Tag: needverse

73 – Dear Kid Part 2

Do these with others, then it will be easy to make sure others do these with you…

Whenever working with others, you must have these two mutual requirements:
1. You didn’t tell someone something until you tell them and they say it back to you. You don’t know what someone did until you ask them what they did. Even with 500 witnesses and 1,000 videos, ask first. If the person lies to you, then you found out the most important part.
2. Give everyone a second chance at something once or twice. After paying for a five million dollar mistake, firing the person is too expensive after investing so much in the person’s education. The price of a low turnover rate without constant rookie mistakes is that you must forgive enough to allow multiple second-chances.

…And, do these for two reasons:
1. This is what smart bosses and smart companies do. Those that don’t are easy to defeat in any arena, from sports to military to business.
2. Jesus commands it, forgiveness and healthy communication.

Indirect teaching is polite, allowing people time to learn on their own. But, indirection is never, never, never “communication” where one can expect another to have received the message. To expect understanding, one must be direct.

When working for heathens, you are only as good as your last mistake. When working for Jesus, your mistakes make you irreplaceable because of the expense on your education. Heathens often parade themselves as Christians, then inject this ideology into their fake “Christianity”, claiming Jesus while neither forgiving nor reconciling. Know it and don’t touch it. If you have been unforgiven, get out. God’s protecting you from heathens.

You never know what’s going to set people off. Just be humble, forgive, be forgiven, and keep relationships that have a history. If you’re expelled without warning, be thankful that God got you out before the building self-destructed.

You can’t say the wrong thing to the right person and you can’t say the right thing to the wrong person. If you are worthy, a smart boss or client will hire you. If you are worthy, but don’t get hired, then God is protecting you from something.

72 – God of Means

God could just open up the sky, reach through, and situate everything so it’s perfect. But, that’s no fun. Instead, God uses means—He works through people and through events in history.

God’s nature, that He works through means, relates to His patience. He’s not in as big of a hurry as we often presume we should be. But, in the End, we will see that everything happened as quickly as it possibly could have—all because of the means God chose to work through. This part of God’s character has great ramifications for our own.

Ronald Reagan was often considered a lazy president, merely because he was so effective at delegating. “If you want something to be done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” is the motto of people who don’t get much done. Many things might have the appearance of “being done better” if God just bypassed us, decided we were useless, decided that nature doesn’t matter, and just positioned everything like a collection of inanimate toys—but we each too valuable for that.

God wants us to participate with Him as He does great and wondrous things. As you understand God as the God of Means, you will become a human of means. Then, the people in your life will no longer seem like obstacles in the way of perfection—those people will become more important than your projects just as you absorb the truth that you are God’s craftsmanship, among the greatest reasons why He uses you. God is not actually accomplishing the work you do through you so much as He is accomplishing your perfection by means of your participation in His work. God uses us as a means to achieve as a means of achieving us.

The Book of Esther never once mentions God, but His fingerprints are everywhere. Esther made the famous statement, “If I die, I die,” when she decided to risk death to save her people, all because her uncle Mordecai said that she may have been made queen for, “such a time as this.” That God is arguably best explained in the book that doesn’t even contain God’s name, but beautifully demonstrates His means.

71 – Dear Kid Part 1

Lessons to kids, perhaps yours, perhaps you, or perhaps the younger you whom you wish to tutor…

How to use an alarm: Get out of bed when it goes off.
How to use prayer: Do it.
How to use Bible: Same as prayer.
How to use a computer: Plug it in, same with appliances.
How to use a battery: Only if you must.
How to use money: Buy anything but happiness. Buying happiness will put you in debt.
How to get paid: Require it; for yourself to work and from others to pay you.
How to make friends: Be a friend.
How to be a friend: Do a good job.
How to do a good job: Do your own job.

Don’t “learn forever” from a single event in the past. Crazy stuff happens. Don’t “always be safe” from one freak accident that defied laws of physics. Don’t “never do that again” because a bad person got angry when you did something good. Don’t “never love again” when someone betrays your trust. Crazy things just happen at times. Only “learn forever” from things that indicate the normal flow of the universe. And, from the freak accidents, “learn forever” that freak accidents happen without explanation and we need to just keep going.

Don’t explain everything in too much detail. Say the general idea. Recognize the general idea when other’s say it. That’s enough for mature people. If it’s not enough for you, then get mature.

Always be closing. When you ask someone for something—a parent, customer, boss, employee, coworker, classmate, child, spouse, friend, enemy—and the person says, “Yes,” shut your mouth, take, “Yes,” for an answer, and start moving forward with what you asked for.

Don’t argue your point until people agree with you. Start with your conclusion, tip your hat to what your arguments might be, mature people will get it from there. If someone doesn’t understand that much, then they need a teacher, not a debate. Don’t fall into the trap of talking until everyone agrees with you. State your point, give reasons if asked, figure out who agrees and disagrees where, then act like an adult and move on while keeping friendships.

67 – Fathered and Fatherless Act Like It

Children who do not grow up with healthy, balanced oversight of good instruction in the home will show it in the things that they don’t know and no propaganda will convince the facts otherwise.

Children missing a parent can quickly develop an “I don’t need that parent” life motto. It’s not a logical or scientific conclusion, but an emotional coping mechanism to invalidate the self-invalidation they invent every day. Not having a parent doesn’t make someone invalid in itself; it shows up in one’s lifestyle.

An eight year old who doesn’t know how to tie his shoes probably has too much pampering at home and school. A ten year old who ties his shoes incorrectly likely has parents who just don’t care.

A high schooler who doesn’t respond to text messages is announcing to all his friends, “Hey, my parents yell at me all the time, so I ignore what everyone says just to cope with it.” The junior higher who can’t agree to go to the movies next weekend—time and again—is likewise broadcasting, “My parents interrupt my life constantly, thereby erasing my concept that ‘tomorrow exists’.” When their friends call them out on it, they act indignant and accuse everyone of making up complaints from their “dream worlds”. They make their own parents look bad in the eyes of the student body and everyone sees it but them, especially their teachers.

School carries into the workplace.

I have a saying, “Beware of people with hyphenated last names; they haven’t resolved their loyalties.” In Chinese it holds for four-character names, rather than than the usual three-. No judging, they may be great people, but strange formats make work for others and begs questions about one’s upbringing.

Everyone has family problems. If you’ve outgrown yours, but have a strange name format from the fallout, take counsel and review a legal name change. The process may be therapeutic. Alternatively, artists often take additional middle names or file a legal DBA/pseudonym.

Whatever “baggage” you may carry, ditch it. Everyone else sees it but you, don’t act otherwise. What happens at home shows in the world, especially when you’re offended by other people’s reaction to your conduct.

65 – Leaders Are Strong and Tough

Leaders must make tough decisions, which means leaders must be tough.

If there is a department in an organization or a child in the family who makes trouble for others—whether through passive-aggression, overt bullying, absenteeism, poor quality work, or otherwise—the leader with the power to intervene must intervene. If the leader does not intervene, then the troublemaker will make more and more trouble, making the leader an indirect—but nonetheless real—endorse of the trouble maker.

Having the “power” to intervene and stop a troublemaker does not mean that a leader has the emotional trust of the organization or a 50%+ popularity rating—it only means having the legal right to raise the issue and address the matter. If a peer has the right to raise his hand at a meeting, that peer could initiate discussion to stop the troublemaker.

Of course, a “troublemaker” must be defined as someone who actually makes trouble, not someone who irritates lazy and incompetent teammates while doing good work. Many talented people are mislabeled as troublemakers when they are the only competent people on a team. “Not playing well with others” is the lowest priority in labeling a troublemaker.

…And a good leader must know this.

By being strong, everyone will interact with a strong person when they interact with the leader. This will make everyone else’s skin a little thicker, their spines stronger, and the talented person who smells funny and talks out of turn won’t be so irritating. It’s the leader’s responsibility to set that tone.

A strong leader will talk frankly and harshly at times, get irritated into ranting and raising his tone of voice. Whether a man or woman, loud or soft -spoken, each leader has his own style of “strength” and must follow that style, but still be strong. A leader who is weak and calls it “style” is not only weak, but an excuse-maker.

Sometimes people need to be fired or downsized. Children need proper, calculated spankings to stop fights among siblings. Peers need to be told truth from others.

The tough leader will be feared at times, but will thus be trusted as a safe protector during the toughest of times.

63 – Opening Bid Is Final Offer

If you can change your mind after hours of negotiation, then you started without knowing what you wanted—and you owe the other party a consulting fee for the vision mapping session.

Auctions are institutionalized, meant to sell a vast number of good to a vast number of people at publicly agreed prices in quick order. Usually these are for liquidation, fundraising, and government contracts. You are not overstocked nor damaged goods nor are you an overpriced trinket from a charity banquet—do not establish your price as if you were. Governments are the exception.

Pay the highest price you’re willing. Give people what they’re worth and don’t attempt less. If the other party does, walk away right away.

When you offer to join a team, set your ceiling at the outset and don’t go above it. If you say, “Four hours is all I can do that day,” and the person gives reasons why you should give five, they need help with vision and mission. Explain it, “You’ve got too much at stake and seem to be over-budget. I’m a four-hour guy, you need a five-hour guy, and you need to either talk to your accounting department to get a budget for the right guy or talk with your visioning team about a four-hour plan.”

The “Trump” negotiation tactic was well-demonstrated throughout his life, even his presidency: Make the opening offer “hugely” outrageous, then “come to your senses” and ask for what you wanted in the first place. That’s for dealing with parties who don’t know what they want. When people open with that outlandish offer, I go straight to “vision” mode.

The same applies against delphi method and managed conversation.

Many people ask my permission to cancel appointments. I tell them the same, “It’s not my choice. Just figure out your schedule, then call me.”

I once made an ethics-related suggestion to an itinerant speaker about his content. He gave his propaganda-couched excuse, adding, “…if that’s okay with you.” I answered, “It’s not my choice,” and made him own his. That speaker just stood speechless.

Never “negotiate”. Either host an auction, plan a strategy meeting, or act unilateral-friendly so you never pressure others.

62 – Literature of the Bible

Understanding the Bible is much easier if you know the types of genre. Knowing genre, you can quickly identify the specific genre you are reading and know what to expect from it.

Much of the Bible is narrative. This simply records actions and events, neither condemning nor condoning any of what actually happens. The important thing to remember in narrative, as with any other type of genre, is the first time a word or event occurs. If a similar word or event shows up later, both events will have a kind of connection, whether a parallel or contrast. When reading events, take note of the smallest details.

The genealogy genre is easily belittled. Genesis has some genealogy. Genealogies often have small events inserted, highlighting things a person did or did not do. These can be significant. To Jewish culture, a genealogy was also important to confirm which tribe someone came from.

Law is seen much in the second part of Exodus, as well as Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. While other “laws” appear elsewhere—such as God’s instructions to Joshua for invasion—Exodus sets the template for the genre. Laws were specific to Israel, mainly before Jesus. But, we can still learn from them and following many parts of Moses’s Law can be beneficial. The important truths about laws are that Jesus completed the laws for sacrifices and that Jesus interprets Moses’s Law more clearly than anyone else. Look at the Jerusalem Council in Acts and also Hebrews for apostolic commentary on the Law.

Poetry fully comprises Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Lamentation, but poetry also appears in other Bible passages. By familiarizing yourself with these books of poetry, you will understand poetry in other books of the Bible.

Figures of speech can appear anywhere in the Bible. Know them in your native language, then you will recognize them in the Bible. Label language as “figurative” only with good reason, never favoring a contradictory interpretation.

Prophecy and visions pop up everywhere, containing both figurative and literal language. Interpreting these requires time and never finishes. Begin with Daniel and Revelation.

The Gospels and Acts are ancient journalism. The rest of the New Testament is correspondence.