Several sports figures are in the news for the wrong reasons. Each seems to have used an illegal advantage to improve her/his chance of winning. I continue to see variations of this approach to competing in business. Intentionally misleading words, failing to deliver when you know someone else will be held responsible, and putting one’s self interests above all others. There are so many examples that it seems to be a norm that one is expected to accept and follow.
With a quiet and gentle spirit, I would suggest the following.
The values and truths I hold within me are my responsibility. I am the only one that has the right as well as the obligation to choose, embrace, and hold. My actions my display the strength of my grip, however what I aspire to be is something that only I can determine. To each I would say, choose wisely! Whatever one chooses will play a big role in how the future unfolds.
Life is never 100% defined by the outcome. Outcomes can be indicators, but they are not always accurate. Life likes to remind me that we are called to action. The important reminder I often forget is that it is in hearing the call and responding through action that I realize the values and truths I aspire to hold close to my heart. Good things will follow, although the outcome may be very different than one anticipated and expected.
How and why others win is fodder for reflection and potentially examples to learn from. What they are not is a blueprint that one should follow blindly. Life reminds me that this applies to living and responding to how others live. In this context I would love if others always said of me, “He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever.” (Psalm 103.9) Hopefully they would add, “Bill is a person of compassion with a thirst for living.”
I am troubled by the way Evil is given life through our actions. I hope that my choices become the Good that goes to battle.
