The other journey is a more spiritual one. Led by Pastor Rick Warren, my 40-Day journey is guided through the 40 Chapters of the "Purpose-Driven Life". This is a book that aims to help me find my purpose in life. I thought I already had my purpose figured out but as I read each chapter, it has further shaped and sharpened my definition and meaning of life for me.
As a new Christian, it has guided me to see life not through my own lens but seeing it through God's view. In Chapter Five, Pastor Warren explains that life is a test, a trust, and also a temporary assignment. The third is detailed in Chapter Six, which I will read tomorrow.
What struck me was about the first two, test and trust. First, life is a test from God. The Lord will test me in every way, from big tasks to small, and sometimes not noticeable ones. Pastor Warren described that in every way that God tests me, He is seeing how I respond to each circumstance. In other words, how I respond to everything is a way for God to evaluate me. Hence, when things are going well, my responses will be noted. And usually that is aligned to my principled-centered values. But when times are tough, whether I adhere to those principled-centered values in the way I behave will be seen as a true test.
Because it is really easy to say, well, I will not raise my voice and listen empathetically, during times when I am not under trying circumstances. But during those difficult situations when I am under pressure, will I still speak normally and seek first to understand? I must admit I don't and I have good, or so I think, reasons for that! Having said that, that was through the lens of "me" previously. But now, through the lens of God, its a whole world of differences.
To be able to continually pass each and every test, one principled-centered value is "self-discipline", the virtue of being able to subordinate all of my ego, emotions, and need to feel that I am right to the virtue of working from the inside out. In other words, going one step deeper than "identity" or life's mission as a "leader", the spiritual dimension clearly specify that through God's tests, every action must be aligned to that.
The second view of life from God's perspective is trust. Only when someone passes your "test", then you'd trust him. Even then, you might still continue to subject the person to various test along the way. Let's say, this person made a commitment to you that he will meet you on Thursday at 5pm. And on Thursday, 5pm, this person not only didn't turn up, he didn't even call to say he cannot make it. Would you trust this person?
So, have we ever made a commitment to ourselves and failed to keep it? Say, you said to yourself that you'd accomplish a task by a certain date and you didn't do it. How do you feel about that? What does that make you? So, overtime, you either stop making commitments to yourself or worse still, beat yourself up. How's that for trusting oneself?
I think in my lives, it is all about relationships. Relationship with yourself, relationships with your friends, relationships with your loved ones, relationships in the work-place, relationships with your clients, your boss, etc. And what about your relationship with God? Live's about relationships anyways!
So, what is one of the most critical element that must be there before you can have a good relationship with that someone? What is the one thing, if you lack of, will ruin this relationship?
I believe that word is "trust". With trust. Everything becomes possible. You'd assign yourself a task and know that you will carry it out. You would entrust another person with something dear to you, and you'd won't lose sleep over it. You empower your reports with certain assignments and know for sure it would be performed to the best of their abilities. Or when you trust God, you will always have your eyes fixated on Him, knowing that He will be there for you!
Hence, live is about relationships, but before you can start having a wonderful and fulfilling relationship with anyone including yourself; you will need to know that the two-levels that needs to be at work. In order for you to trust yourself (personal), you must have self-mastery. In order for you to trust others (people) and have them trust you, you need engaged-mastery. And finally, for you to trust the people you work with (professional), you'll need professional-mastery. Of course, DO NOT TEST GOD!
Respectfully yours,
Melvyn Tan
(Sent from my Blackberry Bold)
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