A Universal Question, The Message Everyone Is Shouting, Our Hardest Inner Battle
DISCIPLESHIP
“My question – that which at the age of fifty brought me to the verge of suicide – was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man … a question without an answer to which one cannot live. It was: 'What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?' It can also be expressed thus: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?"
Leo Tolstoy
Jesus Christ gives meaning and purpose to life. He is the meaning and purpose of life.
The living water that He provides quenches the near-suicide-inducing questions that Tolstoy so desperately needed answers to.
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
LEADERSHIP
“Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.' Never forget that message when working with people.”
Mary Kay Ashe
What people really want is to feel important.
And we all feel unimportant far too often.
Be that person for someone this week.
MENTAL PERFORMANCE
“What I battle hardest in the tennis match is to quiet the voices within. To shut everything out but the contest itself. To concentrate every atom of my being on the point I am playing. If I make a mistake on the prior point, let it go. Should a thought of victory arise, crush it … During a match, you are in a permanent battle to fight back your everyday vulnerabilities, bottle up your human feelings. The more bottled up they are, the greater your chances of winning, so long as you've trained as hard as you play and the gap in talent is not too wide between you and your rival. The gap in talent with Federer existed, but it was not impossibly wide. It was narrow enough, even on his favorite surface in the tournament he played best, for me to know that if I silenced the doubts and fears, and exaggerated hopes, inside my head better than he did, I could beat him … It's a kind of self-hypnosis, a game you play, with deadly seriousness, to disguise your own weaknesses from yourself, as well as from your rival.”
Rafael Nadal
Intrusive, uninvited, self-sabotaging thoughts aren't unique to world-class performers like Rafael Nadal.
You and I experience them every day.
The battle to overcome them isn't something to take lightly. Nadal says he has to approach it with deadly seriousness. His strategy? Silencing his doubts and fears by exaggerating hope.
It works. You should try it this week.
Disciple-Leadership: Jesus-led. Lead like Jesus.
Aaron @ The Disciple-Leader
Newsletter #14 on April 29, 2023