Personal Stock

We have personal stock. Like a company. Like the Stock Market. The Dow-Jones, the SNP. Stock is our value as we see ourselves and as others see us.

In a sense, privately verse publicly held stock.

How we view ourselves is paramount to how we will survive this world. Our personal stock must be strong, solid and built on a foundation of values and character.

I've always known this, but recently a live example from college football brought it into light.

Troy Smith, star quaterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes, the 2006 Heisman Trophy winner, undefeated against Michigan, lost the most critical game of his college career.

The BCS National Championship in Glendale Arizona.

Come NFL draft time, Smith's "stock" was down, the report claimed. He'd be drafted, but when, what round? To whom?

Last month we found out. Fifth round, a hundred and seventy-fourth.

A hundred and seventy-fourth.

The top quarterback in NCAA football, Heisman winner goes a hundred and seventy-fourth because he lost one game.

One very critical game.

His whole character and ability to play, command a team fell to scrutiny. Forget all the games he'd won under huge pressure, including 2006 season closer against Michigan.

His team lost when they were expected to win and Troy Smith paid the price. Not Antonio Pittman, or Anthony Gonzales.

In my teens and twenties, I worked for Publix Supermarkets. The best grocery shopping experience you'll ever have. In those days, Publix was a privately held company. Earnings and profits were shared with the employee.

It was the best gig any blue collar worker could have. Two weeks pay as a Christmas bonus. Paid vacation. Medical. Retirement. Profit sharing. Stock options.

They believed in themselves.

I wonder how Troy Smith endured the loss of a National Championship? How did he feel when all the talking-heads declared, "Smith's stock down after defeat."

Since he didn't off himself, my guess is Troy Smith took a look at his personal stock, believed in his abilities, and said yes to the Ravens when they drafted him a hundred and seventy-fourth in the fifth round. I bet he went to training camp determined to show them they made a great pick.

We have to value ourselves, and those who invest time and energy in us. Don't let "public" opinion knock you off course.

Paul writes to the Ephesians, "I pray you be rooted and grounded in love. The love that surpasses knowledge."

Being rooted and grounded means trivial winds don't uproot you. It means you are confident in His love.

Public stock fluxuates if someone on Wall Street sneezes wrong. It's almost the same with people. You can be a perfectly fine person, have a bad moment, and leave a room of people with the wrong impression.

Are you who they think you are? No. But you have to be confident enough not to let it effect you.

One year in college, I hung out with the wrong guy. Just by association, an entire fraternity formed a very wrong opinion of me. Not to say I didn't contribute a little to the opinion-forming, but I was no where near what they thought.

How sickening to have a whole frat think... well, never mind.

But, I knew they were wrong about me. I modified my behavior, stayed away from the man in question, and within a school year, my entire rep had changed with those men.

My personal stock allowed my public stock to change.

Where are you? Someone doing or saying something about you that's hurting? Then let your light shine. Let your inner character and pesonal stock hold you together until "they" see the real you.

Or, maybe like me, you have to make a half-time adjustment.

At the end of the day, all you have is your belief in yourself, and the confidence that you are indeed His favorite One.