DBU REPORT 20 When I was a boy, I had this grand vision of becoming the neighborhood’s lawn mowing king. I started with just a few houses on my street, but I was convinced I could expand to cover the entire neighborhood. Every week, I would knock on doors, asking if people wanted to hire me to mow their lawn. Most said no. Some said no very firmly. A few pretended not to be home when they clearly were. But I kept at it, week after week, month after month. I created hand-drawn maps of potential clients, calculated profits on the back of my math homework, and even practiced my sales pitch in front of the mirror. Two years later, I had built up enough customers to span an entire neighborhood and had even enlisted my brothers to help expand our service. I never did become the lawn mower king, but I learned that persistence is not just about the big vision, it is about showing up every single day, even when Mr. Winter’s dog chases you down the driveway for the fifteenth time and Mr. Brown still is not happy about how you missed blowing the grass trimmings off his freshly mowed lawn. After nearly ten years of having the privilege to serve as DBU’s president, I have learned that keeping DBU Christ-centered follows the same principle. It is not just about casting our grand vision of building a great university that pleases God; it is about placing Jesus Christ at the center of all we do and showing up every day with a heart’s desire to pursue this goal, regardless of the challenges before us. CHRIST MUST PERMEATE EVERYTHING When we place Jesus Christ at the center of everything we do, this commitment leads to actions that create pathways for maintaining our focus on Him and doing things that honor and glorify His name. The Lord reminds us through James that He grants wisdom when we ask for it, and that is something we emphasize among our leadership team as we strive to make God-honoring decisions every day. We recognize that God’s way is safer than any known way, often a way that challenges conventional wisdom or even what the world calls “best practices.” The world will continually offer advice on what best practices should be, but I have always contended that the first best practice is to seek Christ and His kingdom above all else (Matthew 6:33). The Lord has a way of giving us those subtle promptings and cues to tell us, “This is the way. Walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) If only we would seek Him, ask Him, listen, and obey when He instructs. Keeping DBU Christ-centered Written by Dr. Adam C. Wright
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