Cool Runnings

[The Jamaican bobsled team had a bad run, and now they are trying to figure out how to do better.  The Swiss have been dominating the sport.]

"If we walk Jamaican, talk Jamaican..."  Sanka has the right idea here.  What does this scene though have to teach me, since I am not Jamaican?  It is to be proud of who you are, and where you come from.  It is to not forget who you are.  I see this so often especially in the world of academia.  We try so hard to be the best that we think we can be, but we do it by trying to mimic those that already do it well.  I am not encouraging you to stop looking to the examples of those who do it well.  With out training you will not be a great, so looking at those who are better is good.  When he look at the greats like the Swiss here we cannot forget though that we are not Swiss.  We may not be made to do bobsledding the same way.  

"The right foot is not the Swiss foot."  What is right for you in regards to training and development may not be what is right for me.  This is not to suggest moral relativity.  We have to think about what is best for me.  Some people respond well to be yelled at in training, others to more gentle prodding.  We have to remember that when we work for anything we want to be the best that we can be, and that is not what others are.  I know I have worked at a place before that was so concerned with what others were doing, and it became exhausting.  If I have to keep racing to catch up with the Jones, I forget that I am a Kovatch.  Remember that God made you perfectly who you are, and wants you to flourish as you are, not as somebody else.

Think for a minute about St. Andrew, the brother of St. Peter.  God loved Andrew the best He could, because God could loved everybody exactly how they needed to be loved.  The way that Andrew was an Apostle, and a saint looked different than Peter.  The inner circle of Jesus was always Peter, James, and John.  That must have annoyed Andrew to no end, since it was Andrew who introduced Peter to Jesus.  Andrew though came to realize that God still loved him as fully as He could.  He gave Andrew exactly what he needed, which was not the same as his brother, or James or John.