A Faulty Foundation
In Luke 6:48–49, the Bible talks about the importance of a foundation:
“He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
Our foundation is the basis for the priorities in our lives, both at home and at work. Prior to 1977, my foundation was ME; and it was weak and unstable. This adversely affected my business and personal life, which included my relationship with my wife Norma and our children. I thought I had a good life. I was married and had three children. I had a Ph. D. in chemistry and I owned a Canadian company with 50 employees. By many people's standards, I was successful.
But everything in my life was centred on me. I had worked long hours in university to get degrees. When I went to work in industry, I worked even longer hours to get ahead and to obtain recognition. In 1972, I co-founded of a company and spent even longer hours at work. My drive for success was the centre of my life but I neglected my wife and children. My foundation determined the priorities in my life. It looked something like this:
1. myself
2. work
3. wife
4. family
5. God (although he wasn't even in the picture)
The result of these priorities was that I worked long hours to get ahead, not because of financial need, but more to satisfy the needs of my own ego. I didn't ask my wife and children if they would rather have me make more money or spend more time with them. I had no proper foundation for ethics in my personal life or for my business. As a result, my company barely survived and there were many conflicts and tensions at work. There was not much peace and joy, just temporary happiness in the few good times. My weak foundation and wrong priorities led to a lifestyle of too much drinking, poor ethical standards, and pride.
Norma’s Struggle
Norma and I were married in 1951 when we were both 21-year-old students attending university in Oregon. I received my master’s degree in 1952 and was drafted into the US army shortly afterwards. Norma went back to university and received her bachelor's degree while carrying our first child. After that, we moved to Seattle where I worked in an army laboratory.
The day we brought our new son home from the hospital, I received orders to go to Japan. When I returned a year later, I went back to university and obtained a Ph D in chemistry. Our second son was born during these school years and our third child, a daughter, was born in 1958 after I obtained a management position in a pulp company research and development organization in Washington State.
In 1964, we moved to Princeton, New Jersey so I could make more money in another pulp and paper research laboratory. Then in 1966, we moved to Vancouver, Canada to work for another company, where I became corporate technical director. In 1972, a partner and I founded Econotech Services Ltd., an organization dedicated to providing technical support for pulp and paper companies. The company grew from 11 people to over 60 by 1992.
Despite my success in business, our married life was not at all happy. Norma and I really had little in common since our likes and dislikes were totally different. Our priorities for spending money and ideas of an enjoyable vacation were also very different. Norma even lived with the fear that I was going to say I wanted to leave her.
After we moved to Canada in 1966, Norma started to attend a Bible study. She had always believed in God and knew the Bible was true, but she really didn’t know what the Bible said. She believed she would go to heaven just because she was morally good. So she tried to be kind and helpful to her family and friends. But through studying the Bible, Norma learned that she could have a personal relationship with God through his, Son Jesus Christ. She needed that peace and direction to help her carry on with life and raising the family.
In 1967, Norma prayed and asked forgiveness for her sin of wanting to control her own life and asked God to take charge of it. Her life didn’t become trouble-free after that point. However, God was always there to help her through the hard times.
I was not interested in spiritual things, and since Norma was not a very forceful person, she didn’t push to get involved in a church. She continued to go to Bible study, but for the rest of the time, she followed the kind of life that I wanted to lead. Norma continued to pray for me and asked the Lord to do anything that it would take to bring me to know God, even if it meant taking her life - but God had a different plan.
The Foundation Begins to Crack
For several years our twenty-year-old son Alan had told me about what Jesus meant to him and that I needed Jesus in my life. But I told him I didn't need Jesus. I could do everything myself. I had college degrees and a successful business, after all. As a chemist, I had tried to prove or disprove the existence of God as I would a chemical reaction in the lab. The tests came up empty, so I ignored God. I hadn't read his instruction book - the Bible - so I didn't understand what he was talking about. Alan told his pastor, “My dad will never become a Christian.”
In 1977, Alan became seriously ill with pressure in his head and had to have several operations. One day, he went into a violent seizure while resting at home. Norma rode with him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and I met them there. When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Alan's heart stopped beating, and they took him into the Emergency Room to try to restart his heart. I stood outside watching as they worked on him and suddenly realized something that literally floored me: I could do nothing to help him. My college degrees, my business, and my money were of no use to Alan. With my son hovering on the brink of life and death, there was nothing I could do. I didn't even know how to pray. Besides, I didn't know if God would hear my prayer since I had ignored him for most of my life. All at once, my weak foundation began to crumble!
They managed to restart Alan's heart, but he stayed in the hospital with a serious head infection and pressure on his brain from then on. He went through a lot of suffering with operations, high fever, and pain in his head, but he never complained. The nurses thought very highly of him. Alan told me, “God has a purpose in everything and, Dad, if God's purpose in my suffering is to bring you to know Jesus, then everything I'm going through is worth it.”
This had a tremendous impact on me! My son’s words convinced me that this Jesus he believed in must be real. I started reading Alan's Bible to him at his bedside, and for the first time began to realize that Jesus was real. I learned that Jesus died for my sins on the cross (John 3:16) and if I believed in him, I would have eternal life. Alan was certain that if he died he would have eternal life. >> Continued >>
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Ed Becker, co-founder of 
