"Make sure the hull of your convictions can withstand the stress of collisions"

As usual, I'm always challenged by the things I observe. This week I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF), hosted in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago, an event hosted a couple of days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOMG).

At the beginning of the week I was sent a quote from my brother that went something like this, "Make sure the hull of your convictions can withstand the stress of collisions" - Max Lucado

I wondered as the week went by if any of the speakers of the various sessions during the CBF would take such a statement to heart.

I was impressed to see that there were some leaders and businessmen who appeared to hold real convictions on matters of poverty, development, climate change, and they were able to display concrete examples of how their organizations were taking steps to ensure and uphold their convictions.

How many of us walking around the world hold one conviction or another, whether it is on issues of abortion, equality for all, education, rights of women etc, can really hold fast to those convictions "through thick and through thin". Standing up for your beliefs and convictions is not something that we find to be a common occurrence. Rather, we often hear leaders and non-leaders saying one thing and doing another, for example companies that abhor the widespread poverty within the Commonwealth, yet seek to ensure the wealth of their own company and families; government leaders and officials who will support a war in Cabinet but will never send their own children to war.

If you believe in something, in anything to the point where you will fight with your words to ensure that another person is converted to your belief, I should be able to see that through your actions. Our convictions should not only be audible but they ought to be visible. I cannot claim to be a Christian and hate all of mankind, I cannot claim to be Pro-Life and will suggest to a young girl to have an abortion, I cannot claim to be patriotic and at the first sign of trouble disown my country.

There are people who hold no convictions and we who hold convictions look at them as people with "no backbone". I wonder if these people are more honest with themselves, knowing fully well that if I am going to have a conviction I will have to back it "by words and deeds", and they recognize that they may not be able to do either.