"Today we are going to go out into Grand Rapids and investigating what changes customers would like to see in their city. This is the very first stage of innovation: finding out what our target market is looking for. Before we begin, any questions?"
The young businesswoman looks out over twenty high school girls. Most of them can hardly believe they are sitting in Grid 70, the hub of innovation for huge corporations such as Steelcase and Wolverine Worldwide. They are still taking in the top floor apartment with its modern, minimalistic furnishings and gorgeous view of the Grand Rapids skyline. Most of them have a heartbeat of seven hundred beats a minute due to excitement bursting from within them.
Okay, so maybe that was just me.
My hand shoots into the air.
Alicia is an innovator for Amway who has graciously agreed to teach a group of teenage girls about the real world applications of business and marketing. She nods to me.
"Why do you think that Grand Rapids is thriving economically?" I ask, thinking of the coffee shops, restaurants and colleges that flourish on every street.
I want the answer to be something whimsical and idealistic. The people of Grand Rapids know that we must work together as a community for the good of all. We have instilled in our people a love for their city. They value hard work, creativity and ambition. These values pour over into everything we do, and thus the city flourishes like an Evergreen, even when the rest of Michigan experiences an economic downturn.I receive no such answer from Alicia.
"Philanthropy," she responds.
Money? I think with disgust. That's it? There goes my utopian paradise theory.
"Families like the DeVosses poured millions of dollars into the right places, and it became a chain reaction. They invested into their community, and that has really brought about a change."
Her answer was not the patriotic anthem that I had formulated in my mind. Yet, it made me think and revaluate, which is always better than an affirmation.
I had presumed that Grand Rapids had something special, something that other cities lacked. Maybe a different atmosphere, or different water pressure, or something that made the city bloom. The truth was that my beloved GR had no such inherent special quality. The city owed their success to their benefactors.
I thought and I over thought, as I usually do when something new contradicts my presuppositions.
And I realized that, in a small way, Grand Rapids is a picture of God's grace.
So often we like to think that our success is because we're special. We're more ambitious, social, hardworking. We have more stamina, more education, more grit. We have something that makes us bloom. Other people lack this quality; but we have it, and that's why we succeed.
How often do we forget that we owe everything to our benefactor?
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." -Ephesians 2:6-7
So here is my love letter to Grand Rapids:
Thank you for teaching me the importance of God's grace. I love you because you represent everything beautiful that can result of philanthropy and generosity. You're not a utopian paradise. Your water pressure isn't perfect, you're oxygen isn't life-giving, and your people aren't perfect either. But you are blooming with innovation, creativity and prosperity, and this represents in an infinitely small way the grace of God. He is our benefactor, our life giver. He has poured out his riches on us through his son Jesus Christ, and that's incredibly more than even Betsy DeVoss could ever give.God bless Grand Rapids, and God bless America.
