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Jumping the S Curve

David Schmidt | Outcomes, Jan/Feb 2007

In God's engineering of the universe, the earth, and especially our lives, there's a management principle at work that's about to reshape the future of Christian Management Association. It's counter-intuitive in content and application in life and work. Here it is:

Nothing is permanent.

• Rivers cut through beautiful valleys to create rugged canyons—that keep changing.
• Trees rise 100 feet into the sky, only to be cut down by loggers, fire or beetles—to be replaced by new seedlings.
• Brilliant flowers light up the desert in spring and then fade into brown.
• Even stars centuries old die.
• Churches die and the buildings are converted into condos or restaurants

Following our Creator's design, we grow seeds and cattle to maturity, only to eat them. We build cities on the ruins of the prior city taken in battle. We take oil from the ground to run our vehicles and create plastic things. Then we consume it to transport ourselves, or grind the plastic into beads for toys and playgrounds.

And then, of course, there are our lives—the most obvious and clearest testimony that the pattern of God's world and creation runs on this principle—nothing lasts. Kids grow up and leave home. Christmases change as families change. Jobs and careers take different paths. Those we love are taken from us by death. As the Bible says: 

What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14)

Nothing is permanent, except for God himself. In fact, Jesus explains this lack of permanence this way: 

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Mark 13:31)

Interestingly, this lack of permanence doesn't bother us—until it starts to mess with the order of our lives. When our sense of the stable and permanent is challenged, upset or even destroyed, then every human emotion can occur. We may like variety—but few of us like disruptive change.

As a management principle, "nothing is permanent" doesn't seem like good management. We'd think that the essence of ensuring that things in our organizations are stable and running predictably well for as far as we can see is the essence of good management.

Yet, in fact, this "nothing is permanent" truth is in dynamic tension with our desire to create stability and permanence. We do need stability in our organizations—but not at the price of effectiveness.

• When mission impact declines because we're so busy trying to keep things the same, we run the real risk of missing out on our preferred future.