As you wander through the squander of a delicate mind,
do you wonder, ever wonder what it is you will find?
Through the glasses and the grasses of a delicate mind ,
in the morass and the sorrows of an intricate find,
shallow and hollow, furrow and borrow from a delicate mind.
In the narrow great tomorrow lies your wonderful find.
This is a guest post written by from David W. Dussault, a dear friend, to his employees at P1 Industries.
Friendship is one of our company’s core values values. Friendship is not merely a word that incorporates “hanging out” or going to the game or movies together. Friendship is a deep, lifelong pursuit of mutual honor between two people that act in each other’s best interests.
Friendship is about honesty. It is about encouragement. Friendship puts others first. Friendship looks out for another out of honor and loyalty. Friendship is ultimately about sacrifice!
The Bible tells us, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.
When I decided friendship will be one of our core values, I envisioned a deep, tight and enduring bond of brotherhood (and sisterhood) between people fighting in the trenches together each day to build something truly wonderful.
I imagined people from all walks of life and backgrounds passionate about serving one another in our company’s mission, banding together, combining our gifts and talents in unity to move forward!
One of my dear friends, Mike Sacoccio, CEO of the City Mission of Schenectady, spoke at my College class last night on the leadership principle that, “We need to do all small things with great love and admiration, out of honor for others!”
A great example of this was Mother Teresa. Every day she treated the poor, the widows and the lowest in society as friends. She loved and fed them, pouring herself out on the altar of service to better their lives. Mother Teresa was poor and frail but out of doing small things every day with great love and admiration, she won the Nobel Peace Prize and rescued a generation.
How great P1 could be if we all did the small things daily with great love and admiration! Imagine a company full of people passionate about being friends and serving one another with honor. Honor in how we speak about one another. Honor in smiling and patting each other on the back. Honor in encouraging and lifting up others!
I am challenged today by these thoughts. I need to work on doing the small things with great love and I need to work on my smile and the way I treat my friends!
As the Bible says, there Is no greater love (honor, admiration, respect) than to lay down one’s life for a friend. This doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your life, but it does mean you’re willing to sacrifice your will and desires and setbacks in order to build up, encourage and honor the friends working alongside us each day.
Let’s make P1 a community of friendship, honoring, admiring and respecting each other and doing the small things for one another with great love and admiration!
The gold was unlike any they had seen before.
Deep and thick and lost and sweetly familiar.
Wrapped by the warmth of the dusty air, the prancing light whispered strange things to their happy souls.
Eyes on fire, hungry for blood and flesh, exposing their certain frailty.
Thrilled alive, every breath a symphony of fear and expectation, and hope, and lust for the kill.
The pink contrails gently tear the dark, pre-dawn blue, silent fugitives scurrying away from you.
My morning breath so innocent and warm, eagerly swallowed alive by the hungry cold.
The moon riding high in the benevolent sky, happily distant but not sure why, will he ever stoop down to see what this gentle sadness one day could be?
Chapter 1
Air was coming. Cold and light, small and wide. She turned away, her hair closing her eyes. The sound was distant, a heartbeat closer. As the mountain turned the corner, the river whispered to the sun, the leaves trembling. The footprint pointed to a larger being, maybe a child with a child, inside. In the wind came the secret she knew, as it called her closer. Simple, she thought. But eloquent enough. Tears are seldom wrong but they washed her heart, her soul floating light and free now. Never again, she prayed, hoping the fragrance would make a way for her spirit. The child was clean. And mostly pure. Inquisitive and kind and trusting and a little unsure. His hands soft and sweet, holding gingerly, hopefully, onto truth and comfort. Gently he watched, eager to see. His joy like a healing flow, cleansing her words and caressing her scars.
Chapter 2
It is a wicked thing when trust is stolen and innocence framed. And the thief is the teacher. He wasn’t too sure, but he knew coldness had come as a spiteful friend. The blood, only a trickle on his face, became a river in his soul. Many years it carried many away and also some to safety. It still flows today, a nearly invisible sparkling true. The distance came close yet never close enough to be removed. In the tragedy a sadness gave birth to life and truth and healing, even as sometimes the shadow still hides in the light.
Chapter 3
It wasn’t easy but hiding was good. Liberating, actually. Behind the wall he could be whoever he needed to be. She knew the truth but was always afraid to share it. Alone and alone, and lonely too. In what she made she sowed her soul, the harvest coming mostly when she was gone. To defend and protect she gave all away, seeing only some of her reward and just a glimpse of the once promised peace. In the making she created something special and unique and deep and lovely. The winds of her soul sang through the fragrance, touching all who spent the courage to enter. In her eyes the universe settled calmly, mystery touched and saved. Her nails, strong like iron and still pure as gold, spoke of the love and the loss and the still hoping.
Chapter 4
Always there was the possibility of change, of transformation to life and joy. Intelligence bears many burdens, even as they whisper the world. Sweetness too can rob you. Again and again. Eyelashes are good for gain but not for shade when the shade is true. She would wander through the forest of dreams, dancing through the broken twigs and rotting leaves and unsinging birds. And yet, usually one song was often enough. Just enough to find the next path. Simple strength to cover the night once more.
Chapter 5
He couldn’t control his smile, those inquisitive eyes always asking, learning, searching for more. A lovely tapestry woven with grace, climbing the clouds and bringing joy to the skies. A mountain, the lightning, the prayers, the knife and the fork. The happy, pure love of a seeking son. The deep love of a sacrificing mother. These things even the universe cannot fully perceive or bear.
Phillipians 1:25 “And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith ..”
Confidence is a wonderful servant and a lack thereof a miserable master. Confidence plays a major role in our everyday lives. I am not speaking of human confidence based on skill, talent or charm. I am referring to a God given confidence emanating from the very depths of my spirit, shaping my heart, mind and soul.
I had a life changing experience midway through my forties. One morning after waking up, I stumbled through to the bathroom in a half awake, half asleep state and stood staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror.
After splashing some water on my face to try and properly wake up, and as I stood there like a zombie, my mouth opened and I heard the words, “I like you .. I really like you.” I twas a little confusing and shocking. Then I suddenly realized it wasn’t me speaking but the Lord Jesus using my own voice to tell me that He likes me. That He doesn’t only love me – He loves everyone, after all – but that He likes me. I began crying as I felt my insides begin to shake, so I went downstairs in order not to wake up Delray.
The thought came to to me to read Psalm 139 in the Bible. Slowly and surely, the Holy Spirit gave me understanding that the Father had made me in my mother’s womb to have the personality I had. My serious spirit. My enquiring mind. My creative and adventurous soul. My loving nature. And my somewhat uniquely odd sense of humor. My tears gave way to feelings of profound joy and freedom as I realized that Jesus had chosen to like me and He even enjoyed me! It was a life transforming experience and in some ways my life really began that day.
I began studying Psalm 139 in depth and quickly discovered that in reality it was studying me. What I mean is that this Psalm became a mirror reflecting me back to myself and the image I saw was not who I was used to looking at. Underneath the exterior of the self-made Lorenzo was a God-created Lorenzo He was daily transforming into His image.
The Bible teaches that the Truth will set you free and that is exactly what happened to me. I began to enjoy my walk with the Lord as never before, this new found freedom enabling me to be bolder for Him. In essence, I had gained a God-confidence. I now see that He had been working this truth into my heart for many years but on that day when I looked in the mirror and heard His voice, He fully opened the door enabling me to step into the wonderful, powerful confidence which only He can give to us.
My leadership changed profoundly. I now led with a certainty, clarity and strength I had not known before. My family, friends and the congregation all noticed that something had changed in me. I no longer apologized for myself: my way of thinking, my humor, my affectionate behavior, and my very public declaration of love for Christ. I now say to leaders all over the world: never apologize for who God made you to be and for what He made you to do. Be yourself! Your God-designed self.
Confidence enables secure and responsible leadership. You are able to give the direction those following you require. It empowers you to make decisions more quickly and not be double minded. It also facilitates saying “No” tot eh wrong things and “Yes” to the right things.
In Joshua 1, we see Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan river into the Promised Land with confidence after God has spoke to him, reminding him to be strong and courageous, rejecting fear and uncertainty. Joshua could be certain as he issued commands to his leaders to prepare to move out because He had a God-confidence in him. He knew God had spoken and was sure God was with them.
The biggest difficulty I faced as a leader was working under and with insecure leaders. Men and women who lack God confidence and instead rely on their own character to lead. To be frank, it is the one aspect of leadership I now dislike the most. I have been so mistreated and let down by insecure leaders that today, I won’t work with or place myself under the authority of such person. Insecurity is very destructive. It immobilizes leaders. It causes them to be petty and punitive. It fosters jealousy, smallness, control and division.
I fully understand that every human being has some level of insecurity in them as a result of our sin nature, so I am referring to leaders who know they are inherently insecure yet refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to heal and deliver them of this weakness in their life. Instead, they make excuses for their behavior and insist on leading through their smallness.
True confidence for life and leadership comes from personally knowing, loving and serving the One who made you, and from humbly, joyously and freely expressing your true self to His glory. On so many different and important levels, the best thing you can give your family, friends and followers is true, Godly confidence.
When you are confident in God, anything is possible!
If you abandon ship, by foot, hand and upper lip, losing sight of stubborn clip, would not the wind and waves of sea bury both you and me?
Running light and running free is not to say you run with he, who once was running too, yet running away from you.
He too stood tall on stubborn ship, setting sail with iron grip. Yet the waves are too walking away from you, wondering far from clip and strip.
Think quickly now with fear and dread, if abandoning ship is all you need. For should you step to southern shore, you may not see what came before.
The wind is strong and true I know, but light and love are stronger still. Take your place, with ready face, leaning now into loving grace.
You, like me, have at some point in your spiritual journey said, “I just want to be like Jesus.”
And you, like me, soon discovered how easy it is to say and incredibly difficult to do!
To live like Jesus means simply that we study His words and example and then emulate Him. Practically, we daily, constantly seek to think, speak and act as He did. We manifest this in our own unique ways as our imperfect lives are filtered through His perfect example. The Apostle Paul expresses this beautifully when he says, “Follow my example even as I follow Christ.”
Of course, living like Jesus is absolutely impossible without reading, studying and applying His Word, with the power of His Holy Spirit to enable us. It is His Word which tells us how to live like Him and it is the Holy Spirit who teaches, guides and empowers us to be like Him. Is it really possible to live like Jesus? Absolutely. Is it difficult? Yes, very much so.
The question is not so much can I do it but rather how do I do it. The Father expects us to become like His son. We read in Romans 8:29 that His greatest desire and intention for His children is that we all are transformed into the image of His Son. His heart is to have a heaven full of children who are like His one beloved and perfect son, Jesus Christ.
Being like Jesus is a lifelong goal and journey. It is a daily and constant practice made with choice and passion. It requires a change of thinking, feeling and lifestyle. Once you choose to attempt living like Him, it changes everything abut your life. Your time, energy and intentions are profoundly affected and the climb up the mountain becomes steeper and more demanding the higher you go.
But it is always worth it because the higher you climb the more spectacular the view becomes.
Lorenzo Agnes 
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