907: Flashes in the Pan

"History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new."

I’m a tee-shirt guy.  Give me a pair of Converse Chucks, a pair of blue jeans and a tee-shirt and I feel rightly dressed.  Since I like tee-shirts I have been thinking that I should have a few made up that I like and what I thought would be fun would be to go back over the last couple of decades and have shirts made up with the logos of bib popular companies that have passed on.  Like Netscape or Lotus,  Companies like that.  They could be great conversation starters too.  This is just a reminder how quickly companies can get up and into the jetstream only to be faded from memory in a short amount of time. One of my favorite music/tech pundits, Bob Lefsetz, wrote this week on how the answer isn’t juicing yourself to the top, but instead building for the longhaul.  He referenced turntable.fm and foursquare as his examples of being flashes in the pan.  It’s a great reminder that if want to be here today and gone tomorrow  that it can be more easily achieved than finding our way into the mainstream by methodically and predictably delivering a quality product or service and doing so in a high integrity manner for our shareholder, our partners, our team and our customers.  It’s to always be considered if we want to stick around in the kitchen for a while rather than being a flash in the pan.

This is also true of how we manage our Christian life journey.  Sure, we all want the highest of highs in our spiritual life but if that is all we are striving for then once those times are gone we will be left searching again.  Jesus modeled consistency, diligence and discipline for us.  There was no objective to be a world-wide phenomenon and draw together people from all around the world to come hear him speak and teach.  In many cases it was just the opposite, he would quickly move away when the crowds became huge.  Jesus wanted to leave behind men and women who could and would further His message for all of eternity.  We are so fortunate to have His life and Him to accept, model and follow.  When we do, we learn that it’s not about being the flash in the pan for His Kingdom.  There are plenty of those to go around.  No, it’s about being a model of consistency in how we live, work, treat others and bring glory to Him.  Have a great weekend and know that our God recognizes and appreciates those that will go the distance with Him.

Reference: Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New Living Testament)