Welcome to the January 15th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
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The Story of My Week
Earlier in the week, I got a message from my pastor that he wanted to meet with me.
After going back and forth on a time that was right for both of us, we eventually set lunchtime on Friday.
Before the meeting, I wondered what it was going to be about.
He mentioned on Sunday that he would like to meet up to get an update on what's happening with me.
Well, a part of my mind went to the Sunday sermon I delivered on January 1st.
The pastor had to make an unscheduled trip out of the country for family reasons and asked me to step in.
Maybe he wanted to tell me stuff he didn’t like from the sermon.
Eventually, the meeting turned out as he exactly said it was "just asking for an update on what was happening in my life."
It's the first time I have had any of my pastors ask for a meeting to check up on me.
Please note, I am not on any church board or committee. My wife & I just lead the Young Professionals group of the church.
We talked about my work, family, and how we were settling in Dakar.
The kind of stuff that you talk about with friends.
I appreciated the time he invested in me for such casual talk.
I picked up a couple of things from him during the conversation.
Osmosis at play.
Thank you, Pastor.
Things I Learnt
1-Keep Your Margin: One of the things my pastor told me during our lunch was "you and your wife need to keep your margins".
He said over the years he had seen kids from families where parents were overcommitted to church activities or led very busy lives have kids who either choose to be non-Christians or just have anger towards their parents.
He said this is one of the reasons why as a pastor he is very selective before asking people to take up new responsibilities. Because of his position as a pastor, most of them would say "Yes". But he does not want a "Yes" that steals from their margin in life.
He would rather not start up a new initiative than appoint someone who would be overburdened with it to live a balanced life, just because the person might be too "nice" to say "no" to the pastor's request.
Interestingly, protecting my margins has been an important focus when I was in Nigeria.
It's one of the reasons I used to protect my weekends from a lot of social functions. And it's the reason why I did not take up a lot of church-related responsibilities when we lived in Spain without extended family support or otherwise. I always remind myself how my priority matrix rolls.
I care for myself so I can care for my family. By caring for my family, I limit my commitments outside the home that affect my being present with the family.
So that my family and I serve the world outside us.
As a family.
Through whoever goes out as a representative of our family.
2-A New World of Money Making: I was listening to Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, on his podcast "Inside Strategic Coach", talk about the current recession.
His view is that the current recession is a correction of many years of money-making wizardry without foundation.
He explains with an example that shows the new thinking view of investing.
One of his clients had a unique technology based on an AI that they tested. He asked the client if he had IP protection for it - to which he responded "no".
He introduced him to an IP lawyer in Silicon Valley who set up a meeting which also had venture capital partners in attendance.
The client was asked, "how far are you away from the prototype stage?" He responded, "it's up and working and it's been working for 2 years".
The IP partner responded, "that's going to be hard to sell."
Imagine that - hard to sell something that actually works.
In Dan's words, the venture capital and technology market is starting to resemble Las Vegas - they want to gamble actual money for what may happen and not bet on when is happening that can deliver returns now and in the future.
They are making money off the bet of something that might work in the future and not on what is working and can grow in the future.
And large amounts of money are being traded under that approach and with no foundation.
And this is been replicated in so many other business areas.
And yes, I know, we have to take risks in the future with investments.
But we take calculated risks based on current value driving future returns.
I remind myself as I walk into a great new season of life.
I will make the right investments based on sound judgement.
Not on a bet like the casino slots.
Postscript
May greed not drive your most important desires and choices. May the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) not keep you from living for the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO). Amen
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Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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