No Shortcuts In Recipe For Greatness
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
Ezekiel 11.20 concludes God’s promise for changing His people, so they will obey My decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be My people, and I will be their God.
The One True God, the Christian God, makes obedience to Him quite simple to understand. He boils down His will for humanity into the two commands of love Him first and most and love our neighbor like we love ourselves. This isn’t hard to understand and certainly seems reasonable.
The hard part, the part all humanity from all time has been unable to do, is actually live it. Our first conflict is with God Himself. Page 3 of the Bible tells of humanities desire to be god instead of remaining submissive to God.
Page 3! Barely into God’s story is the recording of humanities rebellion against God. We want to be god because we want absolute power, control and authority over our circumstances and others. It is why we do what we want to do regardless of what impact it may have on ourselves or others.
The result of this rebellion is our own demise. It explains war, poverty, disease and death. Remaining in rebellion means when we face God for judgement we will finally understand we are not god and will miss the eternity we could have had with Him where love and peace reign forever.
Second, loving others as ourselves is hard because we love ourselves and then others if we deem it to be in our best interest. This type of loving explains divorce and damage in our relationships whether with family, neighbor or employer. Loving others after loving ourselves keeps us selfish and self absorbed but also lonely and isolated.
God promises to help us if we will let Him. He promises to give us new hearts that will motivate us to love Him and love others. He invites us to faith, faith that will trust that the process of loving God first and others as myself really will result in my being the happiest and healthiest version of myself possible.
True love abandons self preservation for loving God and others resulting in eternal salvation with God and those who also have loved Him and others. That will truly be heaven.
His Opportunities
Prayer and Bible study occurs every Friday morning at the Coral Gables restaurant in East Lansing from 7am – 8am, feel free to join us.
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CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
September 26, 2016
No Shortcuts In Recipe For Greatness
by Robert J. Tamasy
Do you aspire to greatness? Would you like to lead a great company, or create a business that became the standard in the industry for excellence? Or would you like to gain acclaim for being a great leader, the kind of person whose name appears in the pages of a book like Who’s Who or be on the cover of TIME magazine as its “Person of the Year”?
Maybe you would simply like to be as skilled and accomplished as someone you highly admire. Besides writing, editing and photography, one of my primary interests has always been music. I played the drums in the high school marching and concert bands, and envied the talents of world-famous drummers. “I wish I could play the drums like that!” I often thought. But I wanted the results without the necessary effort.
On his website, organizational strategist and executive coach Stephen R. Graves recently this observation about leadership:
“There is no speed cooking in greatness. Becoming great won’t happen tomorrow; it is instead a long perseverance in the same direction. As Malcolm Gladwell has artfully observed, even those that we revere as geniuses and prodigies – Bill Gates, Mozart, The Beatles – all worked unbelievably hard for an incredible period of time before truly achieving greatness. The best soups simply have to sit and simmer. You cannot rush them. You cannot speed cook maturity. We must log the time.”
Many of us get impatient waiting for microwave ovens to heat our meals. We grow tired waiting for traffic lights to change. We detest waiting in lines. And too often, we refuse to invest the time and perseverance necessary for achieving greatness vocationally. We want what we want – and we want it right now!
It could be argued greatness is not so much earned – as with a college degree, or an hour wage – but rather bestowed. Two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, were seeking positions of greatness when they asked, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory” (Mark 10:37). After replying they had no idea what they were asking for, Jesus said, “to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared” (Mark 10:40).” Here are some biblical principles about the pursuit of greatness:
It takes time. When people wonder why someone has experienced great success when they have not, they should ask themselves, “Did I put forth the necessary effort?” “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor” (Proverbs 12:24).
It takes perseverance. Attaining greatness requires willingness to confront obstacles and endure many kinds of adversity. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).
It takes the right motivation. We should honestly ask ourselves why we seek greatness – out of pride, or out of a desire to honor God and be faithful stewards of all He has entrusted to us. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men”(Colossians 3:23-24).
© 2016. Robert J. Tamasy is vice president of communications for Leaders Legacy, Inc., a non-profit based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. Bob has written Business At Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; Tufting Legacies; and coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring. His blog is: www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com.
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