your company makes oil burners. How did the 1979 oil embargo affect you?
A. That crisis had a frightening impact on our business. Who needs an oil burner if there's no oil? Most of our major customers severely curtailed purchases; some stopped buying altogether. We were especially vulnerable because we'd just expanded our facilities.
One major competitor pulled back most of its product development and even its selling efforts. They saw no way out. After consultation and prayer, we concluded that we'd become more aggressive. We stepped up new product development and sent our management team out on the speaking circuit, encouraging customers to take advantage of the immediate problem by replacing older, inefficient heating systems with modern, fuel-saving units. The idea took hold. We sold hundreds of thousands of replacement units, enabling us to hold our production levels and keep our entire workforce active through the dark days of the crisis. We emerged stronger from this traumatic time, becoming the industry leader.
How does God use crisis in our lives?
Though we've often had difficulty seeing God's purposes in the midst of problems we've faced, hindsight has revealed His prevailing design and intentions. Over and over we've seen the truth of Isaiah's words [in 55:8-11] that God's ways are not our ways, but are infinitely higher. Difficulty is God's instrument. Its lessons can be embraced or shunned, but eventually they must be learned. In God's economy, there seems to be no other way.
John D. Beckett is president of R. W. Beckett Corporation in Elyria, Ohio.
Adapted from: Loving Monday (InterVarsity, 1998).
NOTE: For your convenience, Loving Monday is available in the ChristianityToday.com Shopping Channel.
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Thank you, Jesus, for being there when I fall.
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