Do You Tebow?

By now even non-NFL fans (like myself) are very familiar with Tim Tebow, the University of Florida Heisman Trophy winner and quarterback for the Denver Broncos, who is well known for his public confessions of faith. Tebow is credited with helping the Broncos to win seven of their last eight games with breakthrough fourth quarter plays, until they fell to the New England Patriots this past weekend.

Tebow was born in the Philippines where his parents were missionaries, and home schooled along with his siblings when they later moved to Florida.  As a result of a new Florida law providing home-schooled students with equal access to high school sports, he played football in Ponte Vedra Beach then attended the University of Florida where he helped the team win two college football national championships.  While there, he used his developing fame to raise money for charitable organizations, and spent his free time volunteering with the poor and needy, and with prisons.

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He was a first round draft pick in 2010, and in his short career with the Broncos, has many critics of his playing style and capabilities. But he consistently proves them wrong as he performs better than expected in each game.  He is one of the most talked about NFL players each week, not only for his exploits on the field, but because of how he interjects his faith into his sport.  While he claims that God really doesn’t care who wins the game, after every touchdown, he points toward the sky, and drops a knee on the field in prayer. He begins post-game interviews by thanking his “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”, and closes them with “God bless”. Tebow is also known to write words like John 3:16 and other Bible scriptures in the black paint under his eyes while playing, so that when the camera focuses on him, he’s able to share the Word of God.

While other athletes also invoke the name of God, or point a finger upward at various times, Tim’s commitment to bowing in prayer while on and off the field has made him somewhat of a phenomenon, and this physical posture is now called “Tebowing”.  While some other players now “Tebow” as a form of mockery when he misses a play, it went viral when another fan set up a website (www.tebowing.com) filled with pictures submitted by people who “Tebow” in various places around the world.  Whether mocking him, copying him, or committing like him, “Tebowing” is well known as a form of acknowledging God.

I can’t help but admire his commitment and courage to use his fame as a platform for his faith. His influence, even with his detractors, is overwhelming and powerful. So my question to you is, “Do you Tebow?” In other words,

•  Are you consistently conscious of the power of God at work in your life?
•  Are you committed to using your influence to help others in need, and to call attention to worthy causes that would otherwise go unnoticed?
•  Are your publicly stated values congruent with your private life?
• When others mock or challenge your actions, do you continue to move forward with those actions anyway?
• Do you use your God-given capabilities to excel in specific areas?

You may wonder why it even matters. After all, Tebow has millions of fans, and maybe you only have a couple of dozen fans, or lead just a few people. Well the number of people who follow you really is of no consequence. The important factor is that someone, somewhere is watching you. They’re noticing how you handle triumph and defeat. They’re noticing how you treat those less fortunate than you. They’re noticing whether you give of yourself more, to those who have less. They’re deciding whether they want to emulate your behaviors.  

Your leadership is on display to some group of people, and your ability to influence their behaviors could potentially be phenomenal.  So this isn’t about specifically following Tim Tebow.  This is about simply following God.  So I’ll ask you again, “Do you Tebow?”

Copyright 2011 Priscilla Archangel

God – The Revealer of Secrets

Imagine going about your daily routine, when suddenly you have a visitation. Now you may not believe in visitations, but you don’t know what else to call it when suddenly a man appears in front of you. His appearance is unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s indescribable, as if he’s glowing inside and out. When he opens his mouth to speak, the sound of his voice is melodic yet strong. There’s something intimate about the way that he extends himself to you, yet you’ve never seen anyone like him. As awestruck as you are, you’re not afraid. In fact, you’re spellbound, as you stand there transfixed by his gaze.

He opens his mouth, calls you by name, and reaches out his hand to you. You are drawn to him as you respond with your outstretched hand, and he beckons you to sit with him. He then proceeds to speak to you, ever so sweetly, telling you about your future; the things you will accomplish, the people you will meet, the experiences you will have.  His words are spell-binding. What he’s saying is so different from your current reality, that you almost can’t comprehend it. He points with his finger into the distance, and as if on cue, your visual field is filled with images of your future.  You can see yourself doing the things he said you would do. Like watching a movie, you can see yourself in ways and places that are new and different to you.  

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As the vision fades, you turn back to look into his eyes again, to ask him what all of this means. But just as suddenly as he appeared, he vanishes. You’re left there, alone but not lonely, because your spirit is filled with the words he spoke to you. Your mind is filled with the visions he gave you.  Your heart is filled with the warmth he left you. But what does it all mean? He shared with you a deep understanding of your future that you never dreamed of. This mesmerizing man just shared a secret with you; your own personal secret that was for you and about you.

You sit there for what seems like forever, replaying the vision over and over again in your mind. As time passes, the vision becomes more and more real to you. Fearing that no one will believe you, you decide to share this secret only with one or two of your most trusted friends; friends who will come as close as anyone to understanding; friends who will hold you accountable to moving toward it. 

Most of the secrets we share or know are about a person’s past or present. They’re regarded as juicy bits of gossip, generally negative in tone, because the really positive news is often shared openly. But secrets about someone’s future are more difficult to understand or ascertain. Generally, they are a prophetic word; simply put, telling the future. They’re not for everyone to know because not everyone can handle them, not everyone is poised to receive them. Some secrets are meant to stay hidden, others are meant to be revealed at a set time. The fact that this information is a secret speaks volumes about its power. That power can be used for good or for ill, to enlighten and uncover, reveal and release. 

God is a revealer of secrets. He has information about our future.  His secrets are not kept from us, they are kept for us. God, the revealer of secrets prepares the moment so that we will be ready and able to handle the secret He has for us. When we’re ready to receive it, He will reveal it and begin to show us  what to do with that information.

God uses angels and mankind to reveal His secrets. Thousands of years ago, an angel appeared to a young virgin whose name was Mary, and told her a secret about her future, that she would become the mother of Jesus. Though she wondered how it all would come about, the angel assured her that with God, nothing was impossible. Mary accepted the secret about her future, and said “let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38 NKJV) Only Joseph, her fiancé, and Elizabeth, her cousin seemed to have any inkling of this marvelous truth.  

Daniel called God the revealer of secrets because God used Daniel to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon the content and meaning of his dream. At that time he was one of the bright young Israelites, held captive in service to the king. Yet God chose someone of low stature in man’s eyes, to foretell the future to a man of high stature.

Today, leaders still want to know secrets about their future. They guess, speculate, negotiate, and leverage the future based on their knowledge of the past and present. They plan, strategize, predict and communicate the future based on previous experience and current circumstances.  Their stakeholders demand that they meet future performance targets, and so they try to understand and control their secret future.

Your future may be a secret from others, but it’s a secret for you. Knowledge of your future secret enables you to act with confidence, like someone pointing the way forward to you. You gain this knowledge by asking the revealer of secrets about your future. You spend time with Him, believe in His great power, believe that whatever He says, no matter how different it may be from where you are now, He can bring it to pass. If you feel stuck right now, not knowing where to turn or what to do with your future, wondering where you’re going and what God wants you to do, know that He’s the revealer of secrets.  He knows your future and wants to reveal it to you at the appointed time when you’re ready to receive it. So seek God, the revealer of secrets.

Copyright 2011 Priscilla Archangel

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

What do you give the person who seems to have everything? You give something that costs you little.   

What do you give the person who seems to have nothing? You give something that costs you much.

That’s what Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, and 65 other billionaires have decided to do. They’ve pledged to give half of their net worth to philanthropy.  In June 2010, Buffet and Gates started the Giving Pledge where they challenge billionaires across the world to sign a pledge committing to give half of their money to charity during their lifetime. For Buffett, this focus on giving started when he was in his 20s studying wealthy industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. P. Morgan, and their prolific giving to science, arts and culture. (See Wall Street Journal article for more info.) Now that Buffett has long been established as a billionaire, he is doing the same. He and others are using their wealth to make a difference in every area of life across the world.  They are leveraging the fruit of their talents to impact the world.  They’ve realized that after a certain point, wealth and riches mean nothing if you can’t use it to help others who may be less fortunate.  

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Buffett and Gates’ initiative is admirable because they’ve made it a priority to lead others in giving. Specifically, they established themselves as ACEs, and you can do the same.

Accountability – They challenged other billionaires to be accountable to each other on how they use their wealth. You can identify others who, like you, have an abundance of resources. This shouldn’t be hard, because like attracts like. The people who are your closest friends, with whom you have the most in common, probably have similar resources. Challenge them, hold them accountable to use those resources to make a difference in the lives of others who are less fortunate.

Change – They believe that their wealth can create change for the good. What unfortunate situations seem to pierce your heart the most?  Is it poverty, sickness, children who lack the benefit of music, art or sports in their educational system? These issues weigh on your spirit for a reason; so that you can do something to make a difference in that arena, using your resources to bring about change.

Expectation – They created an expectation that their giving makes a difference in the future of others. You too can expect that your gift will change the lives and environment of others. You can create your own self-fulfilling prophecy that you expect good results from your investment.

Since very few of us are billionaires, does that mean that we can’t have an impact in the world?  Does that mean that we can’t use our comparably limited assets to help others?  We each have an abundance of resources in the form of our time, our talent or our treasures which we can give freely to others. 

• Our time represents what we value most.  Take a look at how a man or woman spends their time each day, and you’ll know what’s most important to them.
• Our talent represents the abilities, skills and knowledge we possess that we can share with others. Freely sharing our talent will reduce expenses and costs to others.
• Our treasure represents financial resources that we’ve earned or inherited that can fund the good works of others.  

One person’s time, another’s talent, and yet another’s treasures all working together are essential to improve the lives of people on every continent. So don’t wait for the government or someone else to allocate resources to a problem, or to make it a priority. Determine how you can make a difference. Determine how you can lead others to give extraordinary things in extraordinary ways.

“We have a choice. We can make our kids billionaires and it will ruin them. Or we can realize how blessed we are and try to spread those blessings around. My view has always been that success unshared is failure.”  John Paul DeJoria, founder of the Paul Mitchell hair-products empire who grew up homeless. (The Biggest Gift In The World, WSJ Magazine, November 2011, p. 104)

“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”  (2 Corinthians 9:6-8) King James Study Bible

Copyright 2011 Priscilla Archangel

Water and Trust - Priceless

What is your most valuable and powerful commodity? Many of you might say money, your home, or investments. As important as those are, I believe your most valuable commodity is water. This may surprise some of you, but think about it. If you live in America, you are rich in this natural resource because you generally have access to clean water, and use it constantly throughout the day.

I admittedly use water like I have an unlimited supply. I take wonderfully long hot showers, I run the water constantly while performing tasks like brushing my teeth or rinsing off dishes. I put small loads in the washing machine. During the summer I water my lawn at least every other day.  I buy bottled drinking water because I like the taste. I pay for all of this water usage, but the cost is easy to rationalize because of its importance to me. Yet, I take the availability of water for granted.

Over 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, however, millions of people in underdeveloped or war torn nations lack access to clean drinking water, and suffer from sickness and diseases as a result. Water is basic need and a common commodity throughout the entire world, but uneven supply and cultural differences in demand result in great variability in the cost of obtaining it.

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Trust

Thinking about the value of water to the environment led me to focus on organizations as an entity or environment, and to ponder the most basic yet valuable thing needed to make them function. It occurred to me that trust is that fundamental element. Trust is the foundation upon which all positive relationships are built. Steven M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust (2006,  CoveyLink, LLC) describes trust as a requirement for the credibility and empowerment of organizations, financial systems and human interactions.

Like water, we sometimes take trust for granted in how we communicate with our employees, our customers, our shareholders or our stakeholders. There are plenty of examples in the past decade of corporate CEOs and financial leaders who abused the trust of the people they served, and many paid for it with their jobs, their bank accounts, their freedom, or their health.  Organizational leaders may wrongly assume that their employees will remain loyal and inspired to put forth extra effort for the success of the team, in spite of failure to acknowledge the employees own needs.

Like water, we sometimes use trust as if there’s an unlimited supply, until one day we find ourselves in a crisis of short supply.  The cistern of trust, like a cistern of water, is depleted because it’s constantly being used without being replenished.

Like water, lack of trust may result in organizational sickness or malfunction. Low trust breeds insecurity, instability and incapability. Ultimately the inner glue that binds a team together dries up, and it falls apart.

Like water, trust is a basic human need. It’s used to build relationships and connections between people as a basis for accomplishing goals and objectives.

Like water, trust can be gained by gathering it. The steady consistent drip of a faucet will ultimately fill a bathtub. The steady consistent actions of leaders will build a reserve of trust.

Like water, trust is a precious commodity.  A certain amount of it must be saved and preserved for a drought or time of need.

Like water, that same pool of trust can quickly dissipate.  Strike a big hole in the side of a container of water and it splashes out onto the ground never to be gathered again. Similarly, a single significant despicable act can destroy trust forever.

Building A Reservoir of Trust

How do you build trust in your organization? Do you fully recognize its value and treat it as a priceless commodity, or do you take its existence for granted? Building trust requires the active demonstration of care and sincerity between people. It provides refreshment to the soul, and like water it lubricates and smoothes the rough patches in our daily interactions. Trust overlooks inadvertent slights and missteps. Trust looks for the good, and assumes the best. What’s the trust level in your organization?

Copyright 2011 Priscilla Archangel

Butterfly Faith

In the early 1960s, meteorologist Edward Lorenz presented his scientific findings that a “small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state”[1]. This became known as The Butterfly Effect, or the law of sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Put simply, the theory is that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the earth can cause a hurricane in another part of the earth. Like a domino effect, the flapping of its wings sets wind currents in motion, which coupled with its position and a myriad of other factors and atmospheric conditions, can impact in the weather thousands of miles away. This small movement is barely enough to create a breeze felt by a human being, yet significant enough to create wind currents. A motion casually made, often taken for granted, yet it has a powerful impact.

The Butterfly Effect

I first learned about The Butterfly Effect from reading a short book of the same name written by Andy Andrews, a New York Times best-selling author. His point was to convey how much each person’s life matters, because of the impact it has on others. An action, a spoken word, a decision, that I perceive to be insignificant can have a ripple effect on millions of people, either positively or negatively.

Come to think of it, some of the most powerful and controlling forces are also the smallest ones.  The rudder on a ship is a small flat plane that directs the flow of water past it which in effect turns the ship[2]. The tongue is a small part of our bodies, but when it speaks, it can start a war between nations, or kindle a great love between two people.  A mustard seed  is only 1-2 mm in diameter, yet Jesus said, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can speak to a mountain and cause it to move (Matthew 17:20).  Each are small objects, but with a powerful outcome. Well if each of these objects can have such a major impact on its surroundings, how can you use even a little bit of faith to impact your environment?  Faith is “confidence or trust in a person or thing; belief that is not based on proof”[3].  It’s the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). 

The Ripple Effect of Faith

As a faith centered leader, how can you exert your faith for a business goal, an organizational objective, or a team priority. How can you focus your thoughts, your intangible ideas and abstract wanderings, on a desired outcome with sufficient confidence that it will indeed come to pass?  It’s simply a matter of perspective.  Too often we’re caught up in the moment of a seemingly insurmountable challenge; our scope of sight is too limited; our belief in the future too vague. We fail to grasp the significance of the impact of our faith; mountain moving, hurricane creating faith. 

My prayer for you today is that God will open the eyes of your spirit, granting you understanding and insight to see a future positive potential in yourself, your team, and your organization that you’ve never before grasped. That you will no longer accept what is, but you will instead believe what can be. That your faith will be as vast as the wind currents created by the rippling of a butterfly’s wings. That your faith will be strong enough to move mountains. That your faith will multiply your present resources. My prayer is that you will have the faith of a butterfly to set in motion actions that will cause a tsunami of blessings to people that you will never know, but by their very act will create a brighter future.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudder#Trim_tab

[3] www.dictionary.com. October 18, 2011

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Copyright 2011 Priscilla Archangel