October 26. Do You Make Copies?

As an entrepreneur or leader, we might be about value, and then again, we might not. If we are not focused on value our vision is restricted. We might only see the limits of products or services. We might copy and not create. We might be merely thinking about improving instead of innovating.

We can ignore instead of imagining. Just think about the photography industry and the company Kodak. I remember as a child my mother driving by a little booth in a parking lot. She would fill out a form, drop in her roll of film, and hand it to a clerk.

She would then go back weeks later to pick up the photographs. The business model was concerned with the best location and marketed a second copy at the same price. Notice the limits being recognized here. The business was focused on the best location which is a limit.

The marketing was about competition instead of value and copies were not creative at all. The model thought about different finishes on the photograph and looked inward at themselves instead of imagining.

Today you would struggle to find a free-standing film drop off building. Is your team on the path of limits? What is your value? Do you see any creativity, innovation, or imagination in your team? These might just be a great place to put some energy this week to advance value for your teams and clientele.

As believers in Christ, I would like to ponder what Christ copied. What example of love did he follow and replicate? I think that instead of copying, he created. He made things new and showed us how we can do things new as well. In fact, he is all about new.

New life is in him and provides for eternal hope. We read, “and you will know that I am the LORD. For you have refused to obey my decrees and regulations; instead, you have copied the standards of the nations around you.”” Ezekiel 11:12 NLT.

As Jesus’ followers, where are we being like the little photo developing booth business and thinking that copying is the way to move forward? Are we copying our neighbors, the world in pursuit of ungodly things or of acquiring material possessions?

Perhaps we are copying actions of the world that hurt and harm others and feel justified while doing it. Maybe our focus of copying anything should be on copying our Lord. If we are being like Kodak and just copying, we might have the same fate as they have lived out.

If we copy Christ, we are more likely to live a true life of abundance and love. Breaking the limits of how we copy is a way to increase the abundance in our lives. Consider the things that you are copying in your relationships, your faith, in your health and profession.

How might you copy Christ and bring that into any of these realms? What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, we have new eyes to see and new ears to hear. Give us discernment so that we might know what we are copying. Make our efforts to copy be focused on copying Christ and not the sins of this world.

May we copy his example of love and forgiveness as we walk and develop relationships in this world. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,