It ain’t what you do…

Musing on the old song: ‘It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it.’

Yesterday, musing on ‘vocation’… Nurses and care home workers continue to be praised not just because they do a good job but because of the sort of people they are…

A former colleague recently said, ‘I have been very fortunate to work for some outstanding heads… one thing (they) all have in common was kindness & compassion & basic humanity.’ To him the mark of a good school leader is not just managerial efficiency or administrative effectiveness…

It ain’t what you do…

Three fat magpies just came and landed on our apple tree. All of the smaller birds hastily left. The magpies argued, fought and then flew off. First a blackbird returned, then a chaffinch, then a great tit, a couple of goldfinches, a dunnock… They didn’t want to be there when the magpies were fighting; they trusted and followed the blackbird.

Musing on St Paul’s criteria for appointing church leaders (1Timothy 3)

• Respect: ‘Worthy of respect’… honesty and integrity
• Relationships: Relating well to their family and local community…
• Reliability: Trustworthy, loyal and consistent…

In churches, schools, politics…. we still get it wrong. We look to big, strong, noisy magpies rather than trustworthy blackbirds.

It ain’t what you do (or believe)…

Nearly two hundred years ago William Wilberforce wrote, ‘My grand objection to the religious system still held by many who declare themselves orthodox churchmen… is, that it tends to render Christianity so much as system of prohibitions rather than of privilege and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice so strongly enforced in the New Testament is practically neglected, and Religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy.’

‘It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it… that’s what gets results.’