Nothing to Prove, Nothing to Lose and Nothing to Hide

from Ps Edmund Chan's - MENTORING PARADIGM-4

Nothing to prove is a state of deep security in God

Nothing to lose is a state of absolute surrender to God

Nothing to hide is a state of true integrity before God

The key to living with nothing to prove is humility.

Which in my own opinion is very difficult because everyone of us wants pride. I like what Philippians 2:3 says :"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." This verse could be tough to exercise because most of us wants to be the FIRST and with that we have never thought others better than ourselves.

The key to living with nothing to lose is giving-up your rights, which is giving-in to God.

The root cause of our inability to reach this blessed state is our lack of inner security. Insecurity causes us to fall into performance trap which inreturn leads to fragile egos. Insecurity leads us to FEAR and FULL SURRENDER to God too! In truth, we become possessed by our possessions. Controlled by our need for control. We miss the point that true security comes when we find satisfaction only in Christ and with that includes giving up your rights!

Finally, insecurity also causes us to camouflage our sins with artificial, guilt-soothing human constructs. We hide our heartaches, sins and pains behind smiling masks and ministry activities. We focus on temporarily managing our sins thru excuses instead of completely repenting of them.

When we walk in true repentance, then there is nothing to hide. Isn't this wonderful as believers we are taught to confess our sins to one another so there is nothing to hide.

Will remember this 3 principles and follow closely as I believe God will use someone who has nothing to prove, nothing to lose and nothing to hide. More importantly we will have absolute peace as we have nothing to prove, nothing to lose and nothing to hide :)

Status, Stature and Substance

from Ps Edmund Chan's book of MENTORING PARADIGM-3

Following up on the previous chapter, it is the Substance of a leader that ultimately defines the leader.

Sometimes we comment :"He has the status of leadership but not the stature of a leader." Even so, it is the substance of a leader that ultimately defines the leader.

Status - Refers to the leadership titles or positions that we hold.
Stature - Comprises two aspects of our leadership - our credibility and confidence
Substance - Most importantly it is our substance that God views us and matters most to HIM.

In our performance driven society, people are only interested in our status - the titles and positions that they think represent us. As a result, we focus our efforts on striving for higher status. We often miss out on developing the stature which builds confidence and credibility. Surely, status without stature is hollow.

When we are people of substance, we live beyond mere status and stature. We cultivate an emotional stability and restedness, security and humility, which enable us to handle crises, criticisms and compliments well.

At the heart of our status, stature and substance lies our sense of security. But true inner security, where we can be small yet secure, is the true expression of substance in leadership.

Ultimately, God is more interested in 'what we have become' rather than merely 'what we have accomplished for Him'. When we develop and grow in substance, the status and stature of leadership will be built on solid ground. We will then live with :-
Authenticity in our worship
Brokenness in our walk and
Courage in our work.

Personal thoughts - Reflecting back on one incident when my ex-boss says that he would like me to take a bigger role of leadership in one of our company's subsidiary. He further explained why he had chosen me to take up this challenge over the other manager. He said, "It is how you handled a crisis that I saw determined to give you this opportunity. Both of you (referring to myself and the other manager) faced crisis at the same time in your family. You have demonstrated strong coping skills and strength while the other manager, continued to wallow in self-pity and push the blame to everyone else instead of himself."

Indeed, it was an encouragement from him inregards to how we handle our crisis. I only have God to thank for, because it is through all these years of walking closely with HIM that HE has helped me to develop substance and depth within me. Though still not complete, but will continue to work deep within as a leader because I want to be a leader that has the substance and the stature.

Superstructure, Structure and Substructure

from the Ps Edmund Chan's book - MENTORING PARADIGM-1

In life, we gravitate toward the visible and the spectacular. We judge and pride ourselves upon our influence and accomplishments. That is what we call Superstructure that is easily visible.

It is the Substructure, the unseen foundation, that our true strength lies. Without a deep and stalwart substructure, the Structures cannot hold. And the superstructures cannot rise to great heights without peril. Thus is it important to spend time to build on the foundation of substructure than on the superstructure.

So what exactly is Superstructure, Structure and Substructure?

Superstructure - represents the outward accomplishments of our life, work and ministry. It is built by competence and skill. It is worthly only when the substructure is solid and the surface structures are set in place.

Structure - the supporting beams and columns which fit together to form the framework around which the facade and usable floor area are built. These structures are the areas that we need to guard in our personal life. Time with God, family, friends and community. Without these, the building would be haphzard jumble and shaky.

Substructure - Who we are, what we do when no one sees, form the substructures of our life. A life of worship, lived before God in the fear of Him and held together by humility, wisdom and perseverance, constitutes a foundation that will withstand immense stress and strain. The continued maintenance and growth of this substructure, firmly anchored in God through the practice of the spiritual disciplines, is the work of a lifetime.

Summary - When we take care of the depth of our lives, God will take care of the breadth of our work and ministry.

Food for thought - Where is our time spent? Substructure, Structure or Superstructure? Personally I felt most of us spent alot of time in Superstructure and neglect the Structure and Substructure. Same goes in church, we may focus alot of time in DOING various ministries and neglect in building the BEING, which is the depth of our character. I remembered sharing with a friend, "Do not judge based on the outward form of management or skills of a leader or the number of people in their group, It is when one goes through a crisis then the true depth of a leader surfaces. Of course, God is a gracious God, it is also through a time of shake-up in a crisis that a leader grows in depth to build the Substructure."

As a reminder to myself as a leader to many ladies - do not neglect mentoring the substructure in their life as I built substructure in my life too!