3MN: Eventually, the real you will bubble to the surface.
Happy 3-Minute Thursday!
You are busy, so let's make this quick. No fluff, no filler, no spamming. This newsletter will help you think in the best way and be a Christian on purpose.
💬 In the next three minutes:
☝️ Remaining mindful at a frisky prayer breakfast.
✌️Eventually the real you will bubble to the surface.
👌 How are you using your influence?
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🙏 Minute 1 - A frisky prayer breakfast.
Last week, there was a prayer breakfast in South Carolina, chaired by Republican Senator Tim Scott, who's also running for the presidential nomination. The event made headlines due to comments made by Representative Nancy Mace, representing the first congressional district in South Carolina.
During her speech, Mace shared an intimate anecdote about her fiancé: "When I woke up this morning at 7:00, Patrick, my fiancé, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed and I was like, 'No, baby, we don't got time for that this morning. I've got to get to the prayer breakfast.'" She then smiled at the audience and continued, "He can wait. I'll see him later tonight." (watch full video here).
I have no desire to cast shade over Mace, or paint her to you in a bad light. As she stated in her public apology the next day: "I attend my church as a sinner, not a saint." The reason this incident is worth our attention because it is a rising trend in Christian modernity. A friend of mine recently told me about a wedding they attended where the bridesmaids shared scandalous memories they had with the bride (too embarrassing to repeat here), and ended the speech with a call to remain faithful in her relationship with Jesus.
Nobody is perfect: I have my own garbage in my heart and mind. But as followers of Jesus, we have called to be different. To stand out as different. This begins in our private life and should spill out into our public life. Mace is on a pedestal, and will be unfairly criticized for this slip of words. So many more of us face the same moment around the dinner table with friends or in private conversation with co-workers. We must choose to be different, better, and like Christ.
🦁 Minute 2 - The value of integrity.
Mace is a public figure. It's easy for me to criticize her and puff myself up. So, let's turn this inward. C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, once said,
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
Integrity is about being consistent with our values and doing the right thing regardless of the situation. When we live in line with our values, people will see us as honest and truthful. If we are only good because of the people around us, we aren’t living with integrity.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” - Abraham Lincoln
Eventually the real you will bubble to the surface. It could be at a public prayer breakfast or at your family dinner table. Does that version of you represent who you want to be?
🪞 Minute 3 - How are you using your influence?
Everyone has influence. No matter who you are, where you are, what your position, or what your direction in life, you are both influencing and being influenced by others — constantly.
The person who’s driving in front of you influences how fast you’re going. The person who cuts you off in traffic influences your attitude. When you’re checking out at a store, the clerk is influencing you; you’re influencing him or her.
Your influence is always changing — it’s never static. And as people filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to have an influence on the world that it cannot get from anywhere else!
Leadership is taking people to places they would not go on their own. Henry Ford once said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses, not cars."
In the same way, by the power of the spirit, we have to show the world what it actually wants. Not what it thinks it want, but where God wants it to be, which actually aligns with the world's desires.
- Stop trying to please people.
- Stop compromising your integrity, values, and beliefs to a world that lacks clarity on its own desires.
You have what the world desires. It’s the power of the Spirit. Hand it out freely by the way you live your life, love people radically, and influence.
VERSE OF THE WEEK 🔥
W W I I W S, B H W M H W C W B F O.
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Proverbs 10:9
Until next week,
Payton Minzenmayer
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