Trading Up

Finished chapter 22 in Leadership Gold. Maxwell talks about 10 different things that you need to consider trading for so that as a leader you can get to the next level. Really good stuff. Two of these trades jumped out at me.

1. Trade Addition for Multiplication

If I’m all about leading others, well that’s really great. Because I am adding to myself as I lead people forward in whatever seems to be the trek of the day. The follower list might be growing but it’s still only through addition and not multiplication. It’s a far more significant thing, and more difficult to achieve, to develop leaders who in turn lead others. If I can lead and grow others in such a way as to result in those I lead developing still more leaders under them, well, then we are talking exponential impact. I’m not so sure I do this well, but I’m becoming much more intentional about how I lead and develop others into leaders. I feel like I’ve stepped into some kind of vortex in the past 3-4 months that has heightened all my sensory receptors when it comes to this thing called leadership.

2. Trade Your Work for God for a Walk with God

I’ve been doing ministry for years. I think since I lead my youth group in high school. A small portion of those years have been in a paid role, but none the less, I’ve been a busy guy doing ministry in various areas of the church. I think I’ve spent most of this time doing things for God and not necessarily spending time with God. Since last summer I have become convinced that God is far more interested in my walk with Him than he is in “using me” for the work he doing in our world. I’m not saying that’s not important, but what I am saying that without a deep relationship with God, nothing else much matters. It’s the relationship that lives for an eternity. Susan Scott in her book called Fierce Conversation makes a statement about people and their relationships that I think goes for my relationship with God as well. She said that we can think all we want about our relationships with each other, but none of it has any substance to form “relationship”. Relationship is formed only during the act of conversation. The conversation is the relationship. In that very moment, the act of speaking and listening, centered on another human being comes the essence of the relationship. It’s either a positive or negative encounter based on the conversation (words, body language, unspoken words, all that conversational stuff). If I’m not fully there with my presence, chances are high that its does the relationship harm. If I’m all there, centered, listening, sharing, interacting, consumed with the very presence of another precious being, God or otherwise, the relationship grows and becomes greater than before. Today I crave a deeper walk with my creator than ever before. So I’m becoming much more intentional and careful when I come into His presence.

jp

ps. If you attend CrossRoads Church and would like a copy of Maxwell’s book, let me know. I’ve bought a few extra, just for you!

In That Secret Place

How about two blogs in two days! Just has some time and thought I would throw these two thoughts up here while I was thinking about it.

For the past year God keeps bringing me back to Psalms 139. I’ve been attempting to do a full memorization on this chapter because is speaks to me so kindly of how God sees me and thinks about me. I’ve got all kinds of study notes on this chapter now, but the thing that has been sticking out the most to me over the past while comes from verses 15 and 16.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

The first phrase of v15 does not do this justice to what the psalmist actually was implying. These verses are a powerful picture of God, up close and personal, knitting me together in my mother’s womb and never able to take His eyes off of me because I was the main focal point. It’s just like my Dad watching hockey when I was a kid. He was glued to the TV. If one of us kids tried to talk to him, he would respond, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the action in front of him. He would rock back and forth and side to side with all the hockey action, engaged verbally with the TV and in constant motion throughout the whole game. We were the distraction; the hockey was the prime focal point.

In my mother’s womb, I was the prime focal point for God. He couldn’t take His eyes off of me. He could not be distracted. A deeper study also showed me that not only was He completely focused on me, but he was actually mesmerized by me and couldn’t stop thinking about me. Mesmerized (or captivated) by me as He busied Himself with the act of created me, making me just like he had imagined before he even started a single stitch. In that dark, quiet, still place; in that secure and perfect incubator (my mom), there was God and there was me. And He loved me and couldn’t stop thinking about me. All I was able to do was to be there and receive and know the warmth of His presence and His love.

God, let this knowledge change my view of myself. May I come to really know and understand in my heart that you are a loving and gracious God and that you like to be with me. Bring me back often to that place of being perfectly still and quiet, delighting myself in your presence.

I got lots more on this chapter that God has used to speak deeply into my life. Perhaps someday I’ll expand some more.

jp