Faith at Work II

“Did I really believe, or did I believe I was supposed to believe?”

–  W. Lee Warren, MD in his amazing book “I’ve Seen The End of You”

Yesterday I promised that we’d go deeper into what we know versus what we believe.

This is a good place to start.  I’m going to save the hard-line Faith angle for tomorrow (it’s a week from Good Friday, after all…).  And, while the headlines for this series read “Faith At Work” the fact of the matter is belief is fundamental to whatever we do or choose not to do.

So, what do we believe?

For sales and marketing types, if they really believe, the sky is the limit.  But if they believe they’re supposed to believe, and they’re getting fed the company line, seasoned with crap and fantasy, the limit is much closer to the ground.  About knee-high, as a matter of fact.  For leaders (CEO’s, GM’s, functional leaders, parents, coaches, mentors) what they believe about the people they lead has a way of playing out pretty close to the picture they’ve framed in their minds.  That’s pretty danged cool if they believe the team can go further than the team believes it will go, and pretty danged miserable if their belief is going to drag down a perfectly capable set of folks.

In the business context, and in the greater context (Hey, I didn’t say I was gonna save it all for tomorrow…) knowing why we believe is at least as critical as whatever we believe.

Regardless of what we know, what we believe is, ultimately, our True North.

Warren’s book deals with about as frustrating and nebulous concept as most Believers will ever face.  It’s captured in this quote from yesterday’s post: “How can I pray for God to heal someone of something that no one ever survives?  How do I ask God for something He never does?”  

Where will we find our “Why we believe?”  How will we keep it at the forefront of our minds when it gets tested?  When we’re exhausted?  Defeated?  Desperate?

The question plays out in our souls and in our careers.  In our relationships, with others, with ourselves and with God.

This book is transformational, whether your Faith has an uppercase “F” or whether it ties to your favorite sports hero, politician (does anyone really have faith in those jokers anymore?) or other “role model.”

And if all we’re doing is believing we’re supposed to believe, the book becomes mandatory reading, not just transformational.