Category: Leading and Helping When People Want to Stay Stuck

How can we use our limited resources to make the biggest impact in the world?

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Thank God for Workers!

This weekend, we will celebrate Labor Day. For many, this is just a long weekend. For others, especially people who live in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, it is a time of intense labor as they work to make this a place of rest and recreation for the people who come here.

I would like to encourage you to take some time this weekend to think about the workers that contribute to your life and prosperity and to the life and prosperity of your communities.

In our day, people want to be independent. People imagine that they don’t need people and can do everything themselves. The irony is that we are more dependent on more people to do the things we do on a daily basis than we have ever been. Greater technology requires more hands, more minds, and more resources.

Take this computer on which I am typing this article. I could not put it together. The various components come from all over the world and involve the labor of innumerable hands, from those who brought the petroleum for the plastics and the metals for the sensitive electronic parts from the ground to those who assembled the various parts in factories around the nation and around the world, the amount of people involved in this one thing is staggering!

To write this article, I use a program (WordPress) that I did not invent using an extensive network that links me to computers around the world (internet).

To run this computer I need electricity. This electricity is not something I could generate. It comes from the massive planning and projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Workers for Sevier County Electric labor night and day to make sure that this electric grid is up and running and that electricity is available whenever I need it.

In light of the astonishing amount of people and labor that is involved in just one aspect of my life, I should be much more grateful than I am! This is a reason to celebrate and reflect on Labor Day.

Of course, the ultimate source of all of this is God Himself. He is a Creator and maker. When we do menial tasks that involve getting dirty, we may wonder if God cares about it. But remember! God made the dirt. He Himself designed this material world in all its intricacies and said that it was very good.

He also created human beings to be workers like Him. When He created them, He blessed them out and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it!” In other words, don’t just take the world as it is! Take it up, re-shape it, re-combine it, and make it more and more serviceable for you, and this will bring me glory! God says.

Christianity is rightly called a religion of grace not of works because God offers a renewed relationship and reconciliation with us as a free gift to be received by faith. No one should boast about their relationship with God because it’s all His gift!

However, part of this gift, is that He restores us to what He intended us to be. We are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

And what if we can’t do the things we used to do? We are still valued as God’s handiwork. That doesn’t change, and one day God will restore our worn out bodies in the resurrection in the new heavens and new earth where things won’t break down anymore. He still loves us and values us.

God is a worker. He has created workers. He values workers. They contribute to our lives in innumerable ways, and so we should thank God for workers.

This Labor Day, give thanks for all the workers who contribute to your life, and be sure to thank the workers you meet for their continued service to you and to your community.

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Power to Change the World Around Us

There are some things we can learn fairly quickly like “Don’t throw a rock at a baby skunk.”

Other things take a long time, even a lifetime, of meditating upon in order to become habits of thinking and acting.

These include the basic ways we think about life and the principles we live by.

How do we transform the world? We need to get people to see things differently, to have a different vision for life and live by different principles.

This is so important and significant. What if we could see the world the way God sees it? What happens if someone really believes God is there? What happens when someone really believes that our moral actions matter before God for now and eternity? What if a person could see God’s amazing love and believe that it was for them? It would make a huge difference.

The way to change the world is to help people see differently. In Ephesians 1:3-14, the Apostle describes in lofty terms the beauty and glories of the good news that God is restoring all things and has chosen the people of the church in Ephesus to be a part of that marvelous plan (see my post on this here).

But it’s not enough to talk about it. We can’t just give people our words. We have to give them our lives. When Paul heard about the Ephesians and their faith, he praised God for them. He gave thanks for them. He had an affection for them, and he said so.

Most importantly, he prayed for them. He didn’t just give them the message. He knew that the work of seeing God’s truth was a work of the Spirit of God. This work of God’s Spirit is available for the asking, and so Paul kept asking.

And that’s what we need to do. We need to keep asking. How do change the world around us? We ask. We ask the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus to help people see differently.

Former Senate Chaplain Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie captured this sentiment in these words: “We are not a powerless minority in the face of evil. We can change the course of history, we can alter the trend of evil in our society, we can liberate people—if we will pray in the name of Jesus Christ.”

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Dollywood and the Essence of Leadership

I’ve been to Dollywood dozens of times, but last Wednesday was one of my best experiences. The reason? I put my oldest daughter Anna in charge. Instead of complaining about me, the rest of my seven children complained about my daughter. I was off the hook!

Not only did I not have to lead, Anna led really well. She handled the complaining better than I would have.

As I reflected on what she was doing, I realized that she was doing exactly what I aspire to do as a leader. Here’s what I saw her do.

First, she cared about and understood those she was leading. She works at Dollywood and received compensation tickets with her paycheck. When she had collected enough, she cared enough about her family to want to take them rather than a bunch of friends.

Second, she grasped intuitively that complaints and disagreement are part of the leadership process. When you have to take the interests of a variety of people into account, not everyone will be happy. This is just part of being a leader.

Third, she made decisions. She downloaded the Dollywood app and looked at the wait times for the various rides. She thought about what she wanted to do, what the family would want to do, and the time we had, and then she made decisions about it.

Fourth, she didn’t change her decisions based on the differing opinions of any of the individuals, however strong those opinions might be. She realized that she was the leader, and she needed to lead. So, she led.

Fifth, she wasn’t mean about it. She had to hold to her thoughts in the face of sometimes strong disagreement, but she didn’t lash out defensively. She just made her decision, kept going, and kept smiling. It was a joy to watch.

Here’s one example. When we walked by the Wild Eagle, the wait was 25 minutes. Several children wanted to ride it right then, but she knew from experience that the wait time would decrease. So, she made her decision to move onto another ride. There was grumbling, but it died down. Eventually, we made our way back to the Wild Eagle and got on in less than 5 minutes.

As a smart and sweet 15 year old oldest sister of six siblings, Anna seems to have grasped the essence of leadership. I think I can retire.

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Faith for All of Life

There is no question that America is religious. Even those who don’t attend church regularly often have some sort of connection to the church. Our church attendance is much higher than other parts of the Western world.

Yet when you look at large swaths of American culture, one might question whether we are religious at all. You can watch television for hours without any sense that God has anything to do with life at all.

Some of this is based on a secular view of culture. The secularist believes that religion should never touch the public square. Religion should be relegated to the private world of the individual.

We must admit that some of the reason for the rise of secularism is the sectarianism of so many religious people.

Religion can be a blessing, but religion can also be a curse. The pride of man easily turns faith in the absolute into a belief that our own finite, limited view of things is absolute. This can lead to conflict worse than any pride of power.

It is understandable that people are cautious about religion in the public sphere.

For many of us, the problem is not a lack of belief in the applicability of religion to all spheres of life. It’s a lack of effort. It’s a challenge to apply our faith to every sphere of life, and we just don’t want to take it up.

We also may simply not know how to do it. Lack of clarity on what it means to be a Christian artist or economist or husband can easily cause us to give up any attempt.

But the attempt needs to be made. It needs to be made with humility, patience, and wisdom, but it needs to be made.

Why? Because Christ is Lord of all of life. As Dutch theologian and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper put it, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Continue reading “Faith for All of Life”

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Be an Encourager

Our brain is like Velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good.

This year, I started a new practice. At the end of each week, I have written a summary of that week. And what comes to my mind immediately when I start writing? The bad. I have to look back at my calendar and think harder to remember the good things. The good thing about forcing myself to do this is that by the end of the exercise I usually feel much better about the week!

The bad things tend to stick; the good things fade away.

The same is true with people. We notice the things in people that bother us. We think about them . . . over and over again. But the good things about them? Often not a passing thought.

Then, we either say the negative things or distance from people based on our negative views. Our relationship deteriorates. When we need to talk about something important, there is only a negative context for the discussion. Then, we blame the other person for not listening!

The result is a crazy cycle of negative reaction and counter-reaction where we never really get anywhere.

Is there a better way? I believe that God wants us to reverse this tendency. He wants us to focus on the good and put much less emphasis on the bad. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Eph. 4:29).

Be an encourager.

What is encouragement? Encouragement is saying something that will help build people up and take the next steps in their journey.

How do we encourage people? Let me suggest five ways.

1. Help people see how much God loves and cares for them. It’s easy to see God as distant and uncaring about what we do, but He loves us more than we can imagine (Eph. 3:14–19).

2. Help people see that God’s power is available. He is able and willing to do more than we could ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20–21).

3. Help people see that suffering is part of life. Suffering can lead us to give up. Stories wisely and gently told about our own suffering can remind people that suffering is part of life and not completely bad. Suffering provides opportunity for growth.

4. Help people see the good that is in them. If you see something good in someone, tell them. Period. There’s simply no downside to doing so.

5. Help people see the resource they already have. We have brains, skills, and people in our lives that can help us take those next steps. Blindness to our resources inhibits forward movement in our journey.

I enjoy hiking. I have hiked all 5 trails that ascend to Mount LeConte. To hike up and back from Mount LeConte is a minimum of 10 miles and a 1-3,000 foot ascent.

On two of my hikes, I have taken some of my children with me.

Before those hikes, none of my children had hiked that far. They would often want to quit hiking after walking a mile, yet they chose to take the bold step of hiking 12-14 miles (variation based on the trail).

They chose to try it, and they succeeded.

Now, whenever I look at the Southern horizon in our county, I can point to Mount LeConte and say, as I often do. “There’s Mount LeConte. Do you remember how you climbed it? You have a lot more in you than you think you do.”

And what happens when we become encouragers? We help other people. The wisdom of God says, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Prov. 16:24). We have the power to heal with our words.

But what also help ourselves. If we are encouragers, then what happens when we need to talk about difficult or important issues? The way opens. When people know we are for them, they are much better prepared to listen to any concern we bring up.

So, be an encourager.

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