Business Failure and Devastating Loss
Os Hillman was a successful advertising executive in Atlanta when everything fell apart. His business collapsed. His marriage ended. He lost almost everything he had built.
For two years, Os struggled to make sense of his adversity. Why would God allow this? What purpose could there possibly be in such devastation?
Discovering the Joseph Calling
Then a friend sent him an audiotape from a Swedish businessman named Gunnar Olson, the founder of the International Christian Chamber of Commerce. On that tape, Gunnar spoke about something Os had never heard before: the "Joseph Calling."
Gunnar explained that many business people go through tremendous adversity - not as punishment, but as preparation. Just as Joseph was sold into slavery, falsely imprisoned, and forgotten in a dungeon before being elevated to second-in-command of Egypt, many are called to walk a similar path.
God's Purpose Through Adversity
Os had to meet this man. When Gunnar came to Washington D.C. for an ICCC conference, Os flew there to see him. After hearing Os's story, Gunnar and his board member began to chuckle.
Gunnar took out a napkin and drew a diagram, showing Os where he was on the journey and how pressing into Jesus would lead him forward. Then Gunnar spoke words that changed Os's life forever:
"You have probably made some mistakes during your process, but what you need to remember is this: your calling is greater than the mistakes you have made. You have a marketplace calling upon your life."
That encounter became a turning point. Gunnar became Os's spiritual father in the marketplace for the next 22 years.
Later, when Os was praying about organizing a workplace leaders summit, Gunnar emailed him about an international gathering of Christian workplace leaders on the island of Cyprus. Os laughed at first - he had no money for such a trip. The very next day, someone offered to cover his expenses to attend.
Transformed into a Marketplace Leader
"God used Gunnar Olson as a lifeline when I needed one," Os writes today. "Now I am privileged to see God using me as a lifeline of hope to others."
Os Hillman went on to become one of the most influential voices in the faith-at-work movement, authoring 26 books and reaching hundreds of thousands daily through his "Today God Is First" devotional.
