Category Archives: Faith

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Called to Good Work, not Guess Work

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

Jesus doesn’t just want to just work in you, he wants to work through you.

Jesus works in you so that he can work through you. But, if you live always doing what you want, Jesus will always just be working on you. A poorly treated car will spend more time in the shop than it does on the road. Jesus wants you on the road to go where he prepared for you to go and do what he prepared for you to do. But, if you are always trying to crank the car or take it where you want to, you’ll constantly end up with the mechanic and not on the mission.

Prepared for good works, not guess work.

I want you to know that God, through Jesus Christ, has actually prepared things for you to do. These things are called “good works,” not guess work. These are not good things that you choose or you guess, but works that are ordained by God himself. Too many Christians follow Jesus like it’s bunch of guess work. And when this is the case, then you simply are too far away from Jesus. Those that are close to Jesus don’t have to guess what he is doing or guess what he has prepared for them to do.

I do not want you to think of these good works like some huge, giant-slaying work like slaying Goliath. But rather, a series of good, simple steps that transpire every day of your life. This happens in your home, your office, your car, on your errands, with your spouse, with your kids and as you do life.

Don’t walk toward or away from Jesus, walk in Jesus.

When you guess for Jesus, your guess takes you away from him. Too many Christians are walking toward Jesus when they should be walking in Jesus. There is a supreme difference. Jesus wants to be with you. This is why he made you. Jesus loves companionship. He loves intimacy and fellowship. In fact, listen to these verses from the Gospel of Mark (3:13-15):

“And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

1. Jesus called you so he can be with you. 

This sounds kind of crazy, but it is absolutely true. Jesus calls you so that he can be with you. He loves you. And those he loves he wants to be with. Don’t you long to be with those you love when you are apart? Doesn’t your heart ache and yearn to be reconnected to those in who you are apart from? This is how it is with Jesus. God said that Jesus, the Messiah, would be called Immanuel, that means “God with us.” And when he is with us we don’t have to guess.

People Jesus doesn’t want to be with he doesn’t call. Those whom he calls, he keeps calling. You can’t un-call yourself from being called by Jesus. He calls whom he wills. He wills whom he calls. Your first concern before doing the will of Jesus is to ask yourself “Am I with Jesus?” You need to be with Jesus before you try to do things for Jesus. The greatest rest and the greatest delight your soul can ever truly experience is to be in Christ Jesus, that is to be with him. It is invisible, but it is real. When you are with Jesus your soul both soars and sinks.

Your part of being with Jesus is to (a) repent to him of your sins & keep yourself from sin, (b) spend time with him in prayer, (c) thank him & praise him with your lips, (d) read his word, the Bible, (e) spend time with his people, the Church and (f) meditate & memorize his word throughout your day.  Ask yourself if you are really doing these things. This is a list of relationship builders with Jesus.

2. There is no self-appointment in Christ’s Kingdom.

There are too many Christians today who have not learned to listen to Jesus. Instead, they are listening to themselves. When you listen to yourself you learn to appoint yourself–you guess. You learn to pick what you desire and do what you desire. You attach the idea that what you are doing is good and most often you miss Christ entirely. See, Jesus calls those whom he desires, so that they will do what he desires.

When you join the military you do not get to pick your rank. You simply enlist. You then immediately belong to the military. You are given a rank. You are given a position and it doesn’t matter what you desire. Your job is to do what you are told to do. There is no self-appointment in the army. You don’t join at 18 or 19 years old and say, “Well, I think I’d like to be a general. This being a private or a lieutenant is for the birds. I’m tired of being told what to do. I’m ready to tell someone else what to do.” You simply are trained to say “Yes sir.” This is because you don’t appoint yourself.

The reason so many Christians are disappointed is that they are living in self-appointment.

Disappointment has a way of discouraging you or frustrating you. Christians should not live in discouragement or frustration. Discouragement is fertile soil for doubt. Doubt never produces the will of God. So if you are living in doubt, you will not be living in a place of fruitfulness for Christ. Frustration is simply soft anger. We don’t want to admit that we are angry, but we say that we are frustrated when really we are angry. Anger always has to be placed somewhere. We get angry most often when we don’t get our own way. A great sign of spiritual immaturity is to get angry when you don’t get your way.

3. Jesus doesn’t send you to places he hasn’t prepared for you.

Not once in the Bible can I find an instance where Jesus sent someone he called to do something he hadn’t prepared them for or the place for them. Jesus has to not only prepare the person he has to prepare the place. Don’t hear Jesus’s call and then try to do the work in your strength. But, this is exactly what is seen over and over again in the life of God’s people.

Jesus doesn’t send you anywhere he doesn’t go before you.

This is a wonderful, soul-securing truth of Scripture. Jesus does work we never see to produce fruit we can see. But, the problem for so many Christians is they go to places that Jesus didn’t call them to do work he didn’t prepare for them. To make matters worse, many Christians also don’t stay long enough to produce all that Christ has prepared for them. Jesus doesn’t call you to places he isn’t already working in. You may feel alone. You may not see many or any friends. But the work Jesus prepared for you is not dependent on how you feel or what friends you make. Sometimes, Jesus just wants you to depend on him and be with him. You have to learn that He is enough.

We are the products of Jesus Christ not the projects of Jesus Christ.

Christians are not projects, we are products. A project is planned enterprise with an uncertain outcome. A product is something that is made for a definite purpose. You are not Jesus’s project, you are Jesus’s product. He has made you to be with him, to look like him and to bear fruit like him. You are made for a specific purpose to accomplish a definite outcome. This means you can try anything, but you can only truly succeed in what you were made for.

Jesus doesn’t do bad work. Bad work comes from guess work.

Jesus is doing great work in you to do good work through you. The best work you will ever do is the work that Jesus prepared for you to do. The worst work you will do for Christ is the work you guessed he wanted you to do and you guessed wrong. It will feel like a good thing, but it will leave you empty. Good works have a fulfillment that guess works never do.

Be more concerned about the input than the outcome. Be more concerned with what you are putting into your relationship with Jesus than what you are producing out of it. So much of what we produce, we didn’t actually produce. He did. And then we take credit for it. Learn to love being with Jesus, because he loves to be with you. Then as you walk in him, he works through you. Your best work will always be to do that which he prepared for you to do–and that’s no guess!

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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What Kills Your Calling

There is an element that if allowed to be loose in your life or your organization will absolutely kill your calling.

Well, kill may be too strong of a word. But this element will absolutely destroy, distract and delay you from fulfilling and walking in your calling. It will decrease your effectiveness so severely that one day you will look back and say, “How’d I get here?” or “How did this happen?” This element is deceptive, familiar and diabolical. This element that will disrupt, destroy and distract you from your calling is simply pride.

Do not think that even the littlest bit of pride is good.

Can the littlest bit of poison kill you? Can the tiniest germ make you sick?

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

(Romans 12:3)

1. Pride is actually an unguarded and self-guided life.

Pride pushes you to say yes and conditions you to want to hear yes from others. Does a little child need to hear yes every time? Of course not. Why? Children are inherently selfish. They have to learn to share and learn to not get their way. This tells them, you are not the center of the universe. You are an important piece with a valuable purpose, but the world does not revolve around you. So, it is immaturity where we always want to hear yes. Maturity, which is impossible without humility, is where we learn to listen and be told no. Hearing no is good. A calling tells you “no, that is not for you” and “No, stay out of that.” A calling not only guides your life but it guards your life. An unguarded life will soon be a destroyed life.

Pride works to kill your guard and kill your guide.

Pride pushes you away from a “safe life” into dangerous living. Christians today must understand that it is dangerous to live and operate independently of Jesus Christ.  To think “with sober judgment” means to think under self-control. Self-control is a life that is guarded. Humility makes a great guard. It is absolute arrogance to think that you can accomplish, keep or maintain anything apart from the grace and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t be led by Jesus and led by your pride at the same time. Pride is sin. Pride always leads you to disgrace, downfall and destruction.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

2. Calling guards your life

Humility is a great guard. It is only in humility that we learn to say no. No to ourselves, no to our pride and no to others that would exploit our pride. When you let go your humility, you down your guard. There is only pride or humility. One will be active in your life. Both cannot. You are always either one or the other. Have you ever issued a half-hearted apology? It means half-your heart wasn’t really apologetic. There is no half-humility. It is either total or lacking. A vacuum of humility is always filled instantly and immediately with pride.

Humble people keep their calling

It takes humility to keep you in your your calling. It takes wisdom to walk in your calling. If Jesus has called you, then he will also equip and resource you to excel, thrive and execute that calling. A calling is a serious thing to Jesus. And Christians must take their calling as serious as they take anything in their lives. There are far too many Christians who are living far too comfortably and far too casually in light of their calling. It is pride that causes us to focus on ourselves, our wants and our pursuits. It is pride that pushes us away from our calling. The only way to keep from killing your calling is to stay humble and walk humble.

Pride causes your self to swell up like a balloon. A swollen self is useless in Christ’s kingdom. Humility is like a gentle pin prick that lets the air out of the balloon. Have you ever had your pride checked? It’s often more like a kick than a prick, but a humility check knocks the air out of you. Why? because you are too full of yourself.

Called to Spiritual Success not Worldly Success

Christian, you must never think for one second of one minute of one hour of one day that you are capable of living your life apart from Jesus Christ and experience any modicum of true spiritual success. You must first learn to value spiritual success over worldly success. Pride always pushes you toward the pursuit of worldly success. Spiritual success can only ever be discovered as you stay humble, as you go lower. If you experience worldly success, push it away from your heart. Don’t listen to the praise of the world. Humble yourself and praise Jesus.

Jesus didn’t show you your need for salvation, deliver you and then cut you loose to live however you want. He did all of that and simultaneously has called you to live a holy life, an obedient life, a life in service to others for him and a life that has been given an invitation that gives your life the deepest, most truest meaning you could ever gain. Every Christian has a calling, but not every Christian will live, discover and fulfill their calling. You can know Jesus and miss your calling. Pride is the #1 culprit that will cause you to miss the fulfillment of your calling.

What is a calling?

A calling is an invitation or a summons that once received has to be entered into. You must think about a calling as an irrevocable invitation. A calling is not something that you give yourself, because an invitation is not something you give yourself. In order to be invited, it has to come from another.

A calling is an invitation and every Christian has been given an invitation from Jesus Christ, but not every Christian will open that invitation. When you open your invitation, you are opening your life to your calling. A calling is not always understood perfectly at first, but what is understood is who called you. This means, who sent you the invitation. Pride will keep you from your calling, because pride keeps you from opening your invitation. Or pride keeps you from going back to your invitation once opened.

Let’s say you receive an invitation in the mail. The hand-writing looks familiar. But, you are busy and distracted, so you forget to open it. Some time later you look at the invitation and finally decide to open it. You only pull the invitation out of the envelope a fraction and then decide you don’t really want to read all of it, because if you read it, you then become responsible. This is pride. Why is this pride? Because pride says, “I know best.”  Pride keeps you from being all that you can be, because only as you live out your calling can you ever truly be all that Christ has called you to be.

3. Calling guides your life

Living in your invitation to follow Jesus keeps you from straying off course and staying on course. Every life, every family and every organization has a course. There is a humble track and a proud track. Lives, families and organizations that live on a proud track are headed for a humbling. This is why the mighty fall, they get on the wrong track. A Christian can live successfully on no other track than the one Christ has called them to. Pride pulls you of track. You must look back and see where you got on, where you were called. You must never forget who called you. You must never forget to whom you were called. You are never called by yourself to your self. If you are truly called, then you are called by Christ to others. He gives the assignment. He lays the track. Pride will cause you to get off track. The only way to get back on track is to look back to where Jesus called you and then humble yourself to go back there.

Once on track you can’t give it back. Kill your pride before it kills your calling.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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Calling Gives You Confidence

As a Christian, your calling comes from Jesus Christ. And your confidence comes from your calling.

Peter was called to follow Jesus Christ. A calling is not always clear or understood at first. A calling requires a response to Jesus by faith. But, a calling from Jesus requires humility, yet releases confidence into your life. It is a great juxtaposition that a Christian can simultaneously be both humble and confident. It is only through knowing Jesus Christ and holding to his word in your calling that you can live and exude this humble confidence. We are humble with our own ability, but confident in Christ’s ability.

Jesus had an interesting way of calling Peter. To call someone you have to get their attention. You never grow more confident if you are living in distraction. Peter was distracted. Jesus got his attention…

“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.” (Luke 5:4-7)

In Luke 5, Jesus met Peter on the shore. He was putting his nets away. Peter was tired from a long night of fruitless fishing and empty toil. But, Jesus got in his boat. I believe he got in his boat because he already knew him. Jesus already knew Peter because he had already called him once before. This happened in John 1:40-42, where Peter’s brother Andrew heard Jesus and went and got his brother, Peter, and brought him to Jesus. However, it is my conclusion that Peter after meeting Jesus did not immediately follow his call, but at some point went back to fishing, went back to his old life.

Peter’s inability to grasp his calling revealed is insecurity and independence from Christ.

See we lose our confidence when we lose sight of Jesus and when we lose sight of our calling. Remember, later Peter would walk on water. There are only two men to ever walk on water: Jesus & Peter. Jesus was the sinless, perfect Son of God and well, Peter was very much sinful, but called by the Son of God. But, he wasn’t there yet.

When you fail to grasp your calling, you fail to grasp confidence.

Confidence is security of purpose and position. When you know that you are where you are supposed to be with Jesus, your confidence remains. When you are not where you are supposed to be, whether you are drifting or you are running from God, then it is impossible to be confident in Christ. Sin erodes your confidence. Because sin is an act of rebellion. When you sin, it creates a temporary disconnect with God, not from God to you, but from you to God. God doesn’t disconnect from us. But, we can disconnect from him.

When you disconnect from God, you disconnect your confidence.

Peter went back to his old habits. Old habits never inspire confidence, they inspire comfort. We will accept the wrong things in our lives because they are familiar and comfortable. Jesus made Peter uncomfortable. A calling will make you uncomfortable, because if you are going to live in your calling you are going to have to live and exercise faith. Not faith in your own ability, but faith in Jesus Christ and his ability. Jesus told Peter to take his boat back out in the water. Jesus was no fisherman. Peter surrendered to Jesus and obeyed.

You can’t follow Jesus without surrender.

Peter had to surrender what he thought, what he wanted and what he believed. He had to allow Jesus the first place in his heart, in his mind and in his strength. You can’t follow Jesus without loving Jesus. Otherwise, all you are doing is following his principals not his person. Confidence comes into a relationship through love. Jesus loved Peter, but Peter didn’t love Jesus enough yet, because he wasn’t broken enough yet. But, when the thing that Peter trusted in, his nets, began to break, Peter’s heart broke and look at his response (Luke 5:8-9):

“But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.”

Going deep with Jesus strengthens both your humility and your confidence.

Peter obeyed Jesus and rowed back out into the deep water. Peter had been sitting in the shallows. And this, Christian, is a major problem with Christianity in America today: we are too shallow. We have too many shallow services, shallow songs and shallow disciples. We have too many preachers preaching a shallow faith, a shallow following and a shallow Jesus. Jesus is more than a self-help guru or a good guide. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, King of kings and Lord of lords. And to more fully know Jesus, you have to go deep with him. You can’t sit in the shallows of your faith, of your Bible or of your calling and expect to have any sort of confidence. We are like grown ups playing in a kiddie pool. Grown ups need to be jumping of the diving board and swimming in the deep end of the pool.

Shallow Christians have shaky confidence.

Humility comes as you learn to listen to Jesus. Reading your Bible and learning to trust God’s word as supremely and absolutely authoritative solidifies your calling and strengthens your confidence. When you learn to dive deep, the pressure is intense and the risk is great. When you come back up, you are humbled by the experience. But, you are also more confidence because you learned more about Christ and more about yourself.

Faith tested is confidence.

Peter throws his nets back in to the deep. He had just enough faith to do it. But, all he need was a little faith. A little faith placed in the right direction will return to you great confidence.  See Peter’s little bit of faith returned to him nets that were full and breaking packed with fish. Peter didn’t have faith in his own ability, he had faith in the word of Jesus Christ. When your faith is tested and you cling to your calling in Christ, you will come through stronger, more humble and more confident that Jesus Christ is always able to do what he says he will do.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1, NLT)

Christians do not gain confidence from the world or from their own ability. They can assurance and confidence as they walk humbly with Jesus Christ in greater understanding of their personal calling to follow him all the days of their lives. They must hold fast to the word of God which as been kept and recorded for us as Holy Scriptures in the pages of the Bible.

Confidence is gained as calling is maintained.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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Stop Wasting Your Time Trying to Develop Leaders

Character development is more important than leadership development.

We live in a world full of leaders who are empty of character. We’ve got more leaders, more leadership positions, more leadership titles and more frustration because we actually have less leadership. Virtue is dead. Character is on oxygen. Ethics have been removed.

If you want to make a difference in your organization, in your community, in your home and among your followers, then focus on developing character in those around you. But, your the character you are seeking to build better first be evident in you. Integrity is on life-support in our world today.

Work harder to build great people than you do great leaders.

There’s all this pressure in our world and nearly every organization (including the Church) today to build great leaders. It’s not healthy. Don’t be a leadership development organization. This is silly. How many leaders can you actually have? Everyone. No, everyone is not a leader and can’t be a leader. The sooner you make this clear in your organization, the more focused your organization can be. It’s too easy for organizations, teams and groups to have “leader fever.” Leader fever is an ailment that plagues organizations that try to create and turn everyone into a leader.

Let me speak directly to Christians for a moment:

Did Jesus ever say to make leaders?

No (emphatically). He said that the Church is “to make disciples.” A disciple is a learner, a student and a follower. We are not to make leaders. So when we try to make leaders, we are making a mistake. You can no more make a leader than a leopard can change its spots. You can no more make a leader than dirt can turn into water. Church leaders, your job is to make followers of Jesus Christ, not leaders for your organization, ministry teams and committees. Stop thinking about the Body of Christ like a Fortune 500 company. It’s not. True leadership is organic (more on that later)–organic being natural, innate or born.

Don’t do death by leadership development. I see more wasted money, more wasted time and more wasted energy trying to develop people who aren’t leaders into great leaders. I’ve seen more frustration, more pressure and fewer leaders developed. I’ve seen leader after leader kill themselves, blow up their organization because of some new book they’ve read, some podcast they heard, or some seminar they paid out the whazoo to get a golden nugget. So they go back and change everything and all they create is more frustration, more pressure, not more leaders.

Wake up and eat this nugget: leaders are born not made.  We used to believe that until we turned into a world where everyone is supposed to be a winner. Go back to your childhood. Leaders were always born–born in a moment and born for a moment. You can’t teach charisma. You can’t coach drive. You can’t make some be self-disciplined. Transcendent leaders have one foot in this world and one foot somewhere else. They are driven by a force no one around them can see and have an energy that no one around them can manufacture. But, they have a character that can be emulated. A natural born leader has a spark, or fire that no one put there and that no can put out. Everyone else who is not born a leader is trying to find that spark, trying to find that fire. Leaders have it. It’s in their eyes. It’s in their soul. Everyone else is trying to find “their passion.”

If you can’t develop leaders that’s your fault. So, stop trying and just work on building really great people. Somewhere this vision of the “super” leadership developer organization sprang into our world as someone who we must become. We’ve been sold to invest more resources to get better leaders. I tell you, invest in more relationships and you’ll get better people. Then, the leaders will come. Great leaders don’t like working with bad people. Stop trying to find great leaders and just work on building great people into a great team.

You need leaders. Every organization needs leaders. But before you need leaders you need great people. Stop hiring for leadership and start hiring those who will let you speak into their lives while they work really hard for you and demonstrate loyalty. Better a lot loyal with a little quirk then a not loyal with no quirks!

Leaders Have Vision

I find that many “leaders” today lack real vision that inspires those in their organization to stay. People stay for vision. Why? Because people have always and will always follow a leader with a compelling vision. People stay when they are energized and inspired. If you can’t sit down and speak to someone’s heart and paint a picture of where you are going, then you lack the ability to inspire others. You don’t have to be the most gregarious, but you better be the most grounded.

Grounded People: Foundations & Facelifts

Grounded people have great character. Grounded people build foundations, not give facelifts. I find that modern leadership development is focused on giving facelifts, not giving foundations. Foundations get ignored. Facelifts get attention. Work harder to build foundations in your life and the lives of those around you. Don’t give them a facelift. A facelift is a temporary stretching to cover a wrinkle a blemish or a defect. Character development is foundation building. Leadership development has become like a facelift.

The greatest leader ever, Jesus, spent no time in leadership development, and all his time in character development of those following. He picked twelve. Of the twelve, he had three: Peter, James and John.  And of the three, there was one. Peter.  In fact, the one time we read about when his followers jockeyed for a leadership position, he smacked them down for focusing on the wrong path. There was never anyone more grounded than Jesus. He spent three and a half years developing the character of those who would carry his message far beyond his feet.

To the Aspiring Leader

Let’s say that you’ve read this far and are an aspiring leader. Here’s my word for you: Stop trying so hard to be a great leader and work even harder to have great character. Be the most “beyond reproach” individual that you know. Be the most humble. Be the most energetic. Be the most encouraging. Take the most initiative. Be the most responsible person you know. Stay longer, work harder and give more than anyone else you know. Stop worrying about being recognized. Great leaders know where their great followers are and are not. God knows where you are. Rest in the fact that the Almighty knows exactly where you are and learn to be content, yet hungry. Learn to be humble, yet confident. And learn to have character not be a character.

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

 

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For the Frustrated Leader – How to Work Your Way out of Frustration

How frustrated are you today?

Chances are there is some frustration in your life today. And if not, then there was some yesterday and there will certainly be some tomorrow. A frustrated leader is a fruitless leader.

Leadership is more frustrating than an at any point in recent or near recent history. There are many reasons for this. We wont dive into them, because dealing with the symptoms is largely ineffective, if you neglect the cause. We need to find the root(s) of this frustration. Leaders are frustrated. That’s a fact, we’ll accept it and move forward. Work is being done, but is it the right work?

Let’s dig deeper.

There is a zone where leaders enter that is hard to shake, yet has a great negative effect on the leader. This zone is called the frustration zone. It is a place where results (often because of results), personnel and activity lock the leader in a perpetual place of frustration. The boundaries aren’t clear. They are fuzzy. Frustration feels like a maze, that often the harder you work at getting out, the more lost or frustrated you become. Despite trying various solutions or reorganizing your team, the frustration remains. You are working harder and harder, yet you still are more confused and frustrated. Welcome to the frustration zone. There are some things you can do that will help you work your way out of the soul-stymieing and brain-blowing place of frustration that you are in, have just left or are heading in again.

How to Work Your Way Out of Frustration:

 

1- Rest. Frustration leads to life imbalance, especially for hard-working, over-achievers who also happen to be leaders. You feel the responsibility, you feel the lack of results. And as a result, your frustration mounts, relationships fray and thoughts narrow. You are short and curt with those around you. But, you wont and don’t end up solving problems and seeing solutions with heavy eyelids or an exhausted body. A lot of the time frustration is simply a by-product of over-work and over-activity.

The first thing you need to do is pull back. Now, I didn’t say pull out. Abandonment or ignorance is not the solution. Rest allows you to renew your perspective. Every individual needs rest. Sometimes, we simply pile too much on ourselves and others. Organizations and teams need rest. Ask any successful sports team what happens the day after a game, it’s a physical day off.  Vocations are contests and struggles. We are always going to run into frustration because the earth yield’s nothing worthwhile easy. That means there is stress. Stress wears you out physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Rest rejuvenates, renews and restores. Leaders and organizations need rest. But, most are unwilling to take what they need most.

Rest is a reset. Do you remember the original Nintendo? Back in the day when the Nintendo (16 bit) would get hot because you played it too much and your thumbs hurt from pressing down on the directional pad too much for too long, you had to hit the reset button. Often, we get so locked in that we neglect rest. Rest for our bodies, our minds and our souls. Like the Nintendo, we had to hit reset. Eventually, to rest our eyes and our thumbs, our parents would make us turn it off…this was always a problem, because early video games lacked automatic save points. So, we would desperately plead with Mom to not cut our game off in the middle of a stage. Often, she would intervene and unplug it. We needed rest. We were neglecting other things that were important. Problems magnify when you are tired. Your brain, your body and your soul need rest, in order to function at it’s highest level. When you’ve been playing/running hard for a long time, your vision is narrow, your energy is waning and your responsiveness is slow.

2- Plug Yourself Into the Problem. After you’ve rested, and you’ve had time to meditate on the thing of greatest frustration, go plug yourself into a new place. Too many leaders withdraw and make their decisions and judgments from a position too far removed from the place of greatest frustration. If you aren’t getting the results on your team or in a department that you are capable of, then go insert yourself into that area. You need to feel, to see and to experience what those that you are leading are experiencing. You can never lead people effectively if you can’t relate to them and don’t understand what they are going through. Sometimes, leaders need to give themselves a new office, a new position on the front line. This may temporarily cause the frustration to increase, but now you will see more clearly the causes or effects of the frustration. You can’t fix what you can’t see and haven’t touched. Listen carefully, I didn’t say glue yourself to the problem. Plugging in means you can also unplug. Gluing in means you are stuck. Getting stuck is not a healthy place for a leader or the organization to be in.

3- Clarify Your Expectations. Our frustration increases when we assume on the behalf of those working with us or for us. We expect our leaders or our followers to know what to do and maybe they should. However, if you want to be truly effective as a leader, then, you take the burden of responsibility and assume the expectations are unclear. Clarifying the expectations goes a long way in clearing the chaotic air, in decreasing the pressure of frustration and dividing the responsibility up among the team. When expectations are unclear the law of human nature is to reject the responsibility. Often this is not intentional, but it is an uninetentioal by product of a lack of communication. When expectations aren’t clear, individuals, departments and teams often take a mind set of self-preservation. When the ship is sinking followers find a flotation device and hold on. Leaders get to a place where they can be heard and give clear, calm direction and instruction.

Hares, Turtles & Clydesdales

When things aren’t clear, your people like a turtle will tuck their head back in their shell. Like the turtle things will slow down, which will only increase your frustration. A moving turtle is an effective turtle–maybe not as effective as you thought. Don’t think you want an organization full of hares, because as soon as a hare is frightened they run anywhere as fast as they can to get away from the perceived danger. Hares are fast, but flighty. Turtles are methodical and determined. Fixing frustration is never a quick fix, as you strengthen your turtles you can help them develop into Clydesdales. Clydesdales are trainable, dependable and strong. They can pull lots of weight continually over an extended time on a long journey. If you give a bunch of responsibility to a bunch of hares, they will run all over the place creating a lot of activity, but simultaneously increasing your frustration. Clarifying your expectations pushes you toward patience. Impatience is always a root of frustration.

4- Work on One Thing. Far too often leaders see every problem all at once. This is overwhelming. Your brain can only process so much information at one time. Your brain has a hard time working out more than one solution at a time. You have limited thought capacity and limited physical capacity. This means you only have a certain amount of thought energy and physical energy. You must measure where you will invest both types of energy. Wasted energy only leads to more frustration.

A leader must identify one thing to work on at a time. And be willing to work on only that one thing until it gets right. To work on one thing, the entire organization must have one focus, one voice and one direction. Organizations and leaders that are pulled in multiple directions and allow it are accelerating greater stress, which leads to division and ultimately collapse.

Being overwhelmed makes you feel hopeless. When you are hopeless depression follows. A depressed leader is an uninspiring and apathetic leader. No one follows a depressed leader for long. Medical experts (I’m not one) say that depression can be caused by chemical imbalances. I have found that depression is often triggered by helplessness in the face of a deep personal fear. Fears can lead to worry. Worry leads to anxiety. Anxiety is a state of mind that ushers you into depression. A depression is a low place. Fears never inspire us. Fears never elevate us. Fears never raise us to new heights. Often our frustration is a symptom of one of our fears. If you can find the fear, then you can often release the frustration. As you learn to recognize what triggers that fear, you can work on strategies and mechanisms to overcome that fear.

You can’t lead tomorrow’s yield with yesterday’s you!

Often, the business, the organization is growing, but the leader isn’t growing. This only causes the organization to suffer more. You can’t lead tomorrow’s yield with yesterday’s you. If you aren’t growing you are dying. If you are in neutral you are sliding backwards. Changing gears is often painful for a leader. To grow when you are stuck, you most often need to downshift.

5- Find Your Blind Spots. Every leader has flaws, few leaders will admit it. These flaws further frustration when you are not aware of them. Some blind spots are self-imposed because of hyper-focus. Most other blind spots are the results of being human. As a human, you are fallible, imperfect, biased and flawed. This seems and feels entirely too vulnerable and exposed for most leaders and their organizations to admit. There is no perfect leader (other than Jesus) and there is no perfect organization, because people are involved.

You are not the solution to finding and fixing your blind spots. Too many leaders think and act like they are. To find your blind spots, you need a small circle of trusted, truth-tellers who will call you out and speak in to your blind spots. These trusted, truth-tellers do not in any way benefit from telling the truth, in fact, if the relationship is not viewed as equal, they often fear reprisal and retribution. They value conviction more than compensation. They value doing things right over what is convenient or expedient. They value people over profits. It is arrogant to operate independently from wise counselors. Most people don’t volunteer their counsel for fear of reprisal. You have to find someone you trust and allow yourself to be vulnerable and transparent. If they tell you what you want to hear, they are not right for you. You need those who will tell you what you need to hear. They will not validate your bad ideas. They will not whistle while you work in frustration. They will pierce your heart and your bad ideas with the truth…and, if you are wise and want out of frustration, you will love and respect them for it.

6- Become the C.E.O. (Chief Encouragement Officer). Not only do you often need to change your position, but you often need to change your title. Give yourself a title that no one will pay you for and that doesn’t give you any more power, but the power to lift those around you up. People need to be inspired and when you are frustrated, you are uninspired. An uninspired leader can never inspire an uninspired follower. But an uninspired leader can encourage an uninspired follower. I have discovered that at the greatest points of my frustration the best way for me to serve my organization was to go around and just start encouraging all those who work for me. Instead of trying to prod people into better results and into the right places, I just started patting everyone on the back.

Truett Cathy

“How can you tell if someone needs encouragement?”

 “If they are breathing.“

A frustrated leader must become selfless and put his frustration to the side and simply start encouraging those around him. Encouragement lifts the soul and spirit of those whose minds and flesh are tired and overwhelmed. Encouragement is a fresh wind. A frustrated leader is most often blowing hot air or stale wind.

7- Ask for Help. Don’t pay for help. Get rid of the people that are benefiting from your frustration. Ask for help. There are people who are willing to help that don’t need payment for their counsel. These people are invaluable. These people are loyal and bought in. They are owners without voices. As a leader, you need to hear from your team, especially the long-term, most loyal ones. These are often the most silent. They observe, they feel, they see, but they stay silent. They aren’t leaders, they are followers and they will follow you right over a cliff or into a ditch.

Perhaps, the greatest release of frustration is when your soul is at liberty. Liberty is freedom. The mind follows the heart and the heart is the home of the soul. Frustration is felt in the identity of the leader. Your identity is truly in your heart. Many times frustration is a heart issue with the heart of the leader. Because the leader has been given great purview and responsibility for people, resources and opportunities, frustration is really a test that the leader is failing. This is known to only the leader and a small circle of perceptive people. To acknowledge this failure is to have an identity crisis. But, what the leader doesn’t realize is that the perpetual frustration signifies than an identity crisis is currently on-going. The organization will feel the effects of the leader’s heart. This leader has but one option left: ask God for help.

This is the ultimate act of humility, asking God for help and waiting for him to send it.  Leaders must recognize and accept that there are elements, actions and forces at work that are beyond their control. We are limited. But, we think we can fix our frustration, but, yet we find ourselves still locked in frustration. God is unlimited. Our soul must get still before God and surrender. We must admit that we need help, that the frustration is really in our hearts. God introduces frustration into the lives of those he loves. This frustration is often then passed to followers and the organizations they run. Most people are quick to say, “Everything rises and falls on leadership,” except when they are the leader!

Leader, locked in frustration, get still, ask God for help and wait on his response. While you are waiting, by faith go back to work and watch for God to realign, reset or restore your former joy.

“Be still and know that I am God.“

Psalm 46:10

 

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2017

 

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Don’t Be Afraid to Wait

You’ve heard it said, “Good things come to those who wait.” Well, not always, sometimes more waiting just comes. But, don’t be afraid to wait!

Everyone hates a waiting room. Everyone hates waiting in line. We don’t mind lines if we are first, because waiting makes us feel unimportant, devalued and impatient.  But, purposeful waiting has value.

Waiting is a part of life, but it is not punishment. We most often view waiting as penalty. This is an error.  Pointless waiting feels like punishment. But, waiting is powerful when you wait with a purpose. If you need to see the doctor, but his waiting room is full, getting up and leaving is not going to get you the diagnosis or medicine that you need. The purpose of the visit was to see the doctor, the waiting was part of the process. If you need to get your car repaired, a good mechanic will take you, but you will have to wait. The baseball batter has to wait for the ball to arrive. The wise shopper has to wait for the sale to arrive. Sadly, we have grown so self-centered and self-absorbed that we rarely view waiting as a positive part of any process.

One reason that we don’t like to wait is that we see ourselves as the priority. We like to be waited on. Yes, admit it, most people if the truth be known like to be waited on. Now, we don’t want to seem that arrogant so we call it “pampering ourselves,” “taking a me day” or even recently I have seen “I don’t feel like adulting today.”  The reality is we really enjoy being waited on. Now, it can get uncomfortable if we actually think about the other people who are doing the waiting, so we don’t. We keep our minds on how much we are enjoying the experience and what benefit it is bringing us. We pay ridiculous amounts of money to get our hair done, not because it actually increases our value, but it increases our perceived value. We pay ridiculous amounts of money on shopping and getting new clothes, not because it actually changes anything about us, but because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We waste ridiculous amounts of time in and on activities that don’t actually make us any smarter, give us any more wisdom or create in us any more faith. When self is the priority, self is served. Self hates waiting (perhaps one very critical reason God makes his people wait).

Another reason we don’t like waiting is we don’t actually practice the habit or behavior of waiting. What we do practice is convenience, immediacy, and instant expectation. We do this because we want instant gratification. Delayed gratification has died. No one wants to wait for anything. For millennia, people had no choice but to wait. They were dependent upon the seasons, upon their families and their neighbors. They didn’t depend on the government, the news, the credit lender, their employer or the internet. Because they had no choice but to wait, they had to accept that waiting is a part of life–their life. We don’t mind waiting to be a part of life–just not our life.  In order to be effective at any thing, you have to learn to become a good waiter. A good waiter is disciplined, committed and faithful. But, most importantly a good waiter is attentive. Attentiveness is where readiness meets preparation. The best waiters are attentive to every detail and then move with certainty and anticipation. When you are a bad waiter, you don’t anticipate you react because you were not ready.  A good waiter has learned the value and importance of the behavior of waiting with a purpose and acts accordingly with purpose and anticipation.

Another reason we don’t like to wait is we are afraid to wait. We are afraid to wait, because we are afraid to miss out. We are afraid to miss out because we don’t view God as sovereign and faithful. In fact, most often, we live like we want God to wait on us. Fear is a part of life. There is no escaping the fact of fear, but you can be free from the fiction of fear. The  fiction of fear is the feeling of uselessness, hopelessness and pointlessness which causes worry, anxiety and hurry.  Because, we allow these fears to fester, we often live in a self-induced sphere of the perpetual fear of missing out. Social media has done some good.  However, a negative by-product of social media is the constant bombardment of seeing what you think you are missing (advertisers know this). Social media is a clever construct of fantasy for most people. Who posts their bad days? If they do, too often you get annoyed and  you “unfollow’ them or ignore them. It doesn’t fit in our afraid-to-wait-no-bad-days narrative. Social media looking at filtered parts of peoples’ lives often creates unnecessary pressure on you. This self-created pressure leads to anxiety, doubt and premature activity (called rushing).

Another reason we don’t like waiting is because we have been conditioned to rush. When you rush, you are in a hurry. To hurry is to act quickly with little concern for discipline or focused activity. The focus is on the movement not the mission. There are many things in life you can’t hurry and expect success. Ask any baker, any builder, any artist, any musician or any chef if waiting is a part of their process. Speeding things up is detrimental in many cases, actually in most cases. You can’t rush growth. Good growth takes time. Rapid growth often creates a pattern of instability and imbalance. Efficiency is not rushing. Efficiency is where productivity meets responsibility. Rushing is where impatience meets activity.

Maturation is a process that takes time. The world is subject to God’s law of time. God’s law of time is that he set it, controls it and you & everyone else are subject to it. You cannot advance it or turn it back. You live in and with the time you are allotted. According to recent reports, the world is actually slowing down by a millisecond each year. So, although we are speeding up our connections, actions and activities, the world we walk on is actually slowing down. God controls time. You are responsible for the time you have been granted. Waiting is a sub-law of time. Learn to wait and your time becomes more valuable, more useful. If you can’t learn to wait, you will never be effective at resting or at worshiping or leading people.

Effective leaders, effective parents and effective followers will all learn to wait well. They see that waiting with a purpose is trusting God with the outcome, with the unseen and with your time. Waiting with a purpose drives fear away and renews your strength. There are some things that you are not designed, gifted or able to make happen. Therefore you have to wait. God will send the response. Your name will be called. God will send the help. But, you have to wait. Waiting means God is working, most often in you or through you.

“but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.“

Isaiah 40:31

(c) Alex Vann, 2017

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The Danger of Being Stuck (audio)

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Too many people are living stuck lives. It’s time to transfer your trust to a source that’s unlimited and turn your frustrations into expectations.

Maybe you are stuck and not moving forward in your marriage, your job or a relationship. Maybe you are burdened, worn out and feel like you are not making any progress. This mesasage is for you.

The Danger of Being Stuck

(Get out your faith) 

Luke 7:1-10

 

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It’s Time to Teach Responsibility instead of Rioting

If we don’t teach responsibility, then we are accepting anarchy. We must instill in our children and in ourselves four deeper virtues that will bring harmony to our citizenry and beauty to our humanity.

“…speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle, and show perfect courtesy toward all people.“

Titus 3:2 

Certain elements that secure a healthy society are not being taught any more in our corporal lexicon of learning. As a result, when immature adults don’t get their way, they need crayons to color, “safe spaces” to  process and outlets that involve destroying other people’s property. They chant curses, burn flags and are “too stressed” to attend a class. They have rejected all sense of responsibility in favor of a riot. Instead of being rebuked and chastened, they are encouraged to “express” themselves. I’m sorry, when I was a kid and I expressed myself in a way that destroyed someone else’s property or cursed someone else, I got swift and painful lesson in correction.

“The time is always right to do what is right” ~ Martin Luther King 

Rejection of Responsibility. Parents, you must teach your children to be responsible. What we are seeing in our culture as a result of one group not getting their way, is a giant, collective temper tantrum. Parents, you must act responsibly and make your children act responsibly.

The “progressive” element of our society has rejected virtue in favor of violence, rejected courtesy in favor of cursing, rejected civility in favor of swearing and rejected responsibility in favor of rioting.  There are four elements that parents must teach their children immediately to avoid another generation who can’t handle adversity or not getting their way: Courtesy, Civility, Reality & Responsibility.

The Four Virtues of Reasonable Citizenry 

Courtesy – is the a general kindness with an accompanying set of manners from one person to another. Common courtesy are the set of manners that are generally acknowledge as polite and respectful towards others. Courtesy is not a demanded virtue, but rather a freely given virtue. Our children need to be taught to be courteous instead of cursing.

Courtesy is the true vestige of nobility. To show courtesy is to live humbly. Courtesy is a rejection of self and an invitation to others. To be courteous is to make the world a better place, a more agreeable place in which we find inhabitation more amiable. Courtesy without provocation turns the table on hostility.

“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.” ~Francis Bacon

Civility – means formal politeness with elevated courtesy. I grew up and live in the South. We still say “Yes Ma’am” and “No Ma’am,” we hold the door for ladies and let cars go in front of us in traffic.  Do you know that having a young man hold the door for a young lady is a sign of respect and courtesy? Of course she can open her own door! Civility has to do with formality. Formality is a code of manners and actions that demonstrate honor and respect to others. Civility is different than courtesy in that the onus of civility means you may not agree, but you do respect the position of another. Civility restrains the worst of humanity and promotes the best in humanity.

Kids need to learn these things! Teach your children to push their chairs in, to thank their host, and to eat food that someone serves them even if they don’t like it. Teach your children when they go to a restaurant to eat with a napkin in their lap. We are raising young men and young women, not barbarians. Teach your children to respectfully disagree. We aren’t raising robots or puppies, who must follow every order or command. We are training children to become mature adults. Mature adults should know some common courtesy. Sadly, our culture is being stripped of its formality and becoming very casual. Formality is good because it reinforces value and worth.

Your children will disagree with others. However, they need to be trained to disagree with civility. Civility is a controlled respect for others. Our nation just had an election with the electorate falling on extreme opposite sides. However, we must demonstrate a civility to others that we don’t agree with. Civility speaks of a desire to do no harm and respectfully disagree with an amiable dialogue. The best way to teach civility is to train your children to be consistent in their manners and to model the behavior yourself. You are your children’s greatest model. You are training your children towards incivility when you do the following: curse another driver that pulls in front of you, gossip on your cellphone or become demanding & act rude in public.

Civility means you can respectfully and politely disagree and not become enraged or enflamed with emotion.

Reality – means the state in which things actually exist. What this really means is accepting reality. You can’t change your reality until you accept that things are the way they actually are. Reality TV is not reality. TV is not where you learn your reality. The Internet is not where you learn reality. Your friends social media post is not reality. The greatest picture of reality is found in the Bible. Without a proper understanding of the Bible, the world will quickly become a confused and chaotic place.

Parents need to live in reality the Bible reveals first. Then they must apply this reality to themselves and then teach their children to live in this reality. Too many parents are living for a fantasy or in a fantasy. Fantasy is the state in which things don’t actually exist. The fastest way to live in fantasy is to live in denial. Parents must teach their children to investigate, study and to think for themselves. Most people make mistakes when they rush to judgment.

Reality is about perspective. This is why the Bible is so important. The Bible is your perspective compass. The Bible correctly calibrates your reality compass. Without the Bible, your true north will appear to be true north, but in truth your compass will be misaligned or spin widely out of control. Even a minuscule variation with your compass, over time, will keep you from your destination. Your reality is born out of your perspective. But, this doesn’t make you the authority on the way things really are. Now, with your children you are the authority. Stop letting your children create their own reality. When someone creates their own reality, they are living in a fantasy. You must bring your perspective to your children and your children into your perspective. A perspective without the Bible is an automobile without wheels, a ship without a rudder and a kite without a string.

The Bible is the key to understanding the state in which things really exist. 

Responsibility – means that you are accountable for something. Progressives in our culture are teaching that we are to give our responsibility away and someone else can manage it for us. This only weakens our society. Parents, teach your children to be responsible. Responsible for their words, their deeds and their actions.

Every action has a reaction. Every a reaction has a responsibility. The best way for parents to teach responsibility is to hold their children accountable. Give your children things that they can control, teach them how to control those things and then hold them accountable to the standards you’ve taught them. Standards set the responsibility. The Bible is where we discover and learn God’s standards for living. This is why the progressives reject the Bible, they don’t like, want or agree with God’s standards. However, God will hold all of us accountable to his standards.

Let us then, with good intentions and great effort, set ourselves to learning and applying the standards God has set forth for men and women to live with. Let us apply them first to ourselves, our children and then to our government. Whereby, God honors and blesses his standards. May God honor and bless our adherence to his standards.

 

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Stop Worrying and Grow Some Wings

“Do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow has enough worries of its own, sufficient for the day is its own trouble“

~Jesus 

Worry is your life’s thief. Worry provides no benefit to anything that you do. In fact, worry is not only a thief, it’s your jailer. Worry robs you, then locks you up and throws away the key. Worry has imprisoned you with the bars of your own construction in a prison of your own design–worry is also the architect.

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Aren’t you tired of being robbed? Aren’t you tired of being held captive in a prison of your own making? Aren’t you tired of shaking the bars of worry? Don’t you want to be free?

But, yet, worry still rules our lives. We feel like life has dealt us such a poor hand and difficult circumstances. It feels like everyone else is free to go about their business and be happy. When you worry you feel like you are not in control, but worry means you are exactly in control. But, the control is coming from your damaged flesh, your flawed view of the world and yourself, and the wrong view of God.

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”

~Corrie Ten Boom

In case no one told you, you have work to do. All worry does is sap you of the strength to accomplish some really great things in life. In case no one told you, the world needs you–your world needs you. But, not the you that wears the lenses of worry on all that you see. Worry is a burden you are not supposed to carry. Worry is a clouded lens that you are not supposed to look through. Worry is a chain you don’t have to wear. Worry is a bog you don’t have to step in.

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Tim Elmore said there are two kinds of people in life: settlers and pioneers. Settlers are those who move ahead only when they are safe. Settlers are worriers, controllers and self-absorbed. Pioneers are those who explore and pave the way for others. Pioneers are seekers, risk-takers and map-makers. Pioneers are the kind of people Christ calls to follow him. Those who are willing to risk it all. Forsake it all. Go for it all.

Worry is really about where you find your security. If your security is in your ability or the ability of human convention or construction , then your security will always be misplaced, resulting in debilitating doubt that produces worry. But, if your security is placed in God, then you are trusting in the ability of the Almighty, resulting in the ability to go into places where others would never dare.

Eagles soar, chickens roost. Eagles are fearless and free. Chickens are fearful and flighty. Pioneers are eagles. Settlers are chickens. Eagles go where chickens would never dare.

“But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Stop worrying and grow some wings. Waiting on God means you stop worrying and start trusting. If God wants to get you over something He’ll supply you with the wings to do it. If God wants to take you through something, he’ll give you the strength for your two legs to carry you through it. If God’s deliverance is to come from you out-running something, then you will sprint forward.

Worry makes you wobbly: But, first, those who learn to wait must learn to walk. As your faith grows, you grow. Have you ever watched an infant learn to walk? First, they crawl. Then, they learn to pull themselves up. Then, they stand. After, they learn how to stand still while attached to the earth spinning on its axis, then, they discover they can take a step. But, it’s not a confident step. It’s a wobbly step. Worry makes you take wobbly steps. Wobbly steps cause you to stumble. Stumbling causes you to fall. All worry does is create a bunch of uncertainty in your life, so that as you seek to take the next step, you are scared, timid and weak. With that approach of course you will take the wrong step.

Worry is the where your fears exploit your fragility: People can be fragile. You are physically fragile. Try jumping off a 40 foot roof and landing on solid ground. But, I am speaking more of spiritual and emotional fragility. People are fragile until God strengthens them. Stop thinking you are strong. Stop thinking you have the ability. Start trusting God by waiting on Him. He will strengthen you if you allow him, if you wait on him. You can’t outrun God nor get left behind by him. Worry is like a steroid for your fears. Give your fear a big dose of worry and watch those fears grow at an uncontrollable rate–this is why worry freezes, immobilizes and paralyzes you.

Worry makes you wish you were somewhere else: When you worry, you start thinking about escaping. You are not sure what you are escaping, but you want out, away and without delay. But, this is silly. You can’t escape worry, you have to kill it. Worry is a leach. And the Bible is clear about the leach. “The leech has two daughters: Give! [more] and Give! [more]” (Proverbs 30:15). All worry does is suck the life out of you and demands more and more of which you don’t have any more.

Worry warps your relationships: When worry dominates your thought process, you receive an unintentional filter about how you see the world and others in it. This is a warped view of reality. It’s like wearing a pair of glasses that have tinted lenses in a room where everyone else is wearing clear glasses or no glasses at all. You can’t understand why people don’t see it the way you do. It’s because they don’t see it the way you do! Your worry has warped your view of reality. You are seeing things that don’t exist. Stop blaming them and take your worry-Ray Bans off!

But, you say, “Hold on just a minute, I’m a cautious person and I’m accounting for all the possibilities.” WRONG. You are a worrier. A prudent person is different than a worrier. A prudent (caution born of wisdom) person receives their caution from a position of clarity, not a position of anxiety. A prudent person sees the possibilities of failure and success, not just all the probabilities of failure. The Bible is clear, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Proverbs 22:3). The prudent person is saved from needless suffering. The worrier is subjected to needless suffering.

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?“

~Luke 12:25

(c) Redwall, LLC. 2016.

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Want to be Great?

You don’t have to be great to do great things.

A massive misconception exists in our world today that you have to already be great in order to accomplish great things. I have good news for you, this, simply, is not true.

Many people want to be great. They want to get great recognition, great wealth, a great mate, a great job, a great house, great kids, a great vacation and a great paycheck. There is a yearning deep within every man and woman on the planet for greatness. Something stirs within each person when they hear stories of those who did or accomplished great things–they yearn for more.

Greatness is truly defined not by when you arrive, but when you depart. Greatness is wrongly viewed as the celebrity getting off the plane to a crowd of admirers and paparazzi. True greatness is leaving your comfort to reach and touch those in discomfort. Comfort is not an indicator of greatness. 

But, do you really need recognition from others to live in greatness? Do you really need a plaque, a monument or memoirs to live as a great? Do you need to have lived centuries in the past to be considered great? 

No. You can start being great today. Yes, like right after you are done reading this or sharing it or whatever you will do.

How? 

Greatness is the quality of being above normal, above average; achieving excellence. 

You don’t ever have to be recognized to live in greatness. Why?

So, just start getting above what is normal for you. If it is normal not to help others, start helping others. If it is normal to not think about others, start thinking about others. If it is normal to be highly self-centered, get over yourself.

See, living in greatness is about seeing value in others.

Why?

Because you have value. Every person has tremendous value. This value gives you worth. Most people don’t realize they are inherently valuable. When you solve your own self-worth question, you can begin helping others solve theirs.

Greatness is not a measurement; it is a way of living. Don’t live life like you are on top of the mountain and everyone else is below you, but a few others you admire are up there with you. This is arrogance. You want to be great, then treat others like they are on top of the mountain and you are just here to serve them. You want to be great, spend your life encouraging, up-lifting, praising and blessing others–even if they don’t, especially if they don’t deserve it. Jesus said, “…But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20:26). The word “great” in Greek is the word ‘megas’ and it’s where we get our word mega–like megaton, megabyte, megalomanic, megahertz and megawatt. Mega means exceedingly superior in all ways like in weight or scale. Be mega in actions towards others, but not mega in your thoughts toward yourself–this makes you a megalomaniac!

Greatness is not how you see yourself; it is how you see others. Really, it’s where you see yourself and where you see others. You start viewing others as more important and more in need of priority. When you begin to give priority and preference to others, you are doing a great thing. This principal follows the golden rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The golden rule is really not that hard, unless, you are full of yourself, arrogant, self-indulgent and full of pride. Then, you see greatness as being served, and not serving. Jesus, the King of kings, said, “even the Son of Man (Me) came to serve and not to be served” (Mark 10:45).

Greatness is not what you get recognized for, but how you recognize others. What’s really fun in life is when you are free to recognize the little things that others do. I mean, why is it so hard to thank the server at the restaurant? Why it so hard to repay ugliness with kindness? Why is it so hard to give people a second chance? Why is it so hard to give others all the credit? Because, we want the recognition. We want to be viewed by others as significant. The way to

Greatness is not what you get, but about what you give. If we really look behind the masks and false-fronts of the lives of our rich and famous, then what we will see is greed–pure unadulterated greed. The unquenchable thirst for more and more. The paradigm for truly great people is discovered through their incredible generosity. It is so much more fulfilling in life, when you feel incredible freedom when you give things away. It means your heart is not held captive by your craving for more. Maybe, you don’t have a lot of money to give. I’m simply saying, start being generous with what you have: your words, your time, your hobbies, your prayers and then examine your resources. Here’s a really crazy idea: be crazy generous with your kindness. 

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“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”

-Amelia Earhart

The world is a harsh place. So many people working to be known as great and to know someone great. If they can’t know them, then they start working to know all about them as if the association will somehow rub off on them and make them kind of great. This is silly. Start bringing great kindness, great compassion, a great yearning to understand, great devotion and great recognition of others. 

Want to be great?

Don’t even consider it an option and just work at getting really good at making people feel really good about themselves. At the end of your life—it will have been a great one! 

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(c) 2016, Redwall Leadership Academy.