Values & Priorities with Rich Huisman

What is your life’s purpose? What are your business priorities? Are you feeling joyful or stressed? If you are just starting out in business, where does Christ fit into your checklist of priorities?  Rich Huisman of Jent Consulting offers some excellent advice.

Rich tells his story…

“For most of my life, I wanted to drive, and I didn’t let God lead. I had grabbed the steering wheel, set a course, then asked God to rubber stamp everything I was pursuing or trying to accomplish. 

“What were my priorities? 1. money and climbing the corporate ladder; 2. work 3. kids and their sports; 4. my sport interests of golf and hockey; 5. my marriage and wife; 6. God was last. Basically, I wanted God to approve what I was doing, and I would go to him for help. 

“What changed? A crisis moment. One day I overheard my eldest son joke to a friend that he had basically been raised by his mother because his father was always on a plane going somewhere with work. That wrecked me! My kids wanted time with me, not money for their college fund. That day everything changed. I quit my job and ended my corporate career!

“Eventually I started a consulting business and wrote a book about leadership entitled The Leaders’ List – Are you a great leader?  Find out now!  But when I decided to make Jesus my life purpose, I began to really study God’s Word, especially the red letters that highlight Jesus’ voice. What could I learn from Him as a leader? First, He was baptized and explained that we needed to be born again. Next, Jesus went into the wilderness to face Satan’s temptations. I discovered I, too, must face opposition once I chose Jesus as the purpose of my life! My need for spiritual transformation also led me to repentance and spending time asking God, and my wife, for forgiveness.

“Servant-leadership is what Jesus models. When I stopped focusing on retirement planning and began to value time spent with God or serving others my life improved. An eye-opening challenge for all of us is to look at our credit card receipts and see how much of the total serves God.”

The challenge of money

Did you know that 16 out of 38 parables by Jesus discuss money or riches? Jesus says it is more difficult for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why this image? Rich chuckles when he shares his memory from childhood of a camel entering a city. He recalls hearing that in Jesus’ day, the gateway into some cities was cut so low that a camel’s load was first removed and then the camel must fall to its knees, almost crawling through a small gate in the wall, before entering the city.

“We, too, need to unload our treasured possessions, then kneel in prayer before we can enter into a close relationship with our God. Everything we own, after all, is a grace gift from our God! 

“Love and Jesus are inseparable. 1 Corinthians 13:4 teaches us that love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy or boast. Jesus is love…so I had to ask myself, what about Rich? Is Rich patient, kind, not envious or boastful? That’s another challenge. But I can say that I have more joy now than I did before my priorities became: 1. God in charge and driving; 2. my marriage; 3. our kids; 4. work (sports doesn’t mean much anymore).”

Three Take Aways…

PURPOSE OF LIFE: Seeking to become Christ-like involves learning more about love, humility, inspiring followers and developing a devotional life. 

PRIORITIES OF LIFE: Daily asking God for direction will make servant-leadership a priority.

PASSIONS OF LIFE:  Spending time alone with God increases joy and transforms hearts.

In conclusion, after Rich turned fifty, he bought multiple bird feeders and started to love birds.  As God’s creation, they do not worry about tomorrow, what they will wear, and yet they’re dressed magnificently. They store no food, yet they eat daily. Their praise songs fill the morning skies with joy. We can learn from them! 

Spending time alone with God, in prayer, worship, songs of praise and thanksgiving is something that can build our relationship with God. Since each one of us has close to 112 waking hours per week at our disposal we each can ask ourselves: How much of our waking hours will we spend as time alone with God? Rich’s story challenges us to want to reprioritize Jesus as the number one purpose of our life!

“Connecting your Sunday Faith to your Monday Work” The Canadian Christian Business Federation exists to support business leaders in the study and application of Biblical Leadership Principles with peers in order to transform lives, strengthen businesses, and positively influence and impact our world. www.ccbf.org

Nancy Kingdon is an author and freelance writer who writes and donates these stories as a gift to the CCBF ministry.  She may be reached through: www.writinglegacy.com