Performance

It will eventually come down to performance. What you have learned and the manner in which you have learned it are important, but the dean's list is not going to keep you on somebody's job. Recognitions from the past are nice, but they will not carry you beyond where you are. A good reputation is an ally, but it will only keep people off your back temporarily. There will come a time where you and I must prove we can get it done consistently. Life has been studied, but life is more than a science. Life has been observed and appreciated, but it's greater than art. Even if the question is not asked out loud there are people around us that want to know how we will perform to make their lives better. They are not really even all that interested in what we have done. Folk want to know if we can make it happen now. Performance will ultimately exceed credentials. Bill Gates has shown us that. Performance is also superior to our history. Just look at all the hullabaloo surrounding Peyton Manning. We may not be on a stage like those gentlemen, but we can be sure we are being evaluated based on what we can do. Excellence is the name of the game. Have a great day doing your very best because people are watching.

Virtuous Conduct

At some point virtue needs to be ingrained in our everyday lives. Virtuous thought and speech are good, but they fall short if they don't lead to a virtuous lifestyle. A commitment to one woman by a man and one man by a woman through marriage is still the standard God has set. Floating around like a butterfly from flower to flower may be popular, but it's not virtuous. Men with men and women with women may be politically correct, but it's not right. Living first as good examples before our children is still a ton more valuable than telling them what they should be doing. They will get much more from seeing good conduct than from hearing about it. Then, right is right and wrong is wrong. Virtue does not adjust standards based upon the situation we are in, or the people we are dealing with. Virtuous conduct means doing the right thing for the right reasons. Where we go, what we handle, how we treat one another, what we aspire to are all a part of our everyday world and these things should be done right. Temptations to do wrong are always going to come, but we don't have to yield to temptation. It is almost certain that we will face a fork in the road where one choice is to do right and the other to do wrong. Have a great day walking the path that is right!

Knowledge Virtue

I'm sure most of you are aware of the fact we are in a knowledge based age. It was once said lightly that "knowledge is power." That is far from a fluffy statement now. Without the right information everything we do can quickly become obsolete. Life long learning and continuous learning are essential in these times. What we need be careful about is how we morally use information. We can't just take the things we learn and selfishly twist them for our own advantages. There is a purity in the way information can be applied. If we just do the opposite of modern politics we will come pretty close to hitting the target. Have you seen how similar statistics can be utilized by opposers in political races? Views and counter views can be so far apart that it's hard to know what to believe. The reason for this cloud is a motive to win at any cost. That is far from virtuous. We have to be better than that. We need to gain information in a wide variety of areas. We especially need to be stretching ourselves in whatever specialty we practice. Staying mentally fresh is important. Then we must strive to be the best that we can be without manipulating others. Have a great day learning and then using the knowledge for good!

Virtuous Speech

When it comes to virtue we need places that we can check on ourselves. Speech is as good a place to start as any. The Bible says our speech should be with grace seasoned with salt. It's obvious that most of what we hear does not fit into either of those categories. The question then becomes what is the contribution you and I are making with our words? If we use profanity at all, we are making the wrong contribution. Harsh, critical, judgmental commentary is also the opposite of grace speech. Salt is a preservative so if our speech destroys rather than protects we have work to do. Gossip, slander and rumor repeating do not preserve anything worthwhile. Words are powerful. We need to talk in ways that are clean, gracious, and encouraging. It's just as easy to use phrases like "I love you, that was a good job, you look very nice today, and I'm glad you're in my life" as it is to rip someone apart. Have a great day carefully using your power of speech!

Private Virtue, Where Are You?

These dangerous days of ours demonstrate we are consumed with the stage to the neglect of personal conduct. Politicians that have proven themselves scoundrels can still climb to the top. Sports figures do amazing things in competition only to have home lives that are train wrecks. There is "mega" success with many churches only to find leaders that have horrific private lives. It's hard to figure out how we got here, but it's a real bad spot to be in. We have the whole thing backwards. We have to find a way to reverse how we see things. Managing our private lives is far more important than how we perform somewhere. Self control is still a valuable component in life. The way we live in the dark is just as crucial as what we do on our stage, whatever our stage may be. The path we tread when nobody is looking means more than how the public perceives us. Doing the right thing behind closed doors is important. It seems we have actually arrived at the place where we believe in selecting talent over character every time. What a terrible legacy to leave for our children. If it is by no other means than one by one we must restore the importance of personal virtue. Have a great day doing the right thing when nobody's looking!

Are You Listening?

Listening to God can be every bit as powerful as speaking to Him. In Elijah's deep depression he heard a still, small voice that changed everything. When the threat of annihilation from the armies of Egypt came against Moses and the people, the Lord said stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you. When it was time for Samuel to begin to fulfill his mission, he heard the voice of God calling him by name and his response was speak Lord your servant is listening. In the ministry of Jesus he said whatever I hear the Father speak that's what I say. We are pretty good at pulling out our list of requests and telling God what we feel we need. We have every right to do that, but are we taking advantage of the other side of prayer? Prayer is after all at it's most basic level a simple conversation with God. A big part of conversation is listening. Who would have more insight into what we need to hear than God? We know that the ears of the Lord are always open to hear us. The question is are our ears open to hear from Him? Have a great day listening for I can assure you the Lord is speaking.

DON'T STOP PRESSING

One of my heroes in the Bible is the Syrophonecian woman. She impresses me deeply because of her tenacity. She was willing to go through what ever she had to in order to get her request answered. She pressed her way through silence. We know that Jesus is too loving to ever be mean, but she pressed her way through what could have easily been perceived as an insult. She even pressed her way through the idea that she was not qualified for the blessing she was seeking. What does that tell us? Once again we are faced with the very real spiritual truth that things just don't always come quickly. We have to press our way into many of the blessings we seek. What do we do when we are faced with a silent heaven? She kept pressing! What do we do when we feel like heaven has been mean to us? She didn't allow that to stop her. What do we do when we are believing that others may qualify for the blessing, but not us? She continued to stay in the presence of the Christ that could help her. The bottom line is she got from the Lord what she needed. The lesson for us is we can too. Have a great day continuing to press for your breakthrough!