This week I really enjoyed these memories shared from Fred Smith and it is over 10 years old!You can get ideas from his teachings on leadership at Breakfast with Fred.com. His family keeps his website going with weekly e-mail gems like this each week.
Fred would often “scattershot” while dictating or sitting at his vintage Selectric typewriter. In 1989 he listed ten thought starters and gave thumbnail sketches. These are good brain food.
1. Hurt opens the heart – Often the best and maybe the only time a person will open up to help is when the hurt is too great to bear alone.
2. Gratitude cures depression – There is no stronger medicine for depression than genuine gratitude. If we find ourselves saying, “Yes, but,” we are not fully grateful. The truly grateful say, “Yes! Yes!” The Bible says, “In all things be grateful.” When it says, all – it means all.
3. Sit loose to things – Oswald Chambers is not against having things, nor enjoying them. But he is against getting so stuck to them that if they go, they take you with them. So long as you own them and not vice versa, everything is in right perspective. Develop the “sit loose to things” reflex.
4. Beware the spirit of fear – There is a great difference in being perpetually afraid, and having specific fears. It is alright to have particular fears, but not the spirit of fear. Our general disposition is not to be one of constant fear. “I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind.” Is your first reaction to every situation fear? It doesn’t have to be. You have a Promise to shield you.
5. The power of bonding – Experts tell us the greatest benefit of gang membership for kids is bonding – the sense of family and someone to stand with them in trouble. The church should be our bonding fellowship. We should share sufferings and provide acceptance for good. We should all be bonded as fellow members of the body of Christ --- that is the true bond.
6. The power of light – We dread the dark, but it has no power. It can’t put out the smallest candle, or even a flicker of light. There is no darkness so deep that a tiny light cannot penetrate it. Christ is the eternal lamplighter and He will re-light your lamp, no matter how small or how unused it has become. Darkness never owns the light; light always overcomes the dark.
7. Enjoy the challenge of change – Every situation is either a challenge or a threat. To the confident it is a challenge; to the fearful it is a threat. The situation is the same, but the reaction is different. Would you like to change from threat to challenge? View every new potentially threatening experience as an experiment. Be objective like a reporter and become interested in watching yourself go through the experience. Gain understanding as you step outside yourself.
8. New Age is old stuff – It is like the late night advertisement for wallets made out of “genuine synthetic leather.” Its promises have no guarantor. The Bible promises are the promissory notes given and guaranteed by God. New Age gives claims to a promised land they do not own…they are spiritual squatters.
9. The beauty of balance – All things in moderation – fanatical about nothing – everything getting its due – and everything in its season. A time for everything, even winning and losing.
10. We are promised ultimate victory – There is no sudden success. Ours is ultimate joy even while going through hardship and struggle. We look forward in hope , but we do not hope in hope. Our hope is in the promises of God and in the life of Christ.
Things to consider this week: 1) Which of the ten stretched me most? 2) How can I apply one of them this week to help others? 3) When do I do my best thinking?
Where is your "flesh" vulnerable? We all have these issues. We are all human. Watch this teaching from Todd Wagner at Dallas Theological Seminary's spring conference on being real:
http://www.dts.edu/media/play/?MediaItemID=bd3318d7-3b3f-4500-b0ec-91ec380410bd
May the Lord Bless you and Keep you!
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