I hope and trust this post finds you having a great day as this beautiful new day dawns! Today is a fresh, new day...untouched, full of hope, opportunity, promise! Let's intentionally choose, first in our hearts & minds, then in our actions, that this is going to be a great day! If we do we will in fact make it so!
This morning I want to share a couple of quotes I came across the week and elaborate on them a little bit. I want to start off with one that speaks about us serving others. Perhaps I want to start there because I believe in a servant leadership model or perhaps it is semi-conscious reminder that true leadership is about serving, not being served. In any event, it is my blog so I get to start where I want! :)
"Whoever you are, wherever you might be, there are talents to be uncovered in people around you. If you want to bring out the best in someone, you must look for the best that is in them." - Donna Sollenberger
Right off the bat..."whoever you are, wherever you might be..." Everyone in and around you has talents, gifts & abilities. Please stop and think about that for a moment. There is not one single person who does not have a talent, a gift or an ability to do something special. Oh, it might not look like you or yours but it is there. Just as you and I have been created on purpose for a purpose, so has the person next to you as well as the person you will walk past and drive by today - even the annoying one's that cut you off! :) How different would our day be from the start if we simply recognized that EVERYONE has talents, gifts & abilities and we treated them as though we truly recognized that they do? The really neat thing about how God works... The talents, gifts & abilities of those around us are often different from our own. This then leaves us with two choices: 1. We can embrace their unique (at least to us) talents, gifts & abilities and allow them to complete us and us them or, 2. We can look at it as a reason why we are not like them, a reason to avoid them and avoid doing life with them and, in the process, leave both of us incomplete.
The second part, perhaps the key to it all, "you must look for the best that is in them." In reality our natural tendency seems to be the opposite - we look for the worst in them. We look for differences, not to complete but rather to laugh at, make fun of, to talk about. How did we get to this place? Why do we tend to do this? I think perhaps it has more to do with our own faults, failures & shortcomings than it could ever have to do with the other person...heck, in some cases we don't even know them yet and in even more cases, while we have met the person and perhaps even work with them every day, we don't really know them.
The reality is we find what we are looking for. If we are looking for talents, gifts and abilities we will certainly find them. Likewise if we are looking for weaknesses, faults and failures we will certainly find those as well. We are all human - we are fearfully and wonderfully made, created on purpose, for a purpose, lacking nothing and we are all flawed, broken, trudging through this life. It really then comes back to what our heart will be. Will we have a heart to look for and find the greatness that is in a person or will we have a heart to find their faults and failures...pointing out their shortcomings to them? I would propose that it is really about our heart. If we have a heart to encourage, empower and equip them to become the best they can become we will look for the talents, gifts & abilities. If we have a heart to build ourselves up, to be served, to conquer this world at all costs we will look for the faults and failures. Regardless, you and I will find what we look for and what we look for will determine the types of interactions, and ultimately relationship, we have with that person.
"Follow your dream wherever it takes you. Be faithful to yourself." - Unknown
I truly believe that every single life has value, meaning and purpose. Why? Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." How about that? "For we are God's handiwork.." Change it and put your name in there... [your name] is God's handiwork. Oh my! Happy Friday!! See, you are God's handiwork and don't miss the end either... "to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God, the One who created Heaven and earth, who directs the oceans & winds prepared in advance work for you to do. You see, you are lacking nothing to do the good works because He prepared it for you. Oh how powerfully it speaks to the heart of the one who allows it!
A problem, a really, really big problem is many of us have listened to what the world would tell us instead of what the God who created tells us. We have passions within our hearts & spirits and because someone mocks us, because someone tells us we are not good enough, we don't pursue them. We suppress them, they get buried under scars and we find ourselves no longer knowing our passions, unable to detect our purpose. We are lost and it is all because we chose to listen, to take to heart, the words & actions of flawed, broken, perhaps hurting, people instead of the God who created us on purpose, for a purpose, lacking nothing. To see this is truly gut wrenching. A couple of weeks ago at work I had lunch with a woman. She is married though she has not seen her husband in nearly 3 years. She told stories of how though her husband only worked 30 minutes from home she and the kids would go weeks without seeing him...literally. She talked about the loneliness, the heartache. I asked her, "What are you passionate about? What do you feel is your purpose in this life?" She stared blankly at me. I said, "Your life has great meaning and purpose. Their are hopes, goals & dreams in your heart that were placed there when you were a little girl. What are those?" She stared at me for a moment, eyes glistening as tears started to form and she said, "I do not know." Alive but not living. A heart, a purpose muted by years of hurt & pain. Please don't let this world or anyone in it define you, to tell you what your purpose is or should be...or that the passion you have is useless. Please remember the words that were spoken about you in Ephesians 2: 10.
I have to touch briefly on the part of the quote that punched me right in the gut - "be faithful to yourself." Have you ever done something that you didn't feel good about but you did it because everyone else was doing it and you didn't want to be different? Yeah, me too. Remember that yucky feeling in your heart & stomach afterward? That is because you were not faithful to yourself. Let us be faithful to ourselves...pleasing our hearts & spirits. No, I don't mean selfish pleasures & indulgences. Keeping it real, if it really comes from the heart & spirit it won't lead you or me to those things. It is only the hardened heart, the darkened spirit, that would do that. I am talking about the work you were created for, the work God has prepared for you to do. This presents itself to us in our passions...the things we love to do and have an aptitude to do well. Hello?!?! God created you on purpose, for a purpose, lacking nothing. Of course you are passionate about it and good at it...God set it all up. Be faithful to those things, pursue the peace that comes in your spirit only when you do. Please don't be so busy trying to please this world and the people in it that you are unfaithful to yourself, that you violate your own spirit.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you. I will always be willing to help you any way I can.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.
Kev
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