Archive for November, 2009
Basking in God’s Faithfulness
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, our three and four year old daughters have begun taking turns saying the 
family prayers before mealtime. I don’t know that they really understand the concept of God all that well, but they do understand that you thank Him for stuff. So, they mention each person in our family, all their friends, the pets, and activities they remember from the day. Then it’s on to the objects that they can see from where they sit. So cute, so precious, and yes, so long. Their prayers are adorable, and I have to believe that God is delighted, even entertained by them.
While this is pretty common in lots of homes with young children, I think there might be a simple lesson in it for us parents. Maybe God would be delighted to have us thank Him more regularly, and even more naturally. It’s obvious that prayers of praise are the easiest and most natural for a child, but somewhere along the way, the complexities of life turn that upside down, and we have to remind ourselves to constantly thank God.
About three years ago I started a practice that has been awesome. I guess you could call it a spiritual discipline. Each day as I journal (which really helps me to remain focused), I start that interaction with God by recounting His faithfulness throughout the previous 24 hours. I actually make a bullet-pointed list of all the ways that I saw God interact with me throughout the day. I ask God to open my eyes to His goodness and generosity as it played out. It is uncommon for me to have less than 15-20 different times when I encountered God’s abundance. It might be guidance on a project, unexpected encouragement, a moment of wonderment with my child, a stirring of compassion for a friend in need, or a hundred other things. These are the things that fill up my life as I live out John 10:10, “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.”
Practicing this discipline has resulted in so many benefits. First, I find myself on the lookout for God’s blessings throughout the day. Second, it makes me so aware of God’s proactive love for me…He’s REALLY active in my life. Third, I know that I’m only aware of a very small fraction of all that he’s really up to, which makes me feel even more loved. And finally, gratitude now consumes my quiet times with God. I still pray for my daily bread and intercede for loved ones, but to do so with a heart already blown away by the loving kindness of a King puts me in the right place.
I challenge you to try this out for a week. See if God doesn’t meet you in it.
Blind Spots
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Have you ever had that experience of driving down the highway and lazily thinking about making a lane change, only to be surprised and alarmed that a car you hadn’t known was there was already occupying that lane? Blind spots can be so dangerous because we can’t easily and immediately see what’s in that space (that’s why they’re called ‘blind’ – I’ve got a gift for recognizing the obvious). It takes extra effort to check if anything is there. I think the most dangerous aspect comes in often assuming that there is nothing residing in our blind spot, and proceeding without actually looking.
What’s true while I’m driving on the highway is also true in the rest of life. We all have blind spots, in our character, attitude and behavior. These are areas that we can’t easily and immediately see ourselves. They take intentional effort to check periodically, to see if anything dangerous resides there.
Yesterday, a brother in Christ and fellow staff member made me aware of something dangerous in my blind spot. He shared that he and a couple of others have experienced me, in my frenetic pace to get things done or get from one place to another, as being disinterested in engaging with them relationally. I was giving an impression that they were not important in my world of priorities. A part of me was shocked, because by nature I’m a highly relational person. But another part of me was not surprised. This was not the first time I had received similar feedback over the years. And I’ve worked hard to slow down and be a human being (rather than just a human doing). I thought that I had conquered the beast, but it crept back into my blind spot. I assumed there was nothing there, and I’ve been proceeding without actually looking. I have been grieved by the impact it has had on those around me. That certainly isn’t how Jesus was, or who He calls me to be. I thank God that I live and work with godly people who are forgiving.
I also praise God that I live and work with people who love me enough to tell me what’s in my blind spot. It takes real love, real courage to share things you know people don’t want to hear.
Do you have godly people in your life who love you enough to tell you when something dangerous is lurking in your blind spot?
When Accountability Breaks Down
Posted by: | CommentsMy son, Matthew, was home from college recently to attend a family wedding. We had decided to use his car to drive down to
the wedding and I had asked him to clean out his car (which barely resembled a car on the inside anymore). After he came back in the house too quickly, I went to check it out. I don’t need to go into the heated argument that ensued, only that he seemed clueless about why I didn’t think it was suitably clean to take his mom and sister. After about a half hour of angry silence between us, he approached me and calmly told me that he didn’t know what I wanted, that the car was already “college clean.” He also told me that my repeated attempts to tell him, “Just look at it, you’ll figure it out!” had not helped him gain any clarity whatsoever. He gently assured me that he was not trying to be obstinate, but just didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Wow, schooled quite appropriately by my 22-year old son. That’s humbling.
I had violated the most basic rules of delegation. And my repeated lame attempts at accountability had obviously failed. Accountability is something that many of us wrestle with on a daily basis. We’ve asked someone to carry out a task and time and time again they have failed to do so. I’ve found that there are usually one of three reasons why people fail to do what we have asked:
- They don’t know they are supposed to do something. It amazes me how often people didn’t realize that a particular task has been assigned to them. This happens a lot in meetings, when we fail to recap the meeting and make sure that every resulting task has an owner. It’s hard for someone to do something they don’t know they are supposed to do. This happens far more often than we think.
- They don’t know how to do it. Often a person freezes up on starting a task because they don’t know how to do what they’ve been asked to do. Their fear of failure keeps them from tackling the job.
- They have prioritized it differently than you. When a person is left to determine where a particular task falls into their other priorities, we are rolling the dice. (Then, of course, there are just some who don’t think that what you ask them to do is as important as what they prefer to do.)
If someone is failing to complete an assignment, perhaps we can best help them get moving by asking some questions to determine why they aren’t making progress. That’s a great reactive approach.
Better yet, maybe we can proactively ensure the removal of these obstacles when giving the assignment in the first place. That’s good for business, and good for the family, too.
Stepping Into His Will
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Scott Chapman has been teaching over many weeks about surrender – giving God the last 10% of ourselves. I am so inspired to live that way, but it seems so stinking difficult. Am I alone in feeling frustrated by how hard that seems?
This journey seems a lot like standing in an empty warehouse. It is pitch black and you hear nothing but the sound of your own breathing. The absence of light makes it impossible to see even your own hand in front of your face. But one thing is visible in the midst of that darkness. As you move tentatively towards it, you realize that there is light after all. You find yourself looking at one single, strong beam of bright light shining down from the ceiling that creates a circle of light on the floor. The spotlight from which the light emanates represents God, and the light coming from Him represents His will, His good perfect and pleasing will. 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”
When I step out of my darkness into that light, I’m enveloped into the warmth of His will. And it’s in that place that I am best positioned for His blessing. When I’m standing there, it seems that God can most easily pour out His abundance on me. That’s where He can heap His blessings upon me.
But we like to stay in the shadows and call out to God, don’t we? “Bring some of that blessing over here, God!” We want to live in the shadow of our own will, hoping that God will still bless us. But how unloving would that be of God? If He knows His best for us exists in the light, it would be terribly unloving for Him to encourage us in any way to stay outside of it. It would be like giving your kids candy while they play in the middle of a busy road. No loving parent would or even could do that.
I’m not sure why I so consistently want to spend time in the shadows, trusting in my own will rather than His. Compared to “good and perfect,” my will seems pretty pathetic.
God, increase our faith, that we might trust that Your will is good and perfect. Give us courage to give you the last 10%.
