As we celebrate Thanksgiving, it seems quite appropriate to highlight the fact that gratitude is the opposite of entitlement. The more we feel entitled...to our money, our belongings, our families, our [insert whatever]...the less we feel any real sense of gratitude. After all, if we are owed what we have (or what we don't), then we don't need to be grateful about it.
Nothing highlights these opposites more than the transition from Thanksgiving into Black Friday. What has been set aside as a day to celebrate and give thanks for all of our blessings has become more and more corrupted by the entitlement of the grand daddy of all shopping days, Black Friday. Think about it...we've watched Black Friday deals happen earlier and earlier - to the point where stores are now opening on Thanksgiving evening in order for people to get a jump on their shopping. After all, they're entitled to get a good deal, right? Right?!?
Let's be intentional about reversing this alarming trend: instead of getting caught up in the hype and the entitlement of the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, let's take even more time to be grateful, and allow our gratitude to spill over into Black Friday (and beyond) rather than vice versa. The remedy for entitlement is gratitude, after all, so the remedy for our culture's misplaced priorities is to be intentional about ensuring we stand for something different. Christians, I'm talking to you. Don't just say, "Oh well, that's just how it is." No. Don't accept it. Fight it, and fight for a counter-cultural revolution. That's what Jesus did, and what God calls us to do as well.
And for his revolutionary love, I am eternally grateful.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Charisma vs. Leadership
I've found something to be true in many places and I think it hurts the organizations in which it occurs. Often times charisma is confused for leadership. What I mean is, sometimes the assumption is made that if someone has charisma, they must be a good leader
Charisma is, simply put, "compelling attractiveness or charm". Put another way, it can be defined as the ability to draw people to you...being someone that others want to be around. This is an important quality, and one that can give a leader a leg up in the ability to create a sphere of influence. But too often it is automatically equated with leadership itself, which is a faulty and often dangerous assumption.
When I evaluate leadership, I look at these six factors:
1. Influence. Leaders cultivate a sphere of influence. After all, a leader without followers is no leader at all.
2. Drive. Some might call this initiative. Put simply, a leader leads. This implies a destination...a leader has to lead somewhere. Great leaders are intentional and active, not accidental or passive. Some call this vision, but it's more than just having vision; it's a willingness to impart vision and catalyze people to want to journey to that place.
3. Competence. A leader should have some skill or giftedness or wisdom or insight that can be used to do something special with the people he/she leads.
4. Sacrifice. Some call this a "servant's heart". But being a servant almost always requires self-sacrifice for the sake of those you lead. Selfish leaders often end up doing more harm to their followers than good.
5. Balance. A great leader knows how to balance time, priorities, and energy, including having a good sense of margin and consistent and healthy boundaries.
6. Integrity. Please hear this: integrity does not mean "someone who never messes up." This word is too often used to imply that, and it's frustrating. Integrity, to me, is comprised of these three factors (these are not exhaustive, of course, but in my experience are three helpful gauges of integrity):
A couple of years ago a friend was with some people on a trip, and when he came back, he was talking about one of the other guys that had gone with him. I'll call him Joe. He said, "Joe's really a leader." I asked what he meant, and he explained that Joe's really got a lot of charisma. But I started to think about Joe, and evaluating him as a leader. I considered his sphere of influence: nonexistent. I considered what he does with the few people that he hangs around with: very little. And I considered what particular competencies he has to do something special even if he has a sphere of influence: minimal. I don't know Joe well enough to evaluate his balance or integrity. But already this assumption that charisma equals leadership starts falling apart.
Charisma is nice, but I'd say it's sort of a bonus. It's not the be-all and end-all that some often make it. In fact, some of the most effective leaders I've ever been around are not people that I would consider charismatic at all. But moving down this list of characteristics that I use to evaluate leaders, the very best of them get almost all of them right.
The larger insight is this: we "approve" or "dismiss" certain people for all kinds of reasons, many of which are, in the end, foolish. We should pay more attention to the real values that matter than we do to the superficial, deceptive factors that can fool is into over- or under- estimating someone.
Charisma is, simply put, "compelling attractiveness or charm". Put another way, it can be defined as the ability to draw people to you...being someone that others want to be around. This is an important quality, and one that can give a leader a leg up in the ability to create a sphere of influence. But too often it is automatically equated with leadership itself, which is a faulty and often dangerous assumption.
When I evaluate leadership, I look at these six factors:
1. Influence. Leaders cultivate a sphere of influence. After all, a leader without followers is no leader at all.
2. Drive. Some might call this initiative. Put simply, a leader leads. This implies a destination...a leader has to lead somewhere. Great leaders are intentional and active, not accidental or passive. Some call this vision, but it's more than just having vision; it's a willingness to impart vision and catalyze people to want to journey to that place.
3. Competence. A leader should have some skill or giftedness or wisdom or insight that can be used to do something special with the people he/she leads.
4. Sacrifice. Some call this a "servant's heart". But being a servant almost always requires self-sacrifice for the sake of those you lead. Selfish leaders often end up doing more harm to their followers than good.
5. Balance. A great leader knows how to balance time, priorities, and energy, including having a good sense of margin and consistent and healthy boundaries.
6. Integrity. Please hear this: integrity does not mean "someone who never messes up." This word is too often used to imply that, and it's frustrating. Integrity, to me, is comprised of these three factors (these are not exhaustive, of course, but in my experience are three helpful gauges of integrity):
- Transparency: someone who is willing to be real and honest, and to take ownership of his/her failures and shortcomings.
- Stewardship: someone who demonstrates healthy stewardship (not just financial; in every area...time, priorities, boundaries, etc. See #5).
- Modeling: leads by example. You cannot lead someone somewhere that you have not been.
A couple of years ago a friend was with some people on a trip, and when he came back, he was talking about one of the other guys that had gone with him. I'll call him Joe. He said, "Joe's really a leader." I asked what he meant, and he explained that Joe's really got a lot of charisma. But I started to think about Joe, and evaluating him as a leader. I considered his sphere of influence: nonexistent. I considered what he does with the few people that he hangs around with: very little. And I considered what particular competencies he has to do something special even if he has a sphere of influence: minimal. I don't know Joe well enough to evaluate his balance or integrity. But already this assumption that charisma equals leadership starts falling apart.
Charisma is nice, but I'd say it's sort of a bonus. It's not the be-all and end-all that some often make it. In fact, some of the most effective leaders I've ever been around are not people that I would consider charismatic at all. But moving down this list of characteristics that I use to evaluate leaders, the very best of them get almost all of them right.
The larger insight is this: we "approve" or "dismiss" certain people for all kinds of reasons, many of which are, in the end, foolish. We should pay more attention to the real values that matter than we do to the superficial, deceptive factors that can fool is into over- or under- estimating someone.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
What Do You Worship?
Humans were created to worship. By this, I don't mean that we created with the capability to worship. I mean that embedded in our DNA is the compulsion to worship. We worship, whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not.
The question is, what do we worship?
Whatever we give the most of our time, our energy, our focus...those are the things that we worship. Worship is, simply put, extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem. If we find ourselves spending an inordinate amount of time or mental energy, or money on something, there's a fair chance that it's something that we worship.
God's desire is that we give him our worship. So, Christians, if we compare the things in our lives that we give most of our attention, money, and time...which things win out? Are they things that are not God? Where does God fall in the mix? If our devotion is going to things other than God, we need to re-evaluate. Anything that we worship that is not God is an idol...something that takes God's rightful place as the object of our worship.
A quick note: God doesn't need our worship. He's God. The reason God wants our worship is not for his sake; it's for ours. Worshiping is, in a sense, submission. It's elevating something above ourselves. If that something is money...we're submitting to money. If that something is sports, we're submitting to sports. If that something is self, we're submitting to self.
The things we worship, the things we submit to, have power over us. Putting worship where it belongs...on God...is submitting to God and giving him power over us. And that is as it should be. God desires our worship because it is beneficial and good for us to submit to him, to acknowledge the truth that God is God and we are not; that without him, we are nothing. God is the reason we have life and breath.
Again, we all worship something or someone. We were created to worship; it is unavoidable. The question is, what do you worship? Is your worship where it should be, on God? Or is it on an idol. Or many idols? How do we need to reorder things in our lives so that the focus of our worship is in its rightful place (on God)?
The question is, what do we worship?
Whatever we give the most of our time, our energy, our focus...those are the things that we worship. Worship is, simply put, extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem. If we find ourselves spending an inordinate amount of time or mental energy, or money on something, there's a fair chance that it's something that we worship.
God's desire is that we give him our worship. So, Christians, if we compare the things in our lives that we give most of our attention, money, and time...which things win out? Are they things that are not God? Where does God fall in the mix? If our devotion is going to things other than God, we need to re-evaluate. Anything that we worship that is not God is an idol...something that takes God's rightful place as the object of our worship.
A quick note: God doesn't need our worship. He's God. The reason God wants our worship is not for his sake; it's for ours. Worshiping is, in a sense, submission. It's elevating something above ourselves. If that something is money...we're submitting to money. If that something is sports, we're submitting to sports. If that something is self, we're submitting to self.
The things we worship, the things we submit to, have power over us. Putting worship where it belongs...on God...is submitting to God and giving him power over us. And that is as it should be. God desires our worship because it is beneficial and good for us to submit to him, to acknowledge the truth that God is God and we are not; that without him, we are nothing. God is the reason we have life and breath.
Again, we all worship something or someone. We were created to worship; it is unavoidable. The question is, what do you worship? Is your worship where it should be, on God? Or is it on an idol. Or many idols? How do we need to reorder things in our lives so that the focus of our worship is in its rightful place (on God)?
Friday, November 14, 2014
Being Grateful
As Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself thinking a lot about what it means to be grateful. I don't mean this in the sense we typically think about during this time of year ("I'm thankful for my family," and so forth). What I mean is more in a broad sense. In many ways, gratitude is the opposite of entitlement.
Many of us fall into the entitlement trap, feeling that life, or God, or...whoever/whatever owes us something. We feel we deserve x, y or, z because of what we've done or just who we are. Somehow we should be provided with [insert whatever] because [insert reason].
Yet in many ways gratitude is the opposite of entitlement. It acknowledges our feelings of thankfulness because in many ways we have gotten what we don't deserve. Christians, especially, should have a constant sense of gratitude, because God's grace and mercy is exactly what we don't deserve. Yet we still find ourselves feeling entitled.
What is the remedy, then? I think a good start is to constantly remind ourselves that God is God and we are not. He knows what we need more than we do. He is always working in our favor. He is for us. And we should always recognize exactly how much it is that God has really done for us. Because remembering that constantly is the only way to rest consistently in a perspective of gratitude. It is the only way to keep ourselves from falling into the entitlement trap.
Many of us fall into the entitlement trap, feeling that life, or God, or...whoever/whatever owes us something. We feel we deserve x, y or, z because of what we've done or just who we are. Somehow we should be provided with [insert whatever] because [insert reason].
Yet in many ways gratitude is the opposite of entitlement. It acknowledges our feelings of thankfulness because in many ways we have gotten what we don't deserve. Christians, especially, should have a constant sense of gratitude, because God's grace and mercy is exactly what we don't deserve. Yet we still find ourselves feeling entitled.
What is the remedy, then? I think a good start is to constantly remind ourselves that God is God and we are not. He knows what we need more than we do. He is always working in our favor. He is for us. And we should always recognize exactly how much it is that God has really done for us. Because remembering that constantly is the only way to rest consistently in a perspective of gratitude. It is the only way to keep ourselves from falling into the entitlement trap.
Monday, November 03, 2014
Rejoicing in Heaven
Within the last two weeks, I have had the privilege of helping to lead two young people into saving relationship with Jesus. Without hesitation I can say that this is one of the most incredibly joyful and profoundly moving experiences a Christian can have. Each time I am privileged enough to be part of God bringing someone back into relationship with him, I am humbled and awed beyond words.
More than anything else, God's desire is to be in deep, personal relationship with every single human being. This is the gospel in a nutshell. And the Bible makes clear how much this matters to God:
Luke 15:7, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."
And verse 10, "I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Literally all of heaven rejoices when even one sinful human (which is every human!) repents and gets back into right relationship with God. Think about that...all of the heavens, and all of God's angels rejoice and worship because someone recognized their brokenness and their need for Jesus. Amazing!
Yet what I find is that Christians often respond with far less enthusiasm. I remember a few years ago I had spoken at a youth conference where about 100 kids were gathered at a camp in Wisconsin. Over the course of the weekend, forty of them...forty!...gave their lives to Jesus. So, the following weekend, when I got back home to the church I was pastoring at the time, I told them all about it. It was met with what seemed like apathy. In reality, they applauded, but more in a sense of "Oh, that's kind of neat" way than in a "Let's rejoice with all of the heavens over all of these young people that have come to Jesus!" way.
This makes me sad. Because such a reaction is not specific to that church, or to just certain misguided Christians. Many, many people fall into this lackadaisical response than I ever expected.
Perhaps this feeds our reticence to share our faith. Perhaps this is fed by our reticence to share our faith. But, in many ways, I feel that it breaks God's heart. Because God is overwhelmingly joyful when a sinner repents. Yet we too often respond with, at worst, ambivalence or, at best, lukewarm approval.
We should be so excited when even one person comes to Jesus that we shout it from the rooftops and raise our voices in worship and in praise! We should join God's angels in all the heavens in rejoicing that one more has been added to the number of God's kingdom! We should also be so overwhelmed by the work and message of the gospel that we want the entire world to join us in God's kingdom. We should want everyone we know to have the same joy that we (should) have over the fact that we were lost and now we are found.
More than anything else, God's desire is to be in deep, personal relationship with every single human being. This is the gospel in a nutshell. And the Bible makes clear how much this matters to God:
Luke 15:7, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."
And verse 10, "I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Literally all of heaven rejoices when even one sinful human (which is every human!) repents and gets back into right relationship with God. Think about that...all of the heavens, and all of God's angels rejoice and worship because someone recognized their brokenness and their need for Jesus. Amazing!
Yet what I find is that Christians often respond with far less enthusiasm. I remember a few years ago I had spoken at a youth conference where about 100 kids were gathered at a camp in Wisconsin. Over the course of the weekend, forty of them...forty!...gave their lives to Jesus. So, the following weekend, when I got back home to the church I was pastoring at the time, I told them all about it. It was met with what seemed like apathy. In reality, they applauded, but more in a sense of "Oh, that's kind of neat" way than in a "Let's rejoice with all of the heavens over all of these young people that have come to Jesus!" way.
This makes me sad. Because such a reaction is not specific to that church, or to just certain misguided Christians. Many, many people fall into this lackadaisical response than I ever expected.
Perhaps this feeds our reticence to share our faith. Perhaps this is fed by our reticence to share our faith. But, in many ways, I feel that it breaks God's heart. Because God is overwhelmingly joyful when a sinner repents. Yet we too often respond with, at worst, ambivalence or, at best, lukewarm approval.
We should be so excited when even one person comes to Jesus that we shout it from the rooftops and raise our voices in worship and in praise! We should join God's angels in all the heavens in rejoicing that one more has been added to the number of God's kingdom! We should also be so overwhelmed by the work and message of the gospel that we want the entire world to join us in God's kingdom. We should want everyone we know to have the same joy that we (should) have over the fact that we were lost and now we are found.
Saturday, November 01, 2014
The Other Side of the Score Card
This is a follow-up to my last post: http://pismo.blogspot.com/2014/10/score-card-christians.html in which I call out Christians (including myself) for falling into the legalistic trap of 'rating' our faith by what we've done, good or bad, and using that as a barometer for spiritual health, acceptance by God, etc.
Well this post is the counter-balance to that. Because if legalistic score-keeping is the one (most common) extreme, then the opposite extreme is what I call the grace-riders. This is when we DO understand the nature of God's grace and the 'it is finished'ness of the Gospel. But then we use it as a kind of "get out of jail free" card and as a way to keep sinning and then kind of say, "Well, Jesus paid it all. Thank God for grace!"
Not that any of us literally say that, of course. We aren't usually so blatant in the ways we take Jesus for granted. But if we do understand grace and the idea that Jesus already paid for our sins, we often use that as a license to let ourselves off the hook when we mess up. We abuse grace.
Put another way, on the one legalistic score-keeping extreme, when we sin we are riddled with guilt and shame and we mark ourselves off on our scorecard; or, on the contrary, when we get something right we self-righteously, smugly mark it on our scorecard and use it to feel that we're better than others. On the other, grace-riding extreme, when we sin we just wave it off and say, "Oh well, that's what grace is for!" And we don't really deal with the underlying issues and need for repentance, we simply ride the grace train and take it for granted.
I believe that the issue comes down to how we view God. We often view God as an employer or a boss. And even if our boss is good and we know our boss will have grace with us when we mess up, that only goes so far. Eventually, if we mess up enough times, a boss will terminate his relationship with us.
But if we instead view God as our Father, then the dynamic changes. A father never stops loving his children. He always wants what is best for his children. And when you understand that God's guidelines for sins and righteousness are for our own good (in our best interest) then being obedient is not an issue of following a boss's rules because breaking them will eventually result in termination of the relationship, but because breaking a father's rules results in breaking the heart of the father that created us and loves us and wants what's best for us.
That is, we aren't obedient to God because we're afraid of him canceling his relationship with us, or that he will stop loving us, or...whatever. We are obedient because we know that God's love for us is unconditional and that he always wants what's best for us and we want to give him honor and respect him accordingly.
In some ways, understanding grace should ultimately result in less sin than a legalistic mentality does. We shouldn't ever get caught up in the score-keeping. But we also can't fall into the trap of grace-riding either, taking for granted the great sacrifice that Jesus made by using it as a license to continue sinning.
Romans 6 (read it!)
Well this post is the counter-balance to that. Because if legalistic score-keeping is the one (most common) extreme, then the opposite extreme is what I call the grace-riders. This is when we DO understand the nature of God's grace and the 'it is finished'ness of the Gospel. But then we use it as a kind of "get out of jail free" card and as a way to keep sinning and then kind of say, "Well, Jesus paid it all. Thank God for grace!"
Not that any of us literally say that, of course. We aren't usually so blatant in the ways we take Jesus for granted. But if we do understand grace and the idea that Jesus already paid for our sins, we often use that as a license to let ourselves off the hook when we mess up. We abuse grace.
Put another way, on the one legalistic score-keeping extreme, when we sin we are riddled with guilt and shame and we mark ourselves off on our scorecard; or, on the contrary, when we get something right we self-righteously, smugly mark it on our scorecard and use it to feel that we're better than others. On the other, grace-riding extreme, when we sin we just wave it off and say, "Oh well, that's what grace is for!" And we don't really deal with the underlying issues and need for repentance, we simply ride the grace train and take it for granted.
I believe that the issue comes down to how we view God. We often view God as an employer or a boss. And even if our boss is good and we know our boss will have grace with us when we mess up, that only goes so far. Eventually, if we mess up enough times, a boss will terminate his relationship with us.
But if we instead view God as our Father, then the dynamic changes. A father never stops loving his children. He always wants what is best for his children. And when you understand that God's guidelines for sins and righteousness are for our own good (in our best interest) then being obedient is not an issue of following a boss's rules because breaking them will eventually result in termination of the relationship, but because breaking a father's rules results in breaking the heart of the father that created us and loves us and wants what's best for us.
That is, we aren't obedient to God because we're afraid of him canceling his relationship with us, or that he will stop loving us, or...whatever. We are obedient because we know that God's love for us is unconditional and that he always wants what's best for us and we want to give him honor and respect him accordingly.
In some ways, understanding grace should ultimately result in less sin than a legalistic mentality does. We shouldn't ever get caught up in the score-keeping. But we also can't fall into the trap of grace-riding either, taking for granted the great sacrifice that Jesus made by using it as a license to continue sinning.
Romans 6 (read it!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)