pride

Please read - Colson on Pride

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/10/colson.corruption/index.html

disciple

in this information age, all wants to be leaders. Many wants to be first among 1000. then there are those stars who wants to be one in a million. if i write asking me to be a disciple, you may feel i am little out of touch with the world.

what is important in team building?. leader has to tell what is expected from the group. if leader does not have a vision, my advice is leave that group. leader without vision goes nowhere and he is going to drown you with him. we talked that in mission.

then we need disciples to make things happen.

why do people follow?. is it that they don't have another option that they follow.

when i think more about it, what makes a person to follow the leader is the trust the leader has build in the disciple. when disciple knows that the leader has best interest of the group in his mind, disciple will do all that is needed.

I have seen people taking credit for following rule of the land or commandments of their religion. Some call them self as law abiding citizen. Some as pious follower of the religion. If they do it without trusting the nation or God of the religion, i don't know what to call them.

i follow rules of this country because of her promise of American dream to all. i follow my religion because of the trust my God has built in me through His service. my trusted nation can fail me. my trusted leader/boss can fail me. my trusted friend may fail me. my trusted parents can fail me. my trusted wife can fail me. They may not say or do things for my best interest.

i know someone who has you and me in our best interest. do you like to know?

mission - just a positive thinking

During our summer vacations, we used to travel to our uncle's home in Vellore. There in his living room was a painting with 2 little birds flying in a very high altitude. It was a very scenic painting to see. More than the painting itself what got my father's attention was what written at bottom of the painting.

It said - ' they fly because they think they can'. if i could rephrase it for the title. ' they fly because they positively think they can.'

gentlemen and ladies, if there is a goal that you want to achieve in life, i think there are only 3 things you got to follow.

1. you need to have a positive thinking.
2. got to visualize the prize/joy set before you to endure the cross.
3. throw away your worries.

All these steps are very simple and self explanatory. Let me try to explain.

• +tive thinking: There are 2 type of people talking to you all the time. One talking good things and another talking bad things. One will take you to good places and another take to bad places. Or to say it different- there are 2 line of thoughts that runs your mind all the time. One towards positive side and another towards negative side. for example- if you find a man hurt in a car accident on your commute to work. one thought will say- go and help that person. another says don't do it because you will hurt yourself by doing it. My advice to you is to listen to the positive side. You may like to try your entrepreneurship skills. Some will say don't try it because it will hurt you and others will ask you to try it because you will have many to gain from it. it is better to listen to positive side of it.
• visualize the prize set before you : If you want to be a Olympic athlete, you got to visualize being one. That is when you can do those strenuous workout. If it takes to sleep only 3 hours a day to be a CEO of GE, you can never be able to do it if you don't visualize yourself being the CEO. there will be days where you will not be allowed to eat what you want to eat if you want to be a world class athlete. (check out the word athlete. it comes from athle-a Greek meaning contend for a prize.)
• Don't worry: When you want to be somebody, there will be many who will hate you. if you have little success they will hate you even more. they will hate you for the color of your skin. they will hate you for the belief that you have. they will hate you for the language that you speak. they will hate you when you walk in and they will hate you when you walk out. when something bad happens they say he deserves it. they want to kill you with their words, actions, and influence. There is nothings you can do about it. you write those in a paper and crush it to throw it in trash. if you struggle in throwing it to trash, you can give it to my son. he knows how to throw it.

2nd and 3rd are just the first point of positive thinking. 2nd is a motivation to listen for positive ideas or thoughts. 3rd point is the reason not to listen to negative thoughts or persons.

All is nothing but positive thinking. There must be some cynic out here thinking, samuel - life is not that simple. let me tell you this. this world is not about wise men. this world is not about rich men. this world is not about the mighty men. it is about you. it is about you believing in the dream. then you get to be the strong, rich, and wise men. then you get to be the 2 little birds flying in that high heights.

adios.

Grace

i want this to be told of me- a man of grace. should i be called graceful person for me showing grace or for receiving it?. i am just an object of grace. i have nothing to show it.

my middle name is Kirubakaran. meaning man of grace. i don't know how much my parents knew about grace. But my father did teach me few on it. He said nobody deserves this world -even the president of US.

Bono in Stuck in the moment- i was not jumping but it was a fall , a fall to nothing at all.

heard this in t.v of what tim russert father told him. The world does not owe Tim anything and he does to the world.

i told names like tim russert, bono, us president, and my father. i think they are great people and they deserve this world for their efforts. I see people around me and the efforts they put in. I feel small seeing them. I don't have any capacity to put in those efforts. when I was sitting in my friends place last week, i could only think how gracious my God is towards me.

I was talking with a couple who has a daughter of 8 to 9 years old. they were complaining how bad the school her daughter was studying. father said boys don't know how to socialize. so they took their girl out of that school. i could only think, i was one of those boys.

my eyes were filled with tears when i read 2nd half of 'born again' by colson. when that can happened for a smart person like him, it can happen for me.

i talked so low of me not to get self pity, but to show how great few people are. of whom this world is not worthy of.

when my mother's brother was sick, my grandmother prayed- lord take my life instead of his. she considered her son's life more important than hers.

knowing very well that they will die in 5 to 10 years after they land in india, many europeans kept coming to south india to build schools. they considered all deprived indians life more important than theirs.

history is filled with people like these. they are truly graceful people.

some know grace by receiving it and few by giving it. all i want to say is this. it does not matter how you know it but if you know it.

i take pride in my understanding of grace. do you?

disciple

Shanthi(wife) tells me all the time to discipline nathan(son) who is just 3 years old. when asked a rich man how he has time for all, he said he disciplines himself. my father was called a disciplinarian when he was a principle of a college.

does shanthi wants nathan to follow all that she says? or she has rules in place that nathan should follow. Is it the rules that nathan should follow or the person(shanthi).

when you follow a person you are called a disciple. but none of my father's students are called disciples. nathan even if he follows all that shanthi says, he will never be called a disciple of shanthi.

the rich man gives the answer. he follows no human. But he follows his missions. he has set rules to achive those missions and he follows it. somebody reminds him all the time that he has to follow those rules. he is a disciple of that person whom he and we can not describes to perfection. well you may say, his mind is magically tuned to do it. if it is, why not for all.

the question is - disciple follow a person or rules. if rules, who reminds you to do it?. will any follow a master who himself not followed those rules.

mission

what is mission?. does all have one?. how short should the short term mission be and how long should a long term mission be?. do we have to tell others of our missions?. does it be in the area of my interest or in the area where everybody wants to be?. who's help we can take to set it? should it be in the area of work?.

how to sell your mission with your family?. To how many do you have to sell it?. If the person who's help you want does not buy your mission, what should be done. Do we drop it or still try it?

LEt me what you think?