“A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle.”
Proverbs 18:19 NKJV
Remember that offense is a function of the offended and not the offender. People do and say all kinds of things to us, but we can CHOOSE to be offended or not. Once we choose offense, we become unwinnable. Friendships die!
Moses Mukisa
“So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent.”
Exodus 18:7 NKJV
Moses had accomplished great feats of historical importance, but he still had the wisdom to honor his FIL, going out to meet him and bowing before him. He then went ahead to take his advice on how to govern Israel. He didn’t sit in his tent and let him go through security and appointments. He went out. He bowed down. He kissed.
May the anointing on your life not destroy you by thinking you have arrived and can treat those you don’t deem to have your level of revelation as not deserving of your honor if honor is due to them.
Reminds me of our younger fiery saved selves and how some treated their parents with contempt because they were not saved! Some were cast out. But wisdom teaches differently!
Mosze
Every organization, family or community has them both; builders and climbers.
The builders are those with a long term vision for the prosperity of all for generations. They lay down their lives and go to work. They pioneer, they innovate, they course correct, they carry vision; putting the interests of the business, organization or community ahead of theirs.
They build systems that help scale the vision and reduce the organization’s dependency on them. They are building a legacy.
Then there are the climbers. These ones are into self promotion and think they have the divine right to get to the “top” of wherever they find themselves. Theirs is to climb up or through whatever systems others have built, chiefly to their personal advantage.
Anyone who does a good job in an established business, organization or community will be promoted, so that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about those who cause divisions, wreck havoc and get others to focus on the wrong things as long as it gives them an advantage. They think short term and only through the prism of personal advancement.
Question is, which one are you? In what ways have you been a builder or a climber? What changes do you need to make to shift from climbing to building?
Happy clim… oops, BUILDING!
Mosze
On Sunday, I spoke about faithfulness at the Business Garage, our business oriented Sunday service. I thought I’d share a bit about what i found out as I prepared.
In closing, whatever is going on, and wherever you are on this journey, remember that God is faithful.
M
The deception about adopting criticism as a major operational method is to think or feel that one is now at the level of those you are criticizing.
You only get to appear in the same sentence with those you criticize for as long as the criticism continues. Once it’s all over, you quickly descend back to your world of non achievement, while those you’re criticizing continue with their lives in the world of overachievement. So I’d rather you contribute more than you criticize.
Like they say, if you don’t want to be criticized, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. But I pity even more those who feel that the only meaningful contribution they can make is criticize. What a pitiful existence!
Keep going. Keep growing. Keep leading.
As long as you are working with human beings, and not machines, allow room for failure. Of course that has to start with yourself. If you give enough grace room to yourself to fail, so should you for others. It’s just how life mostly works.
Keep going.
Mosze
Rick Warren said, “Divert Daily, Withdraw Weekly, Abandon Annually.”
Most Ugandans try and do this in December somewhere in the week leading up to Christmas into the first week of the New Year. This is highly recommended. The only challenge is we go to the village, where there is a different set of social expectations. So we come back rich socially but tired!
Maybe it’s time for you to figure out a ka get away for yourself and if married with your spouse, just to catch up and connect with yourself and those you love. Life is at a frenetic pace in the city. Get a week and get out there. Remember life and your calling, whatever it is, is a marathon, not a sprint. Abandon Annually!
Keep going. Keep growing. Keep leading.
Mosze
In the Bible, God instructed Israel to work six days and rest on the seventh. God had Himself set up this pattern in the creation story. Not only this, He also asked them to rest the land every seven years. In fact we see later that this failure to rest the land was the primary reason they were sent into exile.
This may sound like ancient wisdom and yet it still applies today. We may think that we are making progress by burning both ends of the candle, but that’s deception. The Jews, who still practice this principle are generally on average much wealthier and have made great contributions to science and culture than other people groups by far.
Since I work over the weekend, Monday is my day off; my Sabbath. Even though I’m still growing in this discipline, I’ve made significant progress.
How about you? When do you “switch off for maintenance”? Steve Covey talks about sharpening the saw in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Depending on your work schedule, find a day of rest. You can not negotiate yourself out of this principle.
Keep going. Keep growing. Keep leading.
Mosze
Because I work at a church, in addition to other responsibilities, my evenings can be filled with meetings. This is because the bulk of the work force at churches are volunteers who work elsewhere. So most meetings and appointments during the week end up being in the evenings when people leave work. At some point, I was getting home late almost everyday.
I noticed that this was having a toll on our family. So Ary and I came up with “Home Early Days”. These are days when sunset must find us at home. We have two fixed ones and two flex ones. I won’t tell you the days. But now most weeks I’m home early 4 nights a week. When we have to be out on some of the fixed nights, we take the kids with us.
I don’t know your work situation and what adjustments you need to make to be home early. But if you have a spouse or kids, figure out something. You have more power than you think.
Decide and execute. Fix some days where you see the sunset at home, and then spend the evening with family. Refer to yesterday’s blog about the no phone zone once you’re home early.
Keep going. Keep growing. Keep leading.
Mosze
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