3 Ways to Cultivate Vision

Everyday when I wake up, and get ready for the day all I usually think about is my day.

It's a challenge to keep my eyes on the horizon when my day to day is so involved with the things I need to do.

But I need to keep my eyes looking beyond the day to day or I start to forget what's important.  

I've used a few easy methods to keep my thoughts and concerns extended beyond my little world and on the bigger picture of what God is ultimately working toward in everyone's life, all around the world.

1). Read about Jesus' life.

I love to read the stories in the Bible about Jesus and the places he traveled.  The way he interacted with people and the vision he constantly pointed everyone's eyes toward are great ways to remember what's important. 

2). Take a trip to a place you won't enjoy.

In 2008 I traveled to Cambodia and visited a small museum dedicated to helping people remember the events of the Pol Pot Regime related to the mass genocide that took place.  It tore me up inside to think about what millions went through during that terrible time.  But, it helped me feel the need for Jesus to return and redeem this world back to what it originally was.

3). Learn about unreached people groups.

There aren't numbers that tug on my heart more than those relating to unreached people groups.  I frequently retun to websites I've been looking at for years relating to the 10/40 window and all the people that don't know how to access to the gospel.  Did you know that 2.91 billion people are considered unreached?  The discomfort I feel over that is just what I need sometimes to keep in mind that what I do to help build God's kingdom today matters.  Check out Joshuaproject.com or gainusa.org for vision ammo.

What do you do to maintain a global vision?

When Motivating, Remember Your Why

There are many ways to motivate as a leader, and they all fit into two main methods:  Manipulation or inspiration.  Leaders have a role to motivate and inspire, but sometimes our vision and goals become more important than the people we lead, and we can start to use those we lead as a means to our end.  This is when manipulation happens, and they begin to STOP following you.

There are many ways to manipulate, and some of them can actually sound really nice.  In the book Start With Why the author outlines five ways manipulative leaders lead, and they are all so easy to do.  Here are two examples:

Fear.

Have you ever said to yourself or others, "If we don't do it, who will?"  Or how about, "If we don't perform well, what will our ministry partners think?"

The problem with operating out of fear is that it limits your effectiveness and diminishes your enjoyment of what you do.  As a Christian, you begin to forget who you are serving and become worried about how you are performing. Being afraid of what your bosses might think of you if you don't do what they want or making sure those you lead know they will be scrutinized if they don't perform well are destructive tools to use.

Aspirations.

"Do well with this and you will be given more opportunities."  "You could be the next Hudson Taylor."  "You might be the next language prodigy."

Encouragement and manipulation are not the same thing.  Any of the could be used as an encourager, but used to motivate someone to do something is a soft form of manipulation.

A Better Way to Motivate

Inspiration is most powerful when it comes from a place of true belief.  It's easy to tell people what you do.  Just think about it for a minute.  If you are attempting to recruit people to a cause or ministry you are involved in, it's easy to tell them what it is you do.  

It's a little harder to tell them how you do it.  Are you able to explain how you are able to be successful in your work?  If you start thinking about it, you might find that you quickly start answering the what, instead of the how.

But the best way to influence and motivate, is to be a true believer.  Why do you do what you do?  If you want to lead people well, you need to have a laser-sharp, clear knowledge of why you do what you do.  Why does this work better?  Because the people that will follow you best, will be the people that believe the same as you do.

Methods differ, ideas can clash, but if the belief is the same at least you know that you're working with people that want the same thing you do.

So, how should we motivate and inspire?  Tell those you lead what you believe, and tell them often.  Don't spend too much time on the how, or even the what, but take time to express why.

The interesting thing about starting with belief as a motivator, is that all tasks, good or bad become secondary to the primary goal.  You can work on something you despise if you understand how it connects to the end result.  Or, you can work on something you enjoy with a better perspective of why you're doing it.  Your motivation shifts from what you are doing (even if you enjoy it) to why you are doing it.  The big picture starts to become more and more clear.

Even more, your focus as a leader can be set free from the stress of needing to manage people to do what you want them to and fearing them leaving you.  The fear of not being the leader is replaced with the felt privilege of working toward accomplishing something good.

Here are a couple of questions to help you narrow down your why:

What makes you angry?  or  What do you want to see change?

When you look at the world, what needs to change?  Is change possible?

What do all people deserve?  Are they receiving it?

How do you remember your why?

In Case You Thought You Aren't Good Enough

It's nighttime in Asia and time for those little boys to hear bedtime stories.  Which hero will it be tonight?  Who's story will fill their minds for the night?  Who will they aspire to be tomorrow?

Little boys all across the States are waking up right about now.  The dreams they had last night—those from their stories—now have a chance to be lived out.  So they grab their toy sword and start swinging. From the break of dawn, they are swinging.  Or, if they are like my boys, they start running.  From one end of the hallway to the other, they run.  They run because there is a battle to fight somewhere.  Something somewhere needs to be subdued into the submission of the "good guy". 

All little boys know there is a battle to fight somewhere.

With all these wielded foam swords and plastic guns with dead AA batteries that haven't worked in forever, comes a deeper question that sticks with these little boys all their lives.  It's THE question they have asked since the beginning:

Am I good enough?

Time passes.  Little boys grow to be big boys who turn into young men who turn into men with families with children of their own, and they continue to ask the same question.

It's interesting to me how quickly we want to give positive affirmation to little boys when the question presents itself.  Of course, none of my little boys have asked this question but they really are asking it all the time.  

Today, when my oldest son tried to shoot a soccer ball past his little brother to score a goal and missed,  the first thing he did was look at me.  No words were spoken but that little boy was looking for something, anything that would guide him to some sort of answer.  He's doing it, and he doesn't even know it.  I so badly wanted to look at him and tell him how good of a job he did.  I wanted to tell him he is good.  But, he isn't, is he?  He didn't score.  He (gulp) . . . failed.

Somehow, the situation hasn't stopped for me.  The question pops up constantly.  I fail at work and the first thing I want to do is look around at my boss or colleagues or wife for positive affirmation.  I didn't really fail, did I?

But I did fail.  I wasn't enough.  I didn't have what it took.  

It's easy to leave the losses in the past though.  Talking about what I did is easy, but what about living in the present and dealing with what I'm doing?

What do you do when you are sitting in the reality that you are not enough?  You're not smart enough to get into that school, or not good enough with people for that management role, or not "spiritual" enough to keep your family from rising above suffering of overseas missions (Me).  Where do you go then?

Every voice but God's says, "Believe in yourself!"  You can probably even hear the voices now saying, "That's nonsense!  The power of the will!"  "Just be you and the rest will take care of itself."  You might even hear some in decrepit Christian circles say something like, "God helps those that helps themselves."  Ick.  Somehow Jesus just became unnecessary.

God doesn't talk like that.  He has a simple message, one that cuts through all the nonsense, and it sounds a little something like this:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Also like this:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

No matter what we do it will never be good enough.  We are not good enough.  If we were, we would never understand the depth of his love for us.  In trying to convince ourselves with positive affirmation that we aren't that bad, or we are mostly good, or we are decent Christians, we massively miss the point.

The thought that we are not good enough is terrifying—no, it's murderous.  The point we realize we don't have what it takes anymore is the day we die.  It's the day we let go.  It's on that day that we are blessed because we know that the only thing we really have is our creation.

The only thing we can say we have is our existence.  God made us, therefore, we have value.  Our maximum worth started on day zero for us when God dreamed about us with a smile and said, "I'll make you just right.  On day one we have already lost our ability to add worth to our lives.  We only have our creation, which then starts to dig even deeper into the issue:  Us and the creator.

The Really Big Battle—The Final Battle

Alright, I've pounded hard and this is turning into my longest blog entry to date.  I think it would continue on for a few thousand more words if the right book deal came along allowing me to really show the world what I'm made o— . . . Stop.  There I go again.

I've always been excited and terrified for the moment Jesus returns.  I hoped I would be with him as he parted the clouds with his white horse and charged straight to Satan's hill.  I always thought that was the battle I was preparing for.  

The truth is, the final battle any of us will ever be responsible for is the one in our hearts, not the one in the sky.  It's the battle between us and Jesus.  Who is stronger?  But our place in the battle is to lose.  This is where we wave the white flag and totally give up and let Him conquer our hearts.  This is it, this is the final battle for us.  

When Paul talked about dying every day, I think it was his way of telling us we was trying to lay down his sword.  He was trying to let go too. 

As a Christian, the thought of me fighting against Jesus is unsettling.  

"He's your 'king', why fight against him?" says the non-Christian.

I don't know.  It doesn't seem to make sense and yet, it's exactly what I do.  He says I was created valuable and capable enough for fellowship with Him—for acceptance, and I disagree and try to show him through what I do how good  I am.  The battle rages on, and I fail every time.

I could always do something better, I could always impress one more person.  There's more people to influence, more projects to take on and conquer, more souls to save and books to write.  There's always a better way to say what I want, another dollar I don't have that I can't (or won't) give away.  There's always better, there's never good enough in an honest person's mind.  The truly progressive human is the one that can come to the reality that you are at the end.  You've been there since day one.  

I. Can't. Be. Better.

This isn't a vague concept for me.  This is my question for myself everyday and lately with great weight:  Is Jesus really enough?

When my oldest missed the shot on goal, I sat with him for a moment in full-on bear hug mode and told him, "You missed, but you are my son, and you were made just right."

Today, my prayer is that I can believe God as he whispers the same thing in my ear.  If you're a Christian, I hope you can to.  If you're not, surrender.


My floating thoughts about value will land or be captured somewhere; either I submit them to Jesus, or Satan, but whatever choice is winnowed out, this fight is the most important battle of my life.