Category: Work Place

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Spiritual Growth Work Place

Shedding Shame

Recently I did a presentation in front of some “important” people. It was interesting because I had everything planned out perfectly. However, as God would have it the presentation turned out differently. The Lord wanted me to share something personal with the audience that I did NOT want to share. In fact, as it got closer to my presentation time, I privately struggled with “sharing my business.”

I battled with feeling ashamed that people would look down on me or think differently about who they thought I was in Christ.  

I asked myself the question before standing up. Do I really care what people think? To a certain degree I do care.  However, I care much more about what God thinks. I knew I had to do what He wanted. He required I “shed my shame and go for it!” The room was silent. Did it work? I don’t know.

I do know one thing. Time will only tell whether or not my story made an impact on the people in the room. Even if it didn’t impact them… it sure impacted me.

Categories
Spiritual Growth Work Place

Success is…

Do you remember the Robin Givens character in the movie, Boomerang? She was the strong, successful Corporate boss who dominated Eddie Murphy. Well, that was supposed to me. I had a plan. Go to college. Get a good job. Get promoted and then become the boss. At least, that’s what I thought for a few years in my life.  My self-perception was so mired in my title and accomplishments that it became a stronghold in my life. In other words, I was in bondage to my warped definition of success.  I thought my success was about what other people thought of me. Success was all about impressing people. It didn’t matter what I felt like  inside. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t helping others. It was all about me and it was a lonely existence.  Today, almost 20 years after Boomerang appeared in theaters, I can honestly say, I’ve changed. Success is simply doing my best to fulfill God’s will for my life, regardless of whether anyone notices or not. God sees our actions, but more importantly he sees our hearts.

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Work Place

The Impact of Defeat

I like to win. Period. Whenever I’m focused on a goal, I accomplish it.  So recently when I suffered a major defeat related to a goal, I was crushed. At first, I thought I handled it pretty well. However, as the days went by, I noticed something inside of me not functioning right. My heart began to sink subtly to the point, that I regressed back to some old negative habits that I thought were broken. As I began to dissect “the defeat”, I realized it wasn’t “my defeat” at all. You see, given my circumstances, I did everything I could do. I had no control over the major components that helped cause the defeat. I actually went over and above in an attempt to do what I do: WIN. So I wasted a month lamenting a loss that I never owned in the first place. I thank God that He showed me the truth. I can only control what I can control, and I must release what I have no control over. Period. So although the project was a losing project, I’m still a winner and this defeat should not, and will not define me… ever.