Renew The Mind; Transform Your Life

"SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER"
🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄On the Fifth Day of Christmas🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
we celebrate Saint Thomas à Becket.
These words, famously attributed to Henry II - "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" allegedly provoked the murder of Thomas while in the Cathedral!!!

Why was the king so irritated with Thomas à Becket? Because Thomas didn't have a Paradigm Shift so much as a Paradigm Earthquake! He went from being a very effective fundraiser for the king through way of a profound conversion experience to become an ascetic (one who abstains from sensual pleasures in order to enhance spiritual focus).

What I'm celebrating about Thomas is his courage to "speak to power" - a core principle of Improv! When we pursue "Authenticity" in Improv we become willing to challenge convention, tradition, and the established order. We break the rules when the system they support no longer serves us.

I'm also celebrating his career shift. In this video, recorded last Christmas, I give a SHOUT out for Steve Jones FCMI who trained me in Motivational Mapping. Steve shared with me a powerful example of the difference between recruiting on the strength of your gifts and talents versus the 'authenticity' of recruiting according to what motivates you. The example of the freedom-driven, creatively motivated Barrister becoming a Landscape Gardener still makes my heart sing - thanks Steve! 🙏🥂

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
If you feel something isn't quite right with your own career journey, let's get your motivation map done and dusted with a debrief. It may be the current disatisfaction could be your best friend... a better future always lies ahead when you align yourself with what truly motivates you.

In the meatime, "Courage, mon Brave!" Speak truth to power, challenge convention, break some rules... ...and watch your back!

(+44)7990015489

#motivation #disruptiveleadership #entrepreneurmindset #career

A troubling event remembered today - the slaughter, massacre by Herod, of the Holy Innocents in his attempt to kill Him, "who is born, King of the Jews."

The Feast of St John is the Third Festival of Christmas.  John tells us everything starts with Words.  Do you speak words of life and love?

The power of words has been experienced by all of us.  When someone genuinely says, "Thank you!" there's a feeling attached to those words.  When someone says, "I believe in you," there is empowering energy attached to their faith.  And when someone says, "I love you," your life can be transformed.

The Apostle of Love, Saint John, is our Festival Saint for 27th December.  In this very short message, we honour the spirit of every beginning: "In the beginning was the Word..."

The Second Day of Christmas is The Feast of Stephen - famously mentioned in the popular carol, Good King Wenceslas.  Are YOU a heretic?

Calling all the heroic heretics on this, the Feast of Stephen.

Drawing more on Seth Godin than on Acts 6 and 7 (which you can read), we explore how our time needs people who can no longer tolerate the status quo.  People who will stand up and be counted.  People who will lead their tribe.

https://youtu.be/NgO2mih5eDY will take you to the same message with a display of the hundreds of candles Swanage United Reformed Church light each year.  It is spectacularly peaceful!

Here is the 1st prayer used today, from George Herbert - practically a neighbour from historic Salisbury and Wilton.
"The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts and words and deeds:
The pasture is Thy Word; the streams Thy Grace,
Enriching all the place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Out-sing the daylight hours."

Psalm 23 in The Good News Translation
The Lord is my shepherd;
    I have everything I need.
He lets me rest in fields of green grass
    and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
He gives me new strength.
He guides me in the right paths,
    as he has promised.
Even if I go through the deepest darkness,
    I will not be afraid, Lord,
    for you are with me.
Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me.

You prepare a banquet for me,
    where all my enemies can see me;
you welcome me as an honored guest
    and fill my cup to the brim.
I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;
    and your house will be my home as long as I live.

George Herbert's second prayer for Christmas
"Oh Thou, whose glorious yet contracted light,
Wrapt in Night's mantle, stole into a manger,
Since my dark soul and brutish, is Thy right,
To man, of all beasts, be not Thou a stranger:
Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou mayest have
A better lodging than a rack or grave."

And
Robert Louis Stevenson
"O God, our loving Father, help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus,  that we may share in the songs of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.  May the Christmas morning make us happy to be your children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.  Amen."

2 years ago, the local Government provided me with sufficient funds to get through the first year of Covid.
I didn't know about these funds.
Someone else found out about them, and helped me claim them.
But I had to Call upon the Council, Claim the funds, and then Command where they went.
Our Christian walk with God is similar.

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Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. For each man will bear his own burden.

But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches. Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.

See with what large letters I write to you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised; just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel.

From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little yeast grows through the whole lump. I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”Leviticus 19:18 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father. So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children. And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba,Father!” So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again? You observe days, months, seasons, and years. I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.

I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong, but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn’t despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them. But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.

My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you— but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman. However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,

“Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear.
    Break out and shout, you who don’t travail.
    For the desolate have more children than her who has a husband.” Isaiah 54:1

Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman.”Genesis 21:10 So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.