Ambassador

Just got back from 10 days in Lima, Peru visiting my mom and stepfather. Yes, they do live there. My mom as a bilingual ex-pat does make some interesting friends. One of the highlights of our trip was an invitation to a private party at the home of long-time Australian ambassador John Woods, who at this time was winding up a 41 year career in that role as ambassador to Peru. Mr. Woods and his wife Gay were incredible hosts. They brought in a renowned guitarist Scott Borg to play at the party (see brief video below). They were very friendly in a natural way. We felt like we had known them for a long time. As it was Debsue's birthday, they made her feel even more welcome.


A Christian is an ambassador for Christ. (2 Cor. 5:20). An ambassador is a representative. As a representative, he/she is a reflection of who they are representing. Imagine if Mr. Woods blew us off at the party or was gruff in his demeanor. That would have been representative in a negative way of Australia, his representative country. Or imagine if they had brought in some cracker-jack performer to come in instead of Scott Borg. We might have concluded that Aussies have not sense of music.

I sometimes wonder if I use my sinful nature as a defense. Yes, I am sinful but I am still a representative for Christ on this earth. I am sure that Mr. Woods could have had a brutal day, but you would never know it. How poor is it when those who name the name of Christ defame His holy name. Thinking of myself as an ambassador helps to frame how important it is to represent well. And the good news is in myself, I can only be a poor representative, but Christ as who I represent lives through me. Mr. Woods represents a country. I represent a living person who lives within me and through me.

Hard or Soft Trends

I am an avid reader of business books. I have a thirst for learning about key things I can use as a business leader. One of the books I finished reading recently was Flash Foresight by Daniel Burrus. The premise of the book is to examine any emerging business under the lens of 7 principles. One of the principles in to "Start with Certainty".  Certainty in the book is the process of making sure what you are looking at is a hard trend and not a soft trend. A hard trend is something that you can know with certainty. For example, increase in aging and information is a hard trend. You can predict it with a certain amount of certainty because it is supported by measurable, tangible and fully predictable facts, events, or objects. A soft trend is a projection based on statistics that have the appearance of being tangible, fully predictable facts. A hard trend is something that will happen: a future fact. A soft trend is something that might happen: a future maybe. 

The mistake many entrepreneurs make is that they tend to treat a soft trend as a hard trend. They are over-optimistic about a trend that may appear as a hard trend. We might say for example that given the proliferation of information ("hard trend"), the use of fax machines as a medium will increase ("soft trend") which is obviously wrong.

I thought about this in the realm of the spiritual. For Christians, I think the risk is 180 degrees the opposite. We tend to take from God what is a given and make it contingent. In other words, a hard trend becomes a soft trend. God has pledged to us and committed to us that He will never leave us or forsake us, yet we treat God like a soft trend where there are no guarantees. Our tendency is to take what is ours and place it on the shelf. Usually it is based on something I have done to distance myself from God. Yet God's forgiveness is 100% guaranteed (a hard trend).  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 - emphasis mine). There are very few soft trends in the Bible - why would God provide ambiguity? There is also very little that is predicated on us. God has done it, not me. Jesus said "It is Finished" on the cross. Either it was finished (hard trend) or it wasn't (soft trend).

In daily life, I come to God almost begging that he appropriate my will and do what I want. Yet, my maturity is based on my ability to completely accept what His will is for me and plug myself into it. That is really what prayer is - "Your Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven". Do I want to take the hard trend and go with it or mold it into my soft trend? How firm is my belief in the hard trend?

Grace is Costly, Yet Free

Listening to Tony Evans describe the grace of God.  Grace cost God everything, demands a response from us, and puts no blame on God if we reject it.

Are you prepared to accept the "Coke" that Tony refers to?