A CEO’s Faith-Fueled Success Path

“THROW NO ROCKS” 

The title of Charlie’s book goes back to a church service he attended in 1982.  He had gone forward for prayer, and the wife of the couple praying for him surprised him with her words.  She sensed God telling her that Charlie was harboring bitterness toward his father, and needed to ask his forgiveness.  “She ended her instructions by saying that when I spoke to my father, I was to ‘throw no rocks.’  I knew exactly what she meant,” he explains.  Charlie was then 27-years-old, a father of two, a new believer in Christ, and did just what the woman said, convinced God was guiding him. 

Indeed, Charlie had been bitter for many years toward his father, a highly successful man in government, who had worked in national defense for President Reagan, and as Secretary of Energy for the first President Bush.  “He was absent most of my life, and while I loved him deeply, there was a hole in my heart from his absence,” Charlie says.  “When he did come home I seemed to goof things up in my excitement to be near him, which brought on his impatient disapproval.  I became needy and wounded, lost in so many ways.”  Charlie soon met with his dad, explained how he’d felt for years, and asked his forgiveness.  “He became emotional and was barely able to speak.  It was only the second time in my life I’d seen my father cry.  Through his tears, he immediately said, ‘Yes, of course.’  Then, composing himself, he looked me in the eyes and said something I’ll never forget: ‘Charlie, this is a good thing that you’ve done today.’”  

Charlie says that act of obedience resulted in the greater emotional freedom that forgiveness provides, and improved both his marriage and work life as well.  

THE BIG IDEA 

The main message or “big idea,” as Charlie puts it, of his book is to encourage other men that there really is a path to true success on reasonable, exciting, and fulfilling terms without destroying relationships along the way.  He’s seen countless people do the latter, while clamoring to be whatever they define as “successful.”  In leading men on that path, Charlie starts by introducing the idea of “The Big Q,” the all-important question each Christian must answer for himself: “Will you love Jesus by obeying his commands?”  To that one, he adds several questions that stem from it: “Will you obey his commands and let him show you how much he loves you?”, “Will you demonstrate your trust by obeying his commands so he and the Father can take up permanent residence in your heart and life?”, and “Will you relinquish control over your life and future here on earth and entrust them to him in a partnership for true success?”  Without submission to Christ, Charlie says, we cannot find what we’re looking for; it’s simply impossible.  “He knows us completely, knows what we are (really) looking for, and stands ready to show it to us as soon as we can handle it.  Wonderful, not frightening things, await us, but we need to begin by answering his big question.  

GOD’S PLATFORM 

Charlie has identified what he calls “God’s Platform,” that is, the resources and capacities He gives His people to accomplish His will.  He lists the following four assets and three capacities as the components of the platform: 

1. Time: Begin your day with God and learn to hear His voice.  
2. Money: Establish God’s system, understand Kingdom currency and its counterfeit. 
3. Gifts and Talents: Bring all known and hidden talents to Him; He will then bless, break, and multiply them. 
4. Relationships: Learn to love your wife as Christ loves the church.  This sets the pattern for blessings in all our relationships. 
5. Identity: Settle the identity questions, once and for all.  
6. Authority: Place yourself under the authority of God (this has several aspects to it and includes forgiving your father). 
7. Spiritual Warfare: Learn to deal with the enemy effectively. 
     

As to how these components work together, Charlies says, “There are logjams in our hearts that need to be broken for the flow of God to proceed unimpeded; we need training and healing.  These imperatives are the critical elements that will begin to weaken and break through the logjams.  Once implemented, they release communication, direction, favor, revelation, and opportunity.”  

THE BLESSED BAIT AND SWITCH 

Charlie says there are myriad benefits of living one’s life in submission to Jesus, maximizing the platform he outlines above.  “Some of it involves the renewal of our mind; we think differently.  Some of it is the change in how we prioritize our time; our actions are different.  Some of it is the reduction of our drivenness, anxiousness, and striving; we are more peaceful, having nothing to prove.  In short, our motives are changing.  The old, wrong thinking patterns, wrong beliefs, and pointless fears that shaped past priorities and behaviors are being replaced with something peaceful, joyful, and strong.  But there is more,” he emphasizes!  “Beyond a healed and wise heart, beyond walking in our inheritance in Christ, and beyond finding and doing the will of God, the partnership delivers another prize: Jesus himself.  His presence.  God is what our hearts were truly seeking all along.  It just took us a while to realize it,” he says,  

“It’s a kind of ‘bait and switch’ where we thought we understood the prize to be one thing (an inheritance of wisdom, blessing, power, peace, provision, direction, favor, and even a transformed heart), but now it has changed.  As we get a portion of our inheritance, the yearning in our hearts begins to shift; we want more.  Our hearts seek the real prize: Jesus.  He’s what our hearts truly desire.”  
 

To check out the book Throw No Rocks click the LINK!

CREDITS

Author, Throw No Rocks (Fedd Books, 2024) / President and CEO, Landmark Media Enterprises (media and technology) and Dominion Enterprises (digital marketing and software services) since 2018 / Before joining Landmark in 2005, president of a Duke Energy subsidiary / speaker / men’s group leader / mentor / served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear-trained officer / graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1973; MBA, William & Mary’s business school / married to Blythe since 1977, two grown children and five grandsons