HENRY FORD: RESISTING CHANGE
Back in 1912, Ford Motor Co. had a production manager named William Knudsen - considered one of the best in his field. Knudsen became convinced that the Model T (which had been in production for 4 years now) had to be updated. But, the only problem was - Henry Ford loved his creation so much it was well known that he opposed changing anything about the car.
According to Robert Lacy (in his bestselling biography, Ford: The Man and the Machine) Knudsen thought to convince Ford by building an updated and impressive model to show what could be done with a few changes in color and design.
Ford had just returned from a European vacation, and he went to a Highland Park, Michigan garage and saw the new design created by Knudsen. On-the-scene mechanics later revealed how Ford responded.
They say that the car was it was a four door job, and the top was down, painted gleaming red and built on a new, low slung version of the Model T. One eyewitness tells how "Ford had his hands in his pockets, and he walked around that car 3 or 4 times.
Finally, he got to the left hand side of the car, and he takes his hands out, gets hold of the door, and bang! He ripped the door right off! How the man done it, I don't know! He jumped in there, and bang goes the other door. Bang goes the windshield. He jumps over the back seat and starts pounding on the top. He rips the top with the heel of his shoe. He wrecked the car as much as he could."
Knudsen left for General Motors. Henry Ford nursed along the Model T, but design changes in competitors models made it more old-fashioned than he would admit. Competitive necessity finally backed him into making the Model A, but his heart was never in it.
APPLY: Henry Ford was one of the most creative men of his age. And yet¡ Henry Ford - one of the great minds of his day - resisted the obvious need for change. When Saul saw the need to change, he did not resist but embraced the change he found in Yeshua (Jesus).