Growing inside!

When it comes to humans, we have parameters to assess a good person and one living up to the standard. It varies with our expectations from others. But the fact is, the real quality of a person can be determined in two ways:

1. His investments, and

2. His associations.

If we observe where one splurges his/her money or with whom one often associates, we can pretty fast predict the kind of person he/she is.

Paul Enenche in his book ‘21 Foolish Things People Do’ puts this beautifully “Wise people spend their money to upgrade their life. Wise people spend their money on good things that which is enriching to oneself and for noble causes too. They invest in information, in knowledge and in study. Foolish people spend their money on what can make them feel good at the moment. They spend on what can make them look good at the moment. They spend on what can make them feel like they belong at the moment. Their destiny is limited.”.

People today have ample of options and ways to engage themselves in what satisfies them for the moment. Young people have countless opportunities. Most of their financial investments and time is toward relationships, dating, giving gifts and pleasing each other. They follow their instincts. They think it is their right to enjoy their youth and feed their emotions with unfulfilling stuff that sucks them into a black hole till they end up emotionally bankrupt.

The next thing that impacts the life of someone is with whom they associate. Mind matters. Especially, the wrong ones have a greater impact in one’s life. The Bible says “Bad company corrupts good morals”.

It is important to note that anytime you stop growing internally, you will stop growing externally. When you stop growing in revelation and information, you really stop growing indeed. You cannot be stagnant inside and move forward outside and vice versa, you cannot move forward inside and be stagnant outside. Every time there is an improvement inside, there will certainly be an improvement outside.

The Bible says, “But a noble person plans noble things; he stands up for noble causes.”. If you notice many with wealth and high status are trying to find wrong pleasures from wrong sources. They end up becoming weary and finally switch to nobler causes like helping the poor. 

It's undeniable that we are made in the image of God, with a moral compass instilled in our heart to do what is right and enrich each another. Till we follow what God has instilled in our hearts we will not find peace and lasting joy. Don’t drag yourself to the point of despair and then scramble back to what promises peace.

You can have the peace and lasting happiness when you connect to God the savior.

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Life free from correction!

No one likes to be corrected! Let's accept that fact. Ego has a lot to be blamed for this. There are a lot of folks out there who believe that no one can correct them. They believe that when they are right, they are right and when they are wrong, they are still right. 

They are intolerable towards corrections from anyone. They never want to be told they made a mistake. It's foolish! A person that cannot be corrected cannot be assisted. We have to understand that no human being is above mistakes. We are meant to be above sin by God's mercies but not mistakes.

Especially, when it comes to children, when they are warned of a particular thing they are involved in, they would never want to accept it until they try for themselves. They are OK to get hurt miserably as a result of their behavior, action or relationship, but they simply can’t take the warnings and corrections.

Have you noticed why this happens? The Bible talks about a character named Paul who very logically and practically explain this problem and it goes like this, “For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but is the sin that lives in me.”. The moral values and ethical values have deteriorated alarmingly even among children in today’s age.

The problem of evil is far beyond one's imagination. If we follow the news, we find young children who murder, rape, rob and involved in all sorts of heinous crimes. How do you think one can live a correction free life and be able to say “no” to the allurements and persuasion for doing wrong? The answer is, you need a God who demonstrated doing right and who lived a holy life. The word holiness is not affiliated with any particular religion. We are all supposed to model a morally right life for our kids to follow and then our corrections and warnings will be readily acceptable for our children and friends.

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Existence independent of God!

Bible comments about people who think they are self-made individuals - 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.' (Bible). When a person behaves as if there is no God, it is foolishness that will definitely end in failure. But then, who cares?

There are many people on earth today who live a random life called life by random motion. A lot of people wake up in the morning without God. They live as if eternity does not exist and there is no heaven. They make all their investments on earth without any thought of heaven.

I am not concluding one tries to offer meaningless prayers or one begins his business hoping to get loads of money for the day. The day starts using fair or unfair means to make money at all cost. Some countries and religion, worship money as god, therefore one concludes God comes with money. Well if the same money is used for gruesome crimes and corrupt practices how could you term it as god? Have you thought about it?!

Let me provide you with a little data of human behavior index. According to corruption perception index, India is on the 80^th position and the score is 41 which actually means India is perceived as more corrupt.

And the Index of public integrity, India ranks 71^st position and the score is 6.25, which is again not very encouraging. We can always blame the government and it's policies and law and it's judgments. But it's not true. It means the extent one chose to exist independent of God.

Interestingly the lowest corrupt countries are Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and Finland. They are still the first four lowest for public integrity index too. Coincidentally these 4 countries are right at the top of happiness index. All the top countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.

India is on the 140^th position when happiness index is concerned. It's score is 4.015. If you correlate with the corruption index you will understand why. 

You exist in him, trust God not for riches but imitate the nature of God that is love and love alone. Your humanness and cordial behavior represent who you believe and the credibility of the sovereign one. The God of the Bible says, you need to be holy as God is holy. Your life doesn’t end here on earth. Eternity is promised and He assures to come back and take us to live with Him there. It sounds very spiritual and religious but its neither. Its all about your relationship with the divine God who was sinless and spotless and was crucified not for committing a crime but for living a holy life. We are aware of the history where He died and was resurrected too and now lives in the hearts of people - not in Church or any other religious building as most of us think.  

Reference;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/

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Moral Crisis!

We have to admit we are on the zenith of civilization where everything seems attainable. Each one of us have wide knowledge in all fields, the excess wealth we all possess and the amount of power each of us wield to survive. Amidst this whirl wind  of life something drastically is falling apart. And that is, moral failure.

If we observe accountability has become rare among people. Be it in business or in relationship, we want to use each other for our convenience and personal gratification. The Bible emphasizes that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is also true that we must be careful to guard our integrity and reputation as we represent Lord God the creator. As they say, it takes a lifetime to build a good reputation and just one poor decision to ruin it.

The crisis among young people is entering into a relationship that has become a status issue. We know many who have ruined their career and their purpose in life. Marriage has been redefined. People are deciding to enter into a live-in relationship because they assume it will take care of their immediate emotional needs without commitment when it actually conjures confusion and loss of peace.  After one point they hardly care about being betrayed or to betray. Some are in relationships as a result of infatuation but name it love.

Sexual delinquencies are high among teens and young people because of the amount of freedom and exposure they have. Just because one has the power to decide what is right for him /her, it cannot change the moral framework God has set in. We are all accountable to God and to each other. Our parents and elders may look stupid when compared to our ability to use logic to do what we want, but not God. Many people will have opinions and various interpretations of the situation. However, they don’t have the responsibility to God. Let me give some pleasure principles,

“The problem with the pleasure philosophy is that it provides the benefits right away but extracts a cost over the long term.”

“Pleasure gives half-life and when you go to it the next time, you have to go much deeper but is less satisfying”

If you find yourself held up in some kind of moral failure and unable to come out of it, you then need a God the Savior to liberate you in order to keep your from being hurt. Do not forget, we are all accountable and we share eternity with God. You may invite God to transform you. Moral framework and moral boundaries matters.

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Loud, but no effect!

There are lots of people today who are so desperate to be noticed, recognized and honored. Their lives are so noisy. The noise they make is bigger than the effect they produce. There are people who have more publicity than productivity. When I say this, I don’t intend to draw your attention to Politicians only, who most of the time fall under this bracket, but most often the common people too who are desperately trying to be loud in order to be recognized.

There are two basic things involved in a noisy life - the presentation of the life and the reality of the life. A life of noise is one in which the life is louder than reality

Some people have invited unnecessary hostility, enmity, and adversity because of the kind of attention they wanted to generate. You don’t have to actually. The commercial world may keep telling you to sell yourself effectively or may even warn you that you will not be remembered. But the point is, if you are genuine as a person, honest in all your dealings, clean in the way you do the business you will definitely be noticed and remembered too. You don’t have to blow a trumpet about who you are.

Don’t you forget that you are already a unique creation of God and blessed with unique talents and gifts. Let me remind you that there were 108 billion people who have lived throughout history. 93% of them are dead yet there are many whom we still remember because of the amount of impact they have created in history.

Jesus who made an immense impact in history by the way he was born and resurrected from the dead after the gruesome death he went through, makes a statement which is recorded in the Bible and it says, “You are the light of the world. A City situated on a hill cannot be hidden” and it further adds by saying, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”.

More than the noise be a light to illuminate the life of someone. You will be remembered anyway.

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All about me!

Nobody has fully conquered "self". In fact, most people haven’t even dealt with it at a conscious level! God doesn’t just kill you and remove self out of His way. He expects you to exercise self-control surrendering your will to Him.

Have you consciously dealt with your own selfishness? What do you do when someone comes against you? Who do you think of first? Do you consider the other person, or are you consumed in defending yourself?

Most of the time it is all about “I”, “me” and “mine”. We wanted to be treated fairly, benefit the most and get all the  best possible opportunities. The lists are endless. But if you notice, most of the time people want all the privileges at the cost of others and sometimes at the cost of paying back harshly because they think they were not fairly treated therefore want to retribute shrewdly.

People for whom the end goals is making money they choose any path that's convenient for them, either just or unjust. Bible warns it by stating, “Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle, but whoever earns it through labor will multiple it.”. Money is not a blessing in itself; we have wrongly understood that. Many are restless even after gaining a lot. God is not a vending machine – He is Lord and King! You can’t just insert a coin, push His button, and take out whatever you want, whenever you want it. Prosperity wasn’t provided for you to consume it upon your own lust.

Your necessities are added to you as byproducts for seeking God and loving one another. If you concentrate on blessing others, you’ll be blessed in the process. Create a community where people will learn to care for each other without any selfish motives. Jesus' words are so powerful when He said this, "Love others as you love yourself". This is not a religious caption but a way of life.

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“What do you want to be remembered for?”

Work is an integral part of human life. We don't just work for mere survival. God has gifted us with dreams and passion to excel and exhibit the God given abilities in our work place. Do we enjoy what we do? I know we are all aware of the fact, that the demands of work and the nature of work has drastically changed from what it was a decade ago, but we still have a sacred responsibility to be able to give our best.

The Bible has these lines that not only encourages how we contribute in the work zone but also to give our best. Follow these verses, “Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength.” and another verse says, “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people.”. Working with all honesty and giving your best brings blessings from above.

You are not a machine just to accomplish what is given to you by any means. Harvard business review says it is very important to build an ‘ethical career’. The first step requires shifting to a mindset we term moral humility—the recognition that we all have the capacity to transgress if we’re not vigilant. Moral humility pushes people to admit that temptations, rationalizations, and situations can lead even the best of us to misbehave. It encourages them to think of ethics as not only avoiding the bad but also pursuing the good.

Consider these two questions the management guru Peter Drucker asked, which is worth pondering:

“What do you want to be remembered for?” and

“What do you want to contribute?” 

David Brooks in his book “The Road to Success” distinguishes between résumé virtues (skills, abilities, and accomplishments that you can put on your résumé, such as “increased ROI by 10% on a project”) and eulogy virtues (things people praise you for after you’ve died, such as being a loyal friend, kind, and a hard worker). Although the two categories may overlap, résumé virtues often relate to what you’ve done for yourself, whereas eulogy virtues relate to the person you are and what you’ve done for others—that is, your character.

Character and Competence has to always go hand in hand. Is your devotion to God translating to honesty in your work place? Give your best and stay blessed.

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