Before you close out this last week of September, I wanted to drop by with three things that have gotten me thinking this week. Have a great weekend!

#1

I have recently been reminded that the best critique of the bad is the practice of the better.

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch and Leonard Sweet

I love this quote. Rather than drag something, or someone else through the mud, go out and practice a way in which you feel is better. Critics will always be with us (and have a place among us) but the people who are willing, to paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, “stay in the arena” and have skin in the game are, in my opinion, ones who are to be most closely listened to in word and actions.

#2

“The most powerful marketing is personal recommendation,” he said. “Nothing is more viral or infectious than one of your friends going to a place and giving it his full recommendation

Contagious by Jonah Berger

I won’t spend much time on this. If you have been reading anything from me for a while you know that I believe in word of mouth over any other kind of invitation. It is striking, however, how many people think that a word from the front is more effective than an invitation from beside. Church context….May this be a gentle reminder the next time you ask the pastor to make an announcement and then are disappointed that few, if any, show up. Word of mouth is where it’s at.

#3

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great person are they who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Detachment is a concept that I have been meditating on recently. Not detachment in terms of “I don’t care” but rather in terms of “my identity is not tied up in”. Caring for people and outcomes without making either instrumental to your identity, happiness, peace, etc. That is way tougher than it sounds especially for a people pleaser like myself. How much energy do we/I expend on the applause of the crowd(s)? Probably more than I care to acknowledge in my case.