Tag Archives: Personal Development

Posted on

Your Finest Hours

Why it's important to embrace your limitations

Tuesdays are date night.  Last night my wife and I went to see ‘The Finest Hours’.  Don’t worry, there are no plot spoilers here :-).  The setting is important though and is as follows.  One oil freighter is broken in half on the Atlantic Ocean and one Coast Guard officer and his crew is sent out to rescue them against terrible odds.  Let’s leave it at that.  But as we move past the initial setting, here’s a question.  Do you have anything to prove?

IMG_1503

When you have something to prove, you have to beware of the tendency to endanger yourself and others.  The problem is danger has become so commonplace, it’s not unusual for people to encounter it in a light manner.  This tendency has crept into every are of our lives in the twentieth century.  It was more obvious when men and women had to leave their caves and there were big hairy monsters with teeth lurking about.  Now that we think we’ve killed all the monsters we’ve become….careless.  The fact is, none of us are immune from danger in our daily travels.  It lurks in your home, on the street and in your workplace.

While we you not be able to avoid danger, you often have the opportunity to avoid life threatening situations.  While heroism is wonderful and something to be grateful for, you don’t have to rescue 32 people from a ship to be a hero.  You can be a hero in your home, at church, in the workplace, etc. just by doing the things well nobody else wants to do.  You don’t have to put yourself or your family in perilous situations just to make a name for yourself.  Heroes are often single Moms, the elderly, your mailman, the guy who owns the mini mart.  They come in all different shapes and sizes and most of the time they appear ordinary.  There’s nothing about them to make them stand out.  Sound familiar?

Speaking of heroes, the biggest hero in the bible was referred to as follows.  “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?”  Matthew 13:55  Jesus’ most extraordinary feature was that he looked ordinary.  There was nothing about his appearance that stood out.

Let’s face it, there’s just something extraordinary about being ordinary.  By ordinary, I mean being yourself….being who God made you to be.  The world doesn’t need you to be a watered down version of someone else, it needs you to be a full-blown version of yourself.  Extraordinary people don’t look for ways to be like someone else.  Some of you are really struggling right now because you’re doing a terrible job of trying to be someone else, rather than embracing your own limitations and being yourself.  That’s not meant to be mean.  It’s meant to be freeing!

You don’t have to be like anyone but you.  If you’re not gifted at math, why do you want to be a mathematician?  If you were only meant to change the lives of a handful of people, why are you trying to lead the masses.  If God wants you to be a world class leader, he’ll let you know.  In the meantime, don’t overlook the people in your immediate circle, especially the short ones.

When we repeatedly attempt to exceed our limitations and continue to do so for long periods of time, something happens.  It makes us weary and vulnerable.  It clouds our judgement.  It makes us blind to lurking dangers, especially burnout and chronic fatigue.  Let’s face it, you’re not God and you’re not a machine.

Which leads us up to the photo at the beginning of this post.  May it be a reminder today of the fact you’re human.  Somehow, inherently, I believe that makes you a hero.  It reminds us we all do ‘great’ things from time to time, but for the most part we’re flesh and blood.  Bone of bone.

One of the most heroic things we can do is love and help other human beings.  With all of our limitations.  Because of our limitations.  These are the finest hours.  The times when we feel anything but extraordinary.  The times when we feel inadequate.  When we shine at these times, the world becomes a better place.

It’s not that we shouldn’t rise to the occasion when necessary.  When there are times to enter the fray to save the life of another human being, may God give us the courage.  In the meantime, lets not wait for times to shine and while we’re at it, lets not estimate our own value based on our own or the highlight reel of someone on Facebook or Twitter.  Deal?  You are so much more than the sum of your accomplishments and accolades.

What is one of the most ordinary things you ever did that turned out to make an extraordinary impact?  Please feel free to share your answer on Facebook or Twitter.

 

Posted on

WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX?

Is There Something You're Missing?

Alzheimer’s. The word left Charlie’s mouth and hung in the air of the pick-up truck like the smoke of his many cigarettes. Charlie was my foreman during summer months while in college. Raised on a New England farm, groomed in the Navy and wizened by the school of ‘hard knocks’, Charlie taught me the value of life, people, family, and work. Years and years after this conversation, I went to visit Charlie at his home. He didn’t remember me but smiled and asked me if I wanted to see the boat he’d won at a raffle recently. Inside his home the large Navy air carrier in it’s display case, stretched from one side of the room to the other in its full glory.  I experienced the privilege of being in that room because of a commitment made years earlier.museum pic

I’m sharing this story because it’s a reminder to me that it’s the limits in life that make it magical. You see, I’d met Charlie because I made the decision to get inside of the box. There were beaches beckoning to me during those summers, noon-time sleep-ins, and long, lazy afternoons with friends, but I chose to work. And I’m glad I did. Those days were some of the toughest in my life up until that point. Inside the box, I ran a Jack Hammer for eight hours straight, some days….no exaggeration. To the older guys I was the ‘college kid’. You get the idea.

But the mantra today is to think outside the box, to live outside the box, to work outside the box, to do ministry outside the box. But whatever happened to working inside the box? Quite possibly, the world is waiting for some people to get back inside of the box. To love inside the box, to dream inside the box, to make love….Maybe in our attempt to be innovative, we’re traveling a well-worn highway, not a customized path. Maybe it’s time to go against the grain and get back inside the box.

The Book of Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 27  says: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” The implication is that restraints, boundaries, repetition and limits help, not hurt, people in their younger years.

Furthermore, Natural resources do better inside a box. Coal has no power unless it’s put in the box. Niagara Falls supplies tremendous amounts of light and energy but first it must get put in a box. Gasoline has awesome potential, but first it must be put inside the box.

Show me someone who has everywhere before them and I’ll show you someone who is making an impact nowhere. To make an impact, somewhere is our best destination, not anywhere. -Cory MacNeil

We all need a box. Acorns have to get inside the box. People live inside of the box. Employees submit to the box. And at the end of the day if we want people to know where we are, we choose to be buried in a box.

Forest Gump was wrong when he said: “Life is like a box of chocolates….you never know which one you’re gonna get.” Get inside the box and you’ll have an idea of what you’re going to get. Read the insert Forest. The Orange Caramel is right next to the English Nougat.

We spend so much time thinking outside of the box, that we forget the value of working inside the box. Like many areas of life it’s not a case of either/or, but both. Jesus told the story of two men. One said he would get inside the box and didn’t. The other man said he wouldn’t get inside the box, but did. Which one do you think Jesus blessed.

The box is healthy. Limitations are healthy. Rules are healthy as long as there is a relationship. Rules without relationship lead to rebellion. We don’t live in a random world based on chance and luck. We live in a world based on laws and principles. Thankfully, there are less train wrecks in the world and more meltdowns. Providence honors hard work over long periods of time. She also insures things usually fizzle out rather than blow up. Recognize the long downhill slide and you can get out of the boat before it hits the water.

A few personal boxes ensure health and well being. If you get inside the box and refuse to eat in the evening, you’ll experience greater freedom. If you get inside the box when your co-worker is disagreeable the quality of your relationship with them will improve over time rather than burst. It’s not commitment we need to fear, it’s our future we need to fear if we’re not willing to commit to some purpose greater than ourselves.

It is not commitment we need to fear, it’s our future we need to fear if we’re not willing to commit to some purpose greater than ourselves. -Cory MacNeil

One day after Elementary school I found that my Hermit Crab had crawled out of his shell. Parents teach kids that animals shouldn’t suffer. People can suffer and kids can suffer, but animals can’t. So, I did what any self-respecting kid would do. I ended the suffering. If I remember correctly there was a rock involved. In hindsight, I wonder what would have happened if I found my Hermit Crab a bigger shell. We’ll never fear the box once we realize that God can always give us a bigger box once we outgrow the one we’re in.

A man named Jabez prayed for a bigger box and God blessed his prayer. 2 Chronicles 4:10 says: “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that Thou Wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.” There is life and joy and peace inside the box that can’t be found anywhere else.

What if you believed the box you’re in is perfectly designed and suited for you at this very moment? In our pursuit of what’s outside the box we forget about what’s in the box and how God can use it if He so chooses! -Cory MacNeil

Two parents decided to teach their young son that there are tough realities in life, so they went to the garden center and bought him a bag of horse manure for his Birthday. On the big day as the family looked on, the grandmother held her nose and asked her grandson, “What did you get?  What did you get?” The young boy answered with excitement, “I don’t know, but I think there’s a pony in there somewhere!”

Friend, the circumstances in your box might smell pretty bad right now. Maybe you lost your job this week. Maybe the test results came back different than you’d hoped. Maybe your marriage or a close relationship is headed south and you’re holding on with every last bit of grit and resolve. Whatever the case, I promise you there’s a pony in there somewhere. I met a Charlie in the box and that made all the difference in the world. What’s in your box?