Pastors

Being Before Doing

Scripture consistently places “being” before “doing.”

Leadership Journal July 30, 2007

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her”

Character Check Which kind of explorer am I?

In Business Terms Phillips Brooks, a popular nineteenth-century preacher, said there are two kinds of explorers: One has to go over the mountains to take possession of the new frontier he’s never seen before. The other kind of explorer becomes familiar with his or her own land and digs deeper and deeper into it.

The higher ambition is entering into the deeper possession of what we already have rather than going out to acquire something new.

Some Christians seem to need to go out and acquire more and more prestige or power. Others enter deeper into the character God has given them and pay more attention to the kind of people they’re becoming.

I wonder: shouldn’t ambition for the latter be held with at least as much esteem as the former? We don’t have to always go on to bigger and better enterprises.

—Richard Nelson Bolles

Something to Think About Character is that which can do without success. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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