We live in a time when large numbers of people are living their lives from the outside-in. They are driven and conformed by the things occurring outside of themselves, or by the people around them. For some this is merely perceived as ‘keeping up with the Joneses.” For others it is the total loss of self-identity by allowing other people or things outside of oneself to take the place of one’s own identity.
The following are a few of examples of outside-in living. “If my friends have a snow-machine, then I need one, too.” “If other people have a Hummer, then I should be able to have one, too.” “If my friends wear designer jeans, then I must also.” When a person is living his or her life from the outside-in, then his or her identity is primarily shaped by external admired role models, or circumstances.
This is not just an individual issue, but also an organizational or corporate issue as well. One of the things that continually amazes my family is how almost every mall looks like all other malls. The original mall concept caught on, and every other mall tried to emulate the original one. Another example of corporations being shaped by the external world is that one fast food chain “super-sized” their combination meals, so then all the others “biggie-sized” or “up-sized” theirs. Everyone is mimicking everyone else. Churches today are doing the same thing. They have grabbed on to one or two successful churches and then tried to emulate those in order to become “successful” or “cutting edge” churches. All of these are examples of organizations or corporations living from the outside-in.
Please realize that I am not attempting to “judge” this phenomenon, nor the people or organizations that have gotten caught up in it, but rather I am just trying to make us think about it. I was a teenager in the so-called “hippie” era. When I was in high-school I played drums for numerous bands, wore Beatle-boots and stove-pipe pants. To some degree, I was living my life from the outside-in. The truth is that we are all continually influenced to a very large degree by our external world and cultural environment. The key is to not let external influence cause us to lose our own identity and purpose. Identical clones are rarely appealing, nor needed.
So what is an alternative choice to living outside-in? It is living inside-out. In Romans 12:2 (N.A.S.B) we read: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The word “conformed” means “squeezed into a mold.” Don’t let the external world squeeze you into its shape. If you do, you are living outside-in.
A person who lives inside-out invites Christ into his or her life and allows God to transform him or her from the inside-out. When Christ comes into our lives He changes our basic inner nature. When our basic inner nature changes then our values change. When our values change, our thinking changes. When our values and thinking changes, our behavior changes. Real change begins with inviting Jesus to live within us. Then we begin to change in every area of our lives, and it is a change that comes from within, rather than something being pressured or forced upon us from without.
The influential leaders in society are those who have the internal vision and core values to fulfill their unique purpose in life, rather than those who try to always be like someone else. The corporations that lead the way are those that set an internal course that shapes their organization and influences the outside world by their internal vision. The corporations that are always in second or third place are those that are copycats. They are not implementing their own internal values or unique contributions, but only trying to emulate the ideas or contributions that someone else is already making.
We should learn from others, but we should also learn that we are each unique, as are the people or the companies that we are admiring. We cannot be them, and they cannot be us. If we are always trying to be someone else, instead of being who we alone can be, then the world will miss out on the contribution that we alone could have made. We lose, and the world loses.
Do you live outside-in, or inside-out?
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Life-Enriching Investment Principles
The beginning of a new year brings the opportunity to set a new direction for our lives. In this article we will look at five investment principles from Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 which have application in numerous areas of our lives. However, our focus in this article is how these principles can bring dividends in our relationships.
Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, renown as one of the wisest people to have ever lived. His first principle in verse 1 is to “cast your bread on the surface of the waters for you will find it after many days” (NASB). This is the principle of giving or investing. Some people think that the image is of literally casting bread onto a lake or sea, and receiving bread from other sources in return. Others see it as a figurative economic image of sending your goods to market on a ship, and receiving compensation from them when the ship returns. The principle is the same, either way. If money is kept in a sack in the house and not used, it will not grow nor bring returns. If a person has talents, but never uses them to benefit others, those talents never bring any results. If we wish to impact other people, we must take some risk and invest something of ourselves into them.
Solomon also states that we should diversify our investments. In verse 2 he says, “divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.” Financial planners lead people to invest some resources in stocks, some in bonds, some in savings, etc., so that if one sector of the economy falters, another might be doing well.
Diversification is a solid principle in most areas of our lives. People who only have one trusted friend are severely devastated should that person die, or leave. People with only one hobby find their life empty if something prohibits participation in that hobby. We need to invest our resources in more than one type of program or product, or more than one trainee or disciple, for if one fails, others may succeed. An old saying regarding diversification is “do not put all your eggs into one basket.”
A third principle is that actions bring consequences (see vs. 3). If the clouds are full, rain will fall; once a tree has been cut down, there it remains. So it is important to plan with a view towards consequences. It takes accumulation of water droplets into clouds in order for the clouds to later release those droplets onto our crops. If we never invest ourselves into others, then it will be unlikely that they will be there for us when we need them.
The second aspect of this verse is not to cry over spilt milk or fallen trees. Once a tree has fallen towards the North, it is ridiculous to spend the rest of your life bemoaning that fact, or wishing it had fallen towards the South. Go on to another tree or a new challenge. Don’t let past failures ruin your future.
Solomon’s fourth principle is: don’t let imperfect circumstances prevent you from participating (see verse 4). Life is not perfect. If a person waits for totally perfect conditions before planting the crops, the crops will never get planted. Some people will use any excuse not to get started on something. We once knew a guy who was in his early 40’s and still single. He could never find a girl “perfect enough” for him. One time he thought he had found her, but then later broke it off. When asked why, he replied: “I finally realized that her nose was too big.” I have not heard from the fellow in many years, but the last time I saw him, he was still single. Waiting for a literally “perfect” person leaves you alone and single; waiting for a perfect job before taking employment leaves you unemployed. Waiting for the perfect “anything” will leave you with perfectly nothing.
The last principle is to always be active investing your life. Invest in the morning and in the evening (verse 6). You never know which one will produce a return. I know a salesman who is selling everywhere he goes. He doesn’t just talk to those who have an appointment with him; he is planting “sales” seeds all the time. Invest your life in all kinds of people. You never know when they will in turn bless your life. I hope that these principles stimulate wise investment of your life in 2007.
Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, renown as one of the wisest people to have ever lived. His first principle in verse 1 is to “cast your bread on the surface of the waters for you will find it after many days” (NASB). This is the principle of giving or investing. Some people think that the image is of literally casting bread onto a lake or sea, and receiving bread from other sources in return. Others see it as a figurative economic image of sending your goods to market on a ship, and receiving compensation from them when the ship returns. The principle is the same, either way. If money is kept in a sack in the house and not used, it will not grow nor bring returns. If a person has talents, but never uses them to benefit others, those talents never bring any results. If we wish to impact other people, we must take some risk and invest something of ourselves into them.
Solomon also states that we should diversify our investments. In verse 2 he says, “divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.” Financial planners lead people to invest some resources in stocks, some in bonds, some in savings, etc., so that if one sector of the economy falters, another might be doing well.
Diversification is a solid principle in most areas of our lives. People who only have one trusted friend are severely devastated should that person die, or leave. People with only one hobby find their life empty if something prohibits participation in that hobby. We need to invest our resources in more than one type of program or product, or more than one trainee or disciple, for if one fails, others may succeed. An old saying regarding diversification is “do not put all your eggs into one basket.”
A third principle is that actions bring consequences (see vs. 3). If the clouds are full, rain will fall; once a tree has been cut down, there it remains. So it is important to plan with a view towards consequences. It takes accumulation of water droplets into clouds in order for the clouds to later release those droplets onto our crops. If we never invest ourselves into others, then it will be unlikely that they will be there for us when we need them.
The second aspect of this verse is not to cry over spilt milk or fallen trees. Once a tree has fallen towards the North, it is ridiculous to spend the rest of your life bemoaning that fact, or wishing it had fallen towards the South. Go on to another tree or a new challenge. Don’t let past failures ruin your future.
Solomon’s fourth principle is: don’t let imperfect circumstances prevent you from participating (see verse 4). Life is not perfect. If a person waits for totally perfect conditions before planting the crops, the crops will never get planted. Some people will use any excuse not to get started on something. We once knew a guy who was in his early 40’s and still single. He could never find a girl “perfect enough” for him. One time he thought he had found her, but then later broke it off. When asked why, he replied: “I finally realized that her nose was too big.” I have not heard from the fellow in many years, but the last time I saw him, he was still single. Waiting for a literally “perfect” person leaves you alone and single; waiting for a perfect job before taking employment leaves you unemployed. Waiting for the perfect “anything” will leave you with perfectly nothing.
The last principle is to always be active investing your life. Invest in the morning and in the evening (verse 6). You never know which one will produce a return. I know a salesman who is selling everywhere he goes. He doesn’t just talk to those who have an appointment with him; he is planting “sales” seeds all the time. Invest your life in all kinds of people. You never know when they will in turn bless your life. I hope that these principles stimulate wise investment of your life in 2007.
The Saga of Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty was a Mother Goose nursery rhyme published in 1810. Maybe it is time for all of us to revisit the point of that little jingle. Humpty was an anthropomorphized egg, who sat on a wall, had a great fall, and couldn’t be put back together at all. Were these nursery rhymes just little clever poems to occupy a child’s mind, or were they subtle ways to give some wise instruction to our children?
Humpty Dumpty made the point that if a personified egg sits on a wall, and falls off the wall, it will be smashed into hundreds of pieces and no one will be able to put the egg back together again. The story was a call for foresight, because re-assembling an egg is a lot more difficult than preventing its downfall would have been. It was a way of saying that it is a lot better to avoid some situations rather than to try to restore a life after it gets crushed by those situations.
This is an important bit of advice for all of us today. It is easier to spend time building and maintaining our relationships, than it is to repair them after we have neglected them so severely. It is better to avoid destructive habits, than it is to try to deal with all the destructive ramifications that flow from participation in destructive things. It is easier to be nice, than humiliating ourselves when we treat others poorly, and then having to further humiliate ourselves by admitting that we had been jerks, and need to ask for forgiveness.
It is easier to study diligently now, than to flunk out and later have to try to overcome years of bad grades and habits. It is better to choose our friends wisely and be less popular, than to run with the wrong crowd and end up ruining our lives and reputations for years to come. It is better to say “no” to an affair, than to partake in the affair and lose the family we love.
It is easier to prevent problems, than it is to correct the aftermath of our debacles. So many of us get into trouble by jumping into some situation, or off of some wall, without even thinking through the ramifications of such an action. If we would think through the natural consequences of making this or that decision, before we make the decision, we would save others and ourselves a whole lot of grief. If Humpty had thought through the risk of a semi-round object’s ability to remain sitting on a wall, the odds are he would not have done so at all.
In the book of Micah in the Old Testament, the people were asking what it was they could do to please God. What could they do to remedy their sins? The answer is similar to what we have been discussing. “No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (cf. Micah 6:8 NLT).
God’s reply was that it is a lot better to not sin to start with, than to try to correct the consequences of our sins. The problem is not that we do not know what is good to do, it is that we do not choose to do the good! It is a lot wiser to not decimate your life through destructive decisions, than to have to rebuild your life after you demolish it.
So, if we want to save ourselves a lot of grief, we are instructed to do in the beginning that which we know is good or right. We are to be merciful in our relationships with others, and to live day by day in a humble relationship with God. To walk with God is to relate to God and dialogue with God all through the day. It is to talk to God, listen to God, and do what God tells us is the right thing to do in any particular situation we find ourselves in. God most clearly speaks to us through the Bible.
The more problems we prevent by wise living, the fewer times we will need to use costly repair kits or restoration provisions. However, in the New Testament we learn that when we do fall off of the wall, we have a Savior in Jesus, who really can put us back together again. It is not a painless process, but it is now a possible one!
I encourage you to walk with God, rather than roll off the wall.
Humpty Dumpty made the point that if a personified egg sits on a wall, and falls off the wall, it will be smashed into hundreds of pieces and no one will be able to put the egg back together again. The story was a call for foresight, because re-assembling an egg is a lot more difficult than preventing its downfall would have been. It was a way of saying that it is a lot better to avoid some situations rather than to try to restore a life after it gets crushed by those situations.
This is an important bit of advice for all of us today. It is easier to spend time building and maintaining our relationships, than it is to repair them after we have neglected them so severely. It is better to avoid destructive habits, than it is to try to deal with all the destructive ramifications that flow from participation in destructive things. It is easier to be nice, than humiliating ourselves when we treat others poorly, and then having to further humiliate ourselves by admitting that we had been jerks, and need to ask for forgiveness.
It is easier to study diligently now, than to flunk out and later have to try to overcome years of bad grades and habits. It is better to choose our friends wisely and be less popular, than to run with the wrong crowd and end up ruining our lives and reputations for years to come. It is better to say “no” to an affair, than to partake in the affair and lose the family we love.
It is easier to prevent problems, than it is to correct the aftermath of our debacles. So many of us get into trouble by jumping into some situation, or off of some wall, without even thinking through the ramifications of such an action. If we would think through the natural consequences of making this or that decision, before we make the decision, we would save others and ourselves a whole lot of grief. If Humpty had thought through the risk of a semi-round object’s ability to remain sitting on a wall, the odds are he would not have done so at all.
In the book of Micah in the Old Testament, the people were asking what it was they could do to please God. What could they do to remedy their sins? The answer is similar to what we have been discussing. “No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (cf. Micah 6:8 NLT).
God’s reply was that it is a lot better to not sin to start with, than to try to correct the consequences of our sins. The problem is not that we do not know what is good to do, it is that we do not choose to do the good! It is a lot wiser to not decimate your life through destructive decisions, than to have to rebuild your life after you demolish it.
So, if we want to save ourselves a lot of grief, we are instructed to do in the beginning that which we know is good or right. We are to be merciful in our relationships with others, and to live day by day in a humble relationship with God. To walk with God is to relate to God and dialogue with God all through the day. It is to talk to God, listen to God, and do what God tells us is the right thing to do in any particular situation we find ourselves in. God most clearly speaks to us through the Bible.
The more problems we prevent by wise living, the fewer times we will need to use costly repair kits or restoration provisions. However, in the New Testament we learn that when we do fall off of the wall, we have a Savior in Jesus, who really can put us back together again. It is not a painless process, but it is now a possible one!
I encourage you to walk with God, rather than roll off the wall.
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