Saturday, October 8, 2016

John, Chapter 12, Verse 25

Whoever loves his life^--loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

We are all seeds and a seed that is not buried will not bear fruit. Jesus is mentioning his own self-giving which He joins to that of His disciples. They are called to identical servant roles.[1] This is servant leadership.

The servant leader is servant first…. Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such people, it will be a later choice to serve—after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them are the shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature (Greenleaf, 2002, pp. 24-25)

Finding your Voice[2]

The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness is a book written by Stephen R. Covey, published in 2004. It is an upgrade of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989. As such, it clarifies and reinforces Covey's earlier declaration that "Interdependence is a higher value than independence." The eighth habit is "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." Voice is Covey's code for "unique personal significance." Those who inspire others to find theirs are the leaders needed now and for the future, according to Covey. The central idea of the book is the need for steady recovery and application of the whole person paradigm, which holds that persons have four intelligence's - physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. Denial of any of them reduces persons to things, inviting many problems. The industrial age is assumed to have been a period dependent on such denial. Covey believed the information age and a foreseen "Age of Wisdom" requires "whole" people (in whole jobs). The book talks of "5 Cancerous Behaviors" (page 135) that inhibit people's greatness:

· Criticism

· Complaining

· Comparing

· Competing

· Contending

People can discover their voice because of the three gifts everyone is born with:

· The freedom to choose

· The natural laws or principles – those that dictate the consequences of behavior. Positive consequences come from fairness, kindness, respect, honesty, integrity, service and contribution

· The four intelligence's – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Covey talks about great achievers expressing their voice through the use of their intelligence's.

Achievers for example

1. develop their mental energy into vision

2. develop their physical energy into discipline

3. develop their emotional energy into passion

4. develop their spiritual energy into conscience – their inward moral sense of what is right and wrong and their drive towards meaning and contribution.