Be Yourself--Discover the Life You Were Meant to Live

By John Mason

Brief inspirational readings encourage readers to be the unique individual that God created them to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781441219695

John Mason

John Mason es un ministro y orador internacional. Es fundador y presidente de Insight Internacional, una fundación dedicada a ayudar a las personas para que usen todos sus dones y talentos mientras cumplen el plan de Dios para sus vidas.

Book preview

Part 1

Looking

inward

Nugget

#1

How many outstanding generalities do you know?

How many outstanding people do you know with unique and distinctive characteristics? Don’t be a living custard. It’s true what Eric Hoffer said: When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Humankind is the only creation that refuses to be what it is.

Don’t just look for miracles. You are a miracle. You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). Don’t be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently and as effectively as you can. When you use the gifts you have, people call you gifted. One of the hardest things about climbing the ladder of success is getting through the crowd of copies at the bottom.

The number of people who don’t take advantage of their talents is more than made up for by the number who take full advantage of the talents they have. You’re a specialist . . . an expert at what you do best. You’re not created to be all things to all people. You’re the greatest miracle in the world.

Following the path of least resistance is what makes men and rivers crooked.

Larry Bielat

More than 90 percent of all flowers have either an unpleasant odor or none at all. Yet it’s the ones with fragrances we want and remember. Stand out! Too many people make cemeteries of their lives by burying their talents.

Don’t try to live up to anyone’s expectations but God’s. A copy adapts to the world, but an original tries to make the world adapt. Therefore, all progress depends upon originals.

Don’t copy the behaviors of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you.

Romans 12:2 TLB

It doesn’t take a majority to make a change; it takes a few determined originals and a right cause. You’re the only one in all of creation who has your set of abilities. You’re special . . . you’re rare. And in all rarity there is great value. Jesus says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works" (Matt. 5:16, emphasis added). The more we’re like Jesus, the more we become who we’re supposed to be.

God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you the way you are. He wants you to use what He’s put inside you. Stand out—don’t blend in. Don’t be a mynah bird and copy others. Leaders are like eagles: they don’t flock, you find them one at a time. Be above mediocre . . . be an eagle. Eagles commonly fly alone; the crows, daws, and starlings fly together (John Webster).

Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report? Creative ideas do not spring forth from groups. They spring from individuals. The divine spark leaps from the finger of God to the finger of Adam.

A. Whitney Griswold

While originals are always hard to find, they’re easy to recognize. God leads every soul in an individual way. "There are no precedents: You are the first you that ever was" (Christopher Morley). There’s not enough darkness in the whole world to put out the light He put in you.

You’re an original.

Nugget

#2

Passion is the spark for your fuse

God put inside every person the potential to be passionate. One person with passion makes a greater impact than the passive force of ninety-nine who have only interest. Too many people have only interest in their destiny. The book of Ecclesiastes says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might (9:10). The atmosphere of your life changes dramatically when you add enthusiasm.

Everyone loves something. We’re shaped and motivated by what we love. Ignore what you are passionate about and you ignore one of the greatest potentials God has put inside you. What gets your heart racing? What are you hungry to learn and know more about? What do you daydream about doing? What captures your heart and your attention?

My friend Neil Eskelin shares the following story from his outstanding book Yes Yes Living in a No No World:

I was attending an awards banquet of the Chase National Life Insurance Company. The speaker was the famed author of Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill.

When Hill was introduced it was obvious his age had caught up with him. We all wondered if the octogenarian would be physically able to give the speech. (He passed away not long after this event.)

Napoleon Hill slowly walked to the podium, placed both of his hands on the sides of it, looked out at the audience and announced, Ladies and gentlemen, I have given this speech hundreds and hundreds of times in my life. But tonight I am going to deliver it the best it has ever been given. This is going to be the best speech of my life!

Wow! It was like a bolt of lightning. I watched 300 adults move to the edge of their chairs and absorb every word like a sponge.

Enthusiasm always makes others stand up and take notice. Nothing significant was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Jesus was a passionate man. He died for us because He loved His Father and us passionately.

Most winners are just ex-losers who got passionate. The worst bankruptcy in the world is the person who has lost his enthusiasm. When you add passion and emotion to belief, it becomes a conviction. There’s a big difference between a belief and a conviction. Belief agrees with the facts. Conviction brings persistent action to your belief.

Driven by passionate conviction, you can do anything you want with your life—except give up on something you care about. Mike Murdock says, What generates passion and zeal in you is a clue to revealing your destiny. What you love is a clue to something you contain.

Fulfilling God’s plan is a passionate idea or it is nothing. There’s a reason we’re told to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deut. 10:12). Henri Frederic Ameil reminds us, Without passion man is a mere latent force and a possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.

You must first be a believer, then an achiever. There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a very few that catch my heart . . . it is those I consider to pursue (Tim Redmond).

Let the passion within you rise to meet your destiny.

Nugget

#3

Questions

Over a million people last year bought drills. What’s significant about that? Not one of those people wanted a drill. They all wanted a hole.

Questions are like drills. Answers are like holes. If you’re searching for answers, you find them by drilling with the right questions.

You’re where you are today because of the questions you’ve asked yourself. In order to get where you want to be, you have to ask yourself the right questions. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people ask better questions and therefore get better results.

One common characteristic about successful people is that they all have the ability to ask good questions.

Quality questions = Quality life

The Bible says Ask, and it shall be given you (Matt. 7:7) and Ye have not, because ye ask not (James 4:2). What is the most common way to ask? To pose a question! The best way to have and receive is to ask questions.

Remember, it’s not only the questions you ask, but also the questions you fail to ask, that shape your destiny. Life’s most important answers are found in asking the right questions.

Who said it? (an important question to ask of everything we