#1 Connectedness
I'm drawn to personality and temperament analysis tools like bugs to the front of a car. I almost can't stop myself from taking them. When I started hearing about the Strengths Finder book by Tom Rath it landed on my Amazon wish list pretty quick. Not too much later I had my hands on it and started running though it. I took the online assessment and read through the results. I've decided to use the five strengths the assessment indicates for a series of posts.
My highest ranking strength: Connectedness
People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.
In reading through the more detailed description there are some terms that, I must admit, I do not buy into. To be fair, I am a Christ-follower and live, work and breath: Church, or better defined - the Community of Believers. When I read phrases like, "collective unconscious" or "life force" it does rub me the wrong way. That being said: I understand that the author is not coming from the same paradigm as me and will not let the terms get in the way.
I do believe that there is a link between all things. I do believe that there is a God who has created everything and is involved in His creation. I believe that we have free will and God will not override our decisions, even when we are making foolish decisions.
I do believe that 'nothing happens in a vacuum'. Decisions we make today will affect who and what we are in five years. Choices we make today will have intended consequences but also unintended consequences. How we choose to live, or should I say, for whom we choose to live will effect our eternity.
I do believe that we are too live as a community, not as individuals. The needs of the group should come before the rights of individual.
Yes, I believe that there is a connectedness through all things. I believe that God is in all things and through all things.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Washing Toilets
One of the passages that our culture cannot fully understand is the account of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. The account is found in John 13. The disciples had arrived in a house to celebrate the Passover dinner.
The custom of the day was that a slave would wash the feet of any guests that had come to the house so that the dirt and dust from the streets wouldn’t get tracked around the house. Now, it was any slave that got this job, it was the slave lowest on the totem pole that got the foot washing duties.
The disciples had rented a room for this dinner and apparently there were no slaves to take care of the washing of feet. I’m sure Jesus watched the disciples as they came into the room. He probably saw them looking around and wondering who was going to wash everyone’s feet.
I don’t think that we can fully grasp the shock that the disciples would have experienced when Jesus picked up the towel and basin. We don’t fully appreciate what Jesus did, only because we don’t fully get how despised and demeaning a job, foot washing was.
I’ve often wondered what in our culture would compare to help us emotionally react the way the disciples would have. You see, now foot washing has become symbolic – elevated even – as the act of service. The only act that I’ve come up with: to go into someone’s house and clean their washroom – their entire washroom! Floor to ceiling!
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