Everything is a boat!

C S Lewis uses ship as an analogy to clarify the purpose of human being. He stated when a ship is on the high seas, it must answer three important questions. 

• First is how to keep from sinking which refers to ‘personal ethics.’ 
• Second is how to keep from bumping into other ships referring to the ‘social ethics.’ 
• Third, why the ship is out on the high seas in the first place which refers to the ‘essence of ethics.

How true! We all must ensure that regardless of being a ship or boat, it should stay afloat. This means we must take care to keep it in a sailing state and then the other two follow.

Everything that exist serves a particular purpose. If you carefully observe all the non-living things in your house serve a specific purpose. At any point it fails to serve the purpose it is discarded. How do we understand this in connection to life’s purpose? If non-living things can serve a specific purpose, then how much the purpose of God. We are all created for a purpose. The Bible states that we are God’s masterpiece because we are made in His image. 

Gunder Gunderson states this in plain poetical lines so profoundly referring life to a boat. 

“Everything's a boat.

We all know buying a boat is a big deal because boats take lots of upkeep

But everything's a boat.

Everything we buy takes storage, or attention, or security, or maintenance, or upgrades.

Seneca said the things we own, own us.

Everything's a boat.

May our first concern be our purity, not our publicity; our depth, not our reach; faithfulness, and never fame.” 

If you compare your life’s philosophy to a boat, then you would realise you have to be careful in what you choose because at the end it is going to take the space in the boat.  You may find the need of getting everything you see but it can risk the boat. The boat of many people is overloaded and in a verge of sinking, maybe some boats have sunk already due to, too many unnecessary things that has taken the space. How are you going to choose the right thing for you? 

Let us not forget that we are not just the body, but a soul too, that longs to connect with the GOD of heavens and the earth, the Savior who has the power to forgive the sins of the mankind and in whom we also have resurrection. Sadly, as we fill our boats with our own the gods - the god of money, possession, pleasure, power, fans, etc., none makes an impact on our soul and the way we ought to live. Like the writer who stated, ‘Everything is a Boat’, today we live in a society and culture where everything is a god or for that matter anytime someone can be made god. Truth most often is a missing element. 

I urge you to carefully choose the essentials that will help us survive well without sinking. Jesus stated, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” The component of soul is an integral and the important element imbibed in human body. What you choose from this materialistic world can make you helpless. You need a Savior, a God in whom you can find meaning in life and hope in eternal life. Jesus is the only way if you believe and accept Him as Savior to find forgiveness from sins, hope in this world and for eternity. Remember, Jesus is the only God who conquered death and was resurrected. This will change your entire course of life journey. Would you consider knowing Him more? 

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THE FOUR

Social Media – The Emotional Crutch of This World!

“To be heard” is a cry of every soul amidst frustration, disappointment and loneliness. To fill this dependency, social media has been converted to a crutch that the world is leaning upon. It helps us to express our emotions, find acceptance, get approvals to justify our beliefs and thoughts. This acceptance also fulfills our sense of greatness and provides a way of escaping reality. People fail to understand that hours spent on social media isolating oneself to escape reality is a false refuge. A book in the Bible called Proverbs states, “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement.”

An apostle called Paul in the Bible states, “am I trying to win the approval of other people or of God?”. Life is not about how people respond, react and complement what you do. It is more than that as crisply put by John MacArthur, “Sin is what you do when you’re not satisfied with God.”. Allow me to illustrate an incident in the Bible which proves that social media existed 2000 years ago. The same Apostle Paul logically reasoned with the people of a city about the living God and was helping people to understand that gods made by hands cannot save them. A silversmith and craftsmen who crafted gods started a stir against Paul and his friends as they feared that if people believed in a living God, they would run out of business. There was a great commotion to get rid of Paul and his friends. The Bible states, “some were shouting one thing, and some another.’ It was an utter chaos very much like our present social media.

People are becoming extremely lonely, looking for something to gratify them. It is usually said, ‘the lonelier you are, the more addicted you’d be to social media.’.  You may feel this crutch is your companion to soothe you. But temporary gratification will not help you. This does not mean your career, friends, money or even religion can become your alternatives either. Unfortunately, these are also pursued for our own satisfaction and security. You need to find the truth that can fill the void in your soul. Your heart will find absolute peace when it knows the true God. It is Jesus who promised that peace to all of us “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”. 

To receive this peace, you need forgiveness from all your sins. First you need to confess them and ask Jesus to transform you. This will change your sense of dependency on the world to a living God. He will be a solid rock on which you can stand rather than leaning on fragile crutches of this world. You may check on the link below and find an online Bible to start reading to know more about Him. 

 

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Leadership – An overkill of the concept today

 

Every institution, organization, religious establishment, profit & non-profit entity and individual allocate a considerable portion of their time, resources and efforts towards building a system of leadership qualities in their team members.  Positional leadership becomes primary for wielding authority. Greg Mckeon’s profound quote says this, “The 20^th century is full of “leaders” who made things unimaginably worse in their attempt to “make things better.”.  Nothing is more soul-destroying than leaders speaking nonsense. Mid-level and lower rank workers lament the incomprehensible gibberish spewed by their leaders in the form of expectations. Jargon filled statements aren’t just confusing -they’re constraining. Gibberish isn’t silly; it’s controlling. Vague words aren’t ineffective -they’re exhausting.  E .F Schumacher states, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”.

Leadership principle is dependent on you leading people by example and willing to be vulnerabe. There are thousands of authors and leaders who write and talk about leading people. Some leaders, borrow, mix and match ideas to influence but then to what extent is it creating an impact? Thomas Sowell in his observation states this, “Leading people into the blind alley of dependency and grievances may be counterproductive for them but it can produce votes, money, power, fame, and a sense of exaltation to others who portray themselves as friends of the downtrodden.”.

Most of the leaders, especially politicians bank on people’s dependency to impose their strength. Unfortunately, it ends up in oppression and manipulation. True leadership is “Servant-Leadership” which Jesus Christ taught. Contrary to our knowledge of leaderships as to win, conquer, walk over people, succeed and overthrow, He flipped the script and taught that true leadership is about serving, kindness, mercy and compassion. These attributes sum up a “Servant-Leader” 

While it may be argued that some of the current leaders already possess these attributes there are some hidden self-centered agendas connected with this façade. With Jesus who healed all sickness, from born blind, to born deaf and mute, lepers, paralytics for 38 years, raised dead people, was resurrected Himself after being crucified and lay in the tomb for 3 days, was speaking things that even His enemies was surprised, baffled and said, “Is He not a carpenter’s son?...So where does he get all these things?”.  He asked to show another cheek if someone strikes, go an extra mile when someone was in need, to love their enemies and bless them. Mathew a scholar records that through His ministry, He touched ‘all’ 175 towns and villages of Galilee. 200,000 people would either have met Jesus or have known someone who had. Not just with His sermon but received some benefits including the healing from their stubborn sickness and many people liberated from demon possession. 

With all His divine power, Jesus still explained that a leader should be a servant first. He demonstrated it by washing the feet of His 12 disciples who went across the world after witnessing His resurrection to talk about the forgiveness of sins and hope of eternity. If one takes the courage to learn about His claims, to believe and accept Him as the Savior, that person is transformed to be a new creation, not with any religious identity. This relationship with Him will change the course of your life. Would you like to know Him more? Check the link to learn more.

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L I S T E N BEING S I L E N T!

We are all aware that with the same letters are used to form the words ‘Listen’ and ‘Silent’. You cannot listen unless you are silent. We are bombarded with advice and suggestions that our noisy mind fails to make smart decisions and wise choices in important points in life. This is the result of not silencing our mind to listen. The loudest sound gets the most attention. We have lost the power to calm our spirit and be silent to listen to the right voice, from God and from the right people. If you don’t know where you’re going, distractions will look like opportunities and deceive us.

While listening to people we can notice that their talks are self-centered, i.e. it’s about them. Even if one of the people want to respond and help, the other person is not prepared at all. Ernest Hemingway cites his observation with these words, “when people listen completely, don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.”. This is so true, I believe. People are filled with various cares of life as well as overwhelmingly ambitious. Jesus’ statement, “For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks,” is true indeed. What takes the most space in our hearts is what we most ventilate.

There are souls who long to be listened to. As a good sane human, it is our duty to listen to one-another without being judgmental at all. I understand the brevity of time, as each of us have their own pressing agenda. But as a child of God are we prepared to listen and help those who are hurting? In the book of Proverbs, it is said "It is shame to speak before listening". It is important that we listen intently. If you are struggling in this area, then you need help.

You cannot smother your heart and the noises around you to listen patiently. But it depends on what and whom you believe. Jesus was a great listener and always ready to help people struggling with sin, sickness, and questions in life.  If you are too tired or busy to listen, you can reach out to Christ Jesus who invites all who are weary and heavily burdened to find rest in Him. For He promised by saying, “I will give you rest.”. Too often we allow the voices of our past, our mistakes or our insecurities to drown out God’s affirming voice. We struggle to believe that God could be pleased with us, especially when we’re acutely aware of our shortcomings. But Christ love and pleasure in us isn’t based on our performance; it’s based on our identity as His children.  Prayer is talking to God who is not dead but alive. By this parameter, Jesus who rose from the dead is alive and is willing to listen to you. You can listen, grab a Bible and read to understand what it is saying. This is the highest selling book in the entire planet earth that has the power to transform you, be a person who can listen to someone, demonstrate your love and kindness to the person. 

 

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THE FOUR