Posterity Will Judge You

A few days ago, Yunga and I were discussing how to deal with the sound challenges in our parish. Catholic Church sound issues… hmmm.

At some point, I got tired of the conversation and said we should just leave the matter. After all, we are not the ones leading the church. If the priests are comfortable with the sound the way it is, no wahala. We will keep managing it until we can no longer cope, and then perhaps move on to places with better sound systems.

I honestly expected him to agree with me.

Instead, he said something that stopped me.

“𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐮𝐬.”

He went on to explain that we had not implemented all the strategies we had in mind. We had not even shared all our ideas with the priests before deciding to give up. According to him, if we did nothing, a day would come when people would walk into that church and wonder what kind of people once worshipped there.

They would say, “Chuka, Yunga, Hilary and others were here… and this was the result? Why?”

That hit me deeply.

One of the first lessons I took from The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene is this: people do not care about the reasons behind success or failure. At the end of the day, they simply look at the outcome.

It either worked or it did not.

And your name will be on the result sheet.

That conversation started with church sound, but it applies to every area of our lives.

So it is worth asking yourself:

How many things succeed or fail because your name is attached to them?

𝐈𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐩𝐮𝐭?
𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞?
𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦?
𝐈𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞?
𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐝?

These are not easy questions.

We may not win in every area. That is reality.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬:

𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

Have a lovely week.

Shalom.

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