The Fourth Ship

God brings imperfect years to us on purpose. They're what we can call a James 1 phenomenon. 

Consider it pure joy my brothers, when you encounter trials of various kinds. Knowing that the testing of your faith develops, perseverance and perseverance ultimately results in wisdom. 

We hear a lot about the three ships. One is leadership. We have lots of podcasts, lots of blogs, and everybody's talking about leadership. The second ship we hear about is management, but let's call it managership. And the third ship is stewardship. 

Now, leadership's a big one. Everybody loves to talk about leadership. You lead people—great. Management. That's not quite as glamorous, but you manage processes. And stewardship, which is kind of the new buzzword that a lot of Christians are talking about is really allocating resources and viewing yourself as a manager and not an owner. So we hear a lot about leadership, leading people, managership, managing processes, and stewardship. But we don't hear very much about the fourth ship. And that's lordship. 

Lordship. That's a big one. You see, the first three are probably easy for most entrepreneurs and investors because we're doers. You lead, you manage, you steward. Those are doing things. 

But the fourth one, the being component, the lordship component, sitting down in the morning at the feet of almighty God and saying, "What do you want me to do today, Lord?" That's not always so easy. We have to ask ourselves, Am I doing things that I want to do? Or am I doing things that God wants me to do?

If we want to have God in charge of our lives—and we do—the second one needs to be a yes. When we live through these James 1 phenomenons, when we really feel like we're being tested, it's our ability to surrender to God's lordship (not our own leadership, management, or stewardship strengths) that will allow us to persevere.

Pete Ochs is the founder and chairman of Capital III, an impact investment company with investments in the US and Central America. During his four decades in business he has invested and operated companies in the energy, manufacturing, banking, and education sectors, oftentimes focusing on places devoid of human flourishing such as prisons and poverty-stricken countries. 

If you enjoyed this reading plan, explore other resources for Faith Driven Investors.