Category: dignity

There are two types of victimhood: 1. factual and 2. state-of-mind.

The first kind is when someone is literally overpowered by another person or institution. The second kind leads to “complete stories” about the bad things other people did, declaring, “I’m not going to be a victim anymore,” then looking for a gun, stick, bunker, faster car, supervisor to appeal to, or lawyer—all “devices” to stop or escape the abuser. Such “devices” are rarely an answer.

Preventative action is good and smart, home security systems and conceal carry permits even help police. But, don’t call a lawyer or get a gun because the people at work and home don’t listen; that’s the thinking of a mass shooter.

Never exploit your injury to blackmail or influence others. This is not justice, but it happens: Reporting abuse can reflect worse on oneself for getting injured in the first place, thereby appearing incompetent and losing employment, friends, even family. Report abusers, but don’t fall into this trap when you do!

One Asian friend was frequently taken advantage of by his friend and he wanted to change his English name to seem more tough. He did need a new name, but not to solve his “victim” problem.

I’ve had Asian employers deny me my legal papers more than once, even trying to take my passport. Rather than a battle in court, I chose to be educated and “sneaky” so my employers couldn’t take away my rights. I simply survived, nothing more, which slowly injured those employers more than any lawyer could have.

Sometimes we need to take legal or physical action, but there does also exist an often downplayed “inner-self power” that requires forgiveness in your heart, technical research on your own, and a lot of patience. That is what it fully means to “not let yourself become a victim”, where the slave is so shrewd and patient that he has more power than even the slave master.

We have seen this in history: Tank Man from China, MLK Jr., and Jesus Christ. Jesus was no victim, those who crucified him made themselves the victims because Christianity swelled into a tsunami movement and to this day holds the last word.

Rules are not in themselves automatically good, but having no rules at all is automatically bad. Humanity needs the right set of rules, just how rules of the road empower everyone to arrive safely and quickly. The inability to follow any rules at all—whether good or bad—keeps people oppressed by poverty. Anarchy itself is a tyrant.

Legalism has been wrongly labeled as “making absolute what the Bible does not”. Adding rules to the Bible is actually “man-made religion”; “legalism” is the belief that God’s rules are merely moot, serving no pragmatic, sensible, and quite understandable purpose.

Lawlessness, by contrast, is a quasi-religious worldview. Lawlessness applied to the Bible seeks what “sins” God doesn’t care if we commit in the name of “forgiveness”. Both legalism and lawlessness ask whether we should feel obligated or liberated concerning moral rules. The premise is wrong for both.

When Israel obeyed God’s command not to eat pork, they weren’t “mystically better” than other nations; they were less likely to get sick in a world without soap and therefore more likely to survive against attacks from evil nations that instituted human sacrifices. Banning pork had nothing to do with pigs having “less favorable spirits” than cows and sheep, but simple survival. It made common sense. Unfortunately, the erroneous teaching of the New Testament Pharisees was “legalism”, viewing these rules as having some impractical, ethereal value in and of themselves. Pork was simply unhealthy. By Jesus’s time, society knew how to cook. So, God declared it “clean” to Peter, thus the Jerusalem Council did too.

God’s rules in the Bible are not any part of some silly test. People need rules. But, legalistic religious teachers don’t understand this. They oppress people with rules, viewing the Bible as a club to smack people with. Legalism creates just as much anarchy as its lawless worldview counterpart. By not hitting the nail on the head, the nail gets bent. Regardless of whether the nail bends right or left, hitting it again will damage the furniture.

Legalism is an addiction to following rules as an end to themselves. Lawlessness is much the same—addiction to having the free-spirited, uncontrolled life of an wild animal.

Don’t trust in your own resources—your schedule, your friends, favors whether owed or promised, your money, or your smarts, talents, skills, education, or looks whether ugly or gorgeous. Base your trust on God’s hand to hold and uphold you. Then, you will stand no matter what comes your way.

The center of every storm brings its own calm. You yourself can be that peace. If you bring your own peace, then you are like another storm against the storm. Peace itself is a weapon.

Never grasp hastily at opportunities. When an army attacks, it plans for the enemy to respond. A good war strategist will even present phony “escape routs” in order to move the enemy into an ambush. Your red carpet way out will always include peace. Wait for the peaceful and proper moment before you move.

One of the oldest tactics of demons is to contrive plans so evil and terrible that almost every human will try to deny that the evil plan is real. This way, only the wickedest people will take up such plans. Yet, discovering those plans will naturally scare good people into going frantic. This is part of the plan used by demons on a regular basis. “Being discovered” is part of a grand strategy scare tactic to take away peace from their victims. Don’t fall for it. Keep calm and carry on.

Jesus is the prince of peace. Of course, being the Truth himself, Jesus will draw controversy and divide even immediate family members. But, Jesus brings peace and calm confidence to those who accept him for the Truth he is. He settles conflicts that whole world considers too impossible to settle, bringing peace and making friends even between the greatest of foes. Jesus’s ministry to the world is that Truth and Peace come together in him because Truth and Peace can only come if they come together because the root of conflict is fear, which is not driven away by compromise, but by confidence.

Many problems only exist because we think they are problematic, arising from our imagination of fear and worry. Act like a thing is not a problem and it just won’t might be.

One of the secret responsibilities of a leader—unwritten in every leader’s job description—is that a leader must never disturb the people.

It’s easy to gain fame and power through shock and awe, theater and thrill. But, that is not any kind of lasting model of leading. Such leaders are short lived, having countless, intense, quick-burnout relationships. Leaders that last in office and build societies and organizations that endure through industry, hardship, and conflict will be strong and confident, but they will keep the pace of society operating smoothly, never startling the people with false alarms.

Every society has its moments to rise up in reflection and wrath. The most peaceful societies are the most fierce when their wrath is roused. Consider that Canada was the only nation to ever overpower the United States in war, 1812. Or, consider William Wallace who wanted to be a priest. When actual tragedy strikes, a peacefully strong people will pause to gather their faculties before rooting out the problem permanently.

Beware of any people who thrive or work in peace. Black slaves of America were such a people, undermined by their slavemasters, but later a political force to be reckoned with, just as the Pilgrim-founded American colonies before them. Oppressing, insulting, or otherwise disturbing a peaceful people is a deadly sin.

Trains need to run on time, roads must remain clear, the disruptions of construction should be few and far between. Follow Chicago’s example and do roadwork at night if possible. Keep the economy functioning, avail jobs without the burden of over-regulation, and let people assemble and discuss whatever they want without nannying or censoring their free exchange of candid ideas.

When different peoples are at odds, don’t smack everyone who deserves a good smacking. The peace of the many doesn’t deserve the fallout of smacking the head of a family, business, or state. Be tolerant toward insults, sooth wounds, don’t gag the mouth the shrieks in pain no matter how much your animal instincts want to. Warn of transition’s bumpiness, but make it as smooth as people allow. Use charm, wit, and tact to keep dialog going and solve big problems one bite at a time.

You can’t rush art, but left-brained, pampered, carped office managers always want to. Don’t be that manager; go through hardship and get dirty experience. But, that’s just the beginning.

Managing talented people is an art in itself. Some of this art can be studied in school from an academic, theoretical viewpoint. There are some theories we might consider and some skills we might refine under classroom supervision. But, when dealing with real problems in the labor field, nothing can replace experience through fieldwork.

Every “talent” situation is different. A business needs standards or it will fail. Creative geniuses need room to blossom and bloom, going and growing whichever way their hearts take them. But, if a flower grows the wrong way it could get stepped on in the road. If business strategy standards are violated or misguided—by managers or artists—the business will fail and the creative blossom will become homeless. In any business, boundaries and the bloom must work together, and both are always unique.

Help talent by knowing if there is a hard-line requirement in the beginning. When the artist’s work doesn’t stack up to standard, don’t bully the painter to tears, just explain your problem as the confused consumer. “This is great,” and explain the ideas you didn’t think of that truly need to continue from the artist’s ideas that were different from what you expect. Only then add, “I have trouble because this part confuses me as the customer. Can you think of a way so that I won’t be confused.” Don’t tell the answer, that must flow from creativity.

We all get our turns as the talent manager and the managed talent. When it’s your turn to sit in the artist’s seat, try not to be totally undone. Many inflexible artists meltdown too early and get fired for good reason. There is no amount of kindness or “room to create” that pleases them.

Each situation is best addressed in prayer. Take your artistic project to God, regardless of your seat. Work, pray, and God will hydrate your soil with just enough inspiration to help you flourish. After all, He is the Great Creative Manager, and we are His talent.

Don’t turn tone and style into your man made moral code. Some things can’t be done with textbook diplomacy, the only right way to do those things is to do them. There isn’t any way to do those things in a way that will make all of the non-doers happy.

It’s very easy to sit in the bleachers, see the entire field, and try to teach the coach how to teach the players he practices with fifteen hours each week—after watching a game for only thirty minutes. But, those who are actually in the game keep their peace.

Doing something “the right way” requires doing it. The man who thinks someone else does a thing the “wrong way” when hasn’t done the thing at all clearly did a worse job because he didn’t do it all—someone else did it—and therefore he certainly wasn’t able to do it the right way because doing a thing the “right way” begins with actually doing the thing at all.

Salt is supposed to be salty. We need salt, but it’s easy to complain about it. That complaining attitude creeps up inside all of us at one time or another. Police that tendency. It lulls people into comfort, then complacency, then disarray, then hopelessness. Salt haters end up with bland and boring lives; in business, blandness leads to bankruptcy.

Gadflies are a blessing bestowed upon society because they provoke us to action. Gadflies are especially good at rudely buzzing in our ears when we shouldn’t have been sleeping in the first place. And, most wonderfully of all, they bite us when we are so concerned about doing something “the right way” that we just stand there and do nothing at all.

Nature’s gadflies bite the slumbering horse, making it jump into action. They illustrate society’s thought-provokers like John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul. Prophets of the Old Testament told the provocative truth. God sends gadflies into society and is pleased with them.

Gadflies take many forms, from writers to local prophets today to outspoken voices in media and politics to witty graffiti artists. God created gadflies as a reminder. Never be irritated with reminders merely for existing.

We never know how long rain will last. It can come and go within minutes. Cancelling an afternoon ballgame due to a morning sprinkle might mean missing out on one of the sunniest afternoons all year.

God disguises His best parties by making it look like they will need a rain check. Sometimes, the party is at home on the rainy day because rainy days actually do happen. But, they don’t always happen. In fact, making it look like it will rain just before—well, just before it doesn’t rain… Think about it. That builds suspense.

Good performing artists will spend a minute or two boring an audience before pulling out the best act all night. This makes for a very entertaining show, notwithstanding that it proves the performer has excellent showmanship. That performer knows what is boring and what is worth watching and isn’t afraid to perform either, just to show that the performer knows best.

A hike in the mountains may seem the most boring just before the summit. Spelunking in caves is 90% boredom and 1% awe—the remaining 9% is spent wondering whether the trip was worth it and likes to come just before the 1% proving that it was.

That doubt—that feeling that you’re in the wrong place—it almost has a mind of its own. It will sneak up on you, trying to make you miss out on the best life offers. It will make you want to get up and leave before the best speaker takes the stage or run to get a hot dog just before the batter smacks it out of the park. That boredom almost has an artificial intelligence trying to game everyone into missing out, protecting the last doorway of the adventure with a sad jester preaching a fake message of despair. “There’s no hope,” he whimpers behind crocodile tears. “I thought I would find it, but opening that door ruined my life and now look at me.”

God put those jesters there to protect His treasures, reserving His best for those who know when to keep watching, long after the crowds think the show is over and everyone has left the theater.