The scary things we do could teach us a thing or two.
It’s been a tough week… month… quarter. Well, it hasn’t been easy lately. I’ve seen people and families shaken to their core, but that’s common at work.
No big deal. I can handle it… until I find myself shaken, scared, broken, crying, and finally praying about the terrible things that are happening all around me. Why does it take us so long to admit how frail we really are? How much do we have to go through to admit that we are fallible, that we seek the easy lie rather than the hard truth?
A brief sampling of the recent trauma includes:
- Seeing a colleague fall apart and leave their job, understandably unable to keep it together after a divorce and separation from loved ones.
- Another friend who lost a job, then apparently ended up stealing money which, of course, landed him in jail. I knew nothing of it until I bumped into his wife who is now struggling to keep her family together and accepting help from family, friends, and our congregation’s food pantry to get by.
“No one will know what I do in secret. This only affects me…” until it is known by everyone because it affects everyone. And everyone else knowing the stupid things I‘ve done, that is scary personally! Yet even worse, the costs to others can be truly devastating.
There’s something about real life that leadership and management courses can’t turn into an easy formula. As my audio books recently changed from professor Jim Collins to pastor Chuck Swindoll, I found the latter highly applicable. We are naturally drawn to “fame, fortune, power, and pleasure.” These are the trappings of ME. They are the things that topple us, and they take the rest of our associates down to some degree as well. Meanwhile, the cure is hard, long, tedious work and sacrifice to see our selfishness ground down through a focus on serving others. Those others include God, family, colleagues, community, society… everyone but ourselves.
And so, I humbly ask that we consider this treatise on management… Wisdom or folly? Others or ME?
What do we decide to take away from bad choices, good examples, and personal tragedy? We can learn from the good and bad examples of others. When we take them to heart and put them into practice… that is wisdom.
Acknowledging our own problems, flaws, and weakness toward the goal of personal growth is difficult. But avoiding the problems and their adverse effects to stay in our cocoons of comfort… this is folly.
Though it’s been a long time coming, I’m finally done fighting it. I need more wisdom, less folly. Letting others be more important than ME is actually painful and scary. But I have a family, colleagues, patients, and a community that will be better off because of it.
And, eventually, I will be too.
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