“For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

It has to be a very heady moment if you are an architect and your client says to you, “I want you to build the tallest building in the world.” The quest to have the highest structure goes back to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Then centuries later the Lincoln Cathedral stood the tallest for almost 250 years. In the 19th century there was a lot of cathedral building in Europe and then we in America got in the race to be tallest with Philadelphia City Hall, then skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, Chicago Sear’s Tower, etc.  At the end of the 1990’s The Petronas Towers took the crown.  22 years later more than a dozen new buildings have held the title. Today, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  And before long, that will be second, third or even further down the list.  We are always building and trying to prove to ourselves and others that we (as a society and even in our companies) can outdo ourselves and break a record.  It’s part and parcel to who we are.

Jonn Elledge who wrote an article on this phenomena and where I found the above facts, also pointed out that there has been an evolution that rode aside the changes in building heights. Originally, they were religious structures, then political and now commercial/capitalism focused.  I find this a good reminder that in our work of commerce where we try and build higher and higher that we can’t lose the focus on our faith and the heights that God can take us to.  God tells us that His way and thoughts are higher than ours!  Let’s remember that as we are building higher in whatever it is that we have been given to do.

Reference: Isaiah 55:9 (New Living Translation)

Note: I’m excited to start a PwK series of posts on “The Gift of Work” beginning Monday, December the 5th for the full month, which as we know is the “Gift month of the year!