by Craig Larson
For nearly a decade, I have had the privilege of being involved with the manufacture of computer chips. “A privilege?” you ask. Yes. The engineering and operations feat accomplished with the shipment of each device is a testimony to the high state of technical knowledge mankind has achieved. But beyond the creature comforts produced, there is something else that has impressed me from the beginning. There is a correlation between principles that are profitable in business, and what has produced fruit in my walk with God.
Continuous Improvement
In manufacturing, a method that produces a desirable result is a method to capture. Capturing how to do something reveals a commitment to repeating a worthy result. It also fosters an inclination toward continuous improvement that transcends disciplines. Likewise, conformity to Christ does not happen without a commitment to ongoing, deliberate change.
“Continuous improvement” carries all the right connotations but begs further definition (more “granularity” you might hear an engineer quip). Two important considerations with direct application to the Christian walk are experimentation and waste.
Experimentation entails design and measuring risk against reward. The biggest breakthroughs I’ve observed vocationally have been tied to an informed boldness that challenges status quo to see if it deserves to be status quo (don’t even inquire about instances of uninformed boldness!). Likewise, sanctification involves a willingness to act outside the scope of habit, to experiment. Can we find better ways of communicating with someone? Are we certain we’ve been adequately innovative in kicking down doors that retard spiritual growth? An active sanctification demands that we put ourselves in necessary circumstances for new information to be generated, our minds committed to interpreting the information that is uncovered.
Waste is more than a government guarantee. It is a defining tendency of human drift to lowest common denominators. The Christian walk is a lean walk. In manufacturing terms, “lean” has more to do with efficiency than scarcity. It is a declaration of vigilance against waste.
In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul exhorts believers to strive for perfection. We could call this “striving for zero defect.” Now Paul (and I) freely acknowledges this is not literally achievable. In fact, for my part, it’s comical. But it does describe an outlook of war against waste. Waste is observed in poor execution, waiting, and motion. It is observed in the overproduction of useless things and the underproduction of what is desperately needed. The awakening spirit, coming alive to God, views waste as an enemy. It studies to comprehend consequences and resists predatory lenders of cash and time alike.
The Root of the Problem
Mistakes that are proliferated are sometimes called excursions by engineers. Upon regeneration, we find our mind and soul to be a factory full of excursions. We discover ugly error in every process that defines our thought, time, and behavior. A simpler word for excursion is problem. Once we’ve identified a lack of control, we’ve identified a problem. Continuous improvement in the imitation of Christ requires that we become capable problem-solvers. Solving a problem first requires accurately defining it. Once that occurs, consideration can be given as to why it has happened, i.e., uncovering the root cause.
What are examples of common problems that need troubleshooting in our walk with God? To name a few: If love keeps no record of wrongs, why do I keep reminding someone of a response I didn’t like? If my gifting remains suppressed because of fear, why is this so? If doubt is a barnacle always attached to my reflection on the divine, what’s going on? Problems like this are layered. We discover root cause at one level only to mine up disturbing new findings at a deeper level. Effective problem-solving is key to continuous spiritual improvement. It is work the regenerated soul does because it is driven to reverse its decline by reconciliation to the Father.
The following is an overview of clear-minded problem-solving used in technical processes. Facing down why we do what we do (root cause), can be plugged into this flow to help the mind benefit the soul:
1. Clearly define a problem
2. Assess the current situation
3. Analyze the cause
4. Implement a solution
You needn’t be an engineer to think about why things have happened. We all do it all the time anyway. Yet there is a reactive pondering that doesn’t produce change, and there is a proactive examination tenacious enough to dissect and understand. Christians have the powerful advantage of praying for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to change. The Holy Spirit works through the increasing understanding of our minds more than apart from it. Therein lays the value of uncovering root cause for our behavior, and great wisdom.
By All Indications
All this talk of deliberate sanctification implies something specific about the Christian view of self: It is not static. In walking closer with our God, we learn personal change requires time and effort. Sounds obvious, but think back...it’s frequently not. Over the course of our lives, we must learn to structure our activities, because every activity relates to God.
To achieve this, a good spiritual sleuth understands his critical indicators. Emotion and responses from others are examples of such indicators. Emotions are not the correct criteria for decision-making, but they are indicators that reveal information that can help us make decisions. Responses from others that consistently puzzle us sometimes reveal truth about ourselves that we couldn’t arrive at through other means. Putting ourselves into new circumstances that require observation and change can make the indicators “wiggle” and attract our attention to experiment and eliminate waste.
Finally, one sure-fire indicator is how much time we spend thinking about ourselves versus time spent plotting service to others. Inward implementation of change has measurable outward effect. Misery indices creep higher when we abandon this “customer orientation.” Together, such indicators are a sanity check when we lose focus on our deliverables to God and man. They point us back to the lean, straight, and narrow walk.