Robert G. LeTourneau was a sixth-grade dropout who left school at fourteen to work in an iron foundry. He had no engineering degree, no wealthy family, and no business connections. What he had was a mechanical mind, a stubborn work ethic, and a growing conviction that his faith and his work were not supposed to be separate things. In 1919, feeling the tug to do more for God, he went to his pastor and confessed that he thought he needed to become a missionary or a preacher to truly serve Christ. His pastor's answer changed everything: "God needs businessmen too."

LeTourneau took that seriously. He threw himself into designing and building earthmoving machines at a time when roads were still being dug by men with shovels. He filed over three hundred patents. His machinery — bulldozers, scrapers, land-levelers — represented nearly seventy percent of the heavy equipment used by Allied forces in World War II. He built plants on four continents. During the Great Depression, while the rest of the country was collapsing, his company's profits grew year after year. As the money poured in, he and his wife Evelyn made a decision that still astonishes people today: they would live on ten percent of their income and give ninety percent to the Lord's work. He said it plainly: "It's not how much of my money I give to God, but how much of God's money I keep for myself." He also said: "I shovel out the money and God shovels it back — but God has a bigger shovel." He was not being flippant. He meant every word of it as a statement of fact.

LeTourneau did not see himself as a businessman who was also a Christian. He saw himself as God's businessman — a person whose workplace was his mission field and whose machinery was his offering. Diligence in his business brought him before kings and presidents. More importantly, it funded the gospel around the world for decades.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see our work the way LeTourneau saw his — as a partnership with You, not a distraction from You. Whatever our hands find to do, let us do it as Your business partners. Amen.