Last week I attended a conference organised by City Bible Forum called ‘Distinctive: The power of an attractive life in the workplace’.  The focus was to equip and encourage workers to live distinctively at your work, for the good of others and the glory of God.

Main speakers were Eddie Woo (Mr. WooTube) and Andrew Laird.  Here’re some thoughts.

What I Certainly Agree With..

‘Christians are hypocrites’

One speaker said, ‘How do you expect people to believe you when you talk about a Sovereign God while you live like a control freak, about a generous God when you are selfish and stingy, about peace from God when you are worried all the time?’*

*my paraphrase, likewise other quotes in this post. 

Exactly right, actions may nullify words even when there’s truth in them.  Yes, it even renders them rubbish (in the hearers’ mind) if I ask for it by my inconsistent behaviours. 

I guess in the Christian life, we know first by hearing, but it has to flow on to doing, else it’s lifeless and useless.  I admit I am guilty many times, the doing not catching up with the saying enough.  

But I see the other side applies equally.  Some instead do the good too eagerly but not preach the right enough (which is also necessary).  Either way, you’re inconsistent.  

People aren’t objects or projects

‘If you try to live distinctively just for the sake of getting people to notice, that’s manipulative.  The cynical world will see through it, and rightly so.’

Instead, ‘We do so because it is who we are!’  

Every Christian is given a new life – that’s who we are.  We’ll continue to be imperfect in all sorts of ways, but there’s a distinctiveness that comes with a new life.  We can choose to let it guide the way we treat others.  

One of the speakers shared a teacher who once impacted him deeply by treating him not as just another student, but as a human being.  It makes one wonder and want to ask where that gentleness and respect come from.  I’ve experienced the impact from such people too.  It’s life-changing indeed!  

Looking beyond things through recognising they come and go while humans last forever.  You don’t get that from materialistic worldview, do you?  Because you’re just a random lump of cells that’s completely incidental and pointless.  If this life is all there is and we all go to nothing eventually, then admit too that human life is ultimately meaningless and treat it as your worldview believes it, can you?  Else, perhaps re-look at your premise about where life’s inherent worth comes from?  Can’t be from nothing.   

Who’s your ultimate audience?

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Colossians 3:23 ESV

When I do as for the Lord, my life inevitably becomes distinctive.  When you work mainly to climb the socio-economic ladder, your actions are predictable, driven by gains easily identified.  But when my audience is God, out of the overflow of thankfulness from my heart, behaviours may seem counter-intuitive or even appear foolish, but strangely attractive. 

One effect of living that way is to see everyone equally.  No feeling of superiority or envy, because people are just people.  Rich or poor, famous or insignificant, pretty or plain – one is just that, it’s nothing to do with their worth as a person created by God.  They look and classed differently by society, but that’s not reality viewed from God’s perspective.  

With things of the world, it’s often in chasing that you never arrive.  In my experience as a student and then worker, what they (my superiors) said made me stand out is I actually treat them no differently.  They’re used to having people excited or cautious, delighted or fearful, but putting up a front before them because of their position and assumed power and influence.  But they’re really just people like you and me, with desires, fears and regrets in life.  So they say it’s refreshing to hear a person like me (perhaps in a much lower position) speaking to them as a fellow human being.   

If your greatest audience is God, you don’t easily behave differently with different people.  But that’s easier said than done.  

What drives you?

As an extension to the previous point, your mission is driven by your audience. 

Eddie’s decisions were based on his heart to serve.  He’s other-focused, wanting to help.  His YouTube endeavor just happens to grow big as he faithfully discharges his duty as he sees it.  Not just saying this because his case seems to end him well (which BTW is too quick a conclusion to make because we need definitions of many words here), but indeed I’ve long been convinced that true life is found in the path of duty, not self-seeking. 

It’s one of the divine design that’s ordered counter-intuitive to our mind. 

There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

Pop psychology inspires many to focus on self, to be bent on fulfilling self by doing and living with a sense of entitlement and consumer mentality.  I wonder, after continually taking in to fatten yourself up, are you fat now?  Emotionally, socially, spiritually.  Truly, no.  Only physically are you able to make yourself fat, the others are never attained that way.

What Makes Me Think..

To be sober-minded

‘You’re semi-famous now, you’re loved and praised.  How would you respond when people start criticizing you?’

His response showed him to be sober-minded.  He’s not taken by vanities of the world and understands the fleeting nature of men’s approval.  ‘It comes and goes, and comes,.. and goes again!’

Knowing it for what it is helps keep him wise, grounded and humble based on the things that have been his anchor, not on this new found fame that will soon turn old.  

To know the cost

‘If I’m too comfortable, may be I haven’t stretched myself enough.’

.. always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience..

1 Peter 3:15-16

In loving others, sharing your hope is necessary (‘yet do it with gentleness and respect’), although you may be misunderstood.  We need to take a stand when it’s right to do so.  That takes discernment and wisdom.  

One example was when the speaker said, ‘Facebook isn’t the platform for that.  It’s time to make some calls instead.’  Even when some were still unhappy and he may end up with churning in the stomach and grinding in the mind for weeks after the conversations.  What makes someone willing to go through this?  The ability to see his comfort is not the highest priority.  There’s a bigger calling outside of yourself, when you give yourself out like that, that’s when you find life.

To be willing

One speaker said all the Myers Briggs tests indicate he’s 90% introvert.  

‘If turn of events hadn’t happened exactly the way it did, things would’ve turned out completely different for me.’  

God can and does use unlikely people to accomplish his works.  I always remember what someone said, ‘Personality shouldn’t be a reason we don’t do things we know we should.  It’s still nerve-wrecking for me every week, but God has made it easier for me over the years, and I know this is just what I have to do for the rest of my life.’  Because he has done that despite his introvert self, he’s impacted so many lives including mine.  

Afterthoughts

I find role models inspiring and have myself been changed the most through their examples. But it is good to recognise they are but frail humans.

An effective talk is one that takes your eyes off the speaker and up over to God. That evening at the conference I saw the same Spirit that’s at work in each of us. Isn’t that wonderful to see God’s wondrous and gracious work in people’s lives?

Lastly, I am reminded of a talk I heard recently (In Search for Happiness). You don’t get happiness by seeking it directly. In finding God, you find happiness thrown in. Likewise, you don’t become distinctive in seeking to be. In living for God, you inevitably live distinctively.