by Paul Eddy
John Wright has experienced highs and near ruin, including a prison sentence, and says that “God has his own way of dealing with pride!” Training at Oxford University, then with the accountants Price Waterhouse and at Harvard Business School, John became the sixth generation of his family to become a Director of The Butterley Company in Derbyshire. The firm mined coal, built railways and made bricks and cast iron.
“I was confident that a brilliant career lay ahead of me,” he says, “but in 1966, when I was 32, I had an encounter with Jesus.” A bachelor, John lived in a rented cottage where one night, he ate supper alone and sat in front of the fire, reflecting upon his life.
He said: “To the world I was a successful director and had received the best education that money could buy.
“I had money, an E-type Jaguar parked outside, wonderful family, good health, and a mass of friends. What more could I want?” But John had been experiencing a deep loneliness and dissatisfaction with life.
He said: “Years of make-believe were swept aside as I received a revelation of my true self: pride, self-centredness, conceit, lust for women and seeking after the praise of men were all there.
“I wanted to change, but knew I couldn’t change myself: I felt as if I were in prison.
“Then I remembered the words Jesus said: ‘He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives’ (Luke 4:18).
“I began to realise that Jesus was talking about everyone, including myself! It was then that I knew that while I couldn’t change myself, Jesus could.” On impulse, John went up to his bedroom, locked the door, and drew the curtains.
He says he was embarrassed and a little frightened, realising for the first time he was about to “come before Almighty God, if He existed”.
On his knees John cried out to God for forgiveness: “If you’re there, I’m sorry. Please forgive me, and make me the sort of person you want me to be.’ John says: “I had no inkling that such a simple and uncertain request was to be the turning point in my life. Suddenly a great weight lifted from my shoulders. I knew God existed, that He loved and accepted me just as I was.”
Soon after his conversion, the family business was taken over, and John was fired!
He became a director of an international group, moving to Norwich. After 18 months he was asked to leave, and started a merchant bank with the financial backing of a Scottish investment trust.
The bank prospered, and the Scotsmen sold out some 15 years later, multiplying their equity investment 62 times.
“But success too soon is often fatal for our spiritual life,” admits John. “There was a banking crisis and the bank’s institutional investors, who now controlled the bank, asked me and my business partner to resign to reduce overheads.”
John was indignant, but went quietly, following the example of Jesus.
Looking back, he says: “It was good for my soul!
“For two years I had to leam to trust God to meet all my financial and other needs.
“He has never let me down, even as the figure-head chairman of a Derbyshire theme park, when the scheme ran into serious problems.
“The holding company went into receivership and although I was not a director, and the owner told the court I had nothing to do with the running of the company, I was found guilty and sentenced to three months in prison.
John says if he had not become a Christian he expects he’d have been applauded as “a successful businessman who ended up in hell!”
“Instead, thanks to God, I now have treasure in heaven, and through all that has happened I have learned to obey, trust, and give thanks.”