Free at last

“You can’t make me hate you.” This stunning sentence sticks in my mind after skimming through a book by Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs. There is already more than enough sorrow hanging in the air, from the previous post, so I won’t go into his situation in great detail. But this Romanian pastor suffered greatly. He was at the mercy of his communist captors, and they offered him none.

But at least on one occasion, he still responded to his enemies with these words: “You can’t make me hate you!”

A Christmas carol, penned during the Civil War in the USA, suggests that this is not a common human response to pain. “I Heard the Bells on Christmas day” contains this familiar line: “But hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.” How many people reading this can honestly say that they have never been overcome, even temporarily, by this powerful emotion? Confinement. Injustice. After too much of it, for too long, even righteous anger can give way to rage. Hate is strong.

A new view

Corrie ten Boom has been gone now for almost 20 years. She died on April 15, 1983 in California. It was her birthday. She was 91 years old.

Corrie would have likely stayed in the Netherlands and lived out her days in relative obscurity; that is, if it hadn’t been for the remarkable way she responded to a period of intense suffering in her life. But perhaps you already know her story. If you don’t, be prepared, for it will bring back awful memories of the dark days during World War II.

Adolf Hitler had big plans and a big army. And the world found out what he had planned and just what his army could do on the eve of World War II. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Norway, Denmark, England, the Netherlands, etc…they all found out, the hard way.

Monument marking the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620 on Cape Cod

Joni Eareckson dove into a lake and broke her neck as a teenager. A tragic accident and a pivotal life event. Paul Hewson joined a band with a bunch of guys from his high school in Dubin, Ireland. A pivotal life event for Bono and his little band – U2. Albert McMackin invited a young farm boy to come and listen to a travelling evangelist one day in North Carolina. For Billy Graham, and millions around the world, this was a pivotal life event.

Some things you and I experience in life matter more than others. A whole lot more. They pack more of a punch; they shape our future. In contrast, so many things in life are really neither here nor there.

My first car, for example, was an orange Chevette. A more lemon-like colour would have been more appropriate. As I recall, on one awe-inspiring occasion my “Shove-it” reached the impressive speed of 65 miles per hour. No really, it did. No hills, no tail wind – nothing. Just a beautiful stretch of open highway somewhere in Minnesota. Even now, I can feel the rush and picture the pistons almost popping out of the hood. If only the car-commercial people had been there. It was an event worthy of a national holiday. And, as you can see, this was truly an important moment in world history, and a personal turning point in many ways.

Direction & Deutschland

Climbing your “Mount Everest” will inevitably take more effort than planning the trip. Setting goals and putting together a practical plan to reach those goals takes time and involves hard work. If you do not have a clear sense of direction in your life right now, your energy needs to be focused, first of all, on establishing one. But once a general focus is determined, and hopefully a very specific plan is in place, the work begins in earnest.

It can be discouraging facing the prospect of a long and difficult journey. Are you up to the task? Do you have what it takes? You may not feel like you do, but do not let those feelings deter you. And, if you are looking for some inspiration in your ongoing efforts, may I suggest turning your attention towards Deutschland. That’s right. Germany.

Take small steps towards your large goal

Having a sense of direction, knowing the next small step in the larger plan, can be very beneficial to individuals and organizations. This way, important projects can be more easily identified and accomplished in a specific period of time.

I once applied to work for a Christian-based organization in Canada that had a related problem. Numerous leadership teams had produced impressive mission-statements, but very little was ever accomplished. Or so I was told.

The plan may have looked good on paper, as they (whoever “they” are) say, and these men and women may have even had the best of intentions. But, for whatever reason, they struggled to practically guide a group of people towards a specific destination. They appeared to know where they wanted to go, but just couldn’t seem to get there.

That is sad, even tragic, because as this story repeats itself over and over around the world it means that millions of people are likely failing to fulfill their full God-given potential.

Organizations and individuals can become stuck, and this post is one small attempt to help you or your organization get out of the muck, as it were, and finally move ahead. But please, if you sense that this describes your situation, spend as little time and energy as you can in a state of mournful self-condemnation. No, you are not a complete failure, or a sorry excuse for a human being. Turn those messages off. Stop. Think. Learn. Adjust. And then, move ahead.

If you are looking for an easy way to remember the point of this discussion may I suggest the following four small words:

Dream big. Act small.

Complicated, varied, and shall be we say “highfalutin” management-type lingo can be part of the problem. I am not sure if I could tell you the difference between a vision-statement and a mission-statement, a strategy and an objective, a stage or a phase, if my life depended on it. I have been in boardrooms and participated in futile attempt to separate and define these various words. It is like nailing jello to a wall, as the infamous “they” people say.

Begin, rather, with the simple image of a funnel. Whatever language you choose to use, start big – at the wide end of the funnel – and slowly work your way down to the specific and small actions that can be taken. How big? I have read a lot of job descriptions, hundreds of them, produced by reputable organizations in many parts of the world. To be honest, it sometimes sounds like these groups are mainly concerned about their own survival. May I say, straightaway, that organizational or personal survival is not a large enough goal, or an appropriate place to begin. Yes, paying the bills is important. But you don’t exist primarily to pay bills.

What happens next, is often where more confusion takes place. For if the big beginning is big enough, it will feel overwhelming and nobody will know what to do next. Almost a century ago, Henry Ford decided that he wanted to build a car that ordinary Americans could afford. Where do you start? You start by putting a plan together that, if followed, will at least potentially transform the “big dream” into practical reality.

But there is so much that I cannot control, you say. True enough. And there always will be. In case you are wondering, I am not suggesting that planning is somehow a substitute for prayer or that it will guarantee success. But, at the same time, there is very often something small and tangible that you or your organization could be doing that you are just not in a position to see right now. Taking the time to put together a detailed and practical plan can help you perceive the possibilities.

If you do not have a grand vision or goal or dream, start with that. If you do not have a credible plan, take the time to produce one. If you are not intentionally following your plan, start today.

Dream big. Act small.

Might make a good resolution for the new year.

*Here are a few related discussion questions

Until the cows…

At December 30, 2011
By Nathan
In Career & Life Planning, Meeting Needs
4

Cows. Just great. I come here looking for timely insight that will potentially launch me in an exciting new direction…and this guy is writing about cows. Doesn’t he know that I am busy, stressed, frazzled, and a bit dazed from staring at this screen for hours? Really. I have places to go, things to do, people to see, more coffee to consume, etc.

Earth to blog-posting person: I need something clear, something quick, something practical that I can take with me into my hectic day. Okay.

Where are you going?

Rather than drone on about the importance of setting goals, I have decided to tell you a little about my goal-setting journey as it relates to the development of Career & Life Direction. That way, you can gain a better sense of how identifying and clarifying goals could make a difference in a variety of areas in your own life.

So, here we go. I have 3 simple goals right now for this website:

1. To improve and expand the service that I offer.

2. To increase the number of people who are interested in this service.

3. To find a way to make this service profitable.

In other words, I am trying to provide a valuable service, to a growing number of people around the world, and eventually make a living in the process.

Spinning the globe, sitting on my desk just a few feet away, I feel small. I gain a new perspective. Yes, my home province, Saskatchewan, is bigger than many countries, but it is also just one of many places on this planet.

Most people, the other 6.99 billion or so, who live on the Earth’s vast network of large and small islands, likely hardly know this place exists. The nerve of some people, not noticing me and my place! But it does almost seem too far north to even notice if you live in Peru, and much to far away if you hail from Madagascar. And what do I really know about life in far away places? To what extent do I care?

My limited number of days in this world are measured by the constant speed of this spinning planet. Does the Earth have cruise-control? I don’t know, but eighty or ninety trips around the Sun at this speed, and that will be about it for me. Generations come and generations go. It has been going on like this for years. Planting and harvesting. Life and death. Like a passing cloud, a vapour, a sun-burnt flower, people say. It is over before you even know what it is all about; you fall asleep before you even wake up. Husbands, children, wives, homes, money – all gone, eventually.

It all seems pointless at times to me. King Solomon said as much back in his day, studying, straining to see the answers.

Must leave something of value behind, then. A memory. A legacy. Something that says, “My life mattered.” To come, and see, and conquer must count for something. That must be how you get an “Important” sticker stuck to your life. Or so some say. If it didn’t feel like it mattered much the first time, maybe it will the next time around. One way or another, our lives – we are told – will carry on…through our music, our families, etc. So says The Rankin Family in “Rise Again” – a beautiful, famous, and desperately sad song

Christ’s birth took place in such a way so as to add dignity to people who are feeling small

Some of you reading this have heard more than enough by now. “That’s it. One more melancholic comment from this guy, and I’m going to click my way outta here.” Can’t say that I blame you. But, this brief blog post could quickly expand to fill a large part of the Internet universe, if I was allowed to freely quote all the people who have ever lived who have had such thoughts. You could be clicking for a very long time as you try to escape. For who has not felt small and insignificant? Honestly? Who has not grappled with the purpose or the meaning of life? Who has not caught themselves thinking, “Why should I bother doing anything with my life, anyway?”

I don’t know about you, but I find that I have a fondness for things I have helped to create, and a special fondess for things that are small. And looking at the globe to my left once again, it is almost as if I am assuming God’s perspective. Why should it matter if a country is comparatively large or small, if a life is long or short, if memories linger of not? I can see that God would care regardless. And I can understand that God would surely be extending the possibility of a positive purpose to everyone on this planet.

Christmas is coming and I still have shopping to do. But that will have to wait. For now, I need to remind myself (and maybe a few or you) that Christ’s birth took place in such a way so as to add dignity to people who are feeling small. Jesus was born in a barn, to poor parents, in a place of little consequence. The angelic announcement was made to sheperds, to men who didn’t get much in the way of respect. The creator of the world paid a visit as a helpless child. And for the most part, nobody really noticed in Bethlehem that night or understood what was going on.

If you are wondering how all of this applies to your desire to clarify your career and life direction, may I just say that it does? I think you see how it does.

Merry Christmas fellow small people!

Meeting needs

A young boy in Kenya brings breakfast to two hippos and a mysterious bird

If “Needs” was a last name, or a nickname perhaps, this would be a career column post that had something to do with meeting Mr. or Mrs. or Miss Needs.

Being introduced to a person who is excessively needy is an experience that most of you would likely not look forward to. Someone who constantly needs your time, attention, affirmation, encouragement, emotional energy, money, etc. can leave you feeling drained, discouraged, and even used, after a while. When you see these type of people coming, you get going. And yet, at the same time, this label or handle may describe each one of us at different stages in our lives.

Belief and doubt

When it comes to choosing a career or life direction you will often, if not always, have to deal with “believers” and “doubters”.

In my experience, these two words were usually brought up in the context of discussing the truth claims, or at least the perceived claims, of Christianity. The implied message I often picked up from many of the power-people in my culture, was that “doubt” was by and large a good word and “belief” was bad. The connection was so common, it was almost like a children’s story about what sound a cow made, etc.

Holding hands

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live. Your computer might be parked in Germany or France, New Zealand or Australia, China or Japan, Lithuania or Latvia, Norway or Sweden, Canada or the United States, etc. It really doesn’t matter. If you are a human being, you need other human beings in your life.

I was reminded of this obvious and yet neglected truth after reading Robert Schullers’ account of 75 years of life and ministry in his autobiography entitled My Journey.

Robert Schuller, like Micheal Jackson and Elvis Presley, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, Billy Graham and Mother Teresa, is a household name in many parts of the world. When you think positive thoughts and picture a cathedral in California that looks like crystal…you likely also imagine a small, pudgy, poor, farm boy from Iowa standing on the platform. Or maybe not.