13. Day-by-Day Praise

i. From the Business World - The Merger-Stunned*

We're all a bit stunned today, Lord.

The news of the company merger,

Of inevitable restructuring, redundancies and job moves.

Will it be me?

There's not much work going on.

Lots of talk. Lots of coffee.

And the internal jostling of emotion with rational thought,

And irrational thought.

How do you really want me to handle this?

I've turned to you now,

And sense that I need to lay my humanity at your feet.

Where now Lord?

"My Son. You are right to come to me early.

Remember that I made you, and know how every thought arises,

And why it arises,

And what it does to you.

"Reach out to me and hold firm to my word. 1

Remember that I have a purpose for you that transcends time.

You will see this present issue differently - even tomorrow.

But I am unchanging!"

Thank you Lord.

It was helpful to be lifted out of the temporal for a moment,

And realise again that you are the rock

Despite the shaking and moving ground of today.2

1. 1 Corinthians 15:2

2. Matthew 7: 26-27

* Published in Business Praise, Acorn Press, Melbourne, 2000

In December 1998, I was employed in Melbourne, Australia, as the Medical Director of Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Australia. We were a major pharmaceutical company with a significant market presence especially in cardiovascular, cancer medicine, and anaesthesia. Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Australia was the subsidiary of Zeneca Pharmaceuticals PLC, a large international pharmaceuticals company. My role was management of technical support across the breadth of the Australian company. Although I had held the position effectively for almost 14 years, there had been a number of very major changes. In 1985, we were ICI Pharmaceuticals, a Division of ICI Australia, and partly owned by IC I PLC of the United Kingdom, but changes of ownership during the 1990s followed the demerger of ICIPLC to ICI and Zeneca, the change of status of ICI Australia to become the independent Orica, and finally the sale of the Australian Pharmaceutical business to Zeneca in September 1998. All these brought stresses and uncertainties to the business, but generally we coped well as we found our new identities.

Then on December 9th 1998, we were told that internationally, Zeneca was to merge with Astra to create a new mega-company called AstraZeneca. I have no doubt that this is best for both companies in the long run and at an international level, but it presented challenges to us in Australia. Astra Australia was based in Sydney with a beautiful site and set of offices. We were smaller, and still renting space in the Orica building while looking for new premises. Sydney is a large throbbing and exciting city, but so is Melbourne. We just happened to have real estate prices 30% lower, which made transfers a challenge.

So the announcement came as a sledgehammer to all of us. Work stopped. People huddled around in corners, offices, and coffee rooms discussing the unknown. We tried to be positive, but time has shown that in Australia, almost all of us needed to look for other employment.

In the midst of this, I retired to my office and wrote these words. None have been changed. These are the exact words as penned on December 9th 1998. I later added the two Scripture references.

What do I think about these words - now much later. First, I think that it was right to come to the Lord and be absolutely honest. This is me, Lord. This is the situation. This is how I feel. I am anxious. Where am I going to be in a year's time - or two? And Lord, my mind is racing. Some of it is reasonable, but some of it is charged with emotion and is totally unrealistic. And all around me, Lord, my friends and colleagues are having the same problem. We are all human and in this together.

So I prayed this prayer. I just had to put myself in his hands and acknowledge my humanity. Where now, Lord?

It was late morning and quiet in the office - just the gentle hum of anxious voices up and down the corridor. And the words flowed out of my pen on to a rough sheet of quarto paper - down to "Where now, Lord?"

I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and just sat there.

Then his words began to flow, just a word or phrase at a time and certainly not sentence by sentence. "My son, you are right to come to me early." Then the reassurance that he knew exactly how I felt, followed by the encouragement to trust. And the final word - "You will see this issue differently - even tomorrow. But I am unchanging." Then followed my response.

It was strangely peaceful to see these words in front of me, and I had a sense of serenity knowing that I taken this approach and entered his presence. Just 15 minutes later, I showed my prayer to two Christian colleagues along the corridor. I would like to think that it encouraged them too.

Now many months later, I remain content in his purpose. I have left the company on friendly terms, look back with affection for the exciting things we did together, but am pleased to be browsing in new pastures. On another occasion, I sensed that the Lord was saying, "I'll bring you a solution that you can not even imagine at this time."

One thing for sure, this book would never have been written if all these events had not taken place. My prayer for you the reader is that you too will be blessed, perhaps by my experience, but more as you put these principles into action and grow deeper into a new relationship with our Lord.

Copyright Howard Smith 2002. All Rights reserved.

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