For me as always, it’s hard to strike a nerve, reach people’s hearts and challenge others to consider a phenomenon that I have not had the chance to actually lived and experienced myself. Then, to me, it gets really sweet- going through a storm, pressing through it, and finally coming out on a whole other side, total and shining, including sharing it with the world, and challenging others to think about it. My friend, Reuben calls it resilience which I like very much. I like to call it “competitiveness”.
Well I don’t know, I get a kick out of outwitting people, outfoxing folks, charming and disarming them and in the process, providing individuals with the opportunity to set the bar, raise their standards, set astonishing, but realistic goals and stun the world. Attitude is so contagious it is unbelievably easier to rub off on somebody. But hang on, I’m not talking about an unhealthy, hate-filled rivalry that is in itself is worldly, unchristian and self-destructive. No. that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial.
Here, staying competitive is simply being the best that you possibly can be- in every conceivable aspect of your life, – in things that you do, things that you say, how you make a living, how you pray, how you conduct yourself with others, in your academic, including your relationship, communion and collaboration with God, as well as individuals and groups. Can you see the significance? Most of these activities are things that we plan our life around.
For Saint Paul, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure……if anything is excellent or praiseworthy…., think about such things (Philippians 4:8). The Apostle goes further, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize’. And then at a climax, he challenges us, ‘so run that you may obtain it.” (See 1Corinthians 9:24-27).
It’s OK, for the sake of expediency to do what everyone is doing at a certain time. But it’s not at all fun consistently thinking in the same pattern that everyone does. What an insipidity! What a bore! And if more, you end up being average, uncharismatic and effectively, you become a so ordinary person, that not only would you feel undermined in your capacity to be a leader, but also put yourself at a tremendous competitive disadvantage in your relationship and dealings with other people, who are your greatest asset as a seeker of destiny.
You have to work really hard to earn great respect. But to make exploits that change the arc of humanity and create exciting acts that please God, you have to have a strategy. To be the best, to be seen as an extraordinary individual, a leader with great charisma, one with a larger-than-life persona and an architect of his own universe, you have to have a core set of strategies that I’m going to be churning out from corporate and biblical perspectives, in the next few days.
Thanks.
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