Yet, I left the conference feeling quite discouraged..and even depressed. I have been doing some pondering as to understand why. I believe I've come to one of the key reasons.
It has been said, “Our feelings were given us to excite to action, and when they end in themselves, they are cherished to no good purpose” (Daniel Keyte Sandford, in The International Dictionary of Thoughts, comp. John P. Bradley, Leo F. Daniels, Thomas C. Jones, Chicago: J. G. Ferguson Publishing Co., 1969, p. 291). This means that once we have felt something, we must act in order to hold on to those feelings we experience. As C. S. Lewis said, “The more often [a person] feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel” (The Screwtape Letters, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1982, p. 61).
No matter how inspired people were at the conference, things will stay the same if people don't ask themselves, "How am I going to apply within my 'circle of influence' what I learned from Mr. Montenegro? " We have a tendency to go to conferences, take good notes and get inspired, and then fail to implement what we learned because:
- We make up excuses as to why it won't work in our situation
- We think about all the people who weren't there who should have been there to hear the message
- We complain about the fact that our leaders aren't a Hector Montenegro
- We just forget
....and the result being that we forget what we felt....and thus, things stay the same.
Spiritual leaders do more than attend a conference, take good notes, and get inspired. They leave a conference committed to implement at least one new idea/concept within their "circle of influence"----in spite of all the resistance and obstacles that they may encounter.
