What's in the box?
The book Half Time by Bob Buford is one of my favorite books.
Buford is a businessman who came to a point in his life where he was evaluating his life. He was successful but he was asking the same question many ask in mid-life; "What's next?" Asking this question and the process of answering it, led Buford to write Half Time.
In the book, he tells of a time when he was led to a man who was a strategic planning consultant named Mike Kami. The purpose of meeting with Kami was to lead Bob Buford to ask some strategic questions about his life. As they began the process, Mike Kami asked Bob Buford a key question. It was "What's In The Box?"
Bob Buford was somewhat confused. Mike Kami then explained the question. He said "the answer to 'What's in the box?' is the one thing that's important to you."
Mike Kami gave Bob Buford an example. Kami had been asked to consult with the Coca Cola company. He asked the key executives of Coke what the mainspring of their business was? In other words, "what's the one thing that's important to Coke?" Coke executives responded, "great taste." This answer led them to produce "New Coke."
Well, if you remember, "New Coke" didn't go over well with the American people. As a result, Coke executives called Mike Kami back in. Kami said "you must have put the wrong word in the box." After several hours, Coke executives found something else to put in the box; "American tradition." The executives had realized that pulling Coke from supermarket shelves was like dealing with an American tradition. The first time, they had put the wrong word in the box. The second time, they got the correct answer in the box.
Kami then helped Bob Buford formulate his own answer to "what's in the box?" when he said "For you, it's either making money or Jesus Christ. It can't be both."
What he was saying was "You have to decide what's important to you?"
As Bob Buford contemplated the answer to the question, he concluded that for him, "Jesus Christ was in the box so, as he looked toward the second half of his life, it would be built around serving Christ."
We need to ask and answer the same question. If someone were to ask you "What's in the box?" what would you say? Your answer to that question, will prepare you for the second half of your life.
So, what's in your box? What's important to you? Jesus challenged us to "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you" (Matt. 6:33).
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