Discovering the Ancient for the New

2011 has been an amazing year, a year that God provided plenty! He provided plenty of moments that reminded me that He is in charge of my life and that I am not a living accident, but a purposed design. He has provided plenty of opportunities to be used for His glory, moments that truly gave me the sense that I "was made for this purpose". He has provided plenty of grace-filled moments with my loving wife, amazing daughter and the new addition of our son, providing us with the resources and support to guide our family for His glory. I am grateful for the precious family and friends in our lives. I consider myself and my family the richest people I know because of Christ who is our sufficiency and because of the amazing gifts of relationship we have.

As I prepare to exit 2011 and enter 2012 I am spending some time reflecting on God's purpose for my life and I want to invite others to do the same. I have benefited greatly from diagnostic tools such as DISC personality tests, Myers-Briggs and recently Clifton Strengths Finder. They have all helped me better understand myself in my quest to answer the question "What was I created to do?", but with all they have added to me they have all been insufficient to an extent. Their insufficiency lies in the fact that each of these tools relies on comparing people to ideal personality types and pre-determined strengths. Despite all that they give, they lack the power to fully describe us to ourselves because they overlook the biblical truth that each of us has unique gifts, strengths and callings. Our similar strengths and experiences are not enough to overshadow the fact that God has been writing a unique story through our lives, a story that only He can explain to us and help us discern.

I started reading "Leaders Who Last" by Dave Kraft this morning and I can't put it down. It is simple, insightful and a must read for anyone who wants to impact this world for Christ. In a chapter on discerning our purpose, Kraft provides us with one of the best and simplest outlines for discerning our unique destiny I have come across. I have been working through it in my heart in between changing diapers and doing things around the house. As I work on number 10, the words that come to mind are "Ignite", "Realign", "Discover" and "Empower". Still working on the others.

As we enter a new year, our effectiveness is determined by our ability to discover the ancient. By ancient I mean to imply that each of us has a destiny that is ancient, that was determined before the foundation of the world, that if discovered will give us a path to walk on. I hope this reflective exercise will help you discover God's ancient purpose for your life, so that you can walk in greater joy, power, and effectiveness in Christ!


1. Record Bible passages God has applied to your life.
2. Reflect on how God has used you in the past.
3. Determine what you are passionate about.
4. List your known gifts and strengths.
5. Delineate what you have excelled at in your work experi­ence.
6. Define what action words best describe what you like to do.
7. Write down what you enjoy doing in your free time.
8. Reread all your answers.
9. Take note of common themes.
10. Write down key words or ideas that repeat.
11. Summarize those key words in a short, energizing state­ment about yourself.

Kraft, Dave (2010-03-03). Leaders Who Last (p. 46). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.

The Cost of Satisfying the Crowd

Mark 15:15 ESV

15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Satisfying the crowd always has a high price tag.  We lose so much to gain mass approval.  In this instance it required the greatest price ever paid, the life of our innocent Savior.

Pilate was more of a politican than a leader, so naturally he went in the direction that the people went. It reminds of a quote I believe John Maxwell cited in one of his books that said something like "There go my people, i am their leader, i must run quickly and get ahead of the direction they are already going". Most leaders have to be political to a degree in that they learn how to compromise or create consensus, but in this instance we see the tragedy in adopting a leadership style that has no conviction and is only focused on satisfying the crowd.

There is more that could be said about this passage from a leadership perspective, but that limits the broad impact these truths have on everyday life. The fact is that most people dont run committees, lead teams, draft up budgets or create strategic plans for organizations, but all of us our leading our lives, so how does this come to bear in the landscape of everyday life? The questions we have to answer for ourselves are "Who is the "crowd" in my life?" and "What ungodly sacrifices am i making in order to satisfy the crowd?"

The "crowds" in our lives are anything that crowd out our precious Savior as the sole focus of our lives. Anything that conflicts with satisfying the Savior essentially crowds Him out of our hearts. Pleasing people is not what needs to be avoided because it is important and necessary to please people in our lives, rather the question is if we are pleasing them at the expense of our Lord. Are the opinions of people more important than God's standards? Everytime we please people above God that is essentially what we are saying. As i continue to follow Christ i find that the "crowds" in my life are not always a physical group of people, but many times they are memories, cultural expectations and even deceased people.

The key to break free from this cycle is to ultimately find more value and worth in our Savior's precious blood than in the opinions and desires of people. Only a focus on eternity can free us from the tempora enslavement of majority approval. May we choose wisely!

Managing Yourself

Imagine the scenario where you were managing a group of people who were exactly like you in terms of personality, strengths, character, energy and weaknesses. This group could be a small handful or hundreds of employees.

Two questions emerge from this exercise:

1) What amazing things could a group of people like yourself do if they harness their common strengths, gifts, passions, personality and energy?

2) Despite the amazing things that would be accomplished, what would be lacking as a result of your collective weakness?

Though simple, this exercise should stir your mind to the boundless possibilities associated with the release of your potential and awaken you to the environment your weaknesses are creating and will create in the future.

What can you do to release your potential even more so?

What measures should be taken to minimize the impact of your weaknesses?

Though this was an imaginary exercise, the truth is that you are managing yourself and either your potential is flourishing or your weaknesses are dominating.

What kind of stress is created by your weaknesses for yourself and especially for those who work under you or with you? We all have weaknesses, even the best of us! Owning up to them would only devastate us if we believed that we had none :) Admitting our weaknesses frees us to focus on what we can be exceptional at, rather than being mediocre. This also allows for creative solutions to emerge as we work hard to compensate for our weaknesses by building a team of people that are strong where we are weak. Everyone wins, especially ourselves when we acknowledge our weaknesses.

What kind of hope, creativity and passion does your gift inspire in others and how can you help others experience the same thing? Your gift makes you unique and your strengths empower you to do exceptional things. In an age when organizations can outsource work to other parts of the world, and when high unemployment rates are now pitting highly experienced workers against recent college graduates, people must discover what differentiates them from anyone else if they are planning on thriving. That thing that communicates "that person is special...we need what they bring to the table!" is what individuals must harness to becoming productive and fulfilled in their work. Contrary to what our anxieties would tell us, fostering an environment where other people flourish by leading with their strengths is the best thing that could happen for us as well. If they succeed on the basis of their strengths in operation, then that means you can flourish as well on the same basis, and when that happens there truly is no limit to how high you can go in the present and the future.

No one would fire themselves, but most people would refine their job description at least a bit for optimal performance. Under-performing will become the norm unless we admit to our weaknesses and release the potential of our strengths and in turn allow others to experience the freedom that these steps bring!

Let's go manage ourselves to the best of our ability...we owe that to ourselves and to the organizations we lead and work in!

Developing Leaders or Followers?

Leaders are developed when leaders provide people with wisdom, supervision and authority to make decisions that fulfill a vision.

Followers are developed when leaders provide people with wisdom, supervision, but give no authority to make decisions that fulfill a vision.

Leaders create frustration and confusion when they call people leaders, but treat them as followers.

The measure of authority should be given to people commensurate to their character and maturity, so people should develop into leaders by faithfully and skillfully following.

Perhaps people around you are not mature enough to receive more authority or your organization's mission lacks the necessary clarity that would allow you to give authority to others (authority given in the absence of a clear mission creates a title, not a leader), but we need to be clear that unless authority is given to people we are only creating followers.

The failure to develop leaders who can be entrusted with authority signals the eventual death of any organization and creates a culture of "life-support" rather than one that is "life-giving".