For this blog I will highlight a key truth in a book written authored by Dr. Mark Rutland what points out the one key thing that will help us employ faith in a painful situation.
II will state the book title at the end but when we are truly and deeply hurt or someone on our team hurts, there are “toxins” that can hold us back and invade us. Depending on what happened, this can be terrible and make the person sense hopelessness with negative effects on the team and this can be challenging because not everyone wants the person well.
Mark relates what he calls 5 “Major Toxic Rivers” that flow through the person and they include:
1. Shame
2. Unforgiveness
3. Rejection
4. Condemnation
5. Fear
What is not understood is that many mangers because their lack of knowledge try to fix the problem by pressing in the 5 Toxic Rivers. However, there is one thing necessary and let me highlight the key truth from Dr. Rutland.
It deals with the New Testament with a common story that many will remember. There was a time when the King I serve was in a crowded house and was talking to Pharisees and Doctors of the Law. There was a man who was sick and could not move on his own. At that time, the prevailing mindset was if you were sick it was because God was against you and was ‘getting back at you”. He wanted healing but his friends could not get him in the door so as many will already know, they went up on the roof and cut a hole and on a blanket, lowered him into the room. They lowered him right into the midst of those “intellectuals” who would accuse him and speak badly against him. To make a long story short, the man was healed by the King I serve but there is one critical thought I seek to present brought out in Mark’s book.
Most people focus on the faith of his friends who were going to have to hold onto the blanket as they lowered him down and their faith that the King could & would heal him. Or perhaps they focus on knowing the king would heal him. However, there is a critical point missed that Mark brought out in the book.
The point that is missed is that the man on the blanket had to have something key. He was on a blanket held by his friends and he was being lowered into a group that looked down on him and many of which probably did not want him better. This man had to have COURAGE to be let down amid that situation. He had to have the COURAGE to overcome the ‘Toxic Rivers’. For us to employ Faith, we must have a level of Courage to take the step forward in whatever the situation it is.
I offer to you the title of Dr. Rutland’s book as “The Courage to be Healed”. As leaders, we need to be good at generating COURAGE in our teams when necessary. When our faith is beat up as it can be at times, it takes Courage to rise above and step forward even when it is painful. The man on the blanket had the courage to proceed.
Let me ask you, when things get tough……DO YOU REALLY EMPLOY COURAGE?
– Randy Swaim, Coaching for Relevance, LLC