A man’s guide to the spiritual disciplines - Patrick Morley

23

Is creation good, evil, or neutral?

Then one day, while studying glucose, I was struck with an analogy. Glucose is a three-part compound: C6H12O4 – six parts carbon, twelve parts hydrogen, six parts oxygen. So glucose is full of oxygen, but not only oxygen; it is also full of carbon and hydrogen. In the same way, the earth really is full of God’s glory, despite the fact that it is also full of evil and futility.

The Bible also says, “For everything God created is good” (1 Timothy 4:4). Colossians 1:16 goes even further,

For by (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

So the bottom line in Scripture is this: (1) God made everything. (2) Everything God made is good. Therefore, (3) everything is intrinsically good. This implies that nature has meaning and value. This is not to say that nature is incorruptible. Because of the fall we have to explain the stench of polluted rivers, belching smokestacks, and natural disasters. What the Bible does men, however, is that apart from sin, nature is good.

24-26

Does nature hint of, reveal, conceal, or tarnish God?

We can experience creation through our senses – we can see it, smell it, hear it, touch it, taste it. Nature will not necessarily lead us to salvation, but it will reveal God’s grandeur and give us tangible evidence of His invisible qualities. As a spiritual habit, I know of no better way to experience awe than to observe God as the Creator of the heavens and earth. Through general revelation, the window is open.

38

By the end of the fourth century, there were two important church meetings – the Council of Laodicea in 363, and the Council at Carthage in 397. Both gave canonical lists that mirrored what was already accepted in the church. We also know that Athanasius, the bishop in Alexandria, Egypt, had a tradition of writing an Easter letter every year. In this Easter epistle of 367, he acknowledged the twenty-seven books that we have in our New Testament. He testified to their authenticity and authority.

39

Why is Bible study important?

Because belief gives birth to life. Theologians say that Scriptures are given for our justification and sanctification. That basically means the Bible exists to bring us to faith (justification, or salvation), and to help us become more and more like Christ as we grow up in our faith (sanctification, or holiness).

55

C.S. Lewis said,

The two methods by which we are allowed to produce events may be called work and prayer… The kind of causality we exercise by work is, so to speak, divinely guaranteed, and therefore ruthless. By it we are free to do ourselves as much harm as we please. But the kind which we exercise by prayer is not like that; God has left Himself a discretionary power. Had He not done so, prayer would be an activity too dangerous for man…That is why God has retained a discretionary power of granting or refusing it; except on that condition prayer would destroy us.

66

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for worship means “to bow down or to prostrate yourself.” In the New Testament, the Greek work for worship means “to kiss, the way a dog licks it s master’s hand.”

75-76

Broadcaster Roy Firestone once interviews a seven-foot tall, 260-pound specimen of pure muscle and athleticism, a man who had lead his team to back-to-back championships and had been named an all-star twelve times and one of the best big man in the history of the National Basketball Association. “Your teammates tell me that every time you hit the hardwood you give 110 percent,” Firestone said. “They say that you’ll go out and practice and shoot hook shots for hours and hours and hours. They tell me that you will run wind sprints until you literally cannot walk anymore. They say that during a scrimmage that you will go for loose balls like it is the NBA finals. Why? You’re one of the best there has ever been in this game. Why don’t you just lie back and take it easy?”

He said, “Roy, you need to know something. When I go out onto the hardwood, I’m not going to work. I’m going to worship. How would I dare to not give back to God what He has given to me with joy and thanksgiving? No, I don’t go work. I go worship.”

His name is Hakeem Olajuwan. He’s a Muslim. He’s not a Christian, and yet God in His providence has given him the insight that our work is meant to be an act of worship.

144

You see, tithing really isn’t about God’s need to receive; it’s about our need to give. Tithing doesn’t earn greater favor with God. Instead tithing gives us the opportunity to express our appreciation to God for His provision to us, and to participate in building His kingdom. What tithing does is to help us to remember that every good thing comes from Him.

Tithing is not a blessing for God, but from God. Tithing, instituted by Abraham, is a way of thanking the One who has blessed us: 90 percent for temporal life, 10 percent (or more) for spiritual life. A faithful steward isn’t some miserly person who counts out 10 percent to drop in the offering plate Sunday after Sunday. A faithful steward devotes 100 percent of this time, talent, and treasure to God’s glory. 

Source: A man’s guide to the spiritual disciplines: 12 habits to strengthen your walk with Christ - Patrick Morley (2007)

How The Mighty Fall - Jim Collins 3/3

Stage 1 (27-44)

Hubris born of success

- Success entitlement, arrogance

- Neglect of a primary flywheel

- “What” replaces “Why”

- Decline in learning orientation

- Discounting the role of luck

Stage 2 (45-64)

Undisciplined pursuit of more

- Unsustainable quest for growth, confusing big with great

- Undisciplined discontinuous leaps
- Declining proportion of right people in key seats

- Easy cash erodes cost discipline

- Bureaucracy subverts discipline

- Problematic succession of power

Stage 3 (65-82)

Denial of risk and peril

- Amplify the positive, discount the negative

- Big bets and bold goals without empirical validation

- Incurring huge downside risk based on ambiguous data

- Erosion of healthy team dynamics

- Externalizing blame

- Obsessive reorganizations

Stage 4 (83-101)

Grasping for salvation

- A series of silver billets

- Grasping for a leader-as-as savior

- Panic and haste

- Radical change and “revolution” with fanfare

- Hype precedes results

- Initial upswing followed by disappointments

- Confusion and cynicism

- Chronic restructuring and erosion of financial strength

Stage 5 (103-123)

Capitulation to irrelevance or death

Source: How The Mighty Fall & Why Some Companies Never Give In - Jim Collins (2009)

How The Mighty Fall - Jim Collins 2/3

74

Bill Gore, founder of W.L. Gore & Associates, articulated a helpful concept for decision making and risk taking, what he called the “waterline” principle. Think of being on a ship, and imaging that any decision gone bad will blow a hole in the side of the ship. If you blow a hole above the waterline (where the ship won’t take on water and possibly sink), you can patch the hole, and learn from the experience, and sail on. But if you blow a hole below the waterline, you can find yourself facing gushers of water pouring in, pulling you toward the ocean floor. And if it’s big enough hole, you might go down really fast, just like some of the financial-company catastrophes in 2008.

To be clear, great enterprises do make big bets, but they avoid big bets that could blow holes below the waterline. When making risky bets and decisions in the face of ambiguous or conflicting data, ask three questions:

1)      What’s the upside, if events turn out well?

2)      What’s the downside, if events go very badly?

3)      Can you live with the downside? Truly?

89

The key point here is that they go for a quick, big solution or bold stroke to jump-start a recovery, rather than embark on the more pedestrian, arduous process of rebuilding long-term momentum.

92

And when one silver bullet fails, they search for another and then yet another. The signature of mediocrity (the quality of being not very good 平庸) is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.

95

Now you might be thinking, “But wouldn’t companies in trouble need to go outside?” Perhaps, but keep in mind, in this analysis of decline, performance generally worsened under saviors from the outside. And in our previous research, over 90 percent of the CEPs that led companies from good to great came from inside; meanwhile, over two0thirds of the comparison companies in that study hired a CEP from the outside yet failed to make a comparable leap.

96

When we find ourselves in trouble, when we find ourselves on the cusp of falling, our survival instinct  – and our fear – can evoke lurching, reactive behavior absolutely contrary to survival. The very moment when we need to talk calm, deliberate action, we run the risk of doing the exact opposite and bringing about the very outcomes we most fear.

97

They fail to see that, just like Gerstner at IBM, leaders atop companies in the late stages of decline need to get back to a calm, clear-headed, and focused approach. If you want to reverse decline, be rigorous about what not to do.

Breathe. Calm yourself. Think. Focus. Aim. Take one shot at a time.

111

When should a company continue to fight, and when does refusal to capitulate (to accept military defeat认输) become just another form of denial. If you cannot marshal a compelling answer to the question, “What would be lost, and how would the world be worse off, if we ceased to exist?’ then perhaps capitulation is the wise path. But if you have a clear and inspired purpose built upon solid core values, then the noble course may be to fight on, to reverse decline, and to try to rekindle greatness.

119

In fact, our research shows that if you’ve been practicing the principles of greatness all the way along, you should get down your knees and pray for severe turbulence, for that’s when you can pull even further ahead of those who lack your relentless intensity.

If you have fallen into decline, get back to solid management disciplines – now!

122

Clutching his notes, for he always feared that without his carefully prepared text he would be at a loss for words, Churchill (1874 – 1965, UK Prime Minister twice 1940–45 and 1951–55) glowered out across the House of Commons and issued his famous words, “We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugate and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

123

In 1941, during England’s sternest days, Churchill returned to his old school Harrow, where he’d received embarrassingly low scores, to give a commencement address. The headmaster cast worried glances at Churchill, who had fallen asleep, slumbering through most of the ceremony. But when introduced, Churchill made his way to the podium, stared out over the assemblage of boys, and gave his commencement message, “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

123

Failure is not so much a physical state of mind; success is falling down, and getting up one more time, without end.

148

Enduring great companies passionately adhere to a set of timeless core values and pursue a core purpose beyond just making money. But there is also a risk to manage: having an almost righteous sense of one’s value and purpose (“We’re the good guys”) can perhaps make a company more vulnerable to Stages 1 to 3. Fannie Mae’s missionary zeal for expanding the Americans Dream of home ownership to as many Americans as possible contributed, in part, to its arrogance, its pursuit of growth, and even its increased risk profile. Whenever people begin to confuse the nobility of their cause with the goodness and wisdom of their actions – “We’re good people in pursuit of a noble cause, and therefore our decisions are good and wise” – they can perhaps more easily lead themselves astray. Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions.

Source: How The Mighty Fall & Why Some Companies Never Give In - Jim Collins (2009)

How The Mighty Fall - Jim Collins 1/3

19

Joanne suggested I look at the first line of Talstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. It reads, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In finishing this piece, I kept coming back to the Anna Karenina quote. Having studied both sides of the coin, how companies become great and how companies fall, I concluded that there are more ways to fall than to become great. Assembling a data-driven framework of decline proved harder than constructing a data-driven framework of ascent.

21

Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. When the rhetoric of success (We are successful because we do these specific things) replaces penetrating understanding and insight (We are successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work), decline will very likely follow.

34

From 1982 to 1988, Best Buy opened forty superstores (what it called its Concept I stores) in the Midwest. In 1989, after systematically asking customers what would make for a better experience, Best Buy created its Concept II store model, which replaced a commission-driven sales culture with a consultative help-the-customer-find-the-best-answer culture. IN 1995, Best Buy created Concept III superstores chock-full of snazzy ways to learn about products – touchscreen information kiosks, simulated car interiors for checking out sound systems, CD listening ports to sample music, “fun & games areas for testing video games -  and then in 1999 moved on to Concept IV stores, designed to help customers navigate the confusing myriad of new electronics products flooding the market. Then it evolved yet again in 2002, and in 2003 added Geek Squads to help customers baffled by technology.

36

It’s like being an artist. Picasso didn’t renew himself by abandoning painting and sculpture to become a novelist or a banker; he painted his entire life yet progressed through distinct creative phases – from his Blue Period to cubism to surrealism – within his primary activity. Beethoven didn’t “reinvent” himself by abandoning music for poetry or painting; he remained first and foremost a composer. But neither did he just write the Third Symphony nine times.

36

Like an artist who pursues both enduring excellence and shocking creativity, great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change. On the one hand, they adhere to the principles that produced success in the first place, yet on the other hand, they continually evolve, modifying their approach with creative improvements and intelligent adaptation. Best Buy understood this idea better than Circuit City, when it kept morphing its superstores yet did so in a manner consistent with the primary insight that produced success in the first place (customers really like having lots of name-brand stuff in an easy-to-navigate, low-price, and friendly environment). When institutions fail to distinguish between current practices and the enduring principles of their success, and mistakenly fossilize around their practice, they’ve set themselves up for decline.

41 & 41

What happened? What distinguished Wal-Mart from Ames?

A big part of the answer lies in Walton’s deep humility and learning orientation. In the late 1980s, a group of Brazilian investors bought a discount retail chain in South America. After purchasing the company, they figured they’d better learn more about discount retailing, so they sent off letters to about ten CEOs of American retailing companies, asking for a meeting to learn about how to run the new company better. All the CEOs either declined or neglected to respond, except one: Sam Walton.

When the Brazilians deplaned at Bentonville, Arkansas, a kindly, white-haired gentleman approached them, inquiring, “Can I help you?”

“Yes, we’re looking for Sam Walton.”

“That’s me,” said the man. He led them to this pickup truck, and the Brazilians piled in alongside Sam’s dog, Ol’ Roy.

Over the next few days, Walton barraged the Brazilians with question after question about their country, retailing in Latin America, and so on, often while standing at the kitchen sink washing and drying dishes after dinner. Finally, the Brazilians realized, Walton - the founder of what may well become the world’s first trillion-dollar-per-year corporation sought first and foremost to learn from them, not the other way around.

54

Bill Hewlett and David Packard believed that HP existed to make technical contributions, with profit serving as only a means and measure o f achieving that purpose. George Merck II, Paul Galvin, Bill Hewlett and David Packard – they viewed expanding and increasing scaled not as the end goal, but as a residual result, an inevitable outcome, of pursuing their purpose.

The greatest leaders do seek growth – growth in performance, growth in distinctive impact, growth in creativity, growth in people – but they do not succumb to growth that undermines long-term value. And they certainly do not confuse growth with excellence. Big does not equal great, and great does not equal big.

57

?

One notable distinction between wrong people and right people is that the former see themselves as having “jobs”, while the latter see themselves as having responsibilities. Every person in a key seat should be able to respond to the question “What do you do?” not with a job title, but with a statement of personal responsibility. “I’m the one person ultimately responsible for x and y. When I look to the left, to the right, in front, in back, there is no one ultimately responsible but me. And I accept laboratory, I accept that responsibility.” When executive teams visit our research laboratory, I sometimes begin by challenging them to introduce themselves not by using their titles, but by articulating their responsibilities. Some find this to be easy, but those who have lost (or not yet built) a culture of discipline find this question to be terribly difficult.

73

Convince anyone of what exactly? That’s the crux of the matter. Somehow, in all the dialogue, the decision frame turned 180 degrees. Instead of framing the question, “Can you prove that it’s safe to launch?”  -  as had traditionally guided launch decisions – the frame inverted to “Can you prove that it’s unsafe to lunch?”

Source: How The Mighty Fall & Why Some Companies Never Give In - Jim Collins (2009)

创 6: 1-4 神的儿子们 S

Source: By sister You Xia