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The Fire Series: All In

The Christian rapper, Flame, has a song called All In that I love to blast when I’m in my ‘gangsta Jesus’ mood. The concept of being ‘all-in’ is a term borrowed from the card game of poker. It means that a player has bet it all by putting all of his or her chips into the pot and has no plays left. The song always challenges me to put it all on the line for Jesus.

There are so many ways in which I still hold back from a full throttle, all or nothing, radical pursuit of Christ and yet I am decidedly dissatisfied with the state of my spiritual life. In this contradiction of what I’m willing to give versus what I want to get, the truth is laid bare; the only one holding me back is… me.

What am I willing to give to God? A few minutes of my time in the morning. A little percentage of my salary each month. Off and on obedience when it’s convenient to my agenda. A lukewarm commitment to loving people unconditionally. These little scraps of my life are not what God is yearning for. He wants me to be all-in. He wants me to entrust my life completely into His service and care in the ultimate union of God and man. This is what He wants for all of us.

He said, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”. God wants everything. His fullness is reserved for those who will devote themselves to Him completely. There are no half-measures with God.

Perhaps, the thing that is hindering me most from more of God’s presence in my life right now; the thing that He most wants me to let go of in this season; is my dignity. My dignity is the chip that I still have tightly clutched in my fist. The dictionary defines dignity as the state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect. I don’t tell strangers about Jesus or pray for healing for them because I don’t want to look foolish. I want to maintain my dignity. That’s the truth.

But I  pray like the early church fathers did for greater faith and greater boldness! I pray that I would step out of my comfort zone and risk it all that the name of Christ may be lifted up!

Are you all-in? What’s holding you back from a ‘no holds barred’ pursuit of Christ? Let it go! Give it all! Let us stir each other up to do great exploits for God! I would love if you would share a testimony of how God turned up when you took a risk? It would really encourage me and others to step out in faith as well.

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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The Self-Preservation Problem

 

Self-preservation is a natural instinct. While, in the majority of today’s societies protecting oneself from physical harm is not a daily concern, our natural instincts have adapted and remain relevant to the corporate arena where we fight to preserve our jobs and our income.

Unfortunately, we have become very short-sighted where this is concerned. Daily, I see people at all levels of the corporate world, from workers to managers to shareholders, make decisions that may reap short term gains, but in the long run are self-destructive. Let me illustrate:

Some workers find a variety of ways to do work in overtime that could be done during normal working hours. This may result in thousands of extra dollars in their pocket every month but what is the effect on the profitability of the company that provides their livelihood? When they and thousands of their co-workers are without jobs, what next?

Unions encourage these same employees to agitate for more pay and turn a blind eye to corruption and unproductive practices as they focus on collecting their dues. I wonder if they consider that workers that are unemployed can no longer pay union dues. The chickens always return home to roost.

Management is by no means innocent of this destructive virus of looking after #1 at the expense of others. How many managers and supervisors are unwilling to stand up to shareholders and take a stand for what is right or what is in the best interest of the company because they are afraid of losing their jobs? Everybody tows the line to look like a star for a day and hopefully move up the corporate ladder. ‘Our people are our most important assets’, ‘we value our people’ and similar slogans have become sad buzz words in some companies where workers are forced into working long hours with ever-increasing job descriptions and no training under threat of losing their jobs.

Then there are the shareholders who want all their dividends NOW. There is no reinvestment in the sustainability of the business for the next 10 or 20 years. Shareholders with this type of short-term mindset are the most destructive force in the business as this culture permeates down through the whole organization. Often this is accompanied by an autocratic leadership style where the directors see their role as performance (slave)drivers who keep the managers on their toes. Neither poor performance nor differing views are tolerated and there isn’t an ear for feedback from the ground. Directors are not partners with the executive to craft a sustainable business but rather task masters to ensure maximum (short-term) returns to the shareholders’ pockets.

Maybe I have painted an overly pessimistic picture but the stories I read in the newspapers seem to bear evidence that I’m not far off from reality. We have to begin to look beyond ourselves. A new business model needs to arise. All the stakeholders need to become partners in sustainable value creation. Shareholders, managers, employees, unions… forging a sustainable future together. Our survival depends on it.

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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The Fire Series: Hand, I Need You!

One of the most profound analogies for the church of Jesus Christ is the human body. 1 Corinthians 12:21 states:

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

This is commonly interpreted as the fact that we need each other as individuals, which is completely true. However, I believe that we can also apply this verse at a local congregation or denomination level. Every single assembly, movement and denomination that follows Christ is needed; has something valuable to offer, something without which the rest of us will never experience the fullness of Christ Himself.

It seems that the standard membership package for many churches includes a deep drink of ‘We Alone Have The Truth’ flavoured Kool-Aid. I once belonged to a church like that. We were told that we were on the ‘cutting edge’ of what God was doing in the earth and I believed it too… until. Until, I left and began to read and listen to ‘other’ stuff. Until I began to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit confirming deep truths through the mouths and pages of women and men outside of what was familiar territory up to that point.

I believe that this kind of arrogant thinking is fast becoming extinct. I see the signs in every denomination. There is arising a people who are not afraid to cross the divide and tap into the variety that is needed for the Body to grow. I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Body of Christ will not mature into the fullness of Christ unless we come to the revelation that every Christian group has something to offer that we need. It’s not a nice to have but a necessity; like a balanced diet is necessary to keep the physical body healthy.

I experience this daily with my girlfriend. She is Roman Catholic and I attend an Evangelical church (although I do not identify with any one denomination). As our relationship has grown our faith has widened and deepened. As we have shared perspectives, which are sometimes oppositional, we have come to appreciate God from different perspectives and it has enriched our walk with God immensely.

We have to be aware of the possibility that our religious leaders could be manipulating us with lies for fear of losing their flock. We have to be aware that people are afraid of anything they don’t understand. Don’t take what is said from the pulpit as the gospel (pun intended). Go visit another church one Sunday and see for yourself. Listen to the messages for yourself even if ‘they’ say that person is a heretic. More and more I have found that when people (especially very religious people) say that so-and-so church or person is teaching heresy that there is a good chance that God is in the midst. Study the bible and test every doctrine for yourself.

Like the beautiful stained glass windows often seen in churches, every person and every group may shine a different colour but together when the Son-light shines through we become a beautiful work of art crafted by the Master.

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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Death and Taxes

 

Benjamin Franklin said nothing is certain except death and taxes. Well I’m not sure about taxes, but death certainly appears to be a permanent feature in this physical life. I’ve been thinking a bit more about death recently, not only in the human sense but also in a more general sense; the death of a project or a business venture or a company. In Trinidad & Tobago, the Petroleum Company of Trinidad & Tobago Limited (Petrotrin) refinery recently announced its closure. Petrotrin employs thousands of workers and contractors and has been a part of the oil and gas industry in Trinidad & Tobago for decades. The economic and psychological trauma for a small nation of 1.4 million people is very real. But is it the end?

A good friend of mine gave me Tim Ferriss’ book; ‘Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World’ for my birthday last week. (Happy birthday to me! 😁). In it, Samin Nosrat is quoted as saying, “Endings don’t have to be failures, especially when you choose to end a project or shut down a business… Even the best gigs don’t last forever. Nor should they.” One morning while jogging, this quote intersected poignantly with my thoughts of Petrotrin and the economy.

I had just completed a 45-minute run in the park close to my home (I won’t mention the mileage :/) and I was warming-down with the walk back to my house.  It was a beautiful morning. The sky was blue, and the foliage was lush. A neighbor was cutting his lawn and that lovely smell of freshly mowed lawn filled the air. Then I had a weird thought; the death of a whole lot of grass was giving life to thousands of plants as the mowed leaves died and rotted and formed compost that enriched the soil. I began to see all the things dying all around that were giving life to new things. Nature is very adept at recycling. In fact, the very oil that Petrotrin refines into gasoline and diesel and jet fuel consists of millions of dead prehistoric plants and animals.  It was then that Nosrat’s quote came back to me and I thought about how this cycle of death and life could also be applied to a wider cross-section of life experiences.

A failed business could cause an economy to re-invent itself. A lost job could be the impetus for the birth of a businessman. Ten failed inventions are the seedbed for a hugely successful one. A school dropout could be a world changer.

Loss is painful, but I have a renewed optimism that the end of something, even something good, is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be a good thing as we become open to the possibilities of new births in places we would have previously overlooked. Perhaps, we would even make new discoveries of dimensions within ourselves that could only be birthed in the pain of loss.

Joyfully,

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.

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The Fire Series: Social Media Christian

 

Greetings my joy-filled readers. First, I must apologize for being MIA for a couple of weeks. My unplanned hiatus is in fact the subject of today’s blog. The story begins with me heading to work one day feeling distracted, disconnected from God and just a little bit anxious. I had stumbled into a vicious cycle of experimenting with social media ads as a way to market my new book –Authentic Joy – (how’s that for a shameless plug lol) and then constantly checking to see how my posts were performing and how my sales were going (or not going). Add to that ongoing WhatsApp messaging (aka my WhatsAddiction) which more and more I have begun to use to for business purposes as well. And add to that a slew of deadlines and crises at work and you begin to get the picture.

My dilemma is a common one I assume. I would like nothing better than to just write blogs and books and leave the nitty gritty like marketing to somebody else but unfortunately there is no ‘somebody else’. That’s just par for the self-publishing course. Every article and book that I’ve read on the topic says the same thing, “Books don’t sell themselves.” However, this is not a full-time job for me, so I have to do this on my personal time which has resulted lately in me being ‘that guy’; the guy who always has his head in his phone.

In the end I just had to take a break. I just stopped everything. I stopped blogging. I stopped checking my book sales and book ranking. I stopped checking Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. I stopped checking how many people were viewing, liking or commenting. I stopped it all. What I really needed to check was myself. Reassess things. Ask myself some probing questions…. “Was this what I really wanted for my life when I started all this?” “What was God saying to me?” “How could I walk in faith in this situation, as opposed to trying to make everything happen myself without God or, doing nothing in vain hope?”

The first thing that was loud and clear was that I needed to stop the obsessive checking. Emails, messages, likes and whatever else do not need to be checked every 5 minutes Matik! The more I obsessed the more I could literally feel myself drifting from the peace of God. It was like a growing jittery unease in my soul. You cannot walk with God and be incessantly distracted. You just can’t. If you are satisfied with being with God on a Sunday and a few minutes each day during your bedtime prayers and daily scripture reading, then you can tweet and post and forward memes to your heart’s content. But if like me you are striving to walk in the Presence 24/7 then you have to cultivate a habit of being present to what God is saying and doing in you and around you.

Secondly, God spoke through my girlfriend. I’m blessed to have a partner who has the gift of keen spiritual ears. She said that I need to give thanks. I had not stopped to acknowledge what an accomplishment being published really was, especially in the light of the obstacles I faced to get here. Most importantly, I had not tangibly acknowledged that I owed this achievement all to my Heavenly Father. He had seen me through a tortuous road and brought me out with a testimony of His goodness!

Next, my mother relayed some advice that two people had given her for me; feed the poor. This is something I have been trying to cultivate as a habit for years, but I could never find a way as every food provision programme I checked operated during the week when I was at work or on the way to work. But, I recently heard about a place where I can reach the homeless on a Saturday. So, no more excuses! I don’t think you can really claim an authentic faith unless you take care of the most vulnerable in society.

Finally, God told me to take my focus off this book and get cracking on my next book. I smiled at this one. I believe that God sometimes releases our blessings slowly because we need a little discomfort to get off our butt and do what He has called us to do. Imagine if my first book became a bestseller overnight… How many creative works might remain unfulfilled while I bask in the spoils of past labours… God’s plans for us are always bigger than our plans for ourselves!

Funny how while I was focused on marketing my book, God was focused on other things. So, I’m back from my hiatus but my priorities have been shifted. I’m excited to see what happens next!

Joyfully,

Copyright Matik Nicholls, 2018. All rights reserved.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Book Launch!

My new book is out!

This novel sprung forth from the dark earth of my failure and despair. I gave my life to Christ at age twenty but only found a truly joy-filled life in Christ twenty years later. The difficulties that I faced in those two decades in between – the tireless grappling with my hedonistic tendencies, the vanity of religion, my failures in one marriage after another, the sin that beset me, the deep desire for fulfilment that remained unmet, the people that God used to shape my character and reveal my mission – all provided the resource material that inspired Authentic Joy.

However, that is not the subject of this book. The subject is God. It is a fictional tale that reveals the non-fictional character of an incomprehensibly wise, astoundingly merciful and absolutely sovereign God who transforms darkness and rancour into light and joy!

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!

Get your paperback copy now:

https://xulonpress.com/bookstore/bookdetail.php?PB_ISBN=9781545638477&HC_ISBN=

https://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Joy-Matik-Nicholls/dp/1545638470/

Kindle version coming next month!

Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.