Mid-week Musings : Quotes on Attitude
Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition.~John C. Maxwell~
What likes behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
~Walt Emerson~
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.
~John C. Maxwell~
A happy person is not a person with a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
~Hugh Downs~
God chooses what we go through. We choose how we go through it.
~Anonymous~
Everytime you make a choice you are turning the control part of you, the part that chooses, ito something a little different from what is was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, you are slowly turning this control thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish one.
~C.S. Lewis~
As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behaviour. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on the behaviour you admire by making it your behaviour. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.
~John C. Maxwell~
Motivation is like love and happiness. It is a by-product. When you're actively engaged in doing something, the motivation to keep on doing it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it.
~John Bruner~
You're more likely to act yourself into feeling than fell yourself into action. So act! What it is you know you should do, do it.
~Jerome Bruner~
Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thought, and can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an attitude realized.
~Paul Meier~
Radiating Christ At Our Workplaces
We spend most of our waking hours at the workplace. Given the contact time that we have with our employers and colleagues, our workplace is naturally the most strategic arena that God could use us to proclaim His gospel. However, we can't go around the office cubicles and chanting "Jesus is Lord", else people around us will think that we have the license to be "indifferent" at the workplace just because we are Christians (or so-called). We need wisdom when evangelising at our workplace, and as promised the Holy Spirit is our helper.
One of the best ways to reflect the glory of our Lord is to put in an impeccable work quality with the highest integrity. We are to extend appropriate service to our earthly employers because, ultimately, it is Christ whom with are serving (Colossians 3:22-24). Meet and exceed expectations. People are more willing to listen to a person with good work ethics than a one who is sloppy with his/her work. As salt and light of the world, our workstyle is to be a demonstration of the character of Jesus and a reflection of His passion.
Work itself, without the softer skills of interpersonal relationship, reduces us to just another efficient and robotic employee. People cannot relate to a person who is cold, monotonous and void of feelings. Our identity in Christ is recognized by our character (Luke 6:43-44). Our mannerism, habits and relational skills must exude the fruits of the spirit that is of love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Such lovely attributes inevitably compels people around you. As Doug Sherman puts it : our greatest need in the workplace right now is for Christians whose lifestyle and workstyle is so unique and so distinctive that co-workers will want to know why.
This ought to be our daily standard operating procedure : Pray, lay and make way. Pray specific task prayers for wisdom at work, unsaved colleagues, grace to face ungraceful situations and deliverance from temptations. Lay every petition on the altar before God. Make way for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives, so that we may be vassels of blessings to the many lives that come in contact with us. Ultimately, we are the showcase to the world of what Christ in us means : an individual who is highly motivated, improvement-striver, impeccable leader, champion of creeds and a humble servant of God.
Mid-week Musings : Integrity
In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in a office. If a man's associates finds him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
~ Dwight Eisenhower ~
Know The Truth, And It Shall Set You Free
We are, by default, reborn when we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. But that doesn't necessarily mean we are, by effect, reborn upon our confession. The experience of the total rebirth is more than just a confession. It is a wholesome encounter with our Creator and the truth about Him that ignites a great stir within us so much so so that our body, mind and soul is realigned to the full gospel of Jesus Christ.
Since last Monday, I have moved into a new role. However, the remnants of my previous role keeps haunting me. But that doesn't mean that I still hold my previous job title, because as far as I know, I am already into my new role with a new title, a new boss and a new future to look forward too. I also know that as I make a concious effort to give my best to my new role, the remnants of the old role will slowly fade into the background and in no time I will be totally immersed with the new job. I know I will never progress forward if I kept myself busy with the remnants even though I now have a new job title.
It is likewise with our walk with God. The reborning experience is sometimes hard to feel and appreciate because of past memories that keeps haunting us. Unless we make a concious effort to die to ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him (Luke 9:23), we will never be able progress to be enter the freedom realm that God intends for our lives.
We are emotional beings, and knowing sometimes does not always tally with our feelings. It is interesting to note that Jesus says know, not feel, the truth, and it shall set you free. It is also interesting that God gave many examples of his servants in the Bible who struggle with the same issue that we face. If you notice, the Bible is not only a collection of wisdom sayings, but also a collection of characters' complaints and character pitfalls. In that way, the Bible is not mechanical in imposing dos and don'ts but it has a relational appeal that we may find it relevant.
As humans, our lives and its reality is built around a cognitive association of memory collections from as far back as we can remember. Every word spoken to us, anything that we've seen, what we've heard and all those information that is swinging by our way are essential building blocks to our memory. You are unique because your experiences will never ever be the same with the person sitting next to you. What determines how we feel today and our future achievements (or failures for that matter) is how we interpret and extrapolate our collective cognition to date. That is why trauma patients are often paranoid individuals who constantly paint a reality that does not exist and extrapolates a and off-tangent distorted future that encages themselves within it.
The keyword here is intepret and extrapolate. How we interpret and extrapolate begins with the model of the mindset. Change the model of your mindset, you change your how you interpret and extrapolate, you change your actions/behaviour pattern and you finally change your destiny. The world also provides a model through pop psychology and new age philosophies that profess to know the solution to mankind's mental struggle. The pitfall of current worldview model is...well...it is only current. It implies relativity to a specific group of people in a specific era. It has not absolute standards. Jesus came so that we may have life. He gave us a model - the truth of God's Word.
Given that God says that His Word shall not pass away, it is the same yesterday, today and forever, and given that His Kingdom to come is forever, it is a no-brainer that we should be adopting a model that is absolute and timeless. What is your reality? How are you extrapolating your live ensuring that it lands in the Kingdom of God?
