Taking Yourself Seriously
It is a dangerous thing to take yourself too seriously. People who take themselves too seriously often come off as arrogant and full-of-themselves. Who wants to be around people like that? But it seems that we have to take ourselves at least a little bit seriously if we, well, want to be taken seriously at all, right?
I made an interesting discovery about myself recently; that out of a danger of being seen as a failure, I will minimize the seriousness of myself and what I do. After all, if what I do is not that serious or that consequential, it is impossible to fail at it. It’s impossible to let people down. It’s impossible to be in the wrong. Impossible to have to take it, or myself too seriously.
At it’s core, you could say that this is a classic ‘fear of man’ case. Fear of man is crippling to any form of work and will plague a ministry’s effectiveness. In order to be effective at anything in life, you must be willing to be bold, because you see how important and consequential the thing you are doing is. Mediocrity is easy, but it is the enemy of effiectiveness.
This week, I have been reading “The Conviction to Lead” by Al Mohler and realized that I need to take what I do seriously; no matter what it is. I should be so convicted about what I am doing and the message that I have that I am willing to do whatever it takes to ensure effectiveness. If I do not see value in what I do, it’s time to go elsewhere. In ministry this is 10x more true. Mohler says that conviction is what drives the leader. Are you convicted about what you do? Do you think it is important and consequential? If not, you either need to rediscover the importance of what you do or move on.
All that to say: don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t worry about what others say about you. Take your work seriously, for you are doing it for God. Take the Gospel seriously, for people are lost without it. Seek to advance the mission of whatever it is you are doing. It matters.
What about you, have you had any similar experiences?
Selling Jesus?
As some of you know I spent part of the last 10 Days at the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show selling kitchen cabinets. I will spare you the details on the cabinets mainly because I am sick of talking about them.
When I told a couple people what was doing I was often met by a disturbing statement and a statement that reveals the heart of some of our issues with evangelism. The statement I was met with went something like, “Sales should be a good experience for you since you will essentially be trying to get people to buy into Jesus with your calling as a pastor.” This statement is troubling to me because I hate the thought of the Gospel needing a sales pitch. I cannot stand that some people actually think that we are the ones that bend the perverted wills of man into accepting the truth of Christ.
The Gospel does not need a sales pitch. People do not accept the truth of Christ based on how good or bad the presentation is; people accept Christ because he is calling them unto himself. “And those whom he predestined he also called…” (Romans 8:30, ESV). God does the calling. He does all the work and we just proclaim (see Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 10:14).
So what do you think? Do you see God as the sole worker in the hearts of those he is calling or do you think you have something to do with it?
Saying Goodbye
So this past week or so I have been doing a lot of thinking about things since the Geneva Community is practically non existant since school has let out. Since I am a graduating senior I have been saying a lot of goodbyes and am bidding farewell to lots of people (most of whom I will never see again). I have been thinking about the concept of saying goodbye. Also last week my family said goodbye to my great aunt as she passed away. Every time I get back from a mission trip I think about the people I met their and how much I would long to see them again. During this whole time I have been asking myself why goodbyes seem so unnatural. Why is it so hard to let go of people? And why does it seem as if your never really let go even if you know you will never share a moment with the person again?
Maybe farewells are not supposed to feel normal and maybe we are supposed to think beyond our current circumstances and see things with the end in mind. Maybe our longing for lasting friendships and relationships should be a motivator for the gospel and teaching others about the gospel in hopes that we will experience community with each other again someday and experience God together in an even more profound way on the New Earth.
Just some thoughts. Feel free to give me yours.
After thinking about all of this I realized that perhaps we were not meant for this. Maybe leaving people is not meant to feel natural and should make us think deeper about they way things really ought to be. God meant for us to live in community and in constant relationship with other people.
Living Intimately
If you are like me you tend to struggle with the spiritual disciplines at times; not because you don’t like them or because you think they are boring, but because you find it hard to quiet your self. I am a doer, I move all the time, when I do something I usually have to be active in doing something. It is an A.D.D. of sorts–and something that oftentimes fights against my yearning for intimacy with the Father.
Furthermore, the earliest parts of my Christian years were characterized by legalism; this is what Christians do and this is what Christians don’t do. It is this kind of thought that can plague the mind of one trying to cultivate intimacy simply because it turns relationship into regulations and quality time into reaching benchmarks with God. So in my devotional life I have to battle the “did I do enough” thoughts because of my past. I must replace that with thoughts of “Jesus is enough” and it is only when I do that will the relationship cultivate. When one realizes that all the benchmarks have been completed by Christ he or she is finnally free to grow in relationship with God through Christ.
Now more about the picture above. This year I decided to take a class on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Honestly, I was not really sure why I took it other than the fact that Dr. Watt was the one teaching it. Little did I know that this class would be one of the most formative classes in my college career. Recently in this class we were assigned to read the “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster. I heard a lot about this book–some good and some bad, and I was kind of excited to read it.
When I finally delved into this book I was immediately impacted by what came off of the pages. This book was all about intimacy with the Father and getting to a place in our devotional lives where we are open to God changing us and reaching into the dark corners of our lives.
This book gently goes through the inward disciplines (i.e. prayer & meditation) and outward disciplines (i.e. simplicity & solitude) and challenges the reader to grow in them. What is best is that there is no semblance of legalism in the pages of this book and there is only the call to go to new places with God and live intimately with him.
Led Up 