Fast lane leaders

How do you know you’re stressed?

It’s easy. You wake up screaming..... and then you realize you haven’t fallen asleep yet.

One businessman says: “4 out of 5 of the voices in my head tell me to go back to sleep.”

But here is the best self-test for stress. Look at the mirror and if you look like your photo in your driver’s license then you can be positive you are extremely stressed.

But do you know that stress has a lot to do with the degree of caring we have for other people? Consider this story that appeared in that wonderful book entitled Illustrations Unlimited.

An ethics professor at Princeton Seminary asked for volunteers for an extra assignment. At two o’clock, fifteen students gathered at Speer Library. There he divided the group of fifteen into three groups of five each.

He gave the first group of five envelopes telling them to proceed immediately across campus to Stewart Hall and that they had fifteen minutes to get there. If they didn’t arrive on time it would affect their grade. This he called the “High Hurry” group.

A minute or two later he handed out envelopes to five others. Their instructions were to also go over to Stewart Hall, but they were given forty-five minutes. After they departed he gave the last of the envelopes with instructions to the third group, the “Low  Hurry” group. They were given three hours to arrive at Stewart Hall. Now, unknown to any of these students, the teacher had arranged with three students from the Princeton University Drama Department to meet them along the way, acting as people in great need. In front of Alexander Hall one of the drama students was going around covering his head with his hands and moaning out loud in great pain. As they passed by Miller Chapel on their way to Stewart Hall they found a fellow who was on the steps lying face down as if unconscious. And finally on the very steps of Stewart Hall the third drama student was acting out an epileptic seizure. It’s interesting that of the first group no one stopped, of the second, two of the five stopped, and of the third group all five stopped.

Maybe one of the reasons that the Good Samaritan was able to stop and help was because he had a more leisurely agenda, while the religious “pros” of Jesus’ day were living in the fast lane and simply had no time for interruptions. Their calendars may well have been filled with commitments that left them no leeway.

Now here is my question.

To which group do you belong?

I have no doubt I belong to the first group. Always in a hurry with too many things to do and not enough time to do it and somehow this makes me callous to the needs of other people. When my calendar is full I fell like I am productive. But the truth is when my calendar is full I also feel important. When someone asks me for a date when they could have me speak to them and I pull out my Smart Phone/Personal Digital Assistant, it somehow gives me a sense of pride looking at all the marks on the spaces of my calendar. And then the race is on.

I need to slow down. Easier said but hard to do.

There’s just so many demands and the need is great.

I want to speak to as many people as possible, make a difference in their lives. Build up their morale, strengthen their values and somehow this comes to me with a great toll. That of being insensitive to the needs of others.

Good thing I have a family that supports me and prays for me. Good thing I have a lifetime partner wife who takes care of me and reminds me to take time off every now and then. Good thing I have a regular group of young people who meet with me every Thursday night, study the Scriptures together, pray for one another and inspire me to do what I am doing. Good thing I am accountable to a group of extremely successful businessman and we meet almost every Tuesday morning and we learn life lessons together.

But I need to slow down and perhaps you should too.

It is practically impossible to care for others when our calendar and agenda is too full.

We need to unload it a little.

Famous author Charles R. Swindoll says it correctly: “I cannot be the man I should be without times of quietness. Stillness is an essential part of our growing deeper as we grow older.”

(Francis Kong will be the lead trainer for the Dr. John Maxwell’s Developing the Leader Within You leadership program this December 4-5 at the Hotel Intercon Makati. For further inquiries contact Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. 632-8129125.)