Not
everything I do originates in religion.
I have a variety of interests and read fairly broadly. I have done some work in the field of
leadership. I have been a leader, but
realized at one point I never read much in that area nor had any real formal
training. Thankfully, a number of the
organizations I belonged to when I was a kid provided some informal training.
In
retrospect, I can see that many organizations provide some role models for
leadership. Of course, not all role
models are good ones. In fact looking back, I can see that some of them were
quite mediocre! But one can learn some
things from people who are mediocre or, even, very poor leaders. Of course, no one verbally announced, “ok,
this is a lesson in poor leadership!”
However, everyone in the group would have known. And I would have learned that you cannot do
leadership that way…at least do it that way and be respected and effective.
I know that
some leaders are leaders because they bring necessary skills to a position. For example, when a college or university
looks for a new president, there is usually a description of the needed
skills. One needs to be an effective
fundraiser, strategic planner, etc. The
college or university is certainly looking for someone who is more than a nice
guy or a very pleasant woman. That
quality would be welcome, but not sufficient.
So
occasionally, I try to read some material in the leadership field. A book someone has loaned me I find quite
interesting. The book has a catchy title,
Talent is Not Enough. It is authored by John Maxwell. I have already a good idea of what the term,
talent, means. Typically talent means
the skills, aptitudes, natural gifts, and training someone brings to a
task. Normally, talent means both natural
gifts and developed skills. I might be
very smart, but if I have done nothing to develop my intellectual capacity, I
am pretty useless. On the other hand,
someone who is a hard worker might not be sufficient for a job. I don’t care how hard working you are, if you
have not been to medical school, I don’t want you for my physician!
However, it
was a different kind of thought that captured my attention early in Maxwell’s
book. At one point Maxwell says, “Life
is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” This sentence resonated with the way I see
things. Let’s look at it in a bit more
detail.
I agree that
life is a matter of choices. Although
that is true, it is not true in absolutely every instance. Some things clearly are not a matter of
choices. I did not choose my parents nor
my genetic makeup. There are other
things in life to which we could point and say, “I had no choice in that!” But by and large, much of life is a matter of
choices.
What is
clever in the Maxwell quotation is the second half of the sentence. Every choice we make makes us. That is insightful. And it is profound. Essentially, he is saying for the most part
we are the “authors of our own life.”
That is both scary and sacred.
And it surely makes me responsible for who I am.
It is scary
to think that the choices I make form me because it means I have no one to
blame for what I choose. Let’s put that
in spiritual terms. It means if I choose
never to engage spiritual disciplines, then I am hoping to be lucky to
encounter God. Or it could mean that I
presume God will grace me with the divine encounter. However, if I responsibly engage discipline,
i.e. pray or meditate, then I would argue that I am more likely to find God or
be found by God.
On the other
hand, I find it humbling to realize the choices I make form me. It is not only humbling; it is also a sacred
responsibility. It reminds me of a
saying Thomas Merton once uttered: “I want to become a saint.” In effect, Maxwell’s quotation would say
“yes” to Merton. You and I can also
become saints. We can choose to be holy. We can choose a life of sanctity. That does not mean we become holier than
thou. Nor does it mean that we become
sanctimonious.
I like the
fact that I am responsible---through my choices---for what I become. It does not mean I am solely
responsible. I also think God is a
co-creator with me. I believe God graces
us through our choices (and, in some cases, in spite of our choices). But it only makes sense to me, since I
believe God endowed us with dignity and honor, to ask us to choose our own way
through life.
And because I
also firmly believe in the power of community, if I am a member of a community
where people are making good, responsible choices, then the power of you making
your good, spiritual choice strengthens me and my choosing. In the most profound sense, this is the
experience of love. Love is my choice,
God’s choice, and your choice. But if we
are all choosing love, what can be better!
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