Tag: lean in

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A Little Tweak in the Right Spot can Have an Outsized Impact

Have you ever come across someone who was already very talented at something, but needed a little extra guidance to make them unstoppable?

In the book of Acts (chapter 18, verses 24-28) we encounter a Jewish fellow with an odd combination of knowledge. He had extensively studied the Old Testament and was very familiar with what it prophesied about the coming Messiah, but he was also a follower of John the Baptist’s teachings. That might not seem so strange, but the teachings of John the Baptist were the limit of this guy’s New Testament experience. He lacked a complete understanding of the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the Church as God’s new witness people.

His name was Apollos.

Apollos was unusually skilled in debate and public speaking. He arrived in the city of Ephesus and started accurately teaching in the synagogue what he knew about the Messiah. He eventually attracted the attention of two well-known followers of Christ, Aquila and Priscilla. This pair recognized that Apollos’ understanding of the situation was incomplete, so they pulled him aside and brought him up to speed, giving him a more full understanding of Jesus and His role in God’s plan.

Armed with a more robust understanding of “The Way,” Apollos then went on to “vigorously refute the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 18:28). Apollos went on to become a very prominent teacher in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:12), and his knowledge and skills were so great, Paul wanted him to use him in different cities (1 Corinthians 16:12).

Apollos was a man that became a powerful tool of God’s Church, but before all that, when he first arrived on the scene, he wasn’t yet ready to be the full version of what he would later become. It took the husband/wife team of Aquila and Priscilla, a faithful Christian couple, to mentor and disciple him. This was an ordinary, faithful couple who saw a need and filled it. As a result of their faithful behavior, they helped enable Apollos’ ministry for years to come.

Faithful service to the Lord doesn’t always involve flashy events. More often than not, it’s quiet, unseen efforts with lasting effects. In what ways can you use your gifts to enable someone else for greater success in the Kingdom of God? Is there someone you know who could benefit from your Christian mentorship?

Lord, people have been following Your teachings for just about two thousand years now. So much of that has come from the passing of knowledge and teachings from one Christian generation to another. Please help me/us as we look to be taught by, as well as mentor, other Christians. Praise You for helping Your followers thrive even in the unlikeliest places. Amen.

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Not to Alarm You, But Are You Living a Life of Disobedience?

Last week I talked about living “in the final minutes of the game.” If Satan knows he’s losing, and that the clock’s getting closer to zero, he’s going to pull out all the stops in his efforts to derail God’s plan. There are no rules of conduct he’ll voluntarily abide by.

Well God’s going to do what God’s going to do, and none of us know exactly what’s going to take place or His timeline for doing it. We know God wins, but we don’t know what the battles look like between now and then, or which of us are going to step into crucial roles in the fight.

I feel I need to drop some truth on my fellow Christ-followers here, and for some it may be uncomfortable. Here it is: If you are not living your life actively looking for ways to build God’s kingdom (either by bringing new souls to Christ or building up the faith and capabilities of those who are already His), you are living a life of disobedience.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19-20

This isn’t a verse that says “as long as you’re up for it,” or “once you get that job,” or “when life is going well for you.” This is not an optional aspect of Christianity, this is a command. Yes, if Jesus Christ is your Savior, you’ll spend eternity with Him in Heaven, but there’s a lot of joy you’re going to miss out on if you duck the Boss’s directive.

And we get to be part of countering those efforts. Thank you John MacArthur!

I recently spent most of the day accompanying someone to the hospital for a surgery. Time seems to pass slower when you’re sitting in a hospital waiting room. It gives you the opportunity to do a lot of people-watching, and if you’re paying attention, you get to see a lot. For some, this is a place of business; it’s where they earn their paycheck. For others, it’s a place to volunteer. For many others, it’s a place of uncertainty, of worry. I saw elderly couples gingerly walking around together, taking great care to navigate obstacles I think nothing about. If the Lord sees fit to allow me to live that long, that reality isn’t as far off into the future as I’d like it to be. If I want end my time on Earth having lived a life of impact for the Lord, I need to be pushing now, and the same is probably true for you.

I’ve written in the past about the parable of the talents (found in Matthew 25:14-30). A talent in this case is a measure of weight, so a talent of gold or a talent of silver is worth quite a bit. The master called three servants together and gave them different amounts of money, according to their abilities (5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent), and told them to grow the money while he went away on a journey. The first two servants worked hard and doubled the money they’d been entrusted with, while the third was lazy and only returned the original amount to the master.

We all have the opportunity to demonstrate growth in our Christian walks. Those who do well with 1 talent graduate to being entrusted with 2, and those who do well with 2 demonstrate their worthiness to be entrusted with more. I feel like this blog is my “2-talent act.” I’ve been reliably posting content here for over six and a half years. I feel like my “5-talent act” is the book series I’ve posted about before. That series is a little too much for me to handle right now, but I’m growing into it. Being faithful at smaller-talent acts will help prepare me for the bigger lift, and the same goes for you. It’s become glaringly apparent though, that if I want to complete that 5-talent act, it’s not something I can just wish and hope for; I’m going to have to make deliberate efforts to get it done. It’s going to cost me something…usually my time. I’m trying to build something that will still be making an impact long after I’m gone, but if I want it to really happen I have to get moving now. I’ve already been working on it for a few years, and even though I’ve started to accumulate a few sizable manuscripts, there’s still years’ worth of work to be done.

That’s why it’s important to remember, and keep in perspective, the brevity of life. It’s easy to brush aside the idea of committing to something big God’s called you to, because people of all ages can talk themselves out of it. If you’re a teenager, you figure you’ll have plenty of time for stuff like that later. In your early career you’re still focused on getting yourself established, or even just paying rent. Maybe you get in a serious relationship, maybe little footsteps follow behind not long after. Well then, since you’ve got a young family, you have other priorities. But then you get pulled into volunteering at school activities, and then you get caught up in the college search. Then all your kiddos leave the nest and it’s just you and your special someone, or maybe just you. But then you get a pink slip, or an unexpected diagnosis. You eventually make it through that, and at some point you become a grandparent. Retirement isn’t super far away, and maybe you take a big vacation once in awhile. You eventually retire, and then you have to figure out what that looks like for you. You do some fun things and spend some time with the grandkids, but before you know it you’re trying to decide if you want to retire in place, downsize, or move into a retirement community.

“Wow, that went fast.” Sometimes it seems like it’s over in a few blinks of an eye. “I guess there’s really no ‘good’ time to get to work on the stuff God assigned to me.” That’s part of the reason why He rewards the followers that make time for His work.

Not sure where to begin? Start small and grow from there. I bet your church needs help with child care (or some other ministry). Maybe you can think of a practical way to demonstrate love to someone who needs some help (both Believers and non-Believers). Is there someone you know who could use a little discipling?

It’s not too late. God has work for you to do. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” I’m sure we’ll celebrate together in Heaven, but don’t let a lifetime of disobedience pass you by.

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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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Some Good News About Last Year and Some Hope for the Next One

Happy New Year!

It seems like January gives us hope for a better year ahead, but by the time we get to December, we’re worn out and tired. Well let me give you some good news about the year we just closed out.

A recent study of 2024 sales of print media showed that for the year, general sales were up approximately 1% compared to the previous year. At the same time, sales of Bibles were up over 20%!

I haven’t looked real deeply into the data, but it sounds to me like there’s no downside to this. I can’t claim anything for sure as a result of this one study, but I’d guess the whole “truth is relative” movement is losing some momentum as people look for something they can count on. While TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram can be fun for awhile, sooner or later people start to question the meaning of life. No matter what, the God-shaped hole in people’s souls needs to be filled, and people seem drawn to truth.

So there’s reason for optimism as we step further into this new year. Revival should always be our prayer. If you encounter someone new to reading the Bible, help them out a little bit. It’s not the most intuitive book to get started reading. Newcomers may not realize that starting at the beginning is actually starting at the VERY beginning. The really important stuff comes much later.

If you’re one of the people picking up a Bible for the first time and you’re unsure where to start, try the book of Matthew. It covers the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. (If you get done and move on to one of the next three books, don’t be surprised if it sounds familiar; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are four different accounts of much of the same material.) There are plenty of online study plans, but I can’t overemphasize the importance of getting some insight from a Bible-teaching church, especially from small group studies the church may sponsor.

As we get a new start on the calendar, let’s keep an eye out for opportunities where we can be used by the Lord in various capacities, both in ways we’re comfortable with and in ways that stretch us. Put those spiritual gifts to good use!

Lord, as we kick off a new year, help us strive to fulfill Your calling in each of our respective lives. As this hunger for truth grows within our culture, help those seekers find reliable, grounded followers to help guide them through Your word. Help us not only represent You well, but help us also be mentors for people new to the Bible. Aside from that, give us the courage we need to follow your leading in our lives; help us to actually become the men and women You put us here to be. May this new beginning encourage us to be bold as we pursue You, being willing to take the next step even when we don’t know where the journey will lead. Above all, may You be glorified through our actions. We know Your will shall be done with or without our permission, and we thank You for the invitation to be a part of Your work in this world. Forgive us when we let You down, and help us avoid wallowing in our mistakes, instead pressing on toward the life You’ve called us to. I ask these things in Your name, amen.

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A Lot Happens in the Middle

As a Christian, have you ever wished you’d had a greater hand in leading someone to Christ? Maybe you had general discussions about God with non-believers, or even prayed with them, but you’ve never been part of “closing the deal.”

Well, don’t despair. God doesn’t usually do major works in someone’s life all at once; He usually does His work over the course of time. Some people might only require a short path on their way to deciding to follow Christ, needing only a few conversations or teachings from the Bible. On the other hand, other folks require an extensive amount of steps before yielding to Jesus. They may hear the truth multiple times, they may acknowledge that the theory of evolution doesn’t explain everything, and they may assent to the idea that despite “having it all,” there’s still something missing. It takes people varying amounts of time to work through that paradox.

God works in some pretty amazing ways. We never know if someone’s going to become a Christian, and if they do, how many “steps” it will take to get them there. The important thing to remember is that whether it’s three steps or 705, each one of those steps needs to happen before they bow their knee to the Lord. Being a part of any of those steps helps them get to the end of the journey.

If you interact with someone in a God-honoring way at any point before they accept Christ as their Savior, take joy in participating! You may not learn in this life what happens to that person’s eternal disposition, but then again, you may have brought them a step closer to seeing them again someday after this life is over.

So even if you don’t pray with someone to accept Christ, don’t give up on helping them work toward that goal.

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

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I Thought I had More Sand in the Hourglass!

I recently received a powerful reminder about the importance of using the spiritual gifts you’ve been entrusted with.

Coming home from work within the past couple of weeks, I drove right into a traffic jam. It was a road I’d driven a thousand times before, but this time the traffic stopped and barely moved. Sirens behind me drew my attention to my side-view mirrors, and I could see cars pulling off to the side to let emergency vehicles through.

Things weren’t totally shut down yet, so there was enough movement for us all to slowly merge into a single lane of traffic. Between the light at the next intersection and something going on up ahead, progress was slow. As I finally came around a bend in the road, I saw fire trucks with lights flashing, blocking most of the intersection. Lots of firefighters were out of the trucks, walking around, and one of them knelt next to a guy lying on the ground. A motorcycle lay on the ground a little further up the road.

As I neared the front of the line, a vehicle blocked most of my view of the guy who had been involved in the accident, but I could still see his feet. All I could see were his jeans and his work boots. I sat there wondering about the details of what had happened, when another firefighter, not in a hurry, came out and stood at the fellow’s feet, opened up a sheet, and spread it over the man lying on the ground.

Talk about a wake-up call!

I’d like to share two things with you today. The first is that life is precious; it’s fleeting, it’s fragile, and it’s over quickly. I’m sure that guy didn’t wake up thinking it would be his last day on Earth.

The second is more important. As Christians, we’re equipped with spiritual gifts, and the world is dying for us to use them. You don’t know how much time you’ve got left to put them to use. Don’t take your gifts to Heaven; Heaven doesn’t need them.

Between the time I write this and the time the post goes live, there will be countless additional tragedies around the world. I don’t know what the Lord has planned for your life if you accept His invitation to be used in His kingdom, but maybe you can prevent, mitigate, or bring comfort in the midst of some of those tragedies. I’m sure that sometime in the past few days, you’ve either personally been involved with, or you’ve heard about some unfortunate or terrible event in the news. Wherever you are, please take a moment to pray for comfort for the loved ones of those involved, and for the Holy Spirit to show you how you should put your spiritual gifts into action. The world shouldn’t have to wait for us any longer.

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Warning: Audacity in Progress

In the past I’ve shared about how God laid on my heart the task of writing a series of fictional Christian books.

To give you some context about how audacious that is for me, consider this. Far and away, the largest writing endeavor I’ve ever undertaken is this blog. None of its entries are very long. This entry is a little over 1,000 words. The longest document I’ve ever written was for a college course, with a requirement of 10,000 words, I think. What makes me believe, despite having no writing classes other than basic English courses in college, I can write a series of 10 books, each with 50,000-80,000 words, totaling over 600,000? With “Piece of Cake” at one end of the spectrum and “Impossible” at the other end, I’m a lot closer to “Impossible” than “Cake.”

It’s very important to remember: those God calls, He equips.

Well that’s a wonderful little platitude, but how are things going, really? The idea for this project first took root during COVID lockdowns. It’s been four years. Where are we on this?

To be honest with you, it’s tough. I’ve never written a book before, let alone ten of them. I laid out a plan for what the different books would cover, then started at the beginning with the first book in the series. When I got bored with that story I’d jump to a different one, then another. What I found was this method diluted my efforts too much; I made headway, but it didn’t feel like it was getting traction. With my hectic schedule, I don’t have big chunks of time to work on stuff like this, so I only get maybe an hour and a half or two hours to work on it, sometimes once a week. Although I’m trying to surpass a half million words, this method’s not going to allow me to make big leaps forward.

I started focusing my efforts on a group of three specific books, rather than dabbling in ten books. Over time I started adding 1,000 words, 1,250, sometimes even 1,500 words at a shot. I’d mess around with the table of contents, re-sequence parts of the story to make it flow better and make more sense. A new idea would hit at inopportune times, and I’d write it down on my hand or email myself from work. The goal is still to get over 600,000 words, and I still have hundreds of thousands of words to write, but you know what I’ve learned so far?

This insurmountable goal is looking more achievable.

The progress isn’t as fast as I’d like, since I do have other responsibilities (a family, a full time job, a blog, my daily/weekly routines, a house, yard, and vehicles to take care of, etc.). In fact, the majority of my writing happens during my kids’ extracurricular activities. I drive them somewhere, and rather than come home after dropping them off, I stay there and write until it’s time to pick them up. Considering the sporadic chunks of time I have to work on this project, I’m pleased I haven’t given up on it. Persistence in small bites translates into small chunks of progress, but those chunks have begun banding together to result in some solid headway on that group of three books. With a combined target of 200,000 words for the three, I’ve written almost 125,000 words. That’s over 60% of the goal.

I’ve written another 50,000 words across the other seven books in the series. That totals almost 175,000 words. There’s still tons of work to be done, don’t get me wrong, but 175,000 out of a projected goal of 630,000 words is pretty encouraging. Don’t look now, but by remaining determined to follow through, I’ve gone more than a quarter of the way toward this unreachable goal.

Yes, of course, there will be an obscene amount of work to be done besides the writing. Finding plot holes, missing chunks of story, editing for clarity or typos, finding a professional editor and going through all the associated back-and-forth, finding an illustrator, a publisher, maybe being involved in marketing, these are all things demanding lots of attention. At the early stages of this effort, though, everything hinges on having a story to work with. The other steps can’t happen until the stories come together on paper. For someone whose longest writing was 10,000 prior to this, 175,000 is downright phenomenal.

I share this with you not because I want to wow you or try to make you think I’m cool for trying something new, but to show you, as I’m walking through this right now, that when God challenges you with a massive undertaking or insurmountable goal, the sooner you get started, the sooner your efforts will add up to something He can use. The Lord’s commissioning of this project assures its eventual success, provided I actually follow through and complete it. If I don’t, He’ll achieve His aims some other way, but this is the invitation God extended to me, offering to let me play a part in His grander story. Whatever success comes of it should be credited to the Lord, not me.

I don’t know what God’s going to do with these books once they’re done, but I have to maintain the attitude He’s going to use them either in revival or in causing unsaved readers to start asking important questions. Getting where God’s leading sometimes takes small, persistent actions over a long period of time. It’s sometimes frustratingly slow, and sometimes victory means you haven’t yet thrown in the towel, but the following Bible verse helps spur me on:

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Is there something in your life God’s called you to do, and you need to be reminded not to give up? Hang in there. Don’t quit. If God called you to do it, it’s entirely possible someone down the road will either join or return to God’s Kingdom because of something you had a hand in.

Don’t give up. Someone’s counting on you.

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Have You Thought About Training Your Replacement?

Not long ago I went to an estate sale. I don’t know that I’d ever been to one before. For those who don’t know, when someone passes away and their heirs/loved ones begin the process of emptying out the home, there’s often a lot of “I don’t need this, I don’t want this, or I have no room for this.” The heirs set aside what they want to keep, then hold an event where pretty much everything left in the home is up for sale.

It’s both very interesting, and very sad. On the one hand, you’ve got this eclectic collection of items that tells a story about the person that last lived here. “This lady obviously loved sunglasses, ravens, and hedge trimmers.” On the other hand, you see just how much clutter they lived with, and it’s a little depressing to see crowds of complete strangers coming in, picking through the departed’s belongings, and haggling over already-low prices. “Why in the world would anybody hang onto this, and why in the world wouldn’t the people putting on the sale throw it out before starting the sale?”

A few years back, I chronicled the story of how our family unexpectedly lost my wife’s dad, Lee, to some health struggles. We thought he’d made it past the most difficult part of his health challenges, but it turns out God wanted him to come home more than He wanted him to stay with us. Lee was a devout Christian, and everybody who knew him understood his faith to be an important part of who he was.

As the pastor concluded Lee’s memorial service, he issued a challenge. “Today we’re saying goodbye to a very godly man. I ask you, who here will take his place?”

Today I’d like to talk about the idea of succession.

Think for a moment about the capacity in which you serve the Lord. It could be any number of ways, and none of them need to come with a fancy title. The day will come when you no longer fill that role. My challenge for you today is to think about this: are you helping to prepare someone else to fill the vacancy you’ll one day leave behind?

In some cases you won’t be able to see the transition coming, and you may not be available to offer advice or insight during that chaotic time. In other cases you might still be around to lend your expertise. I’ve written before about how once you complete a task God’s laid before you, there’s often another, larger task waiting for you. I once heard a famous leader say “if you’re still excited about the same thing you were excited about five years ago, you’re not growing.” Part of the reason you should regularly think about training your replacement is because if you consistently demonstrate faithfulness in smaller things, you should expect God to “promote” you into something larger. It doesn’t mean you’re giving up on something; it could mean God’s used you to set up a situation for someone new, it’s time to move you into another challenge, and now it’s time to turn things over to someone else who’s stepping into a larger challenge of their own so they, too, can keep growing. What feels like closing the door on something is actually a profound opportunity for you to demonstrate leadership and expand your Christ-focused influence.

What does that type of preparation look like? The possibilities are limitless. Some of them are on the process and technical side of the house, like CEOs, family businesses, specific ministry work or leadership roles, etc. Others include volunteer roles, or maybe even roles without titles. Some examples include Sunday school teachers, mentoring someone younger in the faith than you, being the person that shovels the driveway of an elderly neighbor, brings meals to a shut in, or drives someone to a doctor’s appointment or to go grocery shopping. “Grandmother” is a title that carries a lot of weight, and being a godly influence in your grandchildren’s lives comes with an opportunity to have a lasting impact years after you’ve taken your last breath. These roles are less about technical skills than they are about willing hearts and people skills, and those attitudes need to be lived out or demonstrated to others before they can learn them.

Think of the Christian leaders in your own life and the influence they’ve had on you. They don’t need to have held an official title. You don’t need a degree or special training to offer God-honoring advice to a friend, neighbor, or co-worker. You just need to use the influence you’ve got to show others around you what Christian living, especially in difficult times, looks like.

Succession planning is a natural part of any endeavor. You can cling to something if you really want to, but are you giving careful consideration to the idea that the thing you’re refusing to let go of may suffer because of your unwillingness to let go, and you may even be preventing someone well suited for a new role from having the opportunity to grow into it? “Today we’re saying goodbye to a very godly man. I ask you, who here will take his place?”

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Need a Confidence Boost?

Most of my posts are somehow geared at being willing to step out in faith to accomplish tasks you think are beyond your reach, yet which God has enabled you to perform. While I absolutely believe in that idea and use it as the blog’s central theme, it’s also important to help lay the mental groundwork for meeting such challenges. If you think of my normal blog posts as a movie, think of this one as their prequel.

I’ve learned through experience that if you’re willing to take risks in just about any aspect of your life, usually one of two circumstances hold true. The first possibility is that your back is against the wall and you’ve got no real choice; the risk you’re taking is probably the best of your bad options or it’s your last resort. While I acknowledge this as a driving force behind some risky behavior, it’s not the one I want to focus on.

The second possibility is that if you’re willing to take risks, you’re secure enough in who you are that the idea of failing doesn’t paralyze you with fear. If Christ is your savior, He will call you to do things you’re not comfortable with. It’s a risk to obey. You might fail. You may look like a fool. It could cost you.

I don’t know who I’m talking to right now, but you need to hear this. If you’re a Christ-follower and feel God’s called you to some challenge requiring a lot of faith, let me remind you: you are a child of the One True King. Walk down the path with the confidence that comes along with your position. If the Lord commissioned you to pursue a specific undertaking, remember the enemy can harass you, but he cannot harm you without permission. Your idea of what success looks like might not jive with God’s take on it, but it’s part of the life your Lord called you to, so take that next step.

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Is Your Horsepower Put to Good Use, or Just Idling?

In the world of high-performance cars, horsepower plays a crucial role. Speaking generally, the greater the available horsepower, the more speed is attainable. Two of the essential components of maximizing horsepower are adequate amounts of air to facilitate combustion and adequate amounts of fuel to ignite in the combustion chamber. If either one of those components suffers a reduction, the horsepower drops.

Sometimes vehicles with a lot of horsepower are illegal to use on normal public roads. For people who own one of these cars and want to use them out on the streets, one of the options for making them “street legal” is to install a restrictor plate. This is a physical barrier that reduces the amount of air making it into the engine, leading to a loss in combustion efficiency, and causing a corresponding loss of horsepower and drop in speed. It’s kind of a shame, really.

We’ll come back to that in a minute. The world seems like it’s getting darker at a more rapid rate these days. The news media doesn’t often carry good or uplifting news that makes you think positively about humanity’s future. The demise of morality leads me to think it’s not a stretch to believe that some people alive today will still be alive when the Rapture occurs.

If this is true, I believe two things are going to happen along the way. The first is that evil will become more blatant and more prominent. Things formerly only done in secret will be accepted out in the open. A few months back (as our family was driving to church, no less), we stopped at a red light, and I saw the car in front of us had a bumper sticker that said “Satan loves me.” It was disheartening for sure, and I felt a profound sadness for the young lady driving the car and for anyone believing this lie.

The second thing I believe will happen is a more potent display of God’s power through His saints. What that looks like I don’t know, but supernatural involvement will be obvious to any witnesses who are intellectually honest with themselves. Sometimes it will mean believers doing things they shouldn’t be able to do. Other times people will show up in places without knowing why they traveled there, only to find they’re part of some unlikely series of events that unfolds to reveal God’s hand in the process. People will testify of God’s provision in their lives, either by having their material needs met in unusual ways or by receiving hope in very dark times. In some cases, likely growing in frequency, Christ-followers will be killed because of the Master they serve, but God will empower those saints to rise to the challenge placed before them.

Not a rosy picture by any stretch, I know. Yet it gives me hope to know God can and will equip those who trust Him. This brings me to the main point of this post. Though you may trust Christ as your savior, you’re the one that decides how much to limit His ability to use you for building His kingdom. Although each of us has unlimited potential to do the Lord’s work, it’s His call as to how much He wants to let each of us accomplish, so that’s out of our hands. What each of us can decide is our minimum level of willingness. Imagine if Moses had persisted in making excuses until God said “fine, I’ll send someone else.” Imagine if Billy Graham had said “no, I think I’ll avoid anything to do with public speaking, thank you.” Are you willing to accept some discomfort and unknowns for the sake of letting God use you more than He’s currently using you? I’m not just talking about being an usher at church or singing in the choir (though those are good things). I’m talking about the stuff you’re ill-equipped to do and is outside your comfort zone, yet you still feel God tugging at you and saying “this is the direction I want you to go.”

Said another way, you are your own restrictor plate when it comes to serving the Lord. You can’t guarantee high performance, but you can absolutely guarantee you don’t reach your maximum potential of using your spiritual gifts and abilities to be a productive agent of the Lord.

I’m impressed by today’s young people. It seems those in high school and college are consistently a different type of passionate for Christ. Somewhere between that age and mid-life, many of us peter out in terms of our willingness to boldly step out in faith to follow where Christ calls us to go. We get our own place to live. Some of us get married. We achieve career milestones. We have kids. These can all be good things, but somewhere along the way, many of us lose that awestruck attitude of “Christ can do anything through me,” trading it for one that’s more like “but this is probably as good as it gets.” We don’t allow God the chance to do big things on His behalf through us because we close the door on the possibility of Him doing them. We walk away from Isaiah’s attitude of “Here I am, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

Everyone, of course, must make their own decisions about how much they’ll let God use them. From now until the time your heart stops beating, though, I’d urge you to be on the lookout for opportunities to step into roles Christ offers you. Darker days mean opportunities to shine brighter for the Lord. God’s gonna do what God’s gonna do, but someone’s eternal fate might switch from lost to found because of your willingness to be used by the Lord. Isn’t that something you’d like to be a part of?