AMP Day 4 - Sex and Religion

A distinctive element of the AMP is to have the participants organized in "Living Groups" of 8, specifically picked to optimize diversity of nationalities, industry and gender.  So my living group is a mini United Nations of the US, Brazil, South Africa, Switzerland, Norway, UAE and of course myself for Singapura :)

The diversity in style and culture has a practical impact.  The schedule is pretty intense and requires a lot of cooperation to work on projects and rely on each other to divide and conquer the copious number of assignments.  So the program includes a day with a personal/team coach to iron out our understanding of our respective work and communication styles.

It's kinda funny but our coach's name is actually Sex.  Real name.  According to him, it’s a fairly common Irish surname, and he shared some backstory about his life and dealing with that surname.  He is endearingly cool about it :)

Anyway, one of coach Sex's exercises was to share our professional and leadership journey with the aid of a flipchart, so that we get to know each other better.  As I stared at the blank paper, I wondered what career highlights and motivations I should share with the group.  And then as I mulled over what those motivations were, I started to ask myself, should I talk about Jesus?

It’s at times like these that I’m sorely tempted to ignore the still small voice in my heart!  But I had to conclude that if my life highlights are worth sharing, then Jesus' life must surely be even more worthy of sharing.  So with some trepidation, I drew it up on my flipchart.

It’s pretty scary to start talking about Jesus to a bunch of CEOs and MDs and EVPs, whom you have to live with for the next 7 weeks.

People say there are two basic reactions to danger – fight or flight.  Actually, there’s another.  Freeze :D

So I sat back and let the others go first.  Wow, all sorts of amazing achievements, building companies, bouncing back from failure, travelling the world, etc.  These are really inspiringly successful people.  It made me feel even more nervous!  My sharing would clearly be the odd one out.

Oh well.  My turn, so I shuffled up to the front of the room.

G: "People say, when you make presentations, don't talk about sex or religion."

...



"But Coach has already talked a lot about Sex, so I guess I get to talk about religion!"

Laughter!  It was rather nice of God to give me a coach with a name so unique I could use it as my opening line to break the ice :D

As I went on, I saw that people were a little uncomfortable as I shared how Jesus drives my life and the choices I make.  And whenever you talk about Jesus, it's kind of difficult to say that you're great, because you naturally have to point to "I am weak but He is strong."  This is, generally speaking, not an amazing way to impress people who have a lot of their own achievements.

So I finished my humbling story - besides the opening joke, which went down pretty well, I didn't think I delivered it well at all, because I was so apprehensive about how it was being received, but it was done.  And it was late, so we wrapped up, everyone said goodnight, and went back to our rooms.

As I sat in my room, worrying a little about my decision, 1 Corinthians came to my mind.  It says "The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength... God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong... so that no one may boast before Him."

What a comfort!  Time to sleep!

But the story doesn't end there.  The little pebble I had thrown amongst our group was creating ripples in the pond...

The next day, we were brainstorming on our key team goals and expectations.  And to my great surprise, one of my teammates suggested:

A: "I think our team goal can be "to build each other up in business, personal… and spiritual aspects". 

...

Then with a slightly sheepish look he mumbled on: "… inspired by Glenn's sharing yesterday."

I was so encouraged!  My lousy sharing had an effect!  The courage God gave me to share my faith journey, even in my nervous and thoroughly uninspiring way, somehow still inspired courage in someone else!

Then over lunch, it continued to snowball!  Another teammate asked me, why did I become a Christian?  And we had a short and nice conversation where I explained the difference between nominal Christianity (where your religion is Christianity) and substantive faith (where your faith is a living relationship).  The former is just a label, while the latter makes a visible difference.

The next day, over lunch, yet another teammate came over and asked me, “You said when you become a Christian, everything you do is driven by your faith.  What do you mean?” 

And I got to share about how my faith gives me a clear, daily purpose at work – I work hard, but the purpose in everything is to glorify God to my colleagues.  Sometimes it’s sharing the Good News, but most often, it’s teaching, showing by example, caring, or even inviting to charity work and church and so on.  I still get upset if work results don’t go well of course, but that’s not the number 1 performance objective.  If I manage to share Christ through my words or my actions, that day is a win! 

I told him, this very conversation I’m having with you right now – that makes my day a win!  And unlike work results, sharing Christ is almost always within my control, so there’s a great chance for every day to be a win – it’s a super satisfying way to live.

One bright day, I'll have to stand before Jesus and explain what happened when I had the chance to share His Good News with a bunch of important people in Boston.  While I might have something to explain as to why I didn't do a much better job of it, I'm glad I won't have to explain that I failed to say anything at all!

Be strong and very courageous.  Be careful to obey all the law... that you may be successful wherever you go.  Joshua 1:7

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  Matthew 28:19-20

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