“Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit.”
– Oswald Chambers, January 7th entry in My Utmost for His Highest, one of the best selling daily devotionals of all time
Oswald Chambers did not live in the social media era, and he most likely wouldn’t like too many aspects of these times. That said, his writings (early 20th century) are similarly critical of society, just for different reasons. Oswald was a 2 x 4-to-the-head sort of simplistic teacher of Christian behavior, and he frequently strikes at concepts that are fundamental to a successful life in Faith.
Most of those concepts are fundamental to life in business, too.
Friendship is rare on earth, he teaches; Identity in thought, heart and spirit. Those are real, deep, challenging qualifications, especially in a “like my picture on Instagram,” “favorite my Tweet,” and “What? You’ve only got 1,100 followers?!” kind of world.
If we focus on really getting deep with the people we know — our friends, associates, clients and prospects — seeking identity in thought, heart and spirit, oh, the difference we can make.
A mentor once taught me, and I’ve passed the lesson on to a few thousand others, that if you can do something for someone, or challenge someone’s through processes in some way that causes them to mention you at the dinner table with their family that night, you’re building a real relationship. It’s one thing to click idly on a post, while riding the train, stuck in traffic, waiting on a cab or the people who are chronically late to meetings. It’s another thing altogether to be the kind of friend that gets talked about at the dinner table. The kind of friend who makes a difference, simply by the way they engage. In thought. Heart. And spirit.
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