Solid Ground I ...

Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012. We had a discussion yesterday about the “generation Y”, i.e. those people who were born after 1980. I posted an article among some of my colleagues - saying that these younger guys have learned that you cannot trust any corporation or institution today; and that you have to make sure yourself, that your employability is increased step by step during your current job … any time it can end. It is a historical experience of young people who have gone through shaky economic times …

Where is a foundation, solid ground? …

Younger people today seem to be much more adventurous and mobile than they used to be 40 years ago. In an aging society, they know what they are worth, and they want perspective for their life, want to keep their work-life-balance intact. The old way, where you had to serve for many years to work yourself up through the hierarchy, is not on their agenda. It is an interesting question in all of this: what do you build your life upon? What is the foundation of your actions, your decisions, your choices?

I have seen this as well several times: employers who did not take responsibility. I have seen large-scale companies who let thousands of highly skilled people of. I have seen institutions which were far away from giving perspective to their employees, companies as well as public institutions. Do we provide a foundation, a solid ground for the life of young people? Not necessarily - if it comes to jobs and job security. If you look into what happens in parts of southern Europe currently, we can say that the states are far away from solid foundations and trustworthiness (still much better than many others, I know, but that does not make it good).

I like it that young people today are a little more adventurous. It is terrible when people work in their institutions too long, and change becomes more or less impossible. We need development. But we also need responsibility - and that is something which we might lack if we are too flexible, too quick to change. We need responsibility, which is flexible and capable at the same time, as a foundation for business progress and sustainable business success.

Foundations of Life …

What are the foundations of our life? What is the foundation of faith? We need to broaden our view a little bit, and step back from a focus on business only, or on some particular steps an institution needs to take. We need a sound foundation for our whole life, for everything we do, for our faith, our belief, for our choices and decisions. It cannot just be linked to a particular goal, it must be broader, deeper, a foundation which is valid also for times where we cannot work, where we are ill or weak, infant or senior …! Where do we get the foundation?

Humans can choose their foundation. There is an element of choice in our mind and our soul. We make decisions. That is one of the characteristics of human freedom: we can choose. Even if we are forced, if we are in a prison, we can make choices to give in or to rebel against the circumstances. Is it our choices, which are the foundation of life?

The New Testament points us to another foundation. It is not our choices, but we can choose to acknowledge it and build on it. It is not a book, though we can read about it. It is not a theory, though theories have been made about it. It is much more: it is a person. The apostle Paul writes about this foundation in his letter to the people in Corinth:

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have— Christ Jesus ” (1 Corinthians 3, verse 11). We will need to explore this foundation in more depth over the next days and weeks …! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts