Fundamentals

Trendy business ideas continue to flood anyone interested in being aware.  The latest jargon, approach, and language tell others that you are moving with the times.  Yet it is in being engaged, executing on the fundamentals, that one discovers the heart of leadership, nurture, moving forward, growth, and ultimately success.  We may describe things differently from our forefathers, however the process of touching the human heart, moving forward as a community, and achieving the goal is the same today as it has always been.
As I struggle with the latest challenge and obstacle in the process of giving birth to a new company, I find myself reaching back to the basics.  The dynamics are unique to our particular community in its time and place, yet the fundamentals are the same as any other group facing a similar challenge.  The type of business we are working to give life is not found in the literature of a decade ago. I cannot imagine my grandfather understanding words like “value proposition”, “functional outsourcing”, and “trade aggregation”.  Yet if I was to tell him that we have a service that leverages the skills of a team to reduce complexity along with saving time and money for someone else, he would understand perfectly!
I often find myself trying to reintroduce God with new language and metaphors.  In the midst of this quest, it is easy to lose sight of the true God.  The warning was and is plain.  “You anoint your king-god with ointments and lavish perfumes on yourselves.  You send scouts to search out the latest in religion, send them all the way to hell and back.  You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different, and never see what a waste it all is.  You've always found strength for the latest fad, never got tired of trying new religions.”  (Isaiah 57.9, 10)
As the storm clouds gather and flood a gloomy dark gray morning, I find myself turning back to the God.  Our God of compassion, love, mercy, community, and engagement is and will always be the same.