!!effective!! part 2

This word is bothering me.

Effectiveness: The capability of producing an effect.

How do I work effectively? How do I love effectively? Is "being effective" an appropriate goal? Am I not often an effective jerk? Isn't it easier to be an effective negative than an effective positive?

How do I measure my effectiveness in the roles of my life? (As a friend, a father, a lover, an employee, a tenant, a son, a suitor, a businessman, a writer, an artist, an athlete, a Christian....)

Effectiveness is measured by the standard that we compare ourselves to. If we compare ourselves to ourselves, any small change may seem huge. If we compare ourselves to others, who have different gifts and strengths than us, we may become very confused (most are unaware and do not accept that they are confused). If we compare ourselves to perfection, then we will go crazy (OCD, anxiety, depression, Self-loathing). If we compare ourselves to God, then we find ourselves in a perpetual state of repentance (which, thankfully, allows us to enjoy forgiveness, healing, and new growth).

Effectiveness is incremental. It is arbitrary. It is subjective. It is useful.

God, you say that the greatest of our actions are valueless if they are not done with love. Teach us what that love is. Let us experience it. Show us what it isn't. Help us to sprinkle our lives with the purest expressions of it. Help us to judge our own effectiveness in the light of it.