This morning I want to talk to you about something that has really been working on me in the last 2 weeks when all I had to do was stare at the most uninspiring piece of real estate – my ceiling. It has to do with acceptance. I was reminded of Muhtar Kent who was Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Company. In an article entitled "Thinking outside the bottle", he wrote about India and how one has to come into India with a different mindset. He said, "The key is this: Companies that come into India need to accept the market for what it is, and not as they wish it to be."
I thought that this was really keen insight, not only in terms of markets, but also in terms of our own lives. Sometimes we get into situations that we want to be the kind of situations that we would like it to be without realizing that that cannot happen. If we want to be a part of the situation, we need to accept that situation for what it is and then work within that environment, or else we miss the mark completely.
Muhtar Kent talks about this especially as it has to do with India, because he grew up in India. He spent about 2 years here while his father was a Turkish diplomat posted in India. He says, "I remember the variety of spices, the smells and the colors," and how they impacted him at that time. "But," he says, "all of that helped me understand culture when I came back to India as CEO of Coco-Cola. I realized that family-owned businesses were so integral to community. When we started to move Coke products into these rural areas, the challenge in many of these places was that we couldn't offer a cold bottle of Coke, because there was no electricity and not enough infrastructure for so many of these things that were so important to a Coke product." He recognized that while they could get a product like Coke into their hands, most of these family-owned businesses did not have infrastructure to provide an ice-cold Coke bottle to consumers.
By accepting that situation and not trying to change it, not trying to fight the culture and not insisting that they change they found it easier to find a solution. They came up with eKOCool, a solar-powered mobile cooler that was introduced into thousands of Indian rural villages that lacked electricity. Through this, they were able to provide a cool bottle of Coke to people.
Accept the market for what it is and not for what you wish it to be. These past 2 weeks, that has been on my mind in great measure – to be able to accept the situation for what it is. I realized it is only in acceptance that we look for solutions and find new perspectives. You have to get to a position where you say, "I'm not trying to change the equation here. It's something that I don't have the wherewithal to change." As I realized with my back and sciatica, there was nothing I could do in terms of asking, "Why has it happened?" or any of those questions that are so irrelevant and redundant. But the question to ask was "How do I go through the situation and make it work for me?" which is what Muhtar Kent did when he looked at Coke and the lack of electricity. How do we make it work for us?
I realized that it is in acceptance of various situations; not saying, "I accept it and it will be a part of my life" but saying "I accept it as a reality in my life. It's something that I may have for a limited time in my life, but in that limited time, how do I bring about the change in my mindset that will allow me to accept this period, or this situation or circumstance?" I found that when I was able to change that mindset, that my mind soared. It soared beyond the uninspiring ceiling to the skies and the hills and the mountains. I realized that that's where my help comes from. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Then it brought fresh perspective that the situation, while there was nothing I could do to change it, was going to bring about a solution in accepting and helping me to go through it. Through that, I got the strength to be able to go through this particular situation.
It made me think about you, my friends. You may not be down with sciatica as I am, but it could be that you are facing a pretty grave situation yourself, facing what seems to be an insurmountable mountain, facing a difficult situation in your life. Maybe you are fighting it and trying to change it. And it's not changing. Maybe the thing to do is to accept it and then see what you can do from within that situation to help you to cope and even to make the best out of it.
I don't know about you, my friends who are reading this post today. Maybe you are between a rock and a hard place. I wonder whether acceptance of the situation is what you need to do first – to accept that you are in this situation and then see whether the Almighty God can bring you new perspective to help you move through the situation. My prayer for each of you, especially knowing how difficult it has been these last 2 weeks for me, is to hope and pray that you would allow the Almighty God space in your situation, so that He can bring about a change in the equation.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, so often we get caught up in the specifics of the things that are troubling us. And we can't do anything about it. We fight it. But Lord today, for each of these friends reading this post--You know who they are; You know what they are going through. Will You bring Your presence as a ray of sunshine, as a silver lining in the clouds into each one of our lives and help us to see things from Your perspective, and then to be able to walk through the situation, even making this a wonderful thing of glory. I pray a blessing upon each of these precious ones. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
· Muhtar Kent, "Thinking Outside the Bottle." http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Asia-Pacific/Thinking_outside_the_bottle?cid=reimagining_india-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1312
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