Category: Growing in Trust and Capability

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When God Says “Not That Way”

Not long ago I spent some time working in our church’s nursery. I’m talking the really little kids…from birth up to when they start walking steadily. Kids at this level spend a lot of time sitting on the floor, grabbing toys and shaking them, asking for snacks, crawling over to grab what somebody else has, etc. For me, it’s a fun age to work with.

It seems like every nursery at church has one of those box-shaped toys where you dump out a bunch of shapes, but then the lid has a bunch of differently shaped holes you try to put the shapes back through. At this age, it’s easy for the kids playing with this toy to get frustrated.

On this particular occasion a little guy was interested in the toy, so I dumped out the contents and showed him, using a shape or two, what was supposed to happen. He got the rough idea, but didn’t yet have the capacity to follow through. It struck me as a metaphor for how God will lead us toward something, but aside from Him we frequently don’t have the patience or the tools to see things through to the end.

With the little guy, I let him give it a try. The circle is the easiest one to make work, so I gave that one to him first. As you might guess, he didn’t use it on the circle hole, he just picked a different opening with a different shape and tried to make it work. When it didn’t go the way he wanted, he started trying to just smash it through. He didn’t even have the fine motor skills to line up the shape with its matching opening, so he resorted to brute force.

I gently guided his hand, still holding the shape, to the right spot. Together we even got the shape partway into the hole; all he needed to do was let go of it and it would fall into the box. I let go of his hand and watched to see what he’d do. To my gentle frustration, he pulled the shape all the way back out. Starting to see the picture, he then tried putting the shape back in the hole, but found himself still unable to do it and started smashing the shape on top of the box again.

It made me appreciate God’s patience with us. Whether it’s “I know you don’t have the tools for this yet but I’m introducing it to you anyway” or “you know, you’re really not getting this, even though you should by now,” He’s got so much patience with us. The patience isn’t limitless, but it’s usually pretty generous as long as we’re giving it an honest effort. On our end we often get frustrated and want to just start smashing things when they’re not working the way we want, but God’s often got a very specific way (and timeline by which) He wants us to get things done.

Try giving it some more patience, and learn to be okay having less control over the method, direction, and timing of everything. He doesn’t expect you to be an expert, or even proficient, at things right away, but if He’s charged you with some specific role, He’ll provide you with the tools and the opportunity to learn how to do the thing He’s asking you to do. Stick with it, don’t get frustrated and start smashing things, and celebrate even the small bits of progress you’re making.

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The Cheese is Old and Moldy. Where is the Bathroom?

I was in 8th or 9th grade when I first took Spanish. When you’re first learning a new language, you’re memorizing a lot of vocabulary, learning sentence structure and gender agreement, and learning how to conjugate verbs. In my first year (Spanish I) there wasn’t a whole lot of emphasis on conversational skills. Our teacher that first year taught us the basics…we could all count to 20 or something like that, sing “happy birthday” in Spanish, ask where the bathroom was, and tell you that John/Juan is handsome and has a beard.

There was a lot more than that, of course, but the teacher was easily distracted. He was a nice enough guy, but he was dealing with a bunch of middle/high schoolers who didn’t really care what he was saying and didn’t always take him seriously. A lot of times he’d just end up telling us stories about his gang days (he didn’t seem like the gang type), singing weird off-key songs in Spanish, or generally rambling in ways that weren’t terribly helpful for learning. The homework from the book, though, helped reinforce the subject matter. We learned the rudimentary stuff from him, but got the actual instruction from the book if we took the time and put in the effort.

The next year we took Spanish II, and most of us had a different teacher. She was stone-faced, man. I had her for a few years, and even though she had a sense of humor, she hardly ever smiled. The first day I had class with her, the bell rang, she shut the door, then walked to a spot in the classroom we could all see and hear her. Without any introduction in English, she said “si me entiendes, levanta la mano.”

I was a little stunned at first, partly because of the drastic change in teaching style. Everybody sat there in confused silence, looking at each other. As I worked through it though, I was able to put together what she had said. “If…you understand me…raise your hand.” It took me a minute, and I figured it out. But when I looked around the room, nobody was raising their hands. With a little bit of a gulp, I slowly raised my hand, and I was the only one in the class to do it. She looked at me with what was probably a mix of disappointment at only one hand among so many being raised, with a mental note of “okay, so you’re the one setting the curve right now.”

I don’t know for sure, but I have my suspicions what she thought of the Spanish I teacher.

Not that I was a stellar Spanish student, but I picked up some stuff over those years in high school. I had two different teachers, plus the text books and the workbooks. When it comes to learning a new language, reading, writing, speaking, and hearing are four distinct skills you need to develop. These things all worked together to reinforce the same thing: being proficient in the language.

With regard to the Christian walk, there are different skills, disciplines, and practices that all work together to make you more “proficient” in your walk with Christ. Reading the Bible, hearing the sermons of a skilled Bible teacher, speaking prayers to the Lord, and immersing yourself in a culture where people practice their faith, if done consistently, will drive you toward a rich walk with God. Of course there are teachers who are more skilled than others, or who have styles that are more effective for one type of personality over another. If they’re exercising the gifts God’s given them, it’s all contributing in some way to a deeper understanding for somebody.

So stay in the Word, stay in prayer, stay in church, and make sure you’re using your spiritual gifts to do the Lord’s work. This engagement is how we help each other out in our Christian experience, strengthening not just our own walk, but each others’ in the process.

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That is One Nasty River

There’s a story in 2 Kings chapter 5 we can all learn from.

Naaman was a great General, a mighty soldier, that his king viewed as a great and honorable servant. Naaman was a rich man, accustomed to walking the great halls of the high levels of society, and was constantly around the finer things of life. Unfortunately for him, he had a disease no amount of money could cure him of: leprosy.

He caught wind of someone in Israel who supposedly had the ability to perform medical miracles, and when he told his king about the prospect, the king facilitated his journey. Naaman brought an excessive amount of money and gifts to the land, ready to perform all kinds of bizarre rituals or to complete difficult quests for the sake of being healed. Skip ahead to when Naaman arrived at the prophet Elisha’s door, he expected to be received with the rolling out of the red carpet, then be given a personal ceremony where Elisha prayed and performed some kind of dramatic routine, then be healed supernaturally.

Instead he got something much different. Elisha didn’t even bother to meet him. He sent a messenger instead. “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”

Naaman was furious. Didn’t this prophet know who was standing here at his doorstep? The Jordan River was dirty and muddy, and there were far more prestigious rivers where he came from in Syria. He could have easily washed in one of those if that’s all it took! He stormed off in anger.

While he was still livid, his servants approached him. They said something to the effect of “hey Boss, not for nothing, but when you came here, you were prepared to do all kinds of elaborate or crazy things if this guy told you to. If he told you to do something easy, why not give it a try? What’s the worst that could happen?”

The text doesn’t really say how much Naaman deliberated over this; it just says he went down and did what Elisha told him to do. And wouldn’t you know? “His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” I wonder sometimes if we make things too difficult. I think a lot of us know God can use us for mighty things if He chooses, but we don’t often think about the easy things or the small things.

One of my favorite lessons from the Bible is the idea of God saying “if you’re not faithful in the little things, why would I trust you with the big things?” What if, instead of looking for that big dramatic thing that happens infrequently, we focused on trying to be faithful and willing to do the small things on a regular basis? My worry is that we might spend so much time on the sidelines waiting for something “truly worthy of our standing” that we miss smaller opportunities God places in our path much more often. Let’s grab the opportunities that are already there instead of waiting for the ones that might come along further on down the road.

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Ever Think You’d Be a Teenaged Millionaire?

I’d guess I was somewhere in the range of 12-14 years old for this one. Out of the blue, I got a letter in the mail from Publisher’s Clearing House or something similar. Whoever it was, it was a sweepstakes business, and the letter implied that I’d be winning a million dollars!

Of course I know years later that this was too good to be true, but back then, in the 1990s when things were simple and I was young (and a million dollars went a lot further than it does in the 2020s), I was completely taken captive by the idea. I set about planning what to do with all that money.

I decided my largest purchase was going to be a house that was for sale in the neighborhood where we lived. It might have even been right next door, I’m not sure. Once I figured that out, I broke out the JC Penney catalogue that came in the mail every year. Remember those? They were bigger than a phone book (hopefully you remember those, too). The catalogue had all kinds of home furnishings. I picked out a living room set with black leather couches, I think. I remember I also wanted to pick up a hot tub for the back yard. I dog-eared a whole lot of that catalogue’s pages. I don’t remember how I mentally got past the problem of being too young to make legal transactions like buying a house, or figuring out taxes, or being too young to even be able to drive a car. All that little stuff would surely get taken care of for someone with money!

I got pretty deep into this whole thing. Eventually my parents had to break it to me: “you’re not winning this money.” I think they showed me the original letter I received, and pointed out the fine print or the way the words for the announcement were chosen very carefully to make me believe I’d already won. Looks like I was going to have to figure out some other way to pay for the latest Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman albums.

Hopefully reading from the Bible is a regular occurrence for you. If it’s not, try to make that a habit starting this year. Here’s something to watch out for though. English is not the language the Bible was originally written in. As you can imagine, not every word in the original languages directly translate to English. There’s a reason “lost in translation” is a common saying. Folks have been translating the Bible for quite a long time and they’ve put a lot of thought into this, but sometimes the reasons translators chose particular English words or phrases aren’t evident or explained. That’s where a study Bible can really come in handy. It explains some of those word choices, along with the context of why actions were so meaningful in light of the days’ traditions, and it often links related passages.

While a scripture-only Bible is wonderful, a study Bible typically brings much more understanding and context. In much the same way that I needed to have someone who understood the reality of “you’ve won a million dollars*” explain the asterisk to me, I find it to be enormously helpful to have a study Bible that breaks things down for me or explains it to me in an understandable way so I don’t make my own erroneous assumptions and accidentally sink my beliefs into something that’s simply not true.

Lord, thank You for giving us the written word. Help me find the right translation of the Bible I can readily understand, and the right tools to grasp the significance of what I’m reading. In Your name, Amen.

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This is not a Situation Where you Want to Panic

I used to go skydiving out of this tiny little drop zone outside a tiny little town in Texas. This place was out in the sticks. The airport also served as the base for at least one cropduster. There weren’t many drop zones nearby; this one took about 90 minutes for me to drive to. The little single-engine Cessna we used seemed to groan each time it lifted off the ground. The people were nice, and I just really wanted to go jumping, so I couldn’t be terribly choosy. I began showing up consistently and started getting to know some of the regulars.

One weekend something a little different happened. I’m not sure of the reason, but the regular pilot wasn’t available, and we had a younger, much less experienced pilot flying loads that day. I didn’t really think anything of it. Nobody seemed to have a problem with it. We had a very experienced jumper at this drop zone, Chad, who seemed to know a lot about not only skydiving, but also flight operations, so he was good to have around. (Incidentally, he probably saved my life one time.) Thankfully, he was on the same load as I was that day.

A bunch of us got in the plane and began our ride to altitude. Normally when people get on a plane, they’re actually headed to a destination on the ground somewhere. When you’re skydiving, your destination is “up high.” You pretty much just want to gain a bunch of altitude so you can hop out. That ride to altitude can look very different depending on how busy the local airspace is, what the winds are doing at different altitudes, and the aircraft’s capabilities. The pilot might fly a corkscrew pattern, a box pattern, or some kind of racetrack pattern, just for a few examples. These are methods used to gain altitude without venturing too far away from the drop zone.

On this particular occasion, whatever pattern our pilot chose involved a bad call. I’m not sure if maybe he didn’t do his homework, or if this is something that could have happened to anyone, but we ended up getting downwind of the drop zone, fighting against a pretty strong headwind. The climb to altitude took about the same amount of time, but we spent longer in the aircraft because it took longer for us to claw back lost ground distance.

It wasn’t really a big deal to me at the time, but the pilot started getting agitated. It turns out we were pretty low on fuel. The strong headwind meant we needed to burn fuel faster to reclaim ground, and the analog fuel gauges didn’t give very descriptive readings when they were very low, especially as fuel sloshed around in the wing tanks. You can imagine how this all added to the anxiety level of a young, inexperienced pilot.

Chad noticed what was happening, and that the pilot kept switching the fuel feed back and forth between the left and right fuel tanks. With a cool head, he advised the pilot to relax and to stop switching; use up one tank until it’s dry, then switch to the other one. That way you’ll know for sure what you’ve got in that tank. If the second one runs out, it runs out, no amount of switching between the two would prevent it. Getting a little higher should help get us above the air current, so let’s press on before considering more drastic measures.

It started dawning on the rest of us what was happening. We weren’t real nervous; after all, we were all wearing parachutes and planned to get out of the plane before landing anyway. If that happened, our biggest problem would be figuring out where we landed and how to get back to the drop zone from the middle of what seemed like a thousand-square-mile field. The pilot, on the other hand, had an obligation to get the plane safely on the ground. Chad would probably stay with the pilot in the plane, and dropping several hundred pounds of skydivers should help improve the plane’s fuel efficiency, increasing the likelihood of safely getting back on the ground.

This is a little anticlimactic, I know, but thankfully we didn’t have to bail out early. We did end up jumping from a little lower than planned, but otherwise we made it to where we were supposed to go. The plane had enough gas to make it back to the airport safely. I’m not sure exactly how close the pilot (and us) came to disaster that day, but I imagine those wing tanks were much more full the next time the aircraft took off.

Sometimes in the midst of a crisis, all it takes is a steady hand and a calm demeanor to avoid catastrophe. Being present and just listening to someone who’s coming a little unglued, or offering insights that might be helpful can really walk someone back from panicking. While there are occasions where you kind of need to push somebody out of the way and seize control of the situation, as long as safety or time aren’t major issues, why not just offer support (and maybe guidance if they need it) as they work through the problem? Common sense and problem-solving seem like they’re becoming a little too rare these days, and helping someone walk through an issue can help pass along some lessons on good judgment, keeping calm, and solving problems. You might just find yourself in a position to make those rare qualities a little more common.

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Dude, Living Out Your Calling Can Be HARD!

Let’s get real for a little bit here. Sometimes trying to follow God’s calling…is hard!

Back during the Covid years, I felt like God called me to do something really audacious. Despite never having published anything professionally, or not having written fiction stories since elementary school, I felt like God was calling me to write a series of fictional Christian novels.

Truth be told, it was kind of a miraculous experience to be a part of. When it comes to big, bold ideas, I’m actually pretty organized. I started spreadsheets to lay out this monstrous storyline, and the ideas just kept coming. Ideas would kind of fester for a bit, then evolve into something a little smoother. More details would come to mind, and they’d work really well. I took all kinds of notes for each of the stories that would eventually be part of the series. Things have changed a bit since the original nascent ideas, but overall the plots started coming together. It’s one of those times where it was perfectly evident only God could allow all the ideas to fall into place.

Eventually I figured I needed to have seven distinct stories, though some of the stories were multi-volume, so it came out to be 10 different books. I tried starting at the beginning of the series, and I worked on that for awhile. Then I tried dabbling in the second story for a bit, but the one I really wanted to get to work on was the fifth story. I’d be focused on the first or second story, but I kept getting more and more ideas about the fifth one. They’ve all got to get written, so I got started on the one I was excited about. That’s still the one I’m most pumped about, and it’s the one where I’ve made the most progress.

But fast forward a few years, and how are things going? Well, to be honest, things have kind of stalled. I’m still excited about the idea of getting these stories written out, but I don’t seem to have the time or energy to focus on them. Covid faded into the background, and normal life, along with all its distractions and energy sucks, returned. As the kids started becoming teenagers, my time and mental energy started getting siphoned off into other things.

I can’t dismiss the importance of this effort, though. Of all the things I feel like God’s called me to do in my life, I feel like this is the biggest, grandest, boldest thing yet He’s challenged me with. Years from now, after I’m gone, whatever legacy I leave behind, I feel like this project is supposed to be a part of it. I am still highly enthusiastic about working on this series, but it’s as though God said “look, I want you to stay pumped about this, but I’m going to put it on ice for now. The timing’s just not right. Maintain your motivation, because I’m coming back to this later.”

So what do I do? Generally the longer things sit, the tougher they are to get going again. This whole thing could die on the vine, if I let it. The choice is really up to me. Fortunately I’ve been blessed with much faith. I don’t know what God’s eventual plan for this project is, but it’s helpful for me to think about how things have changed since Christ rose again. In the Old Testament, it was only a select few that the Holy Spirit rested on; now it’s every single Christ-follower. We all have access to the same off-the-charts empowerment that Moses, Gideon, Samson, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, David, and other famous Biblical characters had. How can I doubt that if the Lord chooses, He’ll equip me to figuratively move mountains for the sake of achieving what He wants me to achieve? The task for now? Prevent my attitude from becoming the weak link in getting this done (which may not be for a period of many years from now).

In the meantime, here are some Bible verses to help me stay focused and motivated, even when progress is painfully slow.

But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded. -2 Chronicles 15:7

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. –Galatians 6:9

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 21:11

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” –Matthew 19:26

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

Are you in the same boat I am? Motivation can be hard to maintain. Don’t give up; the world is waiting for you to become the person you were born to be.

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It’s Nice To Have Some Guiding Principles

Every August for the past 9 years, I’ve been virtually attending a two-day leadership conference. I’ve listened to talks from all sorts of performance experts, team builders, authorities on communication, generational specialists, and leaders from the commercial, government, and religious sectors. The conference’s whole mindset is that anyone who possesses influence is a leader. That includes most people on the planet. Building on that theme, the conference also embraces the notion “everyone wins when leaders get better.”

Going back through my notes from those past years, here are some of the main “bumper sticker” points I came away with. Not all of these are easy to remember, but I hope you can apply at least a few of them in your own situations, whether they’re professional or personal contexts. It’s also helpful to review this list from time to time. I’ll add a little note here that this is an annual conference sponsored by a religious organization; while I recognize not everyone reading this is religious, you can still walk away with a lot of good stuff here. Feel free to comment on any items here that really hit home for you.

You get more of what you tolerate. The things you accept are what you’ll get more of.

Leaders add value to people.

Courage is the 20-second sprint. Tenacity is the 4-hour marathon.

Success isn’t about talent; it’s about drive.

Your life moves in the direction of your strongest thoughts. “What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.” -Muhammad Ali

Busy leaders don’t change the world; focused leaders do. Don’t be afraid to say “no” to things that distract you from your mission. (Build your own “To Don’t” list: “I won’t do X until I complete Y.”)

Conformity is the quickest path to mediocrity. Greatness is born in the extremes.

Appreciate people more than you think you should, then double that amount (and then round up). Good leaders make you think they are important. Great leaders make you believe YOU are important.

When God gives a challenge to you and nobody else, don’t be surprised when nobody else understands it.

Apathy makes excuses. Obsession finds a way. “Good” requires motivation. “Great” requires obsession.

This is only the middle of the story. Whether good or bad, look ahead to what’s still coming.

Great leaders don’t cast blame, they take responsibility.

The pathway to your greatest potential often goes through your greatest fear. The difference between where you are and where you could be is the painful decision you’re unwilling to make.

The amount of busy work always expands to fill the amount of time you allot for it.

“Multiply your time” by giving yourself permission to spend time on things today that will give you more time tomorrow. Automation is to your time what compound interest is to your money. Institute the “30 times” rule – Be willing to spend up to 30 times the amount of time it takes to perform a task on actually training someone else to perform it for you. For a 5-minute task, be willing to spend up to 150 minutes to fully train them on it. It will pay you back in the long run.

If you don’t answer God’s call, He’ll call someone else. You already have everything you need to start doing what you’ve been called to do.

“Priming” people has a way of generating the outcome you want. Keep telling students they’re smart and they’ll perform better on tests. Keep telling people they’re polite and they’ll interrupt less.

When doing great things, anticipate hardship. Everything worthwhile is uphill. If you’re holding the football, you’re going to get tackled.

People can handle change; it’s the uncertainty they have a hard time with. Tell them what to expect. People will follow you if you paint a vivid picture of what’s coming.

There are six qualities needed to lead well through a crisis: Intelligence, Curiosity, Humility, Resilience, Empathy, and Integrity

Holding grudges is a form of arrested development. Learn from the past, but don’t let it control you.

Everyone draws criticism; decide what trait/characteristic you’re most willing to be criticized for, and lean into it.

Just because someone’s wrong in your eyes doesn’t mean they’re worthless.

When things are uncertain, what’s most important to you becomes clear.

Comfort and safety are enemies of success.

A desire to fit in can harm your authenticity. Own what makes you authentic. Contrast, rather than compare, yourself to others.

Bad behavior is an unskilled expression of an unmet need.

Discipline is choosing what you want most over choosing what you want now.

When disagreement surfaces, progress with humility.

Don’t take your gifts to Heaven; Heaven doesn’t need them.

It’s not the leader’s job to innovate; their job is to create the conditions that allow great innovations to happen.

People are impressed with your strengths, but they connect with your weaknesses. Be transparent.

It’s not what you do occasionally that matters, the things you do consistently matter.

“Good enough” is the enemy of game-changers, but know when “good” is “good enough to move on.” Pursuit of excellence will motivate you, but pursuit of perfection will limit you.

You may be disappointed if you trust too much, but you’ll limit your leadership if you don’t trust enough.

Poor performance is especially contagious. The best predictor of a team’s success is not the best performer or the average performer, but the bottom performer.

Loss of trust happens fast. Gossip destroys trust, and people take notice if you, as a leader, are engaging in it.

Condoleeza Rice on life in DC: “Everything’s always nuclear war. In reality, sometimes it’s just paper clips.”

Foster an open, no-blame culture. This environment creates openness and a willingness to own mistakes.

Battle complacency. Pick your counterpart on a rival team and do your job better than they do theirs.

Dominate via the aggregation of marginal gains. Make multiple 1% improvements to the enterprise. No aspect of the process is too small to improve on. You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.

When building new habits from scratch, use the 2-minute rule. Habits must be established before they can be improved upon. When starting from nothing, don’t do anything for longer than 2 minutes. “Showing up” gets habitual, and from there you can improve the quality of the habit.

Rejection is sometimes God’s protection. God: “You’re not rejected; I just hid your value from them because they have no part in the destiny I’m assigning you.”

Look for these things in the people you’re going to trust, and be them for the people you’re asking to trust you:

  1. Empathy: We trust someone when we feel they understand us. We need to feel understood before we give trust.
  2. Motive: You sense people’s motives and feel suspicious when you think their motive isn’t in your own interest.
  3. Ability: Do they have it within themselves to execute the thing I’m trusting them to do?
  4. Character/Composition: Not all character strengths are appropriate all the time. You don’t call a SEAL when your aunt gets cancer, and you don’t need a book club friend when it’s time to reach down deep for a big personal challenge. Displaying the right strength at the right time is important.
  5. Track record: What’s their history look like? Forgiveness is free, but trust is earned.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care…about them.

Just because I’m right doesn’t mean you’re wrong (and vice versa).

You can’t use your long-past experience as a 25-year-old to relate to today’s 25-year-olds. Times are vastly different.

Remember the power of “yet.” Consider “I’m not good at this” vs. “I’m not good at this…yet.”

Communicate enough that everyone on the team understands the vision and can contribute their own version of excellence. The goal is bounded autonomy.

You are more than the worst thing that ever happened to you. So are your teammates.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming all your thoughts are correct. Have the humility to challenge your own assumptions.

There’s a level of psychological safety necessary for high-performance teams. On those teams, you can ask questions, suggest new ideas, and admit when you’re wrong without the team treating you unkindly.

You only get to fix mistakes you take ownership of.

Self-awareness leads to “others awareness.”

Solid Emotional Intelligence comes from mastery of these four progressive skills:

  1. Self-awareness – Recognizing your emotions and being prepared to react to them
  2. Self-management – Using this awareness to produce the outcome you want
  3. Social awareness – Recognizing and understanding the emotions and perspectives of others
  4. Relationship management – Using awareness of yours plus others’ emotions to manage interactions

There will always be more good ideas than there will be capacity to execute. Learn how to say “no” to the things that don’t contribute to the team’s goals.

People who have enjoyed working for a given leader have usually felt valued, inspired, and empowered. Seek to provide those things to the people under or around you.

When you delegate tasks, you create followers. When you delegate authority, you create leaders.

You have your own recipe for success, so stop trying to steal someone else’s. Don’t become someone else at the expense of who you are. Be you and don’t be sorry about it.

Impressing someone is not the same as connecting with them.

It’s not your job to feed the 5000; it’s your job to provide the loaves and fish.

Which of these stuck out to you? Did any of them hit a little too close to home?

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Every Christian Generation Thinks It Could Be the Last One

Ever wonder why God leaves things murky when it comes to the timing of the Rapture, the Tribulation, and other aspects of the End Times? I mean, we know some of the sequencing of that stuff, but we don’t know the year, decade, or century it’s supposed to happen. We’ve struggled with this for almost 2,000 years. Why do you think that is?

All scripture is God-inspired, so we can be assured that even though imperfect men wrote it, it includes the information, even the specific words, God wanted to show up in scripture. One of the most vague choices is the way timing-related words get employed.

Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. Revelation 22:12

On occasions like this, it can be frustrating to have a different definition of words like “soon” than the Lord does. Was He intentionally misleading us when these scriptures were first recorded? I don’t think so. God may give scant details sometimes, but I don’t seen Him as intentionally misleading.

The Son of Man will come at an hour

when you do not expect Him.

Matthew 24:44

Consider, for example, how your decisions might change if you believed something was imminent. If you knew you had three weeks to live, would you do anything differently? You’d adjust your decisions accordingly; you’d prioritize what was really important in life, wouldn’t you? It shifts your mindset from a marathon to a sprint. Why? So you drop the distractions. So you live well. Scripture hints at this mentality and lifestyle:

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 1 Peter 4:7

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Revelation 3:11

I think the Holy Spirit left this ambiguity in scripture because He wants every generation to be ready. Readiness and a watchful state of alertness are what He wants from us. Believing time is short helps facilitate this mindset.

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What if You Got To Choose Your Own Reward?

There’s a story in the Old Testament we’ve probably all heard before as kids. A destitute widow and her two sons had no money to pay off their debts, and creditors were about to come take possession of her sons and put them to work as slaves. Desperate, she came to Elisha, a prophet of God, and asked him for help.

If you haven’t heard the story before, the text is down below. What I’d like to highlight is the way God allows the widow to choose the magnitude of response. At least in this case, when God chose to intervene in the widow’s life, He essentially wrote her a blank check. The catch is that His answer hinged on how far she was willing to go in her obedience to Him.

The level of the widow’s obedience in this case directly affected the degree of the Lord’s response. In a sense, she got to choose the extent of her own blessing. Elisha told her to collect lots of empty jars from neighbors and friends, then fill them all from the single jar of oil she still had at home. She could have very well rolled her eyes and said “yeah, okay” when Elisha told her what to do. “Sure, I’ve got two or three empty jars at home; I think I’ll just use them and not bother any of the neighbors.” Imagine how disappointed she would have been if that’s all she did. The text doesn’t actually say how fervently she went from house to house looking for additional empty jars, but she probably would’ve tried a little harder if she knew for a fact what was going to take place, don’t you think?

Someday you and the Lord are going to look back on your life to take a look at just how closely you obeyed His commands and calling. He’s going to reward you based on what He sees (Matt. 16:27, Rev. 22:12). With this in mind, will you be satisfied with the level of dedication you’re currently using to serve God, or will you wish you had put in the extra effort to find a few more empty jars?

2 Kings 4:1-7

4 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”

2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”

5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”

And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

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I Never Even Tried Before. Why not?

Boy, I don’t even think my parents know about this one. When I was in 11th or 12th grade, I did something very uncharacteristic of me. I decided to try out for the school play.

Now you have to understand, this was a very unusual thing for me to pursue. There must have been a cute girl in the cast or something. I can’t think of who it would have been, though. Honestly, I think I just wanted to try something totally new.

I can’t even remember what the production was, but I remember I decided to read for the part of a major supporting character. It wasn’t a lead role or anything, but it was somebody who’d grab a lot of attention when on stage. Think ‘Franc’ from “Father of the Bride” or a detective in some other play.

I’d never done a school play before (aside from stuff in elementary school). I went to the interest meeting, got a copy of the play, and grabbed a packet to fill out. In that packet I wrote down the part I wanted to play. One of the questions they asked was something like “if you don’t get your preferred role, are you willing to accept a different part?” I thought it over for a bit, then answered “no.” At some point I turned in the packet, and eventually received information for auditions.

The faculty member in charge of the play was an English teacher I’d had sometime in high school. She knew me from class, but I’d never worked with her in an acting capacity. Whatever the role was, I gave it a shot during the audition. I thought I did fine, but didn’t know the teacher’s thoughts on it. Ultimately, I didn’t get the part, and I don’t know who did. Since the “try something new” thing didn’t pan out this time, I didn’t even go see the play.

With the benefit of hindsight, I totally get why I didn’t get the part. Even if I had a really good audition, I had no track record for the director or other students to rely on. The director can’t take an unknown and throw him out on stage in a prominent role. Will he freeze? Will he nail it? There’s just no way of knowing. Besides, if we’ve got Joey over here, trying out for the same role, and the director’s worked with Joey before, she knows a little better what she can expect from him. Unless the director’s short on cast members, there’s really no upside to picking the brand new guy who’s only willing to play one particular role rather than someone who’s been in plays before and is willing to consider multiple roles if it helps the team out.

Christianity can be a little like this. When it comes to leaps of faith and following God’s lead in your life, track records of past experience are important. The twist here, though, is that past performance doesn’t help God trust you any more, it helps you trust God more as He provides for you in subsequently bigger and bigger ways. With the benefit of hindsight, you can see how your previous struggles and challenges helped prepare you for subsequent larger struggles and challenges. Again, this doesn’t build the Lord’s trust in you, but you get to look at your history of being faithful and seeing God at work in and through you. Seeing that, you trust Him more.

I’d also urge you to be willing to play something other than your preferred role. We can get comfortable in the ways we serve God, and become less and less willing to step out of our comfort zones as time goes on. The Lord loves a willing heart. I’ve heard it said that as Christians, we’re always in the furnace or on the anvil. God spends a lot of time honing us and shaping us into who He wants us to be. I believe a willingness to follow His call into waters deeper than we’re comfortable with is a great way to demonstrate our obedience both to Him and to ourselves.

If you have no track record of faithfulness to the Lord, why not start today? Start small. Begin reading from the Bible every day. Start tithing. Stop doing things you know you shouldn’t be doing. Get rid of stuff you know you shouldn’t have. Being faithful in the small things helps build that history, that lifestyle of obedience. As you follow through on those small things, God will give you bigger opportunities to make a difference in someone else’s life, or lots of other peoples’ lives.

But it all starts with small steps of faithfulness. Start building that track record today.