Diamond Grid for Life
Dear Pilgrims,
Somebody recently shared a map of meaning with me that I found very helpful. I want to extend this person’s generosity with you. We were talking about a congregation in trouble. The call has to be made on whether to end it or whether to salvage it. He suggested we make that decision with the help of a diamond grid with four points. If a congregation (or person) does not have all four points of this diamond it will crumble and trying to salvage it despite it not having these four things working together would be a waste of time. I thought to myself that it applies to individuals and other teams as well. They are:
Vision. A person or a group must dream. There are few things as depressing as a person just carrying on from day to day without a vision for how things could be better that pulls him or her forward in the right direction. We must dream to truly stay alive.
Reality. If I dream of winning an Olympic gold medal with a bad back at the age of 80, I have a dream that doesn’t take into account the concrete reality before me. Some of us are pessimists and others are optimist but all of us, to some extent, need to be realists. We cannot be blind to realities, good or bad and expect to live well. Our dreams need to be shaped by the reality we find ourselves in and our ability to look it in the eye honestly.
Courage. Let’s say I am blessed with the bodily ability and age to be a great gymnast and want to go for gold because of that. I then dream based on a reality. But that alone won’t make me a gold medalist. Courage needs to be added to the mix. I need to get out there, rise and shine early and put in the hours of practice needed. It is extremely popular in our time to vocally advocate for lofty ideals and not lifting a finger to pursue them. We have turned into a bunch of Facebook warriors that lack courageous action while our forefathers have stormed the beaches of Normandy at age 19. We need to walk the talk bravely.
Community. If we dream big, look reality straight in the eye and put our ideals into action we will find that it’s simply not something we can achieve alone. A gymnast needs a community of scientists, sports coaches, supporters and friends to make it big. Even when it comes to simpler goals, we can execute them better with others than we can going at it alone. Like the African saying goes; A (wo)man is a (wo)man between other (wo)men.
Don’t fool yourself by leaving on of the points of the diamond out of the equation that is your life and think you will succeed. Pursue all four. Don’t be impressed by someone who only excels at one or more of these and neglecting one of them grossly. Be careful to invest in anybody that shows no interest in engaging in all 4 of these aspects. Seek, look out for and emulate people who shows a track record of embracing all of them.
I look at the garden project we just kicked off. I see a project that dared to dream, kept in mind where we are placed and what happens in our current reality, made the courageous sacrifices to incarnate the dream into reality, and now involves our community in it. Maybe this doesn’t guarantee its success, but it sure gives it a fighting chance and makes it a worthwhile endeavour regardless of the outcome.
What is your strong and weak hands when it comes to these four diamond points? What do you do to challenge yourself and improve on the one you tend to neglect?
Pondering on these questions could change your life for the better!
Gabriel J Snyman
March 22nd 2021