Deuteronomy 30.19
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life …”
Here are the final two components of the mindset:
3) You produce Outcomes by the effectiveness of your Response.
- The outcomes you get are determined by the responses you choose. If you want a better O, you must choose a better R.
- What you do (or don’t do) makes a difference. Your decisions and actions (or inaction) always have an impact on the outcome. Big or small. This is the biblical principle of “you reap what you sow.”
- Do not equate the delay of consequences with the absence of them.
- Take responsibility for the long-term impact of your behavior even though you can’t always see the immediate results. Accept that you will not always get the Outcome you want in every situation.
- Many Outcomes, especially important ones, require significant time, effort, and energy to achieve. This is not an excuse to stop Managing the R. Recognize that consistently Managing the R will, over time, result in better Outcomes for you and those around you.
4) E+R=O is the way life works. Your job is to get good at it.
- E+R=O is is the cause and effect nature of the world in which you live and work. It operates whether or not you pay attention to it or manage it.
- You are constantly making R Factor decisions; you are constantly choosing how to respond to situations and people.
Circumstances confront you with realities and constraints that you must navigate, but circumstances don’t produce outcomes; your choices do. Fruitfulness for Christ is found in choosing wisely and acting effectively in response to the events you experience and the outcomes you want to achieve.
Life in Christ is not about the E; it is about the R. It is about choices, not circumstances. Trust God and manage the R with wisdom.
