We are currently in a series called, “My Story.” We are talking about decisions we can make to live a better story. One of my favorite things to do is to hear the stories of successful people. I have become obsessed with listening to interviews with successful, forward thinking people.
Elon Musk is one of the most well known innovators and thinkers of our time. He is the CEO of Tesla, Chairman of the Board at Salacity, and the found of SpaceX. He is worth billions. He recently was interviewed about what it means to be a fearless leader. The interviewer assumed that Elon didn’t have fear because of all the risks and decisions he had made to bring him where he was. Elon, to the interviewer’s surprise, said he was filled with fear. In fact every decision he has made involved some type of fear. It included a fear of failure, a fear of others, and a fear of perseverance. For Elon, his biggest fear wasn’t avoiding mistakes but knowing that mistakes were inevitable and that he had to face them. He goes as far as saying, that the most successful people in life are really good at facing their mistakes and the mistakes of others by sticking through them with boldness.
As we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, I can’t help but think about all the mistakes he chose to stick around and address. He could have walked away, kept silent and yielded to the injustice and mistakes of mankind. Instead he, like my son Mason proclaimed at dinner to all of us, said, "no.” Saying no doesn’t mean running away. Sometimes it means staying like Rosa Parks did on the bus in 1955. It means saying no to injustice by staying and facing it head on. We all make mistakes and have to deal with the mistakes of others but there is power in staying.
“Sometimes the best decision we can make for change is staying when it would be easier to go.”
Ruth in the bible made this decision, and it worked out for her. Moses made the decision to stay with the people of Israel, and it change a nation. God through Jesus decided to not give up on us and came down to the cross to give us a new life. God stayed with us in grace and perseverance, Who or what do you need to stay with to live a better story?
See you Sunday,
Michael