Emblazoned across the notepads Enron gave their employees in 2001 was this gripping quote: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that really matter” – Dr. Martin Luther King.
It was a phrase Sharon Watkins pondered every day while she planned her future in or out of the giant company where she worked.
Finally she decided silence was not an option. Silence was slow death as King warned. Increasing conviction came over her about what Enron was up to. First she wrote the CFO anonymously. It was ignored. Gathering up her research she marched directly to CEO, Kenneth Lay. After their meeting the question among the higher ups was: “How can we get rid of her?”
It was too late for Lay. Watkins went public about the house of accounting cards Enron had built that would soon fall. With two other whistleblowers, her picture was on the front of Time magazine’s Persons Of The Year edition for 2002.
As the sad saga unfolded she increasingly turned to her church and to God for strength and support. Before this crisis of conscience she was known for her competence, but not her spirituality around the water cooler. She could engage in office gossip and crude commentary with the best. But as the events of Enron unfolded, her roots sank deeper and deeper into Christ and her church.
“I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing” (--Jesus, John 15:5).
Jockey underwear’s CEO, also a Christian, won’t have models pose in suggestive poses. Nor will she have a man and a woman pose in underwear together unless they wear matching wedding bands.*
I will often ask people how it’s going with them and Jesus. Frequently they’ll say “Good.” But knowing the condition of their life, I’ve wondered if they’re coming clean with me. I’m increasingly tempted to ask this follow up: “What are the signs it’s going well with Jesus and your soul? What should be the hallmarks of a good relationship with Christ?”
Jockey’s CEO and Sharon Watkins both show it is well with their soul and their walk with Christ. They are following Him in closely in costly steps of obedience. They’re not just dropping His name or praying the sinner’s prayer.
As King David shouted in the Older Testament: “This has to cost me something” (2 Samuel 24:24). What does your Christianity cost you? How can you tell you’re a Christian? Who/what really matters to you?
(*SOURCE: Rich Nathan’s 9/6/09 sermon “God At Work” at the Vineyard, Columbus, Ohio.)
