Wednesday, April 28, 2010

who's the boss?



Let me take a break from sharing some of my devotional tips with you. Instead, let me talk with you about what God has called me to here in Seattle, with the hope that you hear a little something for yourself as well. 

I've been thinking a lot about leadership over the last month or so (see March 30th's entry). There have been some happy thoughts, and there have been some frustrating ones, but all in all it's been an experience of growth for me and our ministry at United Life. One huge thing for me has been recognizing the impossibility of trying to both follow God and worry so much about the judgment of others that I don't move forward until I have their approval. It's nice to be working my way towards freedom from that. 

Recently, though, I've been nearly overwhelmed by the complexities of leadership. I've especially been caught up trying to figure out where the line between God pushing me out of my comfort zone and being forced to be someone I'm not is. I know the joys of stepping out of a comfort zone on faith. But I'm afraid of what crossing that line might bring, and, quite frankly, resentful that I might not be enough as I am. 

That's when God hit me with this verse as I looked into his word today: 'Those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God." Zechariah 6:15. 

This verse is the last thing God says to Zechariah after telling him to crown Joshua the high priest and say to him that God is appointing him to rebuild God's temple and rule God's people. Before reading this verse I felt bad for Joshua: who would he go to for help? Why was this all falling on his shoulders? What if he didn't have the talent to carry this out? What would he do if everyone shrugged their shoulders as he called them to build? 

But then I read verse 15 (for the second time) and noticed two things 1) God tells Joshua he'll have help and 2) God tells Joshua that he doesn't have to have the master plan, he doesn't even need to be a good "leader", he just needs to diligently obey the voice of the Lord. 

Here's what I'm hearing, and consider whether God is saying this to you as well: 

a. God has a purpose, a mission, a calling for each of us. 

b. God won't call us to do that mission on our own. He will provide the help. 

c. We're not the president, CEO, or even the head pastor. He is. We need to be in sync with him, listening to him, desiring to understand his will. And when we do get a picture of what he wants, what his plan is, and where we fit in it, we need to obey. 

What mission has he given you? 

3 comments:

jonathankang said...

to answer your question:

'diligently obey the voice of the Lord my God'

recently, ive found that flowcharts really help me out.
it makes everything as simple as it sounds!

KarenJen said...

PB, thanks for sharing.. i was very blessed by this post.

Unknown said...

@jonathankang, @karenjen, and @逸凡逸凡 ...thank you guys for the feedback!