Life · Ministry · Faith

Tag: character

Wikileaks has your files

microphones

Dear Friends,

I have been pondering something the last few days. What if, to your horror, you discovered someone had successfully recorded everything you said in the past week and, to make matters worse, those audio files were now in the hands of Wikileaks? Ten years from now would you be able to run for political office without fear of the recordings being played on the evening news? What if you were going through a divorce? Would you be terrified your spouse’s lawyer would find out about their existence? What if an employee was suing you, or a co-worker, or neighbor? Would you hope these files were deemed inadmissible to the court? What if you were dead and your children wanted to find something that would remind them of the person you were? Would you want them to listen to these files?

If the thought of anyone having a recording of the words said in the week strikes cataclysmic terror to your soul, why? What do you need to change this week about the things you think about and say so you never have to worry about anyone listening to the files?

Paul says in Ephesians 4:29, ” Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Would our talk be consistent with the sage advice of Paul? Are we building people up or tearing them down? Decades from now will our words be a solid foundation on which we have built our life or will it be a foundation of clay that crumbles underneath us?

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

Moving from Performance to Legacy

Performance, always 100%

We are a performance-driven society. I don’t know of anyone who would argue against that statement. Our high levels of performance are often the product of an inner desire for significance. In short, a legacy. The quest for a legacy is a quest for our lives to have significance and influence long after our deaths. So we pour ourselves into achieving high levels of performance.

Performance alone will not create a legacy. Aaron Hernandez, former tight end of the New England Patriots, had performance. But he lacked in character and relationships. He will spend the rest of his life in prison. Bernie Madoff had performance. But he cheated people of their money and drew his family into his schemes. His son committed suicide and he will spend his life in prison.

No matter who skilled we are, no matter how big of kingdom we build, it will all blow away in the winds of time unless we have P, C, and R. Specifically, Performance x Character x Relationships = Legacy

A legacy is formed when we win in our performance, character and relationships.

Pastor Stephen

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