A lie can be half-way
round the world before the truth has got its boots on.
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Shouldering the plough..!
Robert Clements
This morning I spent the better part of an hour with a friend of mine
discussing whether we should take upon ourselves certain
responsibilities: He had been offered the post of secretary and I that
of chairman of an organsisation that had till now been riddled with
corruption.
“It means opening a can of worms!” said my friend.
“Sleepless nights!” I pondered aloud.
It was a little while later I read this rather interesting article on
‘responsibility’:
Responsibility is a two-sided coin. On one side is responsibility; on
the other side is reward. Too many of us are focused on one side of the
coin only - reward.
Taking responsibility means three things:
1. Acknowledging what you are responsible for.
2. Acknowledging who you are responsible to.
3. Acting responsibly at all times.
All the excuses you give yourself, and others, won’t let you off the
hook. Jesus said, “Much is required from those to whom much is given.”
At their annual conference the manager of a dog food company asked his
sales team how they liked the company’s new advertising programme.
“Great!” they replied, “the best in the business.”
“What do you think of the product?” he asked.
“Fantastic” they replied.
“How about the sales force?” he asked.
They were the sales force, so of course they responded positively saying
they were the best. “Okay then,” the manager said, “so if we have the
best brand, the best packaging, the best advertising programme and the
best sales force, why are we in seventeenth place in our industry?”
After an awkward silence one of the salesmen shouted, “It’s those dogs -
they just won’t eat the stuff..!”
Guess what? Our problem is not the dogs, or our job, or our spouse, or
society at large, or whatever. Be honest, our biggest challenge in life
is our own selves. If our life’s not going the way we want it to, we are
responsible for changing it. And God will help us if we turn to Him. But
we must want to change, decide to change, and work each day towards that
end.
As I read the article I realized that if God wanted both of us to take
responsibility for this particular organization, He would give us
strength to get things done, but it was our responsibility to start
shouldering the plough..!
