Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Same Old Lang Syne
Every 60 Seconds
Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 60 new blogs are created 98,000 tweets per minute695,000 statuses are updated, 1,500 blogs are posted 320 new accounts are created
79,364 walls are posted, and 168 emails are sent 600 new YouTube videos
510,040 comments are made.
The internet magnifies your character. The platforms are out there. The avenues have been created. Never before in the history of the world has there been so many avenues of communication. The question is, what is your message?
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
Last Friday was pretty incredible for me. I have been really short on funds lately and I was not sure if I was going to be able to afford to eat at our staff Christmas Lunch at Fuddruckers. That morning, I prayed and asked, “Ok God, I know you are my Father in heaven, I know you love me, and I know that you are also called ‘Provider,’ so I’m going to need you to help me believe that. If I’m meant to eat today, then I’ll eat. If not, I guess I’m fasting.” Lo and behold, not only was my meal covered, but a random person gave us four tickets to the 5:30 showing of Mission Impossible 4 (apparently his other friends cancelled at the last minute)! I decided to watch it with two cousins and one of my metees.
(As I am typing this, I just received $100 gift from another cousin!)
Ok, so here’s a little about myself: I’m very analytical. I take notes on everything , everywhere. If I don’t have a piece of paper to write on, I’ll use a napkin of the back of a receipt. I’m always asking, “why?” and I always want to know the purpose. I’m also really into movies. Books and movies. When I watch movies and read books, I dissect the heck out of them. I used to walk into a theater with a pen and a small 3x5 notepad, and jot away as the movie played. I didn’t let the darkness of the theater stop me from recording what I needed to get from the movie. I trained myself to write in the dark. The advent of the iPhone changed everything, and completely made my job easier (I digress, so I’ll post more on this in another entry).
This is not a movie review; just some insights from the movie that I am choosing to expound on. 10 nuggets I got from Mission Impossible 4:
1. “To save you time, your team has been chosen for you.”
In life, you choose your friends, but you don’t choose your family. Your family is chosen for you. There is a reason and a purpose behind every single person in your life. Every person in this world has value (whether they know it or not), and each one has been given specific people to whom they are to influence. You influence people with your thoughts, words, actions, habits and character. Things you say or don’t say, do or don’t do affect every single person in your sphere of influence, and they are watching you. In this world of social media, this is magnified one-hundred fold. Log in to your Facebook and/or Twitter account, and your team is there, watching you and waiting for you to influence them. You never know what small word, phrase, blog, tweet or status update may do to change someone’s life forever.
2. “Failure, to a terrorist, is just a ‘dress rehearsal’ for success.”
Oh boy. This is an entire blog entry in itself. I may just have to expound on this more thoroughly in a later entry. For now, I’ll just rundown the first few people that come to mind when I think of people failing forward:
-Abraham Lincoln
-Thomas Edison
-Helen Keller
-Mother Theresa
-Oprah
-M. Jordan
-Sylvester Stallone
-Jim Carrey
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sidenote: the aforementioned are NOT terrorists (most of them, anyway, haha just
kidding); they are people who have failed many times but considered their failures as
‘dress rehearsals’ for success. I will not go into detail in this particular entry, so consider it
a foreshadowing of one to come.
3. “In your country, a “potential” terrorist IS a terrorist." Treat every person not as they are, but
as they are destined to be. Many times we can look at teenagers as rowdy, rebellious troublemakers. What would change if we instead chose to see them as our future leaders of our world and nation, the people who will be taking care of our children’s children? How differently would we think, act, and speak to our teenagers? This past summer, I was privileged to participate in my church’s Vacation Bible School, a week-long kids’ camp where we ministered to over 300 kids in our inner-c city. It changed my life. I never been in an environment where I felt that my every move was influencing future leaders from time to come. These young people were potential teenagers, who become potential adults (again, not terrorists). When you choose to look at people not just as they are, but as what they could be, a whole new level of respect emerges, and your entire demeanor towards everything begins to change.
4. “Acknowledge. ACKNOWLEDGE!”
When an action, order, or request is given, ALWAYS get a confirmation. This is something I am understanding the value of first-hand, working as a ministry leader. This past weekend we held our annual White Elephant Christmas party at church. The turnout was
great, but there was some people that did not bring what they were assigned to bring.
This was a good learning experience for me. Even though I IN-formed my people about the assignment, I did not CON-firm from my people, which then resulted in a less-than
perfect execution. Lesson of the day? ACKNOWLEDGE! =)
5. “The codes is not the mission – Hendrix is.”
There is a core group of teachings we instill in our church that distinguish us from any other organization. It is completely ours, yet completely duplicable. They are the teachings which reveal to the student each mystery: Purpose. Identity. Nature. Mission.
Purpose: WHY you are
Identity: WHO you are
Nature: HOW you are
Mission: WHAT you are supposed to do
Ever since the beginning of time, people have been asking these questions about themselves, and unfortunately, many die with the answers having eluded them. Some know their purpose, but not their identity. Others know their identity, but not their purpose. Still others know their mission, but don’t know either their purpose, identity, or nature. All four are necessary to the health and well-being of human fully alive.
In the movie, Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, shouts to his comrade, “The codes are not the mission – Hendrix is!” Hunt was absolutely clear on his mission (he has obviously been successful at distinguishing it between the other four teachings, since the movie has successfully reached its fourth installment). Although finding the codes were an essential part of the plan, he knew that just being fixated on the codes was not the end of the story; it was simply a part of the overall picture.
How many times in life do we get fixated on things that are important, but not that important? Money is important, but not that important. School, careers, reputation, family, friends, dreams, goals, health. All of these are important. VERY important. But in light of eternity, how important are they? My website is entitled “15,000 Days.” This is a title intended to push you, my dear reader, toward an eternal perspective on life. Yes, make your money. Yes, go to school if that’s your thing. Yes, get healthy. But do so in light of the fact that there are other things in life that outlast even the aforementioned ambitions. What are they? Scripture says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; it is the glory of kings to search a matter out (Proverbs 25:2).” What are they, you ask? Search for them, and I believe you’ll find them.
6. “Moreau was not the mission!”
Again, Hunt was clear on his mission and communicated it to his comrades. He stayed focused on the plan, and made sure they stayed focused on the plan.
7. “I’m not buying; I’m selling [Selling what?]. The future.”
Know the role that you play in relationship with the future. Knowing who you are (identity) is essential to understanding what you do (mission) and how you do it (nature). The more solid you are in these three areas determines how effective you will be in “selling” the future. These three facets, however, are incomplete without having a clear understanding of your purpose. What is your purpose, you ask? That will be a topic covered on a future date (pun intended).
8. “What have you been doing? [Helping old friends, making new ones…]”
Love it! This was asked during a dialogue in the movie. What do you say when someone asks you, “what’s new?” Is it the typical, “oh nothing much?” If so, responding this way gives a fresh new response, especially if you are a networker, like me. I’m a networker, meaning that I intentionally spend time building and maintaining relationships throughout my life. I love people, so I value relationships – moreso than money- because people are more valuable than money. In fact, when you have a deeper, stronger love for people, you’ll find that many times they will actually give you money! Givers gain.
9. “Yes! Commit! Jump!”
Ethan Hunt said this when his colleague was hesitant to jump from a high elevation. I don’t blame the guy either. It’s one thing to be fearless (and reckless?) like Tom Cruise’s character, but it’s a whole other thing to instill that same fearlessness in your colleague. True leadership is not having your followers watch you do something spectacular, but actually inspiring your followers to be spectacular themselves.”
10. “Otmeha – Cancel”
In Russian, this word is translated as “cancel.” Here is where my evangelical side comes out. There is freedom and hope in life because Jesus cancelled all our sins by making a public spectacle of them on the cross (Col 2:15). Without this “divine cancellation” there truly is no hope or freedom in life; without Christ, the mission we have on Earth truly is impossible.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
15,000 Days
My name is Robin Viray, and I am 30 years old.
If I were to write a book, I would call it 15,000 Days. We all know that life is short, but sometimes we need to be reminded as to just how short life is. The average American lives to be about 82 years old. 82 years is about 30,000 days. Out of those 30,000 days, we typically spend one-third of the time awake, another third working, and the rest of the time sleeping. If you are 41 and you are reading this, you may only have 15,000 days left… if that. 15,000 days will come and go whether you live your dreams or not. 15,000 days may or may not be given to you. I wonder what would happen if we were only given one more day? If we choose just to be grateful for that one day, I believe that we may be more at peace, knowing that that one extra day would be enough.
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