Monthly Archives: May 2014

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God is Good

God is good.

But do we really believe that?

I mean, there is great sorrow, strife, discord, and injury in our lives–almost continually it would seem. Despite humanities “advances” in medicine, science, technology, and equality, the abuses and injuries from one human to another continue to mount. It is evident that our advances do not enhance man’s ability to be good. And because humanity continues to destroy one another, we find it easy, in fact, it’s promoted to doubt the goodness of God.

In God we trust

So, again do we really believe that God is good?

Well, truly, only you can answer that question.

But, what is evident is that we don’t believe it, when the object of our focus moves from the totality of God’s goodness to enormity of our issues, adversities and concerns. We scrap His goodness and replace them with our worries. When we do this, we sin.

When worry becomes the object of our focus, we have made an idol. When doubt becomes the object, we have made an idol. When prediction of future happenings becomes the object we have made an idol. Paul writes “flee from idols” (1 Corinthians 10:14).

If you flee, you become a refugee. Too many Christians won’t flee–won’t flee their idols. These idols have taken first place in our lives. When the idol has taken first place, then they have captured your hands, your strength, your mind, and ultimately your heart. Refugees must flee. Flee with abandon. A refugee that doesn’t flee with abandon, will never worship God with abandon.

The Bible has some other names for a refugee: a pilgrim, an exile or a sojourner. Consider what the Apostle Peter wrote,

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11)

But, a refugee has one aim…find refuge. Refuge is a place of security and provision. A refuge is a stronger place than the strong forces that are pushing and pulling against you. Once found, this refuge is a good place.

The LORD is good, a refuge (stronghold) in the day of trouble; he knows (takes care of) those who take refuge in him. Nahum 1:7

For this discourse, an object is that thing that attracts, engages, captures and then demands our attention. Once our attention is sufficiently engaged, we begin to measure ourselves against the object. This is where worship enters. The distance between your heart and the object is the length at which you will go to worship, until the object captures your heart. Once it captures your heart, a throne is established. And once the throne is established a course will be set.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23, NLT

Who or what is seated on the throne of your heart?

If it is nothing, then you are like a rudderless ship being pushed whichever way the currents in your life push you. If it is another human, then you are always measuring yourself by, for or against them, and they are as flawed as you are. If it is an dream, a future, then you become a slave to the dream regardless of reality. If it is a worry, you will become consumed.

That which you worship will always consume you. And if you worship nothing, then, either you will consume yourself or you will be consumed by everything else.

David, despite the plethora of adversity, sorrow and suffering knew that God was good as he wrote, “I remian confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). Idols kill your confidence in God. Only God can restore, revive and resurrect your confidence in Himself. When I see God’s faithfulness, I know that He is good. When I see God’s kindness, I know that He is good. When I see God’s creation, I know that He is good. When I met God’s Son, Jesus, I know that He is good.

Trust in God is never misplaced. Our Founding Fathers knew this and had it stamped onto the edifices and economy of our country “In God We Trust.”

Is “In God I Trust” stamped on the throne of your heart? If not, you will have a hard time saying “God is good.”

 

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Lukewarm Leadership: Welcome to the Back Burner

Back Burner Leadership: How to Become a Leadership Failure with Five Simple Ingredients

The back burner on the stove is typically used to allow something to cool off or simmer. Literally, the back burner is where something becomes lukewarm. A lukewarm leader looks like a leader from position and posture, but in reality, his influencing presence is felt through absence or dominance. Too many leaders have pushed the very qualities that brought them to a position of influence to the back burners of their leadership lives. Their influence has cooled off and priorities have become confused by simmering too long. The back-burner leader is proud, lukewarm and non-engaged…

stove

…Welcome to the Back Burner.

When a leader’s influence diminishes the leader is usually the last one to know. This is a terrible place to be in as a leader. Without trusted-advisers that truly act as truth-tellers, the leader wallows in self-exile and isolation on the back-burner. Positionally, the leader is still in the same place, but influentially, ground has been lost. The leader begins to feel out of touch and will exert leadership influence wrongly to make himself feel valued or “in touch” in his organization. The leader begins to experience a heightening level towards others of annoyance, that moves to frustration, that turns to resistance and ultimately ends with failure and even destruction.

Ingredients that Make the Back Burner Leader:

#1- Not My Problem

This attitude believes that every problem is someone else’s fault, not the leaders.In reality,  not every problem is the leader’s fault, but a leader must take responsibility for organizational problems. Leaders that refuse to accept personal responsibility for the issues, concerns and results of their organization are piloting a sinking ship. No one can bail water fast enough when the leader has set a course that hits an iceberg and then, subsequently, blames everyone else on board for the crisis.

#2 – Entitlement

When the Leader feels entitled he takes perks and privileges that no one else is allowed to. Entitlement is an isolated elevator to the penthouse of arrogance and aloofness. The entitled leader will disparage those in the organization and treat them as underlings, because, the rules apply to everyone else but the leader. The leader is entitled, and should be looking from the highest vantage point in the organization, but it doesn’t mean he should live at the highest point! When a leader divorces himself from the foundation of the organization, he is placing the organization in imminent danger. A leader must always remember how the organization has been built, who has been building it, and

Leaders must be on-guard against an arrival mindset. An arrival mindset is a prideful, complacent attitude that says that the journey is over and the victory has been won. Entitlement and an arrival mindset are deeply intertwined. They reinforce one another. To combat this, a leader must view himself as a servant and a sojourner who is always in the state of preparation for departure. Arriving hastens a lukewarm attitude.

#3 – Unbridled Thought & Speech

After a leader feels entitled, his thoughts and his tongue often become unbridled. Unbridled means unrestrained, wild, cavalier, and often reckless.  Why? Because of two reasons: (a) In his mind he has “arrived” and (b) he IS THE accountability of the organization. Just about everyone who is in the organization is trying to climb or maintain their present position. They feel the accountability of both peers and superiors, thus feeling restraint.  The leader, who in his mind has arrived, can very easily cast aside this critical restraint. This lack of restraint plugs up his ears and loosens his tongue. He quickly becomes master-of-all and servant-of-none.  This is a great danger to the organization as well as the individual. This is why so many leaders fall from grace.

#4 – Priority Mash-Up

Very often, the poorer you are the simpler your priorities are or the greater clarity you have with which to view them. The wealthier you are the more complicated your priorities become. Wealth does not give greater insight or clarity. Rather, wealth has a devious way of clouding priorities.

The leader must therefore, always consider himself poor: poor in knowledge, poor in resources, poor in thought, poor in station & poor in spirit.  This self-viewed poverty is not a delusion of reality, but rather, a careful consideration of self-induced servility. In short, this view is humility. Humility can produce great clarity. Confused, clouded priorities create a chaotic organization with ever-decreasing effectiveness and diminishing influence.

#5 – Pride

This is the most detrimental ingredient of all. It is very easy for a leader to mask his pride. In fact, many leaders and their followers mistakenly discount this pride/arrogance as something more trivial and it’s referred to “impatience,” “stubbornness” or “individuality.” Often, with wealth or station this arrogant behavior is excused by those in the organization as “creativity,” “passion,” or “oddities.” The leader, enabled by sycophant followers will believe this kind of arrogant behavior, actually, helps the organization. But the bottom line of pride is that it always is a blinding agent. Because pride blinds a back burner leader, the production of the leader will lead to destruction.

Leaders and followers alike would do well to heed the words of the wealthiest human to ever live, King Solomon of Israel, “when pride comes, then comes disgrace” and “pride comes before destruction”  (Proverbs 11:6 & 16:18).

The result of arrogance is destruction. The product of pride is disgrace.

The sad state of leadership is such that we have more books, seminars, and instruction on the very topic, but seemingly, more frustration among followers and organizations that are being led by back-burner leaders. For the leader and follower alike, the solution to moving from the back-burner to the fore-burner is simple: humility. Humility re-establishes and clarifies organizational priorities. Humility gives wise counsel a platform for influence. Humility distinguishes between what’s pressing and what’s important.

A lukewarm leader is not a joy to follow, produces little by way of lasting influence, and ultimately is leading the organization to greater frustration and avoidable adversity.

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Why Moms are Awesome

Let’s face it, without a “mom” none of us would be here! God, our Creator, in His gracious love caused the increase of the human race to be born upon the frame of mothers.

mothers day

Jesus could have come as the Angel of the LORD as he had many times before to the human race, but he would not have had a mother. He would not have been able to identify with us in this. He would never have received the nuture that a mother gives best to her child. God the Father affirmed the role of mothers by bringing forth Jesus Christ from the womb of a woman.

A mom is a treasure. I am glad we have at least one day that we can celebrate and recognize these women that have made each one of our lives possible. When I think of my mom, Marta (mother of six children), and my wife, Julie (my children’s mom of four children), I see very clearly the countless sacrifices that each of these have made and continue to make for their children. A mother has a bond with her child that is unique to that mother and child. It is an infusion in the heart. See, not only does a mother carry the child in her womb for all those back-breaking months, she always carries her child in her heart until the day she passes from this life.

This is what so many men and fathers don’t get about their wives and moms–mom always carries her child in her heart! This is why a mother has a stronger bent towards compassion, towards gentleness, towards forgiveness and towards affirmation. As fond and as loving as a father can be, he can never carry his child in his heart the way the child’s mother does.

The Bible says of Mary, the mother of Jesus, “but Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). A mother carries her child–her treasure in her heart, pondering each treasure. I believe, this is why so many mother’s make such incredible prayer warriors. I believe, this is why men like Samuel and Timothy in the Bible had such productive and fruitful lives and ministries–because, among other things, their mama’s were praying for them!

A Christian Mother, sold-out to Jesus Christ, is a spiritual force to be reckoned with. Why? Because, when no one else will, she will fight for her children. She will wage war in the heavens through her faith and her prayers, when no one else will. Why? Because, she will stand in the gap of intercession when everyone else has gone home or gone to bed. Why? Because, she will pray again and again and again for her children, because they occupy so much space in her heart. Why? Because, she will praise God for them over and over and over again. Why? Because, the prayers of the righteous mother “will availeth much” or “be powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Mothers, you are valuable. Let no one, no society, no government or no ruler tell you otherwise. We live in a culture that increasingly denigrates the awesome joy, privilege and responsibility of being mom. No one can raise, train and nurture your children the way you can, mom. Distractions abound, so moms must be on their guard more than ever before to not willfully give their role, their responsibilities, and their title away.

I honor you Mom. I honor you Julie. I honor you women both living and past who have birthed, nurtured and trained each new generation of men and women that have, do and will nhabit planet earth.

Mothers make great teachers. Such wisdom mothers have and they, in their wonderful way, have the ability to reinforce truth into their children’s lives. My mother sang to us Bible Verses, that to this day, I can still hear her voice in my head singing, “Be ye kind one to another…” and “this is my commandment that you love one another…” to my siblings and me. Julie, my wife, reinforces in her firm, gentle way to our children the ways of excellence described in Proverbs 31 to our three daughters and one son.

A mother’s whisper can echo for a hundred years.

“Listen my son…do not forsake your mother’s teaching…(it) will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck” (Proverbs 1:8-9)

Mothers, I honor and thank you.

The echo of my mom rings through my mind, “Remember boys (there are five of us: Aaron, Elliott, Alex, Austin & Adrian – and one sister, Audrea), as big as you get, I will always be your mother…”