Our Inheritance – Shaken Not Stirred

By James Sturdy

Scott Grady is a senior level engineer who works at WellGen Defense Systems; an aerospace avionics manufacturing company. He works on a program for the new U.S. Air Force C-X transport aircraft with Braxton Aerospace; an aircraft manufacturing company and WellGen’s customer. At the beginning of the proposal effort Scott considers the C-X opportunity and the potential contract for WellGen: Is it really an opportunity or just another project doomed to problems with cost and schedule overruns? The C-X contract is won and program execution encounters many problems. Wellgen is eventually accused of providing an unsafe product. As finger pointing escalates Scott becomes a scapegoat. Faced with losing his job, Scott must find a way to redeem himself and prove that WellGen is innocent. As everything seems to be falling apart in Scott’s life he searches for answers. As he does he tries to rekindle his relationship with Jesus Christ and rediscovers the truth about his true inheritance as a believer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973677390

James Sturdy

Currently living in the Kansas City area, James Sturdy has over 45 years of experience as an Engineer in the aerospace industry, and during the same time maturing as a son, husband, father, and grandfather. James combines his personal and work experiences in a unique perspective on life. We often experience stressful situations that unravel our patience and self-confidence when the outcome is uncertain and out of our control. Inspired by one of James’ favorite fictional characters, James Bond, he writes his stories with a goal of helping others understand that stressful situations may shake us up with many unknowns while we encounter them, but we can learn how to navigate those unknowns with confidence using a ‘shaken not stirred’ attitude learned from truths in the Bible.

Book preview

Part I:

A Great Opportunity

Colossians 1:3–8 teaches us that many Christians are not sharing in the fruit of the Good News, our confident hope of what God has reserved for us. Many things in life appear to be great opportunities, but worldly opportunities have a habit of unraveling into the worst nightmares. Sharing in the fruit of the Good News, often missed by believers, is the greatest opportunity we have because it is not based on worldly expectations. Instead it is heavenly minded, eternally relevant, and designed by our perfect creator. It will not disappoint us!

chapter 1

Calm before the Storm

S trike two! The home plate umpire calmly, but sternly, made the call.

What? yelled the coach from the home team dugout. You call that a strike? What is this—a golf tournament?

It was the bottom of the fourth inning, and the home team was at bat. There were already two outs, and they were behind by two runs. The coach was frustrated with his team because they didn’t follow his self-proclaimed expert coaching advice. He had been yelling at his team for the past two innings, demeaning players and leaving them confused and embarrassed. He was mad at the parents because the players were their kids, and they should have done a better job of preparing them for his little league baseball team. And he was mad at the umpires because he felt that every call against his team was a bad call. So there he stood in the dugout as he barked out his complaints.

The home plate umpire stood and motioned with his hand to stop the pitcher. He removed his mask and stuck it under his arm. He then took out his handkerchief. As he wiped his face, he looked out beyond the fence that bordered the ball field and gazed at the mountains in the distance. How peaceful and majestic they looked. As he stood there, people saw a tall and slender man with a few extra pounds on his waist. He wore conservative designer glasses, and his gray hair was neatly trimmed. With a slight shimmer the sunlight reflected off the silvery strands that laced through his hair. He had an educated and distinguished look, suggesting experience tempered with principles and wisdom. If people thought about it, they would most likely guess that he was in his forties.

The umpire slowly turned his head toward the home team coach and without any expression on his face looked directly into the coach’s eyes. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to because the pitch had been down the center of the strike zone. The umpire also knew it wouldn’t do any good to try to defend himself. Everyone knew that this coach had the worst reputation in the league, and any words from an umpire would only make him more belligerent. No, this coach only understood actions and consequences. So the umpire looked at him for a few moments. The coach tried to stare back but eventually looked away as he felt the umpire’s eyes pierce him.

Satisfied that he had silently notified the coach of his disapproval, the umpire now provided the consequence. He replaced his mask and instructed the pitcher to Play ball!

This time, the pitch was obviously low and outside, but the umpire called, Strike three! He’s out!

Although he was upset about the call, the batter had observed the interaction between this umpire and his coach and intuitively knew that he should stay out of the way of these adults. So he quickly returned to the dugout.

However, there was a strong reaction from some of the parents watching the game from the stands. They made many loud comments about that bad call. As the home plate umpire stood and removed his mask again, he moved to the side a few feet. The umpire ignored the parents and stared at the home team coach as the coach yelled back at him, This really is a golf tournament! But the coach knew why the umpire had called it a strike. He also knew that, unlike many of the other little league umpires, this umpire was firm and couldn’t be intimidated.

As the umpire looked at the coach, his expressionless stare again pierced him. The coach looked away and got busy sending his players onto the field for the next inning of play.

A few of the parents continued expressing their indignation toward the umpire. They spouted off immature criticisms about umpire pedigree and the inability to get qualified people to umpire the games. The umpire thought how the young players often behaved so much more maturely than their coaches and parents.

The umpire kept his mask under his arm while he waited for the home team to take the field. He had expected some of the parents to complain about his last call. So he just ignored them as he looked out beyond the fence again to the mountains in the distance. He knew that the parents would eventually stop when they were unable to get any reaction out of him. It was as predictable as removing oxygen from a fire.

The mood at the ball game was abrasive. Not only did the home team coach have the worst reputation in the league, but the visiting team coach had the second-worst reputation. And to make matters even worse, some of the parents on both teams were known for their angry tirades and abusive speech during ball games. The umpire reminded himself that he volunteered his time, and his reward was to be assigned to umpire these two teams. He knew that these problem individuals were just hotheads who had grown up never learning how to control their juvenile anger and rage. Often, their own kids were better at anger management than the parents. The parents were indignant, and their comments had more to do with their own immaturity than with whether a pitch was really a strike or a ball.

So the umpire knew that this game was going to be long and difficult. His strategy was just to keep it moving as quickly as possible. He would not look at these parents or talk to any of them; that would only agitate them more. Even the coaches showed a little more restraint than these parents did because the coaches knew they could be thrown out of the game. These parents were completely uninhibited.

The top of the fifth inning started, and now the visiting team coach had words to say. He’d been quiet earlier, when the calls were in his team’s favor. But now that his team was at bat, he didn’t like what he saw. The umpire thought how ironic the situation was. In addition to offering fun, little league baseball, like other organized youth sports, was also intended to teach players the value of sportsmanship and working together as a team. But not only did these coaches belittle the players, taking away any joy they might otherwise have in the game, their negative attitudes also reinforced poor sportsmanship.And the negative parents further torpedoed the kids’ view of being a team, since they focused only on how great their own children were and usually blamed the less skillful kids when their team lost.

It was no surprise to this umpire when a fight broke out between two parents during the sixth inning. The home team was down by one run, and the third base umpire called a sliding runner out. The runner’s parent verbally exploded at the umpire. A parent from the visiting team told him to shut up and accept the call like a good sport. Within a fraction of a second, rage took over, and fists began to fly.

Fortunately, the head umpire for the league had been alerted to the rowdy parents at this game during the fifth inning. He had arranged to have several men available in case something like this happened. They quickly calmed the two parents and ushered them from the park.

When the head umpire returned to the field, the two coaches were in a heated argument over another play. Up to this point, the home plate umpire had been tolerant with these coaches. But at this point, the two coaches had crossed the line. The home plate umpire stopped the game and ordered the two coaches off the field. They turned and began to approach him, but by then, the head umpire and his men were there, and they escorted the coaches out of the ballpark.

When the head umpire returned to the ball field this second time, he was surprised that the home plate umpire had continued the game by instructing the assistant coaches to take over. This type of strife rarely happened during a little league game, and the head umpire was distraught. He assumed that the home plate umpire would be upset as well. But as he watched, he noted that the home plate umpire was calm and relaxed, he seemed completely unaffected by the ordeal. Many parents had volunteered to be umpires, and he didn’t know all of their names. He didn’t know the name of this home plate umpire. But he decided to meet him after the game.

Seven full innings were played, and the game finally ended. In spite of the ruckus, the head umpire was amazed that the game was over within its allotted two hours. It was hard enough to complete a normal seven-inning game in the allotted time. But completing a game with this many disruptions was unique. The head umpire knew that this was due in large part to the home plate umpire, who had kept the game moving.

He waited for the man to leave the field and met him as he exited through the gate. Hey. Do you have a few minutes? I’d like to talk with you. I’m Joshua, the head umpire, he said.

The home plate umpire stopped and looked at the man standing in front of him. He recognized him from the umpire training clinics at the beginning of the season. He replied, Hi, Joshua. I’m Scott Grady. What’s on your mind?

Joshua was still a little rattled from the events of the game and stumbled with a few of his words. But he finally said, Man, that was some game! I don’t think I’ve ever had to deal with something like that before.

Scott could see that Joshua was having difficulty getting to his point, so he politely tried to hurry him along. Yeah, that was a real barn burner all right. But it happens whether we like it or not. We just have to deal with it the best we can.

Yeah, I guess so, Joshua replied. But I guess what I’d like to know is how you could be so calm through it all. The rest of us were all tied up in knots. But you looked like it didn’t even faze you.

Scott laughed. This perplexed Joshua even more because he was still very tense. Scott replied, Have you heard anything about WellGen Defense Systems?

Joshua answered, No, not really. I drive by it once in a while, but I really don’t know a lot about what they do there.

That’s where I work, Scott said. I’m not surprised that you don’t know much about it. But if you did, you would know that in comparison, the game we just went through would be considered a walk in the park.

Joshua just stared at him. He didn’t know what to say. Today’s game was one of the worst events he had ever had to deal with in his life. He could hardly fathom that people routinely dealt with such situations in their jobs.

Scott saw the bewildered look on his face and just smiled. Don’t let it bother you, Joshua. He went on, It’s just like anything else in life. If you do it often enough, you get comfortable with it, and you learn ways to do it well. If you build something, you learn how to perfect it and build it better, quicker, and cheaper. If you sell things, you learn how to increase your market by understanding your customers better. If you manage people, you learn how to reach your employees and motivate them more effectively. And if you deal with angry customers enough, you learn how to work through it better, or cope with it, or defuse it, or even ignore it better. And if you do everything I mentioned here, like I do, you learn to deal with it better, or you will go stark raving mad. And since I don’t think I’m mad, I must have learned how to deal with it. In fact, I was just thinking I should recommend to my management to use umpiring as a training course to practice crisis management principles. What do you think?

Joshua finally relaxed and laughed. After Scott’s explanation, it didn’t seem so difficult after all. He said, Yeah, I see what you mean. Just the same, though, I hope I don’t have to experience this kind of crisis again.

So do I, Scott replied. But when I do, I just take it one step at a time. Anyway, it’s Saturday, so don’t let it get to you. Let’s just enjoy the rest of our weekend.

chapter 2

Introspection

M any Christians are not sharing in the fruit of the Good News because they are looking in the wrong place. Notice verses four and five in the first chapter of Colossians. Paul clarifies that their love of God’s people was the result of their ‘hope of what God has reserved’ for them in heaven—their inheritance. You know, many people focus on finding happiness from the people around them. But I don’t see any reference in our passage to finding joy from anything here on earth! It’s interesting that our ability to be happy with ourselves and to love other saints is in large part determined by how we focus on our own future reward in heaven.

As Pastor Bob spoke to his congregation, Scott sat there listening with the other two thousand or so people at the church service. He reflected on how easy it was to get lost and hide in the masses. The church he attended was one of the largest churches in the Albuquerque area because, like him, many people enjoyed Pastor Bob’s verse-by-verse teaching style along with his contemporary insights and humor. His children could also relate to Pastor Bob, and they were more than willing to attend his church. That was the primary reason why Scott had left his previous church several years ago.

But today, only Scott’s son Justin came with him. Earlier that morning he had asked his daughter, Jennifer, to come to church with him. She had erupted in anger and told him to butt out of her life. As he sat there, he found it difficult to listen to the sermon as he mentally replayed her hateful comments in his mind. He was troubled by her rebellious attitude. As he reflected on it, he realized that it had been getting worse over the past several months. He worried that she might be hiding something from him.

So when he heard Pastor Bob talk about hope in what God had reserved for his people, he realized that he was missing something. Scott had been going to church ever since he was a child. He had accepted Jesus Christ as his savior while he was in elementary school, and he had worked through the lordship of Christ while he was in college. Over the years he had his ups and downs, but he had generally tried to live a Christian life and to be a Christian leader in his family. But nowadays he had very little joy in his life. Scott was frustrated as a father and he was tired of his pressure-cooker job. He felt ineffective as a person, and he just wished that the Lord would come quickly and take him home to heaven, away from all this mess. He wondered why he’d even bothered to come to church today since he was distracted and had a negative attitude.

After the service ended, Scott got up and walked out to his car. Justin automatically followed after him. Neither of them said anything as they walked out of the sanctuary. Justin was the youngest of Scott’s three children, and he demonstrated more spiritual maturity at sixteen than the average teenager did. Justin sensed that his father was upset, and he figured that it had something to do with his sister. As they reached the car Justin finally said, You know, Dad, Pastor Bob was right on today. It’s too bad Jennifer wasn’t here to hear it. Things would be a lot better if she would just submit to God. Why does she have to be so selfish?

Scott looked over at his son as he got into the car. His first thought was What does Justin know about this? He’s just a kid! But then he realized that what Justin had said was true. She is selfish, and she