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What You Don’t See

One way of generating insight isn’t just to look for what you’re not seeing. Too often, people only analyze the things that are visible, without giving thought to what is invisible.

Some examples:

    • Instead of asking successful people what they do, try asking them what they don’t do that everyone else automatically does. Once, I approached church and business leaders I respect and asked them what they didn’t do, but everyone else around them seemed to do. The answers were interesting. One friend of mine, a very successful businessman, church leader, father, and husband revealed that he never watched movies when they came out. To him it was a waste of time and money. He always just rented movies for free from his local library. (This is in the US.) I don’t know how much it helped him, but his simplicity of lifestyle was woven through every aspect and it allowed him to be successful and have one of the most well-rounded lives I’ve ever witnessed – physically fit, great marriage, great kids, financially prosperous, extremely generous, intelligent, quick learner, faithful friend, etc.
    • At Unashamed 2017, we had a roster of speakers. People often focus on them and ask about their preaching and leadership strengths that got them the job. But what about the ones who didn’t preach? We have plenty of capable (even better) older preachers who didn’t speak at the event. Why not? What did that accomplish? What does that say about their leadership? We also had plenty of up-and-coming younger preachers who didn’t preach either. Why not? What were they doing that was better than having them preach? Comment or PM me your best guess and I’ll tell you if you’re close or not. If you’re close enough, I’ll give you the answer.
    • Social media presents us so much information, too much information. It’s tempting to think that everything is in what we see. That the entirety of a person’s life is what the media (mainstream or social) presents to us. Nothing could be further from the truth. Behind everything we see is plenty more, maybe it’s even more significant. Sometimes my Instagram Stories reflect great parts of my day. But most of the time, they go empty when I’m so busy living and making significant memories. Not everything is recorded and posted real time. Sometimes the best stuff stays offline.

Anyway, you get the point. Don’t just look at what you see. Ask yourself what you’re not seeing. You’ll be surprised at the insight.

Leave a Reply to benchdl Cancel reply

1 comment
  • regarding #2, my best guess(es) would be they have other priorities at the time which could include:
    1. pray and seek the Lord?
    2. study the Word more?
    3. for the older, developing others to preach, reminding themselves that it’s not about them and their preaching?

    hope i got at least one close. @.@

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