Can You Be Counted On?
When Brutus and Cassius and the other conspirators hatched their plot to kill Caesar, however, they left Cicero out of the loop. They believed he was too nervous, too untrustworthy, too likely to second-guess the plot or undermine it, unintentionally or not. In short, when the moment counted, Cicero couldn’t be counted on. He wasn’t Stoic enough
~Lives of the Stoics, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
What is your life philosophy?
Sounds like a strange question, right? But we all have a philosophy that guides our lives — whether we realize it or not. If we don’t think about it at all, then it’s likely that the philosophy is sloppy and inconsistent. Even if we do think about it quite a bit, we can fall from the path from time to time.
Personally, as a follower of Jesus and a pastor, my life philosophy tends to be guided by the teachings of Christ. But, I’m not perfect. Far from it. However, I don’t think what we see said of Cicero above would be said about me. At least, I hope not. But, back to the question at hand: what is your life philosophy?
If you don’t know, or if that question sounds a little odd to you, let me encourage you to take some time to really think about it. What is it that guides your life? When things are tough, how do you get through such times? When things are going really well, how do you stay grounded? Life can be more complicated when we only allow our roller coaster of emotions guide the way.
I’m not necessarily suggesting that you take a full week in the wilderness and write out a systematized approach to life. Although, that could be an interesting exercise for those who have the time.
When I think about something like this, I am reminded of how some organizations go through setting up mission, vision and values. It’s an interesting thought exercise, but more often than not, we tend to point to our aspirational values instead of the actual ones we live out. There can be a lot of tension when we do that, especially if we don’t realize that our aspirational values are aspirational, and we may need to make some major changes in our lives to make them a reality.
As a church leader, I think about these kinds of things for my congregation, but I don’t spend a ton of time vocalizing it for myself. Perhaps that’s something I need to do for myself. So, what do you say? You want to try this out with me?
