{"id":4691,"date":"2025-06-12T09:46:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4691"},"modified":"2025-06-12T09:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:46:21","slug":"vnps-very-nice-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/vnps-very-nice-people\/","title":{"rendered":"VNPs Very Nice People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Most of the people you will encounter today fall into the fourth of Gordon MacDonald\u2019s five relational categories.

Almost 40 years ago, MacDonald proposed that it\u2019s worth noting how various kinds of people affect our personal energy on a daily basis.

Spending time with a VRP (Very Resourceful Person) is like pouring jet fuel into a lawn mower.\u00a0MacDonald arbitrarily assigns an energy value of +3 to such mentors, because they have an extraordinary way of restoring both our perspective and our perseverance.\u00a0

A VIP (Very Impactful Person \u2013 a good friend or trusted colleague) is someone who shares our vision for life, and offers us +2 energy units.

Then there\u2019s the Very Trainable Person \u2013 someone who is eager to hang around us, and sees us as a mentor. While a VTP yearns to draw down some of our time and attention, MacDonald thinks such an apprentice relationship still nets us +1.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

Which brings us to VNPs.

They would be the Very Nice People<\/strong>.\u00a0

Nice people are just so very\u2026nice<\/em>.\u00a0And your world is absolutely teeming with them.\u00a0

Here we need to remember that someone who is a Very Nice Person to you<\/em> may well be the light of someone else\u2019s life, or their best friend, or a freaking relational nightmare.\u00a0

But to you, a VNP may be the checkout person at the grocery; or the neighbor you barely know; or the colleague at work with whom you have lively chats about the thermostat and your pet cats, but little else.

MacDonald suggests that VNPs typically have little effect on our lives.\u00a0Their energy impact is zero.\u00a0Nothing. Nada<\/em>.

And that\u2019s something that can occasionally create a crisis.

If you\u2019re a team leader, or a teacher, or a pastor, or a community activist, or someone collecting donations for a vital social cause, and you can imagine nothing more wonderful than inspiring a crowd to dynamic new levels of commitment, you\u2019re likely to be disillusioned.

The VNPs in your life will smile at you.\u00a0They will listen politely.\u00a0They will take notes on your heartfelt summons to be part of something awesome.\u00a0

Then they will say, \u201cThat\u2019s really nice.\u00a0So, how about those Pacers?\u201d

Jesus seems to have prepared his disciples for such disappointment.\u00a0

His Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20) is a frank admission that no matter what we say or do, only a fraction of our most earnest and prayerful spiritual efforts will yield a harvest in other people\u2019s lives.

In Bible times, farmers would \u201cbroadcast\u201d their seed \u2013 that is, throw handfuls of seed in broad arcs over their gardens and fields.\u00a0

Every seed, if allowed to grow and reproduce, was possessed of sufficient biological power to yield an entire field of wheat.\u00a0But it all depended on where it landed.\u00a0Some surfaces doomed the seed from the start.\u00a0Other surfaces, because of the condition of the soil, guaranteed lavish fruitfulness.

In the same way, Jesus says, the \u201cseed\u201d of the new life contained in his teaching has the potential to turn somebody\u2019s life inside-out and upside-down.\u00a0Or it can land with a disappointing thud. It all depends on the condition of our hearts.<\/em>

What\u2019s the difference between a heart where God\u2019s life never takes root and a heart where we continue to come alive?\u00a0

It\u2019s character.\u00a0It\u2019s staying power.\u00a0It\u2019s our willingness to open ourselves to God\u2019s Spirit even when we don\u2019t feel like it.

Character is the ability to follow through on a worthy decision long after the emotion of that decision has passed.\u00a0<\/em>

Very Nice People may seem to lack such character. Most of us can expect to have little transforming impact on the majority of the VNPs around us. Which is why they seem to have such little impact on our lives.

But there is hope.

The thrust of the Parable of the Sower is simple and profound: Keep sowing seeds.\u00a0<\/em>You may not be the person whom God will use to enliven someone else\u2019s heart. But you can make sure the seeds are there when it\u2019s time for that happen. \u00a0

So, always be gracious with others. Always express appreciation.\u00a0Always gently call others to greatness \u2013 to leave their comfort zones for God\u2019s sake.\u00a0 \u00a0

For we never know when such seeds will germinate.\u00a0

And suddenly, someone who always seemed to be just a Very Nice Person is standing before us as one of God\u2019s champions.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Most of the people you will encounter today fall into the fourth of Gordon MacDonald\u2019s five relational categories. Almost 40 years ago, MacDonald proposed that it\u2019s worth noting how various kinds of people affect our personal energy on a daily basis. Spending time with a VRP (Very Resourceful Person) is like… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4693,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4691\/revisions\/4693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}