Choose Your Cycle: Virtuous or Vicious
Liz Wiseman (2010) suggests that actions create “self-perpetuating” (p. 36) cycles. She explains the virtuous cycle and the vicious cycle. What we do determines what we get.
You can hide your seed, but you can’t hide your harvest! — Pastor Brian R. Nelson, Sr.
The Virtuous Cycle of the Talent Manager
Let’s use the influence our good names can garner and endorse someone else. We all know someone — at least one someone — for whom we can vouch that the “world needs their gift”. Be a part of paying it forward, and set a cycle of growth building in your life where the people in relationship with you are better when they move on from you…and your network is always enhanced for and by helping others reach their goals.
This cycle attracts the best, utilizes it to the fullest, and prepares it for the next stage. The victim mentality cannot survive at this place of decision-making. In relationships, we set ourselves up for this cycle when we place proper honor and regard on the gifts (people) in our lives and place value on their contribution. This is not just mentoring or friendship alone, but strategically searching out ways to make ways for others.
Consider 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (NASB).
1 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
The Vicious Cycle of the Empire Builder
Let’s not be all about us, and build our personal empires on the backs of others through manipulation, greed and deceit. Selfish opportunists have no place in Kingdom work; they hinder more than they help because they keep their eyes on their mission alone. This vicious cycle causes decline in our lives when we seek to drain our relationships and choose to take more than we give. Then before Resurrection Day, people hear us complaining about the lack of support and how no one gives or helps us. No ma’am! We set cycles in motion and it’s our responsibility to choose carefully. Seek to advance God’s way, not our own way.
Let’s not let the gifts in our lives go stale because we are threatened, intimidated or just flat our envious. One thing about a one-man show is that all the work falls on one man. That is not a noble effort, Royal Ones. That is a guaranteed one-way ticket to exhaustion.
Concluding Exhortation
We are not to look only to our own welfare, or be concerned only about our own lives and “stuff”. Instead we are to be broad and deep enough to have room in our lives and visions to look to the needs of others. Read Philippians 2:3-11 (NASB) with me (all emphasis is mine).
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus was exalted for one reason — His willingness to lay down his be-all-end-all-ness and reach us where we are. He came stealth — humble, with no reputation, in servant form. If we want to successfully move through shifts, transitions, and processes, then we need to consider others. Let the pride cleansing continue. In its place let offerings of praise and worship be purer than before, with authentic gratitude for the lessons of the paths behind us and the promise of the path ahead.
Godspeed Royal Ones…choose wise which cycles you want to perpetuate. I say, let there be VIRTUE! SELAH, and love to all!
Reference: Wiseman, Liz. (2010). Multipliers: How the best leaders make everyone smarter. New York, New York: Harper Business.
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