2020-12-05
Galatians 5:26 TM
Does this sound familiar? “You think your day was tough? I dealt with thirty customers before lunch!” It’s easy to get sucked into “The Martyr’s Contest,” where your problems are worse than everybody else’s. And if you’re not careful, it can creep into your home.
Alicia Howe writes: “At day’s end when workplace frustrations are fresh and domestic tasks are looming, the setting is ripe…Spouses who desperately need each other to recognize their efforts, battle it out for the title of hardest-working person…We have a fundamental need for recognition from our spouses, and if we don’t get it, we devise strategies to evoke it.” The problem is, when we compare ourselves we can damage our relationship.
So with that in mind: (1) Be alert for unspoken pleas for encouragement. When your mate expresses frustration, don’t counter with one-upmanship. Jesus said, “Listen…if you have ears!” (Mark 4:9 GNT). What your mate needs is assurance that they can handle the problem.
(2) Express appreciation often. Envision your mate wearing a sign that says, ‘Appreciate me!’ The fact that society is inclined to assign gender-specific roles doesn’t give you the right to take your partner for granted.
(3) Reinforce your spouse’s efforts to help. Don’t criticize the way they fold laundry or rake the yard. When you do, you guarantee they won’t try to do it again.
Think of a four-pronged fork: (a) Be respectful of one another’s work. (b) Recognize that while your jobs are different, they can both be difficult. (c) Be sensitive, and flexible enough to help when it’s not ‘your job’ or ‘your turn.’ (d) Outlaw the complaint, “I’m tired.” It’s counter-productive, and chances are you are both tired of hearing it!
Soul food: Jos 11-13; John 16:19-33; Ps 147:1-11; Prov 29:1-5
2020-12-04
Exodus 18:23 TM
In Exodus we read: “Moses took his seat…as judge…the people…stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all Moses was doing…he said…’What you are doing is not good. You…will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy…you cannot handle it alone…select capable men…Have them serve as judges…because they will share it with you…you will be able to stand the strain” (vv. 13-23 NIV).
The executive director of a fast-growing church says: “As a performance-based people-pleaser, I know how Moses must have felt. Quick growth and multiplying campuses put me in a situation where I was trying to lead and manage everything. In the process, I’d become worn out and frustrated. What I was doing wasn’t healthy for our team and the church. In the weeks that followed, we reorganized our staff, empowered leaders with more authority, and developed a pipeline for training and development at all levels. As leaders we must resist the temptation to be heroes and handle it all ourselves. It’s critical to reevaluate your leadership structure at least once a year. Ministry leadership is tough…but there are things you can do to develop others and spread the responsibility.”
It takes prayer, humility, and patience to develop the right people. But “if you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people…will flourish also.” It’s a win/win for everybody!
Soul food: Jos 8:30-10:43; John 16:12-18; Ps 2; Prov 28:25-28
2020-12-03
2 Timothy 2:2 NLT
Most church leaders would concede that people are their greatest resource. Which raises the question, why we don’t devote more time to training new leaders?
One pastor admits that by failing to do this: “We limit the long-term growth and effectiveness of our organizations. Paul modeled this truth and changed the course of history. He cultivated other leaders around him, and taught them to do the same. He told his protégé, Timothy, ‘Teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will…pass them on.’ That’s the essence of great leadership.”
When you devote time to developing leaders with a caring attitude, they learn to pass the same level of care on to the people they minister to. There are proven principles that apply to leadership in any organization, and the church is no exception.
For example, Jon Gordon says: “Great customer service begins with being employee-focused first and customer-focused second. Too often organizations focus all their energy on the customer while ignoring the people who serve. This may work in the short run, but eventually employees become tired, burned out, negative, and resentful…
Organizations who deliver the best service have a culture where employees are valued, listened to, and cared for. In turn these employees value, care for, and serve their customers…If you model great service, your people will share it. If you want your team to serve, serve them. If you want your people to care, care about them. If you want your team to love their work, love them. If you want your employees to be their best, give them your best.”
So are you training people who can train others?
Soul food: Jos 5:1-8:29; John 16:1-11; Ps 130; Prov 28:21-24
2020-12-02
1 Corinthians 15:55 KJV
When Carolyn Arends’ father lay dying in the hospital, an oxygen mask made it virtually impossible for him to communicate with his family. So they were surprised to hear him humming an old Sunday school song: With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm, as we go sailing home. Just hours before he went home to heaven, a boyhood chorus he had learned sixty years ago gave this dying man comfort and strength.
Arends writes: “I hope I go down singing, speaking, and thinking about Jesus…Death unaddressed is the bogeyman in the basement; it keeps us looking over our shoulders and from entering joyously into the days we’ve been given. Dragged out of the shadows and held up to the light of the gospel, death not only loses its sting, it becomes a reminder to ‘use wisely all the time we have’ (See Psalm 90:12 CEV)…A race toward the finish line has a different sense of purpose and urgency than a jog around the block.
When a believer acknowledges he’s headed toward death [tomorrow or in 50 years], he [or she] can stop expending the tremendous energy it takes to deny his mortality and start living into his eternal destiny here and now. He can be intentional about investing in the things he wants to be with him at the end…Death hurts, but it’s not the end…we don’t mourn as those who have no hope…I don’t know how many days I’ve got left, but I want to use every one to get the truth about who Jesus is – and who I am in Him – more deeply ingrained.”
Soul food: Jos 1-4; John 15:18-27; Ps 65; Prov 28:17-20
2020-12-01
Psalm 16:11 NKJV
Ask twenty people to describe heaven, and chances are you’ll get twenty different answers. But there’s one thing that’s not open to speculation: “To leave this life and be with Christ…is much better” (Philippians 1:23 NCV) than anything we can imagine.
Recalling a conversation with her mom before she went to heaven, Billy Graham’s daughter Anne writes: “I told her about my recent visit to Westminster Abbey, where kings and queens are crowned and royalty are married. The door for tourists that leads to the cathedral entrance is a dark, cramped space. Opposite is another door that opens into the magnificent, glorious, cavernous sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. The dimly lit narthex is just a place to purchase your ticket and guidebook before transitioning to the cathedral.
I can’t imagine anyone clutching a ticket or leafing through a guidebook being satisfied with staying in the [entrance hall]…We pick our ticket to heaven when we’re born again through faith in Jesus. And we familiarize ourselves with the ‘guidebook’ to heaven – the Bible…My mother left the narthex and moved into the sanctuary on June 14, 2007…It’s unimaginable that I can no longer see the sparkle in her eyes, or hear the wisdom of her words. Yet despite my aching heart, I know her whole purpose for being – and ours – is to transition into heaven.
The psalmist said, ‘In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.’ One day I too will move, to live forever in the sanctuary. In the meantime, I want to show others a glimpse of our Father’s house, so they’ll look forward with hope to moving there.”
Soul food: 3 John; Jude; John 15:5-17; Ps 14; Prov 28:13-16
2020-11-30
Lamentations 1:12 NLT
At a Metro station in Washington D.C. on a cold January morning, a young violinist played several Bach compositions as people rushed by. After three minutes, a middle-aged man stopped briefly, then hurried away. Four minutes later the young man received his first dollar; a woman threw it in his hat without stopping. Six minutes later a man leaned against a wall to listen, looked at his watch, and walked on. After ten minutes a little boy stopped, but his mom hurried him along. Other kids did the same, but every parent, without exception, rushed them on.
The young musician played for forty-five minutes. During that time six people stopped and listened for a while, and twenty gave money as they walked past. He collected a total of $32, and when he stopped playing nobody noticed or applauded; there was no recognition at all.
What’s remarkable is this: The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest musicians, and he played some of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, he’d sold out a Boston theater where seats averaged $100 to listen to him play the same music he played at the Metro station that morning.
So here’s the question: If you’ve no time to stop and listen to one of the world’s best musicians playing the finest music ever written, on one of the most beautiful instruments ever made, what else are you missing as you barrel through life? It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? (Note: Joshua Bell played incognito as part of a social experiment conducted by The Washington Post.)
Soul food: 2 Chr 35-36; 2 John; John 14:26-15:4; Ps 146; Prov 28:9-12
