Just finished a pretty good book by Bill Hybels Who You Are When No One's Looking . It is funny because when I started reading it, I wans't too enthralled, but came back to it a week ago and couldn't put it down. I will give you a brief rundown of what is in the book.The first chapter is over character. We really are who we are when no one is looking. Hybels covers that if you are living one life in public and a different life in private where you could develop spiritually will be stunted or even stopped.
In the second chapter he covers courage. He covers spiritual courage, the courage to follow, relational courage and moral courage. He states that we must face our fears, rally around role models, and allow our minds to be transformed.
Next he spoke of discipline. One of the main points he used was in being successful we have to delay our gratification on almost all things. The easy, "feel good" way often leads to being unsuccessful. Our lives are intended for greatness, we must be patient.
Vision, be able to look beyond the obvious in finding solutions to problems. In this chapter, he used an anology of two men trapped in a prison cell. One prisoner could see no further than the bars on the cell to the window outside. The other prisoner was able to focus on the stars beyond the window, he was able to have vision and he had hope because of it.
Endurance, we must be able to break through "quitting points". All of us feel that moment at some point where we do not want to go on, we do not want to fight the good fight. We must be able to break through those moments. Proceeding when wanting to quit doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you a great person. Often when we do quit it is just short of the success we were searching for.
In the next few chapters he spoke of different types of "love". The first was tender love. Before we judge and critisize we must walk in the shoes of another. We must understand that no matter what is said or done by another that they were created by God and loved as a special person, just as we are.
Tough love...at some points in life, you have to confront certain issues. Telling people what they want to hear all of the time even when they are wrong is not what they need.
Sacrificial love...which taken all the way to an extreme is giving everything and expecting nothing in return. That is probably never going to happen, but striving along the way to that point shows sacrificial love.
And finally he covers radical love. That is the kind of love that you find for everyone. Everyone is worthy of it as a human being. He does concede that there are times that trying to realize that about someone who is visibly upset with you is not an easy task.
"When I listen to the evening news or read the morning paper these days my reaction is always the same: what's wrong in the world will not be set right until people who love God and who refuse to cave to these overwhelming challenges put the things they believe into action, things like courage and discipline and love." Bill Hybels
