A new heaven and a new earth
Yesterday was transformative. I had the good fortune to conduct a workshop for a group of young entrepreneurs preparing to present their innovative products and services at an upcoming Trade and Investment Convention.
I was pleasantly surprised when the moderator of the day introduced me with the words ‘We all know him as a business coach and recently he was ordained as a Deacon, so we ask him to lead off the day’s activities with a prayer.”
Caught unprepared I grasped for words. Here I was conducting a business workshop with the participants aware I am also an ordained minister. Later in the evening, seated in the plane to return home, I reflected on my experience.
I thought of this week’s 2nd reading Revelation 21: 1-5 ‘I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared … Then I heard a loud voice…You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them.’
Our role as Christians is to transform this world with God’s grace. So often we see our goal as making our individual way into heaven. Instead, we are called to make this world into a new earth, where God lives among men, where he will make his home among us.
Conducting the workshop was, for me, more than a professional assignment—it was a moment of sacred encounter. I realized that I wasn’t merely sharing techniques on pitching, marketing, or negotiation. I was, in a quiet and perhaps unnoticed way, creating space for God’s presence to dwell—right there in the energy, hope, and creativity of these young dreamers.
The prayer that began the day set a tone not of religiosity, but of reverence—for their ideas, their courage, and their desire to build something meaningful. I saw glimpses of the “new earth” in their passion and collaboration, and I understood more deeply that my vocation is not to divide the sacred from the secular, but to reveal how God longs to make His home in every sphere of life—including trade shows and boardrooms.
Back at the airport, I made my way to the car park and then journeyed to join Sandee at a parish church to give a talk on the Sacrament of Marriage. She was already half way into the talk when I arrived. I took a deep breath and joined her. I was aware that this was also part of creating the new heaven and the new earth.
Yesterday was transformative not only because of what I shared, but because of what I received: a deeper awareness that whether in the marketplace or the sanctuary, at a podium or beside my wife, God is quietly building His home among us.