What is your life purpose? What actually motivates you to fulfill that life purpose? When the going gets really tough and you are tempted to give in, what thought do you cling to for the strength to keep pressing forward? While you think about the answers to those questions, I am going to share my answers to those same questions. Maybe my answers will help you think through yours!
Are you settling near the place God has in mind for you, but not right in the middle of it? Are you settling for “good enough” when God wants the best in His relationship with you? Is it possible that you are also doing this in your business? As Christians, shouldn’t we want to be exactly where God wants us…not just on the border?
In my last post, I posed the question, “Are You A Borderline Christian?” In this post, I talked about how several of the Israelite tribes chose to take as their inheritance the land just outside of the Promised Land. This land they chose was across the Jordan river from the land God had promised their fathers.
Unfortunately for these tribes, they decided the land just outside God’s Promised land was “good enough” and so they settled there. This decision caused several problems for these tribes.
So, as we always do, let’s talk about how we can apply these ideas to our lives as Christian business owners and leaders.
First, let’s recognize that this is very much a picture of Christians today. So many believers hear that God promises us peace and joy in ways we cannot imagine, but they still decide that what they can see in the world right in front of them is “good enough” for what they need!
So many times, we know God has something awesome for us one day, but we choose to take the “good enough” that we can see in front of us right now. Why do we do this?
There are several possibilities. Maybe we think “a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush” is from the Bible! We want what we can have right now rather than waiting on what God has for us later. Maybe, like the borderline tribes, we may not want the “fight” it will take to get it.
But sometimes we are even okay with accepting the fight and still want to settle for less than God has for us. What could we be thinking? Maybe it is our fear of full commitment to God and what He wants from us. Maybe we are much more comfortable in the “borderline” position – getting just enough of God to make us feel better, but not so much that we are no longer in control.
Whatever the reasons we may have, we need to stop and realize that we are thinking this way. We need to search our own hearts and allow God to reveal the truth to us about where we stand.
Second, we need to recognize that this is a VERY BIG DEAL. God wants our all (Matthew 22:37-40). He is jealous and does not like it when we live as borderline believers. He wants us fully committed to Him. In fact, Jesus would rather we were AGAINST Him than in the middle (Revelation 3:14-16).
This is true in our businesses as well. We cannot pick and choose which parts of Scripture we will apply to how we run a business. If we are going to live in full commitment to God, we need to fully commit our jobs to Him as well.
Finally, let’s discuss the dangers of living as borderline Christian business owners and leaders. Just like the borderline tribes, we are putting ourselves and our businesses at risk when we try to ride the fence like this. When we are living as borderline believers, we lose our clear and frequent communication with God.
As a result, our decisions suffer. We are more susceptible to temptation and attack – spiritual or otherwise. We are also weaker in our defense agains the storms that will come. Quite simply, we are on our own – and that is not good!
D.L. Moody said, “The world has yet to see what God will do through a man who trusts Him completely.” I think this statement rings true for our businesses as well.
Let’s commit together to move out of the borderline areas and into God’s Promised Land – His will for our lives as well as our businesses and jobs. Let’s give him total control and submit to His leadership. I think we will find that He is faithful to make good on His promises!
Where are you living? Your business or job?
If on the border, what are you going to do to change it?
If you don’t know, what is your next step to find out?
Are you so busy at work that you do not feel you are accomplishing anything for God? Is your work situation causing you to question how you will ever impact another person for eternity? Do you wonder if this period of time will ever end? Are you even questioning the job itself – whether God may want you somewhere else? If you have ever asked similar questions, keep reading!
In my last post, I described how I had recently experienced a period of time when I felt I was too busy to do my job. A key executive leader had left our company and I was forced to take on many of his responsibilities. I knew it was only for a season, but I knew that season would make it difficult for me to fulfill my true God-given job description – to impact others for eternity by pointing them to God.
Based on Scripture (Matthew 22:37-40, 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:20), this true job description should trump all other job descriptions. This fact is accepted by most Christians as being the truth. In fact, we usually describe it by saying our priorities are God, Family, Job – in that order.
Unfortunately, there are times when our busy-ness on the job seems to crowd out any opportunity for us to carry out this eternal job description and impact others as we should. This is especially tough when the busy-ness is not within our control – when others have the most influence on how we spend our time.
The problem is that though most agree our God-given job description is top priority, too many people also think it is also completely separate from the job description their employer gave them. Most people fail to realize that God’s job description for us is to be fulfilled IN CONJUNCTION WITH the other job descriptions we have!
You see, God has placed you in the job you have for a reason and a season. He knows all there is to know about your job and the circumstances surrounding that job. He is not surprised by the sudden busy-ness you are experiencing. Nothing about your job is surprising to Him.
Instead, God is watching to see how you are living out the eternal job description He has given you while you are carrying out the temporal job description given to you by your employer. It is NOT one or the other, but BOTH at the same time.
Folks, this is really great news! This means you do not have to “steal” time from your employer to carry out your eternal purpose! It also means you will never be asked by God to ignore business needs so you can work on His requests. The cool thing is that you can do everything God wants you to do WHILE carrying out your job for your employer or running your business.
For a concrete example, let me describe my approach to this recent season of busy-ness I had. Before I do this, please know that I did not execute this perfectly! I am no better at this than you can be…I screwed it up plenty of times. As you read about my intentions, just be aware that my actions did not always match up.
If you will do your best to follow these same steps, God will honor your efforts as He did mine!
To maintain this perspective, I renewed my commitment to a productive quiet time (it had gotten stale). I began a new study of Joshua (see resulting posts here) because I saw him as a leader that followed God’s commands even under extremely tough circumstances. I knew I would learn perspective from Joshua.
Folks, I am not a good pray-er. This is especially true when I get busy. I lose focus and my mind wanders. I get off track and start listing my trivial requests before I realize what I am doing. During this time period, I fought through this weakness. I stayed on my knees for an extra 15-20 minutes when necessary, but I was not going to give up on this prayer.
I made the decision to triage my tasks like the Emergency Room does when overloaded with injuries. Those non-critical issues were put to the side. Even “good” things I was doing in the past were put aside in favor of the “best” things. I prayed for wisdom as I did this and promised those affected by these decisions that I would return to these tasks when (and if) time permitted. In most cases, they understood.
This was not always the way they ended up. I missed some things. I messed up on others. But I maintained this strategy and (for the most part) it worked. I will probably look back and beat myself up for some of the things I put off, but today I feel I did all I could.
When all is said and done, this busy season appears to be coming to a close for me. I am sure there is another just around the corner, but I am thankful for the learning from this one. I hope you can get something out of my experience as well.
Do you think these steps will help you when you get busy?
Which one(s) will be the hardest for you?
What steps would you add to this list?
As I posted last week, I recently hired a COO for our organization after a lengthy hiring process. It was a huge win for our company, but also for me personally and spiritually. The reason I say this is that this hire effectively ends a long period of time where I was entirely too “busy” to do fulfill my God-given job description. I did not feel I was able to impact others for eternity like I wanted to.
Before I explain what I mean by being too “busy” to do my job, let me first tell you about my job as I see it. As President and co-owner of my family business, I have certain duties and responsibilities that are required of me. These are certainly PART of my job. But when I really look at the job that I have been given, there is so much more to it than that!
You see, I believe my job has been given to me by God for a season. As a temporary steward of God’s business, I believe that I am in this role for a specific purpose – to impact other people for eternity by pointing them to God. If I had to boil my job description down to one line, that would be it. In fact, I believe that is your job description as well.
Whether you are a President, a Manager, or in an entry-level position, I believe you have this same job description. It comes from Scripture (Matthew 22:37-40, 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:20). If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you have this purpose in life and in work – there is no difference, except location.
Having said that, there are times that our job “activities” begin to take our focus off of our eternal purpose, our real job description. In some cases, these times are only temporary and have a clear beginning and end (like my recent experience). Other times, it can be the nature of the job itself. There are even times when we take on too much and create our own prison of busyness.
Regardless of the duration or cause, these times of being too busy can dramatically impact our ability to fulfill our God-given job description. If you have been a disciple of Jesus for any period of time, you have likely experienced this problem. If not, congratulations on keeping your focus on your true purpose in life!
For the rest of us that either bump into this problem occasionally or actually feel like we have set up camp here, lets’s discuss what we should do when this happens. For this discussion, there are two possible paths.
The first path is for those times when we have created the busyness for ourselves. The busyness could be the result of an over-zealous appetite for responsibilities or maybe a lack of intentional scheduling. Either way, we have brought this on ourselves and we need to correct the problem. In the cases I am referring to here, shedding these additional responsibilities would not have an effect on your employment.
To do this, I am not necessarily recommending breaking any commitments, but I am saying that you need to recognize that you are putting the temporary ahead of the eternal. As a result, you need to correct the imbalance as quickly as you can. This will likely take time and energy, but it is worth it.
As you are doing this, you need to begin putting intentional habits in place to prevent returning to this position. I suggest starting with a LIFE plan. By creating a LIFE plan, you will establish the priorities by which you will make future decisions on responsibilities you will and will not choose.
The second path is a little more difficult to correct. This is mainly because the cause of this path is usually beyond our control. It could be the loss of a key employee (as it was with me) or it could be change in management above you. It could even be related to the overall economy as it has been since 2008 for many businesses.
Whatever the cause, the solution is not as simple as it is for the first path. In these cases, there may not even be an immediate solution at all. If that is true, then what are we to do? How are we to continue fulfilling our God-given job description when we are overwhelmed with busy?
For that answer, tune in to my next post!
This post on our top priority is the third in a series of posts that come from the material I recently used in a presentation I made to a small group of Christian business owners and leaders in Chandigarh, India.
The focus of this material is also the focus of this blog – God’s call for us to run our businesses as a platform for Christian ministry.
Hopefully, after reading this series of posts, you will agree that it is God’s will that we run His businesses as stewards with an eternal perspective. You should also have a better understanding of what this looks like in today’s marketplace.
In the past two posts on eternal perspective and God’s ownership, I have given you two foundational truths from Scripture. If we are truly going to succeed in running His businesses as platforms for ministry, we must believe these truths.
Along with these, I believe there are two more truths that we must agree on and believe in our core. The first of these remaining two truths should become our absolute top priority! I will describe the second of these remaining truths in my next post.
As Christian business owners and leaders, our top priority should living out the Greatest Commandment as we run our business. Don’t just take my word for it. Let’s take a look at what Jesus said. When Jesus was asked which command in the law was the greatest, He responded:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. – Matthew 22:37-40
We are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The key word here is ALL. We cannot obey this command by loving Him with most of our heart or mind. We cannot obey by loving him on Sundays, but not on Mondays. Nor can we be obedient by loving him at church and home, but not at work.
Read it again…do you see any way to obey this commandment other than loving Him ALL of the time, with ALL of ourselves, in ALL areas of our lives?
How can we do this if we are spending 60, 70, or even 80 percent of our week focused only on work? There is absolutely nothing wrong with work. We are designed for it.
But for us to work for purposes other than acting out our love for God as commanded above – this goes against God’s word! We must find a way to live out these two commandments through our work.
Let’s look at one more verse that is closely related to the idea we are discussing.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. – Colossians 3:17
I submit that our work is included in “whatever you do”. If this is true, then I only see one decision confronting each of us –
Regardless of where this path will lead, am I willing to commit to it?
Where are you in this decision process?
Have you prayed for God to guide you in this decision?
What are you hearing?
Have you thought about this before? Is there a difference between doing God’s work and doing God’s will? If so, what is it? Is it really that important anyway?
I think there is a huge difference and I think it is critical to know what it is.
Let’s first take a look at Scripture to see what it says about this.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
– Matthew 5:16
Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
– Matthew 6:1
If you only looked at these two verses, then you could get confused! Which is it…do deeds before men or not?
Notice in Matthew 6:1 a brief phrase that makes all of the difference. The phrase, which describes the motive for the deeds, is “to be seen by them….” Jesus is telling us that we should not do His work with the motive of being seen, and honored, by men.
Is there a similar indicator in 5:16? Take a look at this phrase, “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Instead of having a motive of being seen by men, the desire here is to bring praise to the Father. That is why these deeds are encouraged.
The whole difference between doing God’s work and doing God’s will is in your motives.
If you do God’s work for the purpose of having people see you and think highly of you, then you are not in God’s will. God tells us often (Amos 5:21-23; Isaiah 1:11-15; Psalm 51:16) that He hates our rituals and sacrifices when they are not genuine. He does not want us to do hundreds of hours of charity work and give millions of dollars to the church unless our motives are right.
If this is the case, and Scripture certainly makes it clear that it is, then how do we determine the right motives so we are in God’s will?
Great question! Fortunately, I think I have the answer for you! Let’s go back to the Bible…
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:37-40
Do you see that last phrase? It says that “All of the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Based on this, I think it is safe to draw a connection between these commandments and our right motives. If our motives match up with loving God and loving others, then I think they are good. If not, we need to beware.
Having established this, what are your motives in business? Do you approach business for your own purposes or for God’s? Have you thought about the results God expects from your business? Do you think they are eternal or temporal? Do your motives match up with His desires?
Have you thought about your motives as they relate to your work?
Are you doing more of God’s work or God’s will?
What do you need to change first?
Average is all around us. If you don’t believe me, just take a look around and see what you find. It is simply uncommon to see a superstar, someone performing at levels that most people think are beyond their own reach. Whether you are looking at sports teams, businesses, schools, or churches, average is just too common. So what does it take to break from average and become a ministry superstar?
In my last post, I talked about how our desire to be an impact player is often not matched up with our preparation. So many people want to be great, but are not willing to pay the price. Others may be willing, but not sure what to do.
I will not even attempt to tell you everything you could do to prepare for greatness. I will instead share three simple, common traits most often found in those people who have shown greater consistent impact in ministry. Buck Jacobs, founder of the C12 Group, calls these people “ministry superstars.” These three traits come from his observations during his decades of experience working with Christian business leaders.
The first trait of Buck’s ministry superstars is that they have a God-focused mission statement. Regardless of the size of the organization, those with a mission statement that honors God have greater ministry impact. The same is true for businesses or individual leaders. As I described in a previous post, mission statements capture the organization’s purpose or fundamental reason for existing. A God honoring mission statement sets the path toward greater ministry impact.
The second characteristic of ministry superstars is that they lead! Ministry superstars recognize that ministry does not just happen. They know they cannot sit around and wait on ministry opportunities to come to them. They are intentional with their time, talents, and treasure. They know what they are to be doing and they do it. They also enlist others in the effort. These ministry superstars draw others to them because of their focus.
The final trait of Buck’s ministry superstars is that they have an intimate daily quiet time with God. This is not a quick verse-of-the-day calendar and prayer-headed-out-the-door type of quiet time. This is not a once or twice a week devotional reading when the mood strikes.
No, the ones who consistently make the greatest impact in ministry are those who spend consistent quality time with their Creator. God is personal and wants a personal relationship with each of us. He has given us His Word and told us to hide it in our hearts. Jesus lived as our model in this as he did nothing other than what He heard from the Father. He could only do this if He spent regular time in prayer. We are to do the same.
While this is certainly not the only way to spend quiet time with God every day, Buck offers the following structure as an option.
If these three traits are supposed to be indicators of ministry superstar potential, do they match up with Scripture? I would consider the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission to be our Scriptural benchmarks. When I compare Buck’s three traits to these mandates, I think they fit. As we said earlier, this is certainly not an exhaustive list of traits. At the same time, I believe we would do well to start here and make continuous progress.
What does your quiet time look like?
Do you lead or do you wait for ministry to happen?
Is your mission statement God-focused?
What do you need to change today?