From the Mind of MandoRon

My wife has been encouraging me to read Crazy Love by Francis Chan for a few months now.  (You can interpret that as nagging if you want to…)  This week’s business trip to Florida seemed like a good time to start, so I began reading it a few days ago.

[Note:  For full disclosure, I am sitting on the sun deck at my hotel overlooking a jellyfish-strewn Cocoa Beach.  This isn't really relevant; I'm just rubbing it in.]

As I was reading Chapter 2 over breakfast this morning, I started thinking about some of my motivations and selfishness.  Francis Chan uses several funerals as examples in the chapter.  I don’t know about you, but I like funerals where you hear about the people who were touched by the recently deceased.

I’ve often thought that I wanted my funeral to be like that.  I want there to be many stories about the people that I touched or helped or motivated.

Am I not an incredible person for wanting to help people and have an impact on their lives?  I’ve even been reading about servant leadeship on this trip! 

But this morning got me thinking about my motives.  I think my motives have been rather selfish to date.

We are called to help others.  Not to be known for helping others.  Do you see the difference?  It’s all about who gets the fame and glory.  Is it you (or me)?  Or God?

Our calling is to help others in order to bring glory to God.  Period.  End of discussion.

Am I only the one who has struggled with this?  Feel free to weigh in with a comment.

My wife recently bought me a Stephen Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” daily calendar.  While it’s not quite as cool as last year’s Fender Custom Shop calendar, it does have some great nuggets of wisdom.

Tuesday, in particular, caught my attention:

“Our level of development is fairly obvious with tennis or piano playing, where it is impossible to pretend.  But it is not so obvious in the areas of character and emotional development.”

Profound!

As I have been interviewing people for several positions at work, it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot.  It’s so hard to ascertain character in a 60-minute interview.  You never know when someone is faking it…

A 60-day probationary period sure would be nice sometimes.  Although, we’d probably end up using it as a crutch and not be discerning enough before hiring…

For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been reading the Life Application Study Bible Devotion on YouVersion.com.  Yesterday’s devotion (referring to Exodus 17:2) really hit home:

“The people complained about their problems instead of praying. Some problems can be solved by careful thought or by rearranging our priorities. Some can be solved by discussion and good counsel. But some problems can be solved only by prayer. We should make a determined effort to pray when we feel like complaining because complaining only raises our level of stress. Prayer quiets our thoughts and emotions, and prepares us to listen.”

I don’t know about you, but I seem to default to solving my problems through careful thought and discussion (read as complaining…).

I found out 2 weeks ago that my cheese is being moved.  I learned that there are some changes coming with my new job.  (Change is a great thing; except when it happens to you…)  My job doesn’t appear to be jeopardy, but I’m not exactly sure what my role is going to be either.

So I’ve been trying to think through all the possible outcomes, and the pros and cons of those outcomes.  But here’s the deal, it probably won’t do me a lick of good.  In fact, it will probably just stress me out.

Yesterday’s reading was a good reminder for me to put my trust in the Lord and let Him take care of things.  After all, I’m just along for the ride.

I just finished reading Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG by Jack Cashill, so I guess it’s time to post the review.

Popes and Bankers is an incredibly fascinating read.  And just like the title infers, it’s a cultural history of credit and debt.  It caught my eye because of the recent credit and banking crisis that has tanked the U.S. economy.  Popes and Bankers attempts to explain how we ended up in this crisis by exploring society’s views on usury (a.k.a. lending at interest) throughout world history.  Cashill also discusses the people that had major impacts on our views of moneylending - the authors, the philosophers, the rulers, the businessmen, the crooks, etc…  Interestingly, the book is written from a Christian worldview.  So a lot of time is spent exploring and commenting on the Jewish and Christian influence on society.

The list of interesting topics is too long to list…  But, for me, there were a few key things that really made the book worth reading.  First was reading how Charles Ponzi got a scheme named after him.  (Very timely, I know.)  Second was learning about all the bubbles and financial meltdowns of different societies throughout the centuries. 

Third…  I’ve always heard the anti-semitic comments about “jewish bankers”, but I’ve never really understood where these thoughts come from.  Interestingly, they partially go back to Mosaic law which allowed the Jews to lend money at interest to strangers.  And Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice didn’t help either. 

Fourth, it seems that all financial troubles generally result from greed - either people wanting more than they have or people trying to make money without doing anything of tangible value.  And lastly, I found it interesting how our unique American culture and politics brought about this recent collapse.

There were also a few things that I didn’t like about Popes and Bankers.  I have a bachelor’s degree in engineering, a master’s degree in business, and I usually win at Scrabble,  but I found the first few chapters nearly incomprehensible.  I didn’t know half of the words that Cashill used, and I really felt like he was trying to compete with Virgil and Shakespeare while crafting his prose.  Fortunately, what I did understand was interesting and I pressed on.  Once you get over that mountain, the rest of the book is very readable although there are still quite a few post-doctoral words to be found.

Legal stuff:  I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

After somehow ending up on the Dr. Martens website yesterday, I clicked on their “history” page out of curiousity.  (Note: I did a buy a pair recently so it wasn’t totally random…)

This is clearly a company with a vision.  And they have created a corporate culture that they are proud of.  Interestingly, the vision and culture has changed over time as their customer base shifted from working class people to rebellious youth.  They have come to embrace the rebelliousness and individualism of their customers.

I recommend reading the Dr. Martens history.  A small part of it describes where they came from, the rest lays out their vision in a very creative, very passionate manner.  (Warning: there is an f-bomb buried in there.)  There is no doubt that they know what kind of company they want to be and how they want to impact the world.

This is something that other companies, as well as individuals, can learn from. 

Understand who you are, understand who you want to be, and understand how you want to impact others.