The Blog

Thoughts and Musings from City of Refuge Church

Holding the Record


Years ago we began to keep record of significant cultural achievements. It could be in sports, music, or business. We often think in terms of positive accomplishment, but we keep score of the negatives also. It could be for legal or political reasons like the accruement of crimes, autocratic decisions, and even non-human categories such as natural disasters.

It is an honor to hold a positive record. Rarely are we self-aware of the negatives that we manifest. Do you happen to hold an unhealthy record? Maybe you don’t even know you hold it, but the people around do. Is it complaining, irresponsibility, laziness, cheating, inconsideration, or a bottomless pit of excuses? We may never go down in history as famous, but hopefully, we won’t be infamous. Yet, to our sphere of influence (family, friends, co-workers, peers, neighbors) we are going to be known for something.

We could hold the record for keeping grudges or random acts of kindness. We could be the all-time greatest at drawing attention to self or displaying others-centeredness. We could go down in the Guinness World Record for being demanding or being a peacemaker. On that note, you never want to have a high score in keeping score of wrongdoing.

You set the standard. The good news is that no matter what we have been known for up to this point, we can always change. So set the bar high and consider how you make an impact on the people around you for good. Instead of others being able to keep a record of wrongs about you, what if they had nothing bad to say about you. That would be a good record to hold.