Being Open MindedSample

Being open-minded to give people a second chance 

John 8:11 – “… Then neither do I condemn you.” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In Mark Antony’s speech in the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar, he says “the evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones”. This he speaks to the people of Rome after Julius Caesar is assassinated. It is human nature that we do not give those who have wronged us a second chance. We try to forgive them but fail to forget the hurt. It requires a godly nature to be able to forgive a fellow human being from the heart.

In the passage in Mathew 18,  Jesus talks about the need to forgive fully from the heart if we are to merit God’s forgiveness toward us. In the book of Acts we come across this disagreement between Paul and Barnabas regarding the question of taking John Mark with them. Though Paul was correct in leaving without John Mark, from a disciplinary point of view, Barnabas was willing to give Mark a second chance. Barnabas’s efforts with Mark proved to be fruitful when Paul himself, in a later letter to Timothy, asks him to send Mark to help him out. Barnabas lived out his life as an encourager.

Many times when we work with people we tend to go with our first impression, be it from experience or otherwise. After that we tend to pigeon-hole them into a certain category and do not give them a second chance. Many times as a manager I have come across situations when a team member performed below expectation in one year. I carried the same view of that team member into the next year too. I then started to maintain a critical incident log, which helped me reevaluate the person in the light of the expectations for the present year. When assigning a person to a new project we prefer to give the slot to someone who we are sure will be winner, than someone who merits a second chance.

The greatest satisfaction in team building is when you can take someone on a team and motivate them to do better than the best they have achieved so far, and help them move one notch higher.

Prayer: 

Lord give me your love that helps me overlook the deficiencies in others and help me to help them expect more of themselves.