fbpx

Month: August 2018

Posted on

The Power Of A Story – How Authentic Joy Was Made

 

First of all, more good news! The kindle version of my new book – Authentic Joy – is now available on Amazon in addition to the paperback version! Click here to find out more about the book and to get yourself a copy!

I love a good story. When I first started toying with the idea of writing a book I immediately knew that I wanted to tell a story. I wanted to take my readers along on a journey that made them laugh and cry and sit at the edge of their seats; the kind of story where you can’t put the book down. Because these were the kind of books that deeply impacted me, especially in my younger years. My favourite genre of book is fantasy. Books like The Lord of The Rings trilogy were my standard fare. I would be consumed in the unfolding plot for hours. The characters came alive and I saw myself in the midst of the pages. I will never forget those books.

These days my reading is much less exciting. Seems with adulthood comes the age of ‘self-help’. (Insert boring sigh here). The books that seem to be popular in the inspirational/religious category are mostly designed to overtly teach you something. There is nothing wrong with that of course but it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. It was not authentic to my heart. I wanted to share my knowledge in allegory.

Allegory: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. Jesus taught in allegory or in parables. He would tell a story about a man who found a treasure or a farmer who sowed seeds but that was not the point of the story. The meaning had to be discovered or inferred. Often the listener was left to draw their own conclusions.

Much of my book, Authentic Joy, leaves the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. I could have written a book about Effective Church Leadership or 10 Sure Ways To Fail In Marriage or Where You Won’t Find God or…. but instead you will find that all of these themes are wrapped inside the story of an ordinary guy called Govinda.

What I believe makes this kind of book powerful is the story. I’m not telling you what to do or how to think, I’m simply sharing as I would with a close friend. The lessons have not been sterilised by stripping them of the context of the technicolour emotions or convoluted scenarios or imperfect relationships; the humanity and unpredictability of real life.

As the back cover of my book says… In my deepest destitution and despair, I found the joy that I was looking for in the presence of God Himself, or I should say, He brought me to the end of myself so that I could experience Him as He really is; my greatest treasure and highest joy! I wrote this novel simply to share with you the obstacles that kept me from this deeply satisfying intimacy with Christ and the nature of the Life that I found on the other side of those obstacles. My hope is that you too will see Him more clearly, treasure Him more deeply and experience authentic joy in Christ more fully than ever before!

So, I invite you to immerse yourself in the epic saga that is Authentic Joy!

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

Posted on

How Much Are You Worth?

I’m trying this year to maintain (or exceed) a minimum level of fitness which means that even when I travel I need to find time to get in some exercise. This explains why I found myself jogging around Emancipation Park while on a business trip to Jamaica. After completing my targeted mileage, I stopped to take a look at the famous sculpture at the entrance to the park.

As I gazed at the towering statues, I was entranced by their beauty and I could not help wondering how many people might not share my opinion. Of course, being in the home of Bob Marley, his famous words skanked into my mind, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our mind.”

The opinion we have of ourselves is arguably the most powerful limit on our potential. The fact that strong, beautiful, rich, powerful, free Africans came to think of themselves as anything less, and that some still do even decades after the abolition of slavery is testament to the power of mental shackles. How do you value yourself when you have been brainwashed into thinking that your worth is set by how much someone else is willing to pay for you? Isn’t it interesting how that statement could apply to any one of us in the world of work today?

Most of us may not labour under a low self-image due to the colour of our skin but maybe we have other chains? Income? Gender? Class? Wealth? Academic intelligence? Athletic ability? Social status? Whatever it is, it does not determine our worth.

The issue is; how do you determine your worth? Does your worth rise or fall with your bank account? Is it determined by your deeds (good or bad)? Is it your family name or academic achievements? Perhaps you are caught in the corporate hamster wheel that chains your self-worth to your career success? Maybe you are juggling a career, husband and children and your self-worth undulates with how well you are keeping the balls in the air this week?

We will act based on who we believe we are. If we think we are bad, we will be bad. If we think we are poor, we will be poor. If we believe we are not worthy, we will settle for whatever we can get. How can we break free?

I suppose each of us will have to find our own answer to the question of worth. I found my answer in God. I believe that each one of us has been created by a Divine Hand. Every hair, every cell, every quirk of personality a masterpiece of unique beauty and inestimable value. The mere fact that no two human beings on a planet of billions are exactly alike is to me pore raising. If the Upholder of Galaxies thought you a necessary ingredient to the space-time continuum then who am I to say anything different!

None of us have to do anything to prove our worth. We are already precious! And therefore, we are free; free to live the truth of who we already are! There is nothing stopping us! No limiting circumstances or missing ingredients! Break the shackles of your mind! Live free!

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

Posted on

The Fire Series: Obey Your Thirst

 

I remember a soft drink ad from many years ago that stuck in my head. The tagline was, “Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst.” The underlying message was that our drink choices should not be based on what made us look cool or what the famous athletes/movie stars were drinking, but simply on what quenched our thirst.

It is a message that I feel is relevant to Christians today. So many of us stop short of a fully satisfied life in Christ because we are just too image conscious. We are so busy maintaining the veneer of a perfect Christian life that we are completely missing the opportunity to have a real vibrant relationship with the Almighty.

Sometimes when I look around during worship I’m saddened because it seems like there is more self-consciousness than God-consciousness. I’m excited to reach to worship most Sundays because I never know when God is going to show up! I rather reach to church in jeans and a T-shirt than miss worship because I’m dressing up in my Sunday best. I mean…. the presence of God! What could beat that?! When He does show up and we’re in tears or shouting or singing at the top of our lungs or dancing with all our might and I open my eyes to see some people just there, looking cool, it’s always a shock.

I wanna plead with them and say, “It’s OK.” It’s OK to lose yourself in God. It’s Ok to sing a wrong note, to shed a tear, to jump like a fool or dance out of time. It’s OK to look a fool for God. It’s more than OK, it’s the appropriate thing to do!

It’s not only about our image during worship but also our image in the community. Many couples hide the issues in their marriage or family because they are ‘somebody’ in the community. If they would only admit that things are less than perfect and seek help… I weep for them. For the missed opportunity at really joy-filled relationships where real issues are being worked out within compassionate communities infused by the transformational power of the Holy Ghost!

The church has been such a place of shame and stigma that many have become professional Christian actors. We prefer a good reputation to an authentic life. Unfortunately, a fake image does not quench the very real thirst in our souls for real righteousness, real holiness, real intimacy, real love, real peace and real joy. Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Pursue God with reckless abandon! Worship Him like there’s nobody else in the room! Live like only His opinion of us matters! Obey your thirst!

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Altitude Sickness

 

Altitude sickness is an illness that is pervasive in the upper hierarchy of many organizations. It is the tendency of managers to become more and more disconnected from the people and the reality on the ground, the higher they rise within the organization. When this illness has run its full course, the victim lives in an alternate reality of which they are convinced is real.

This may sound exaggerated, but it is not I’m afraid. And it is easy to see why this happens. In many organizations, especially very hierarchical ones, as one ascends the hierarchy the contact with customers and the staff that produce the products or deliver the services, becomes less and less. At the highest levels it can be practically non-existent. So how does a CEO, for example, get intelligence about what’s happening in his company or the environment in which it operates? From reports and media publications; two sources that are filled with bias and absent of the nitty gritty details that are often quite important.

Let’s look at reports. The typical report covers such a large span of time and range of company activities that it has to be pared down to the most pertinent data and it is up to the people preparing the reports to decide what is pertinent. Consider that this information has to flow upward through several layers with each person deciding what should be included and often incentivized to only show information that the boss wants to hear. One can quickly see why the higher the information flows, the less accurate it is (similar to a game of pass the message).

Consider a hypothetical example… Joe produces widgets for a company called D. Luded Inc. He has a quota of 10 a day. On Monday he makes 13 but 3 are defective because his tools aren’t the most modern. He tells his shift supervisor who makes up a shift report. The supervisor, Jim, simply records 10 units made as per target but there is higher than budget overtime (due to all the rework). He has mentioned the need for better tools to his manager several times. However, the manager; Jane, is not getting the tools because she is under pressure from the regional manager to reduce costs. So, she reports production on target and expenses below budget.  The regional manager, Bob, has some companies performing badly within the region and that is why he is pressuring Jane to reduce costs further so that the region as a whole looks good. Bob’s quarterly report to head office looks awesome. No doubt next month the region will be asked to increase production and reduce costs further.

You see where I am going with this? The head of D. Luded completely lacks the information to run the company properly (far less the board of directors). The only way to arrest this altitude sickness is to start at ground zero – literally. Managers must intentionally inculcate habits that keep them connected with their ground staff and customers.

Here are 3 essential habits to accomplish this:

  1. You CANNOT punish bad news. This is an absolute necessity. None of the other habits will work unless people feel safe to tell you the truth. When bad news is punished, all you will get is good news until it is absolutely too late to do anything about it. People must feel empowered to push back on your demands based on the on-the-ground reality.
  2. You CANNOT be the expert on everything. If you believe you know more about making widgets than Joe because you started in the company 20 years ago as a widget maker then you are truly deluded. No matter how successful you are, nothing can replace the intel that the people who are actually working the machines and interacting with the customers bring to the conversation.
  3. You CANNOT run any organization from an office. Get out and go talk to people. Meet customers. Create informal settings where you can chat with the Joes of your company.

The first step to curing altitude sickness is to be aware of the disease. Stop altitude sickness in your workplace today!

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.