Willingness Can Change the World

From the Desk of Chuck Fuller, CEO, The Results Company

Good morning, and I trust you and your family are enjoying this beautiful period of rest and togetherness. Thank you for granting me your most precious resource –time – to allow me to share a message with you, as I often do around certain holidays.
 
Reflecting on my own experience with family this week, it strikes me that there’s only one real prerequisite to time well spent with them: willingness. A willingness to set aside whatever is happening with work, and to accept the simple notion that I’m doing what I should be doing, and I need no other reason.
 
Willingness is, at least for me, a surprisingly challenging state of being. It requires an acceptance that it’s okay to let go of control – to trust that I’m on a path that will lead somewhere fruitful for those closest to me.
 
Below, I share three examples of that spirit.
 
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In Spartanburg, SC, you’ll find a historical marker honoring a woman named Kate Barry. During the Revolutionary War, her husband, Andrew, served in the Continental Army under Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan. Kate’s willingness to support the revolutionary cause, even at risk to her own life, may well have been one of the individual acts of heroism that led to America’s victory.
 
In early 1781, British forces crossed the Pacolet River on a mission to locate and destroy Gen. Morgan’s army. Kate, who served as an informal scout and spy for her husband’s unit, learned of the British army’s advance and mounted her horse to ride through the countryside, calling up recruits and militia to join Gen. Morgan’s 1,000 men for the impending battle.
 
Kate’s actions brought 600 extra troops to the patriot army at the Battle of Cowpens, which proved decisive in the victory often called the turning point of the Revolutionary War. Thereafter, Kate was called the “heroine of Cowpens.”
 
Kate was willing to accept a call to service greater than herself, and in doing so she may well have saved her husband’s army from defeat.
 
We can find a similar spirit of willingness in a biblical story surely familiar to all of you (especially this time of year): the story of Mary. As recounted in a recent podcast from Pastor Rick Warren, Mary wasn’t perfect or sinless. But she was willing to accept and trust in what God called her to do. At first – and understandably so – Mary was quite troubled with the idea that she would bear a child while engaged to be married, not to mention this child would be the Son of God.
 
As Pastor Warren explains, “So she knows nobody’s going to believe her, and she’s afraid. Then it says in verse 30, the angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. And you will be with child, and you will give birth to a son. And you are to give him the name Jesus. And he will be great, and he will be called the son of the most high.’”
 
We don’t need to recount here the impacts of Mary’s willingness to carry and give birth to Jesus. The key is that Mary, despite her fear and her misgivings, still said, I’m willing. And through that spirit, she changed the world.
 
These two stories center on how a spirit of willingness can facilitate extraordinary things for others. If you sit down and think about it, you can probably identify some of the people in your life whose willingness facilitated your own successes.
 
I think of my wife Kelly, my older sisters Gail and Nancy, and of course my Mother. But I also think of my high school civics teacher, Joanne Watkins.
 
I was an average student, and that’s charitable. I wanted to hunt and fish all the time, so that’s what my best friend Randy and I did. School was secondary. But in my junior and senior years at Garner Senior High School, Mrs. Watkins decided to take a real interest in me because I showed some zeal for government and civics.
 
Nobody had ever really spent any time with me on it, but she made an effort to encourage me. She taught me debate and generally looked out for me. At the end of each year, she arranged a class trip for about 40 of us to visit Washington through the Close Up Foundation.
 
We spent an entire week there meeting with our elected officials (including Sen. Jesse Helms), visiting the important sites, and learning hands-on about history. That lit a spark: Washington, after all, is an awe-inspiring place for a kid like me.
 
Before Mrs. Watkins died, I wrote her a letter sharing how much she had meant to me. Her willingness to act on the spark she recognized in me is probably why I’m in this career. She still has an impact in my life to this day because of her total willingness to help someone else.
 
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Willingness doesn’t demand that we have all the answers, or even that we feel ready. It asks only that we show up, loosen our grip, and trust that our presence matters. Kate Barry didn’t know how history would judge her ride. Mary couldn’t possibly foresee the full weight of her calling. Mrs. Watkins had no guarantee that her investment in an unfocused teenager would bear fruit. Yet each chose willingness over hesitation – and others were changed because of it.
 
Perhaps that is the invitation of this season of rest and togetherness: to remember that our willingness can ripple outward in ways we may never fully see. Often, that is all that’s required.
 
May each of you enjoy the blessing of this Christmas season!
 
With gratitude for your readership,

Charles F. Fuller
CEO, The Results Company