JonathanBenz.com

Meaningful Purpose

From Chapter 13 in Live a Legacy, a few of my thoughts on living a meaningful and fulfilling life by knowing your purpose

 

Change Your Mind

My thoughts on Chapter 12 in Live a Legacy...Change Your Mind...

 

Strategic Thinking

From Chapter 11 in Live a Legacy...

 

Developing Influence

Here I share about how to develop influence:

 

 

Understanding Influence

Here I talk about understanding influence from Chapter 9 in Live a Legacy.

 

Patrick and Spiritual Experience

I found my copy of The Confession of St. Patrick this morning.

I was struck again by this man's story. He was taken into slavery out of Roman Britain (probably modern day Wales) around the age of 15. He was held captive in Ireland and during his literal captivity he found spiritual liberation through prayer and meditation.

It was there that he connected to his spirit and found the Spirit speaking to him which would then lead him away from his slave master, onto a ship to his voyage of freedom to Gaul and back to Britain.

Yet once again through spiritual experience and great faith, he would return to Ireland to minister to others the spiritual freedom he had found while in captivity in that land.

I love how he framed the voice of Spirit to himself through dreams and visions:

And on another night, I do not know, only God knows, whether in me or outside of myself, I heard the most wise words which as yet I could not comprehend...And once again, I saw him praying within my soul; it seemed as if I was still inside my body, and then I heard him above me, that is, over my inner man. So that there he was praying with many a groan, and as all this was happening, I was stunned and kept marveling and wondering who he might be, who was praying in this wise within me. But as this prayer was ending, he declared that it was the Spirit.

His description resonates with me for often I don't know if it is within me or outside of me that I hear what I believe to be the voice of the Spirit. Sometimes, the Spirit sounds similair to my human spirit, indistinguishable as it were.

The point for me is not to quibble over which it is but to discern good, clear direction when these kinds of experiences happen and answer "yes" to the call. 

Sixteen hundred years later, Patrick's Confession is a primer for spiritual experience that reflects the 21st Century human condition as we struggle in a time of conflict to follow faithfully the heart's call in spite of great turmoil or opposition. He wrestled with his culture, his religion, and his God to follow his heart and live authentically.

As the poet e.e. cummings wrote: "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

Patrick did just that.  His story inspires me to do the same today.

Congruence Produces Synergy

In this YouTube broadcast I talk about the principle of congruence producing synergy in our lives and work. From Chapter 7 in Live a Legacy: Spiritual Principles for Strategic Living, available through Balboa Press.