Intellectual journeys

Found via Instapundit, a personal journey to faith through the thicket of unbelief.

Starting point: “I didn’t need faith to ground my identity or my values…and my perception of Christianity fitted well with the views of my fellow students: Christians were anti-intellectual and self-righteous.”

A few points along the way:

• “Briggs [Professor of Nanomaterials at Oxford and a Christian] asked me whether I believed in God. I fumbled. Perhaps I was an agnostic?  He responded, ‘Do you really want to sit on the fence forever?’”
• “I walked into a church for the first time as someone earnestly seeking God. Before long I found myself overwhelmed.  At last I was fully known and seen and, I realised, unconditionally loved.”
• “God wants anything but the unthinking faith I had once assumed characterized Christianity. God wants us to wrestle with Him; to struggle through doubt and faith, sorrow and hope. Moreover, God wants broken people, not self-righteous ones.”
• “…salvation is not about us earning our way to some place in the clouds through good works. On the contrary; there is nothing we can do to reconcile ourselves to God.”
• “Christianity was also, to my surprise, radical – far more radical than the leftist ideologies with which I had previously been enamored.”
• “To live as a Christian is a call to be part of this new, radical, creation. I am not passively awaiting a place in the clouds.”

These are the people who have the kind of impact described by Melba Maggay in Transforming Society (hardcover, paperback).

Remembering on this Memorial Day.

Linking strategy to execution

10 principles from a strategy consulting firm for strategy and execution. You'll find these in most articles and textbooks, so why pay attention? Read through the article and pay attention to the language. It tends to be a language of calling rather than function.

Phrases like "making a better world through your products, services, and presence" are aspirational. Rather than accomplishing functional goals like return for shareholders, the principles are expressed in terms of transforming the world.

A few key points:

• "…dedication to excellence that seems almost obsessive to outsiders."
• "…every structure in your organization should make your capabilities stronger, and focus them on delivering your strategic goals."
• "…many companies unintentionally diminish their capabilities by allowing functions to operate independently."
• "Embrace digital technology’s potential to transform your company."

Potential catalyst causing people to leave the military

Testimony to Congress by the US Army's Chief of Staff seemed pretty contentious: “Candidly, failure to pass a budget, in my view both as an American citizen and chief of staff of the United States Army, constitutes professional malpractice. I don't think we should accept it as the new normal. I think we should pass it and pass the supplemental with it. And get on with it.”

Points:

• ”…by early summer training will stop across much of the military”
• “Routine maintenance of equipment will be halted, and thousands of military families will see transfer orders put on hold.”

Counterpoint by Representative Adam Smith (D-WA): “can't agree ‘that we can somehow pull defense out of the entire rest of the federal government … as if all the other money we spend on government doesn't matter.’”