Month: April 2005 (page 3 of 3)

Hooked up with this article from Wayne Cordeiro this morning, via Todd Rhoades’s excellent blog.

Sometimes it seems we – I – want to be so busy, or at least perceived as busy, so we can get our props from everyone around us. What counts, though, is whether we are busy about the right things – the things God has called and gifted us to do, the things that matter in His purposes, the things only we can do – not the 95% of “stuff” that occupies our waking/working hours.

It’s a pretty sobering thought – for me, at least – to realize that so much of the busy-ness I engage in day after day is just stuff that anyone can do. Here’s Wayne’s take…

The Spirit of God guides us and helps us to prioritize our energies into obedience. He helps us to organize our hours into forevers, our daily activities into eternal treasures.

The Last 5%… this is what I must primarily be about. That�s how I must prioritize my energies and organize my time. Otherwise I will find myself in Bithynia serving tables and wondering why God has been so distant lately.

Sounds like His voice is a hundred miles away … in Macedonia.

Maybe the reason His voice and His guidance seem so far away is that I’m hanging out in Bithynia, agonizing over and worrying about Bithynia-stuff, while He’s shouting at me from Macedonia.

Father, if You still hear me, if You still have a place, help me turn my hours today into forevers and my daily activities today into eternal treasures.

Had this conversation this afternoon…

Today, I decided for sure that I’m going to quit. I can’t even manage my own family – how can I expect to lead a church?

Not only that, but I’m not sure I really believe what I’m saying anymore. I preached – if you can call it that – this morning, but right about now, my mind and my heart are empty of any hope and assurance, and full of doubt, despair, and disappointment. Thus, not only am I unqualified and unfit to be a leader in the church, but I’m nothing more than a first-class hypocrite, spouting off useless and empty words that make no sense, have no impact, and ring empty and hollow against the backdrop of real life.

I’m exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally from trying to put on a good front, while there is no reality to my words. I’m through! Finished! Over! Done!

The time for potential is long past. My days of bright and unlimited future are over. The past of empty dreams and half-filled promises are over – maybe not officially, but certainly in reality.

What can you say to that?

I don’t remember where I found this first, but you can find it now on page 111 of someone’s Moleskine…

One would think that in the middle of one’s forty-fourth year, one would have some sense of who one is. One would think…

One would think that after so many days of life, one would know what it means to live. One would think…

One would think that with so many resources one would find the answers one loooked for. One would think…

I heard a leader pray this week. He asked for some pretty big and bold things from God – for his life, his family, and his ministry. He asked for some things that, if God doesn’t come through, will risk his ministry. Here’s how he ended his prayer…

Let me be a righteous and effective and Godly influence on my family, my community, my church, and the world.

Let me a blessing to others around me.

Let me live a life of integrity and wisdom.

And above all, let me not be puffed up with pride and arrogance as all these things come to pass.

Last night, I did a quick scan read of a couple of books I’ve been wanting to get to for a while. One of them is George Barna’s A Fish Out of Water. I’m sure all leaders feel like that from time to time, but what about when that ominous feeling is around you, on you, in you, all day long? It may be time to examine whether you’re really doing all you can do or whether you’re just going through the motions.

Barna argues that leaders – real leaders – are not people who just hold a position in an organization. They are instead, “aggressive instruments of transformation.” He asks this powerful question…

Are you really leading people or are you simply occupying the leader’s office while failing to fulfill its responsibility and exploit its opportunities?