You Are So Powerful

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! This one right here is going to be a great one! :)

In case you did not know, or perhaps have forgotten, you are so powerful...

Earlier this week I was reading a Bible study plan titled, Follow Me: 21 Timeless Leadership Lessons. I read this quote and it has stuck with me all week:

"Regardless of where God has put you, you have a choice to make. Choosing positivity is deciding to find and focus on the good instead of the bad. Make no mistake about it; both good and bad will always be present. No matter how good life is, there are challenges that you could whine about. No matter how bad life is, there are blessing that you could rejoice about. There is always something to complain about and always something to be thankful for. The choice is yours." - Unknown

To choose positive or negative...that choice is ours, each one, individually! You might be thinking, "Yeah Kev, one of those, 'just be positive things' but you don't know about my challenges, my struggles, my situation." You are absolutely right, I don't. But I can testify what I have learned in my life and, perhaps more importantly, I can learn from my Bible and great men and women who have come before me.

Have you ever heard of Viktor Frankl? You might have read some of his quotes...he has a lot of great ones and you are going to read some more here in a minute! :) You know, when you want to learn something from someone, you usually want to learn from someone who has actually experienced what they are talking about. It is one thing to have always had everything go your way and to stand there and tell everyone, "Just be positive." It is quite another to have seen the darkest side of humanity, to walk through hell on earth, and to stand there and tell everyone that "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Yeah, Dr. Frankl said that.

Please let me tell you about Dr. Viktor Frankl, to give you a littler frame of reference so you understand why his words carry so much weight for me. Dr. Frankl was an Austrian  psychiatrist and psychotherapist. According to viktorfrankl.org, in 1942 he and his wife, Tilly are arrested by Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. His mother and father are also sent to concentration camps. His father would die of exhaustion later that year. In 1944, "Viktor and Tilly, and shortly later his 65 year old mother, are transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. His mother is immediately murdered in the gas chamber, and Tilly is moved to the Bergen-Belsen camp. After a few days Frankl is selected for transfer to a labor camp. He is brought to Kaufering and later Tuerkheim, subsidiary camps of Dachau in Bavaria." He was liberated by U.S. troops on April 27, 1945 and within the span of a few days, he learns about the death of his wife, his mother and brother, all of whom were murdered at Auschwitz. He spent 3 years of his life in concentration camps, at least a year in a labor camp, and his entire family is murdered. He has seen the very worst of man, he has endured unspeakable circumstances and yet, here are some of his thoughts...

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."

"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose."

"The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me."

"Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effects of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself."

"If we take a man as he is, we make him worse, but if we take man as he should be we make him capable of becoming what he can be."

"No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same thing."

"In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival depends on our seeking and finding it."

"Man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life."

"Just as a small fire is extinguished by the storm whereas a large fire is enhanced by it - likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them."

I don't know about y'all, but I am just awed by his perspectives. He has every reason, every right, to be angry, bitter, negative and yet, he chooses not to be.

I have to share one more little story about his life. Again, this comes from the Viktor Frankl Institute at viktorfrankl.org.

"In the Tuerkeim camp he comes down with typhoid fever. To avoid fatal vascular collapse during the nights he keeps himself awake by reconstructing the manuscript of his book Aerztliche Seelsorge on slips of paper stolen from the camp office."

In a concentration camp, sick with typhoid fever, depriving himself of sleep to keep himself alive and pursuing his purpose. I am simply awed...

Why do I say you are so powerful? Two reasons:

1. Your life has meaning. You do have a purpose that is greater than you. You simply have to choose to pursue it.

2. You choose your attitude, every day. As Dr. Frankl's life attests, it is not determined by our situations or circumstances, it is a choice we make.

So yes, Sweet Friends, you are powerful. Each one of us simply has to choose, every day, whether we will use the power we have.

Finally, I have to share a quote I came across yesterday - it may, or may not, relate to this topic...depends on how you look at it! :)

"Consider the right of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of other before your own rights." - Coach John Wooden

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family and please stay healthy and well.

Kev