If you are like me, you’re sick of all the media coverage of this election and can’t wait for it to be over. You may wonder, “Is this the best the United States can do when nominating presidential candidates? Is God really involved in this process?” To answer these questions, in this episode of By Your Life, we talk about character, reputation, and God-given authority.
Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2020-08-23-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 23, 2020
Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-sixth episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
What Do People Think?
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Cycle A) If you are like me, you’re sick of all the media coverage of this election and can’t wait for it to be over. It seems like every other day there is another poll out that tells us what we believe is important, believe is right, or believe is the best course of action for the future.
We also know, based on the results of the 2016 US presidential election and the UK “Brexit” vote that same year, that polls don’t necessarily reflect what people really think or what they will really do. That could be because of flaws in the polling methodology or the margin of error, but it could also be because people don’t tell you what they really believe, an issue is too complex to provide an either/or response, or people’s opinions change when they get new information. So, with all the limitations of polling, why do we keep asking people what they think and why are we so interested in the results? Why do we care about what other people think?
Feedback and Continuous Improvement
There are many valid reasons to care. If you are marketing a product and people don’t understand the value of the offering, that is good to know so you can change your messaging to do a better job of communicating your value. If your customers have a bad experience with your company or your products, that is also good to know so you can take corrective action and win the customers back. Feedback is an important part of continuous improvement. And in business, your reputation, whether it is five stars or one, can make or break you. Soliciting customers’ opinions, or market research, is an essential element of product/market success.
But there can be a downside to caring too much about what other people think and that is when it leads you to compromise your values to please others, win friends, or votes. A few weeks ago in episode 122 of By Your Life, I shared some of Coach John Wooden’s pearls of wisdom. One of the principles he shared with his teams was “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. ~ Coach John WoodenCharacter or Reputation
In his book, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, Coach Wooden shared what he told his players each year. He said,
“Fellows, you’re going to receive criticism. Some of it will be deserved and some of it will be undeserved. Either way, deserved or undeserved, you’re not going to like it. You’re also going to receive praise on occasion. Some of it will be deserved and some of it will be undeserved. Either way, deserved or undeserved, you’re going to like it. However, your strength as an individual depends on how you respond to both criticism and praise. If you let either one have any special effect on you, it’s going to hurt us. Whether it’s criticism or praise, deserved or undeserved, makes no difference. If we let it affect us, it hurts us.”
Whether it is criticism or praise, deserved or undeserved, if you are a person of good character, you shouldn’t allow it to change you. Criticism can trigger defensiveness, praise can trigger pride, and neither are qualities you want to define your character.
But I’m not sure I totally agree with Coach Wooden on this one. Because on the other hand, criticism can also trigger a desire to improve and praise can encourage you to keep going. I think the point is, if you focus on your character—who you really are—what other people think can help you, if their feedback causes self-reflection and self-improvement. This is what people of good character do. They focus on improving who they are and are not worried about improving what others think of them.
People of good character focus on improving who they are and are not worried about what other people think of them.Character and Authority
In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus conducted his own mini public opinion poll to find out what other people thought about him. He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13) The disciples replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Mt 16:14) Then, like most pollsters, Jesus wanted to know if the response varied by demographics and if those closest to him thought differently. So, he asked his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15), to which Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16:16)
Jesus already knew the truth, so this feedback was not about gaining insight into who he was, but who Peter was. He said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so, I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” (Mt 16:17-18) Peter’s revelation of Jesus as Messiah was not because Peter was holier or smarter than the other disciples, but because of a gift from God. It identified Peter as the one who would lead the Church and the one who would be given “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 16:19), and authority to bind and loose. (Mt16:19)
Authority is God-given
It is important for each of us to know our God-given identity, for we all have been granted authority by God in some way, whether at work, at home, in our ministries, or our public square. Too often people in authority think they earned it and it is because of what they did to deserve it. How different our world would be if people recognized their authority as God-given. How different would our worlds be if we recognized our authority as God-given.
How different our world would be if people recognized their authority as God-given.In our first reading, we heard about Shebna having his authority taken away and given to Eliakim instead. (Is 22:19-21) It turns out that Shebna had used his authority to build himself a great tomb to glorify himself for eternity. He squandered the authority that had been granted him on self-promotion and for that, he lost it.
We might be tempted to question why God would choose some of those who have been placed in positions of authority. We may wonder, “Is this the best the United States can do when nominating presidential candidates? Is God really involved in this process?” For the answer to that, I have to turn to St. Paul and our second reading. He wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! (Rm 11:33) He is God. I am not. I trust that there is more to this than my eye can see. My job is not to judge God’s wisdom, rather focus on what I am doing with the positions in life that God has granted to me.
Exercising Authority with Character
In this week’s Wall Street Journal, there was an opinion piece about Jimmy Lai, the founder of Giordano, the Asian clothing retailer, Next Digital, a Hong Kong-listed media company, and popular newspaper Apple Daily. He was born in China and at the age of 12, arrived in Hong Kong on his own, a stowaway in a fishing boat. Today he is using his position to be a vocal critic of the government of the People’s Republic of China and a pro-democracy advocate in Hong Kong. The piece was written by William McGurn, Jimmy Lai’s godfather who stood with him when he was baptized in 1997, just before the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese.
Jimmy Lai was arrested earlier this month on charges of violating the territory’s new national security law. Being arrested is usually damaging to your reputation, but McGurn writes:
“Though the handcuffs were intended to humiliate him, every man, woman and child in Hong Kong saw them for what they were: a badge of honor.
“As a billionaire, Jimmy could easily have escaped arrest and an almost certain prison sentence. He could have trimmed Apple’s editorial sails, sold it off, or simply remained at one of his residences abroad where the authorities couldn’t touch him.
“But anyone who thought this a real possibility doesn’t know Jimmy Lai. He is where he is today because he chose handcuffs and arrest rather than run away or abandon his convictions.
“In any just society, Jimmy Lai would not be threatened. But Hong Kong is no longer such a society. In its place we are left with the powerful witness of a good man willing to give up everything except his principles, even if it means trading in the life of a billionaire for the prison cell of a Chinese dissident.
With the people of Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai’s reputation is that of a man of character. He is using his position of authority to promote democracy and freedom of speech in a country where neither is welcomed. As such, his reputation with the government of the PRC is that of a troublemaker. He finds himself facing prison because as McGurn writes, “Communist China, for all its size and power, fears any Chinese who insists on speaking the truth.”
“But the faith Jimmy and [his wife] Teresa share does not promise happy outcomes. It promises only that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are not alone. Already the Lais would tell you there’s nothing quite so overwhelming as learning that thousands across the world—people they don’t know and will never meet—are praying for them.
So, let’s pray for them too, and for ourselves and for all people who are in positions of authority.
Lord, we pray for the salvation of each person in authority. We pray they would understand it is You who has placed them in their position, and that they will know their accountability to an almighty God. We pray they will see themselves as Your servants first and will diligently seek Your will. May they be honest and exercise integrity in their official capacity and not abuse the power which You have entrusted to them. We pray they will recognize evil and reject it and may they see their task as one that is to benefit those they serve. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
May God bless you abundantly this week and may you glorify the Lord by how you exercise your God-given authority and by your life.
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