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Who You Gonna Call?

You do realize that the way you just read that title could be a giveaway to your age range and your childhood influences, right?

 

As a child, my wife said she liked Egon. She says this prepared her for her life with me. What?

Anyway, I had an interesting set of two phone calls this evening. The first was with Paolo Punzalan, a pastor at our church and good family friend. I had a couple of particularly sticky discipleship and counseling situations that I needed advice on. I’ve been in ministry for a while, but these were things I knew nothing about. Paolo had great insight as usual and I know I’m ready to proceed in the right direction for the benefit of the people concerned.

The second call was with Dennis Sy, also a good friend and pastor. We talked about similar experiences we’d had recently and he gave me advice on how to handle it. After hanging up, I felt so encouraged to just have been able to talk with someone about this and to know that it was going well.

As I sat with my wife, watching her have dinner just half an hour ago, I thought about so many people who I’ve received wisdom. encouragement, and counsel from through the years. There’s Tito Butch, a 66 year old man, who I go to for marriage, leadership, organizational, and writing questions. He always has a way of giving practical and sound counsel. I enjoy the way he laughs at my problems sometimes and assures me, “Wala pa yon, no. Wait till you get to my age.”

A seemingly unlikely, but very wise source is Pin Antonio, the famous hairdresser. I’ve engaged her in several conversations on leadership, building teams, and training staff. Her success in developing new leaders in her field and launching their careers encourages me to imitate her diligence and generosity.

Early last week, I was on a phone call with Randel Tiongson, the financial adviser. He’d just come back from a trip to Beijing, but he was eager enough to be of service. In 15 minutes he answered some really knotty issues that my wife and I had been arguing about.

 

Couples fighting about money? Who ever heard of such a thing?

I guess what I’m saying is, every one of us need people like that in our life. People who we have built relationships with so we can go for advice when we need it. No one’s got a monopoly on wisdom and even the most astute person has blind spots. But with many people around us, we can figure out the best path.

I’m not talking about blindly following someone else just because they said so. That’s a not-so-shrewd way of ducking the responsibility. “It wasn’t my fault. He told me to.” But getting advice from people then deciding the best option for ourselves is what I’m saying here. How do you know you’re getting quality stuff? Well, judge the results. Is their advice leading to good or harm? Are you better or worse of for listening to them? Find the right ones and invest on those relationships.

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22

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