Anger: A love hate relationship

Anger. Anger is an emotion. Just like fear, joy, kindness, and love. It can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. We can use anger to fuel us in a positive way or we can use anger to fuel us in a negative way. You never know how far you are willing to go when anger takes a hold of you and then you realize there is no turning back. You will do things out of anger that your concise self would never even conceive of doing.

There is a deep part of our mind we don’t know exists until we finally reach it. A coach, who I won’t name, asked me one time “What my deepest fear was?” My answer was going so deep into my mind that I’m scared I won’t recognize who I am or what I will find. Anger is like this. There are deep levels of our mind we never knew we would go to and on the positive side of that there are levels of our mind we will tap into that allow use excel behind any barrier we could ever think of. This is why people who would never kill someone will kill out of anger. It’s also the same reason while a person can live through a firefight or run hundreds of miles.

I once believed that removing emotion from everything made life better. There are situations in life where you should remove emotion and you should never make a decision on emotion alone. Without emotion, we would be stoic. We would be incapable of love. That means without anger we would be incapable of love or joy or insert your favorite emotion. Every decision would be about moving life in a specific direction and not about enjoying the process. You need the right balance of emotion to make a sound decision.

I am.

If you were asked today to fill in the blank “I am __________.” What would you say? Would your answer change based on the atmosphere you are in, the people you are around, the context of the question, or even your current state of mind?
Could you answer the question in a direct manner or would you have to start listing all the things you aren’t, therefore, determining who you are by process of elimination and not directly answering the question of who you are? Would you honestly answer who you are at the current and present time or would you mix in who you are based on where your life may go in the future or who you want be in a future state? Would your internal voice say something different than you external voice?
Lastly, could the people who are closest to you validate who you say you are? Would they say you are someone different than who you say you are?
Who are you?

Leadership: Least Significant Value

Great leaders don’t become great from doing great things. Great leaders become great for doing the things of least significance. I didn’t say the least value but the least significance. There is a difference.

Here are a few examples I’ve heard or seen myself in my life. I’ve heard stories of military Generals cleaning the hospital floor and restocking supplies following a bloody battle. I’ve heard stories of military Generals walking the cemetery that hold the graves of many men and women they put there because the men and women in those graves were following their orders. I’ve heard of CEOs taking out the trash and restocking the rest rooms. I’ve seen restaurant owners washing dishes, wiping down tables, and taking out the trash. In the Bible, we have the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And this weekend I saw a pastor on their knees in the aisle praising God during worship.

To most people these acts have very little significant value but to great leaders the willingness to do the little things creates a base and a mindset for doing greater things later on. Great leaders are committed to the insignificant.

Christlike

The idea to be “Christlike” or “more Christlike” is a falacy of your own mind. Adam was a decendent of God formed in God’s image. Eve was formed from the rib of Adam as a helper. As a Christian you believe you are decendents of Adam and Eve therefore you are already as Christlike as you can be. It is your behavior alone that holds you back in your own mind that you aren’t Christlike.For it was by grace alone that you were saved from your own transgressions through God’s abundance of mercy and love. When you finally embrace the grace of God with your whole heart you will be at peace.

Faith and Doubt

The opposite of faith is doubt and without some doubt, faith wouldn’t be authentic. Some doubt if perfectly fine. It’s when you change the direction of life away from God is when doubt becomes an issue.

Just thinking…

One of the hardest things for me as being a Christian is living in a world where the people around you can't understand how you have faith in a God that can't be seen, quantified, or fit into the constraints of this world while living in a time where you will be shamed for loving someone so much that you would devote and give up your whole life for in hope to share your life in the grace and glory of Jesus Christ in victory of overcoming sin and the world.

28,500!

28,500! That’s not a really big number. Think about what you could do with 28,500 dollars. That might be a good down payment on a house or buy you a decent car or maybe a college degree but that isn’t what I’m talking about.

28,500 is the approximate number of days, ~78 years, a human being who was born in the United States will live on this Earth. Sounds kind of depressing now right! You’ll spend the first 6,570 days going to school and learning to become an adult. That leaves you with about approximately 21,930 days to make an impact on this Earth and give something back. You’ll spend the next 12 years or until you are around the age of 30 gaining enough wisdom to realize all the things you should have done now in a race to make the last 17,550 days on the Earth count. But what about sleep! There are so many things left to do, so many people left to help and guide, so many books to read, and all you have left is 17,550 days left to do it.

How are you going to make those days count? Are you going to invest a little now taking care of yourself so you can live out the last of days as fruitful at the first or are you going to spend it siting on the couch watching TV and surfing the Internet? Time is ticking and no one knows when the clock will stop. What you do with your time is the most valuable thing you will do in life. Are you going to use it selfishly or selflessly by investing in the next generation? Every day counts!