Good And Evil In The Heart

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”

–Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956)

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Crafting Your Own Job Security

Living in the swamp of a stagnant economy presents many challenges one might not otherwise face in a time of prosperity.  Navigating a volatile employment market takes ingenuity, drive, and creative thinking.  And not a little personal sacrifice.

Depending on where you reside, the unemployment rate currently hovers between 7-10%.  It is an employer’s market, even in the Armed Forces.  One career Army sergeant told me a few summers ago that the job security of being able to reenlist is a thing of the past.  Those who wish to do so are carefully scrutinized.  A record of poor performance, apathy, dust-ups with the law (e.g. bar fights, domestic mischief), etc., and your chances of being rehired are remote indeed.  Even the US Army can now pick and choose.

As well, many highly educated veterans in banking, InfoTech, retail, and other markets, having been downsized, are now taking the simplest jobs, with high mortgages and school bills coming due without fail.

What to do?

I believe that job security is best stewarded in one’s own hands.  Labor unions can only go so far.  Those who keep their skills current, their work ethic stellar, their thinking creative, and their drive unimpaired stand the best chance of finding and maintaining gainful, even satisfying, employment in this competitive economy.

Here are some things you can do to hone your edge and increase your staying power:

• Traditional continuing education.  This means everything from attaining or completing a degree program to adult enrichment courses at your local community college.  You must weigh the costs associated and determine the value of the investment.  It is a fantastic choice for many.
• Internet learning–at little or not cost.  There is so much free training material on the Web that one is able to complete a good deal of traditional education for little or no cost.  True, such training may not have the clout of an earned degree, but if it enables you to produce the results a company is looking for, you may get the job.  MIT and Stanford, to name just two outstanding schools, have a huge assortment of free courses online—computer programming to engineering and everything in between.  Avail yourself.
• A second job outside your primary vocation.  It does not hurt at all to learn skills completely unrelated to your career.  I am an IT professional, but also a carpenter, musician and baker.  When the chips are down, I can look to these other fields for income and production.  If it means taking a second job at low pay and bottom of ladder, do it.  You will learn a new skill, valuable in itself.  And it may well keep you afloat in the days ahead.

Remember, you may have to train on your own time and dime.  Make the sacrifice.  Your sense of self-accomplishment as well as potential marketability are worth the effort!

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Phil Keaggy on “What A Day”

“The album [What A Day] came out of my life. ‘Now I Can See’ is the song that really speaks what my heart is saying. When life goes into an album, life comes out. There is a lot of music that is fantastic technically but it lacks life and spirit. Jesus said, ‘The flesh profits nothing, but the Spirit gives life.’ I’ve got music that’s fantastic musically, but then there’s music that the Lord ministers through. He anoints it. The input that you receive is also your output. Its roots go back to influences in a person’s life that have been good and pure. You know, when it comes to anointing, that’s something only the Lord can do: He can use someone who isn’t as talented or someone who is much more talented than I am. I encourage people to get into music but I remind them to remember who’s the author and giver of that gift. I discourage people from getting a guitar just to be like me. When someone is given a gift from the Lord, the Lord will accomplish that which concerns that gift. It’s all for the purpose of glorifying Him, to build up the Body, to edify the Body, and to bring news to the fainthearted — — to those who are lost, and to set the captives free.”

–Phil Keaggy (1976)

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Remember….

Freedom is not free.  It comes at a price.  I live in northern New York just outside of Fort Drum, headquarters of the 10^th Mountain Division.  Drum is one of the most heavily deployed Army bases in the United States.  It may be the heaviest.

I have seen soldiers return from war—if they even do.  Many have paid with their lives.  Those coming home face challenges that only a soldier who has seen the hell that is war could possibly understand.  Families in shambles, mental health challenges (read PTSD), some no longer having limbs.  And more.

Today is Memorial Day.  A day of remembering.  Sacrifice is not on the short list of a society given to consumption and self-fulfillment.  But it is one of the prices of freedom.  Sacrifice on the battlefield and unselfishness, even restraint, at home.  It is the foundation of any society that long endures.  Its lack portends the eventual collapse of the same.  Obviously, we as a nation are in some trouble if we don’t recover once again this heroic virtue.

Say thank you.  Just do it.  They’ve all willingly thrown themselves under the bus for you.

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Increase Your Vocabulary; Increase Your Influence

Self-development expert Jim Rohn once made the important point that “all of life is sales.”   Throughout each day of our life journey, we are all involved in some form of communication, seeking to win a hearing and persuade others for mutual benefit.

I’ve listened to some older success audio by the late Earl Nightingale over the past six months.  One of the points Earl made was the fact that people in very powerful and influential positions in business are characterized by their expansive vocabularies.  A large and varied command of language carries with it the potential for advancement and increased incomes for its possessor.

I love words.  Just ask my wife.  And I get bored easily with clichés.  Aren’t you tired of hearing things like “awesome,” “been there, done that” and “just sayin’?”  I’m sure others are too.  The use of a cliché often betrays laziness if nothing else.  We all need color and freshness of expression.  It enriches life in a profound way.

It’s been said that the difference between a sparse versus a rich vocabulary is a mere 3500 words.  Ponder that for a moment.  By taking time to learn new words and fresh expressions, you can elevate your powers of persuasion, influence and earning.

Here are some tips to grow your vocabulary and your station:

• Read widely.  One public figure whose stunningly rich vocabulary sets him apart from the rank-and-file is political commentator George Will.  One might not always agree with a position Will espouses but listening to him articulate it is a treat—candy for the ear.  As well, read novelists who’ve done very well with wordcraft.  Ralph McInerny and Daniel Silva are favorites of mine.  Bible teacher Chuck Missler is another as is The Message author Eugene Peterson.
• Read with a dictionary close by.  Corollary to the above bullet point. I have a new Kindle Fire®.  It has the advantage of a built-in dictionary that activates when you highlight a word.  If a word is unfamiliar to you, look it up.  Then begin using it in your own speaking and writing.
• Use new words in speech as appropriate.  The rule is to prefer the shorter word if it conveys the precision and color you are looking for.  But using just the right word trumps all.  Take a little time before speaking and seek to say something in a new and winsome way.
• Learn foreign languages.  My own studies of French, Russian, Hebrew and Greek have all helped me to understand my own English and to communicate more vigorously.  President Richard Nixon once commended the study of Latin because 1) it is the most orderly of all languages and 2) it is foundational for much of our own language.

One of the goals we should each strive for is to give those with whom we interact a superior experience to that which they are currently enjoying or loathing.  New words bring color and freshness.  And everyone thrives on that.  Be the source.

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Saturday Morning Work-Out Inspiration: From 50 pounds overweight to…

This is an inspiring video from fellow blogger David Kanigan.  Enjoy!

Saturday Morning Work-Out Inspiration: From 50 pounds overweight to….

Facing Fear

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

–Frank Herbert

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Pruning The Branches

I’ve got a whopper of a blown blister on my right middle finger.  Our trees and bushes have been in dire need of a haircut.  So I decided to prune them this evening.  Hence, the blister. I didn’t wear gloves. (Note to self: Wear gloves next time.)

Pruning of necessity is painful for a tree or a bush.  To have such luxuriant growth mercilessly cut away seems an act of violence.

But this is for the health of the tree.  When fruit trees are pruned, they often take on the appearance of an Armed Forces haircut.  Severely pruned trees look awful to the sight.

But that is the point of it all.  The newly pruned tree can now focus its energies and sap on bearing fruit.  Some of the shortest and most severely pruned apple trees bring forth the biggest apples.  What good are a lot of leaves if you’ve no fruit to show for all the growth?

Jesus speaks about how God prunes our lives in the fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel.  We are pruned to bear more fruit.  The pruning is painful but necessary.  An unruly and neglected tree bears little fruit.  And the same holds true for undisciplined lives.  Doing a little bit of everything but nothing really well.  Unfocused and out of proportion.  Often frustrated.

The result? Little fruit.  Lots of activity but little lasting value.

What kinds of things—activities, possessions, pursuits, even toxic relationships—can you prune from your life to hit your full potential?

The pain, you’ll discover, is well worth the yield in fruit.

Now for the pruning shears….

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Baby Steps

“I’m sailing!”

One of the most hilarious movies I ever seen—and a favorite of our family—is the film What About Bob?  The picture portrays the comical interactions of a successful and slightly neurotic psychotherapist, Leo Marvin  (Richard Dreyfuss) with his nerdy, phobic new client, Bob (Bill Murray).

The story features newly-published Dr. Marvin counseling his patients, especially the new and irritating Bob who is afraid of everything, that goals and growth can be accomplished by taking small actions toward their fulfillment.

Baby steps!

Bob succeeds in driving Leo Marvin to the brink and over.  In the process, Bob grows and Leo regresses.  Watch the film.

I’ve been thinking about goals and how to reach them lately.  If you’re like me and many other humanoids, you may find the goals you pursue like a giant mountains or obstacle courses.  If you focus on the size of them, you’re likely to become discouraged and either suspend them or give them up altogether.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tze once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”  My wife often reminds me of the moral of Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.”   Slow and steady wins the race.  Plodding.  Keeping on keeping on.

What to do:

• Write down your goals.  This is the very first step. The success literature seems to be united on this point.  Why? Committing goals to paper makes them more real.  Tangible.  The human mind is conditioned when a goal in made specific to come up with strategies toward its fulfillment.  Make short term, medium and long range goals. What are 100 things you want to do and become before you die?  Write them down today.
• Begin thinking of a baby steps process to meet them.  One of my colleagues at work just ran her first half marathon in the beautiful Adirondacks in our state.  She won a medal.  I asked her how she did it?  She did so through a gradual process of working up to 12-13 miles.  She’s planning on running a full marathon and I bet she’ll do it.  Lay out specific, easily digestible steps toward finishing the meal.  Little bites.  Baby steps.
• Dream big.  Often we fail to reach goals because we make them too easy.  If you’re meant to ski Olympic size courses, you’ll not be happy staying on the bunny hill.  Set the bar high.

You were meant to win at life, not lose or drown in boredom.  Do it!

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Encouragement As Tipping Point

How many times have you heard the sentence “it was the straw that broke the camel’s back?”  We use these words when someone has reached an emotional breaking point.  Usually some relatively little thing pushes a person under duress to the brink.  They snap, blow up, break down.  It’s left to others to pick up the wreckage.

Such a moment may be called a tipping point.  Someone holds up against relentless pressure and circumstances until some minor thing causes them to collapse.  A straw.

A tipping point is an event in a defining moment that changes things in a big way.  In a life.  Sometimes in an entire culture.  The end of the Roman gladiatorial games in the Colosseum as a result of Telemachus’s protest comes to mind.   Or the  public 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City in which her neighborhood witnesses did nothing to intervene and protect her.  This tragedy highlighted a culture of indifference and non-involvement.

I’d like to suggest that there are also such tipping points that result from continual encouragement.

There is always room in our world for another voice saying things like “you’re the man”; “you are beautiful”; “you have what it takes”; “you can do this.”  It often takes repeated positive affirmations to reach a tipping point in a life.   The point at which the recipient of the encouragement begins to believe it and act.

There are many broken homes in our land.  Families fractured and alienated.  Usually, the most potent fallout from a disintegrated family lands on the children.  This is not to say that fathers and mothers who’ve divorced one another do not encourage their kids.  Far from it.  But the absence of one of the parents and an intact family certainly has a devastating effect.

Young men need to be told they have what it takes to compete and win in the marketplace and in life.  Young women need to know they are protected, valuable and beautiful.

Continually encouraging human beings, especially the young, will no doubt cause such marvelous tipping points.  The point at which a person begins to see within themselves what God and others have known all along.  But it takes positive affirmation, repeated over time, to crest that watershed.

I challenge you to make it your goal to bring as many people, through your words, to a making point (as opposed to a breaking point).  Use your tongue as the creative instrument God intended it to be.  And watch as the light dawns in someone’s eyes as they realize that they are valuable, loved and eternally matter.

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