Lately, I have been giving a lot of thought about my desire to live an authentic and transparent life- as a Christian man, who is in business, with a wife, children, community and church leadership responsibilities.
I believe I have come to the conclusion of wanting my life to be summarized by the following 12 words:
Nothing To Prove
Nothing To Hide
Nothing To Lose
Nothing To Fear
Imagine the freedom and power of leading and conducting your business, serving your spouse and children, and simply living your life in such a way.
How awesome would it be to feel like you have nothing to prove to anyone? Just being yourself and having people accept and welcome you - exactly as you were created by God. Never having to work outside of your passion or what you are good at just because you feel like you have to earn someone's respect.
Consider how clean your conscience would be with nothing to hide. This would mean that your life and business would be "above reproach," and you would have no shame or guilt over any aspect of your life- including the words you use, the sites you visit on the internet, the small details of those business deals that can be tempting to "work in the gray area" to maximize revenue or profit. This would mean your local newspaper could do an in-depth expose' on your life and business, and they would not find anything worth printing!
How awesome would it be to come to the conclusion that God truly is in control, and it is ALL HIS anyway- so when all is said and done you have nothing to lose! This would certainly make it easier to sleep at night, and would give us an incredible sense of peace in these troubled economic times. When you truly are not worried about what you will lose, you can live your life with passion and wreckless abandon for the Lord.
And finally, when you have nothing to fear, you live with such authenticity and confidence (in the Lord) that no person and no circumstance can cause you to worry, fret, or lose your joy in Christ!
I am challenging every follower of Christ to ponder this motto- steal it-borrow it- use it- change it-create their own motto, etc.
But whatever you do - LIVE IT!