February 11th, 2011 // posted in
Family,
Leadership by George Barna
"While working with Matthew Barnett on our new book, The Cause Within You, Matthew’s selfless service to others caused me to reflect on my typical reaction to other people’s pain and suffering.
For most of my life I have sought to develop solutions to the problems that have caused human hardships while remaining personally removed from others’ pain and suffering. I have attempted to identify with people’s need by studying it but without experiencing it alongside them. Even through all the work I’ve done with homeless people over the years, it has been my wife who has gotten down and dirty in the midst of their pain, diving into their circumstances, while I studied it and sought to create prevention mechanisms or remedial options. I have glibly written off the difference in our approaches to her extroversion and my introversion, or to her management skills versus my analytic abilities.
Matthew’s bold and consistent action has caused me to see the error in my assumptions."