The Testimony of Your Life
Jason Rhoads
I serve leaders who struggle with one or all three of these areas: Rhythms, Pivots, and Confidence.
The evidence is in, and you are the verdict.???~ Anne Lamott
This quote was in an article I was reading about a week ago and it stuck in my mind like a leech at the lake. The evidence is my life actions, words, and behavior. Everything about me has produced the evidence for others to view me. Each person has rendered a verdict about me. Moving beyond the idea that I should not care what others think; which sounds nice but isn’t reality. I do care how my wife views me. ?I want my daughters to view me as a man that tough for them and tender with them. I care how my clients view me. It all matters.
What’s the evidence in my life? What does it show? The verdict is the outcome of my life so far. Who I am as a man, husband, father, neighbor, citizen, community member, volunteer; it all counts.
What am I guilty of (both positive & negative)? Am I guilty of loving and caring for those in my life? Am I guilty of neglecting thoughts, actions, and emotions when I should be tending to them? The evidence is real. The evidence for me or against me is present.
About a week before reading this quote, I asked my wife a question that I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to: Is there any area of our life together that I take you for granted? She wanted to think about it. A day later she responded – I really don’t think there is. What a sigh of relief for me!
If there had been an area of life that she believed I took her for granted; I can change the evidence. I can make changes to my life; I can pivot based on the evidence she presents to me.
That can happen in any aspect of life. Work, personal, health, it all has evidence to who we are; to who you are. The verdict is in for your life. What does it say?
If you do not like the verdict, change the evidence. What is one pivot you need to make? One change you want to make?