Pete Wilson's Blog, page 14

God Has Put Me Here To Serve You

Success alone will never bring you purpose, satisfaction, or joy. So I think one of the most important questions we need to ask ourselves each day is “Who am I serving?”

It is in the very nature of the God that we worship, to serve – so when you serve in your job you are reflecting the character of God.

My challenge for you today is to go into your workplace, doing whatever it is you do, and have the mentality of God has put me here to serve you. 

 

Do Not Be Afraid

One of the devil’s most successful tactics is isolation. If Satan can convince you that you are all alone with no help, he can twist your perception to make you believe almost anything he wants.

The good news is that God doesn’t leave us alone to duke it out with our fear the best we can. No, God fights alongside us. Jesus walked among us as one of us, and He knows all about fear.

In fact, of the 125 direct commands or imperatives of Jesus recorded in Scripture, 21 of them have to do with overcoming fear. Over and over again, Jesus encourages us to “not be afraid” or “fear not” or “have courage” or “take heart.” Take a few seconds to reflect on that. The single statement He made more than any other was “Don’t be afraid.” Jesus takes our fears quite seriously!

Listen, my friend. If there is a voice in your head telling you that you are the only one who is afraid, that you are somehow flawed in ways nobody else could possibly understand, that you are messed up and there is no point in trying anymore, trust me on a very basic fact: it is not God’s voice you are hearing!

You are not alone! You do have help! You have a God who knows your fears and who will battle them on your behalf. You have a God who cares deeply and intimately about you and who has planted dreams in your soul that He longs to help you fulfill.

What Kind Of Person Do I Want To Be At Work?

Why is it important to determine what kind of person you want to be at work? Because when you leave work, you go home as that same person, only more tired. If you’re impatient, unkind, and selfish at work, your family or roommate will get the same version of you, but with the added disadvantage of exhaustion.

Meant For More

Starting with Cinderella in 1950 and coming right up to the present with Frozen, Walt Disney studios have spent considerable effort to convince us—at least temporarily—that if we believe enough in our dreams, they can come true. And it is a fact that the first step to make a dream come true is to have a dream in the first place.

Makes sense, right? Without dreams—aspirations, hopes, expectations—we would never know the joy that comes when a cherished desire is fulfilled. We would never experience the satisfaction of seeing a hard-fought goal become reality.

So why is it, then, that so many of us are afraid of our own hopes? In fact, many of us spend much of our lives actively avoiding our hopes, running in the opposite direction.

I believe it’s because we are afraid, pure and simple—afraid of disappointment, dashed hopes, broken hearts. I mean, if you never want anything, you can’t be disappointed when you don’t get it. If you don’t have the desire or expectation of a richer, more fulfilled life, you don’t have to worry about that ache in your soul that comes from being denied the desires of your heart.

The trouble is, each one of us is hardwired for dreaming. That’s right – we were made to be dreamers! The writer of Ecclesiastes, in the Old Testament, explains it by saying God has “set eternity in the human heart.” In other words, we were created to yearn for something better, something more. We can’t help ourselves, we have to dream, and that’s where our fear problem comes in.

What is fear, really? Usually, when we talk about fear, we mean the unpleasant emotion that comes with the feeling something or someone is a source of pain, danger, or an undesirable outcome.

Not all fear is bad. Our hunter-gatherer forebears learned quickly, for example, that when you see or hear a large predator, that voice in your head yelling, Get away fast! needs to be heeded. In that case, fear keeps you alive. It is a flashing light on the dashboard of life that says, “Pay attention, or you’ll die!”

But for most of us nowadays, fear has a different meaning. It typically has less to do with preservation of life and more to do with a heightened sense of vulnerability and a diminished sense of power. And these fears are not imaginary! Fear of failure, fear of being alone, fear of disapproval, fear of poverty, fear of illness, fears for the well-being of the people we love—all these are very real, very present challenges that everyone faces. All of us struggle with fear—every single one of us.

But I’m here to tell you that fear shouldn’t get the last word. Fear should not deter us in the pursuit of the lives God has for us, nor should it paralyze us. The fact is that you were meant for so much more, as Switchfoot tells us in their song “Meant to Live.” The dreams in your heart are no accident; they were put there by God.

Sacred vs. Secular

There’s a common misconception that your vocation defines your spiritual worth; if your job doesn’t outwardly correlate to building God’s Kingdom, then it is purposeless. That could not be further from the truth. You don’t get more points for being a pastor over being a waitress.

God’s main purpose for you is not what you do, but who you become.

Colossians 3:17  And whatever you do or say, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

Prisoners Of Work

What does God think about work?

Ecclesiastes 5:18 says this about work –

Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.

Work was never meant to be a punishment, it was part of why we were created. If that’s true, then why do the majority of us feel purposeless, dissatisfied, and drained when you talk about what you do for a living?

Out Of Alignment

I’ve learned the hard way that proper alignment is important. Automobile tires aren’t cheap, but I’ve worn out a set or two of tires prematurely because I didn’t keep my car in alignment.

The trouble is that you can get used to poor alignment, can’t you? You notice that the car seems to want to drift to the right when you’re driving down the road, but you just compensate a little to the left with the steering wheel, and everything seems pretty much okay. But there’s a price to be paid. Poor wheel alignment causes uneven tread-wear on your tires, and sooner or later, you’re going to have to do something about it. If you’re lucky, you don’t find out by way of a blowout, but at the very least, you’re going to be springing for a new tire or two, long before it’s really necessary.

In the same way, when our lives are out of alignment with God, it causes unnecessary wear and tear. Oh, we can acclimate to a certain extent, and it may even be a long time before we realize the damage that has been done, but the damage is already there. I see it in the eyes of people who come to me for counseling. It shows up in depression, in estranged family members, in ruined marriages, in broken friendships—in lost dreams.

We are not designed to live our lives out of alignment with God. If we don’t periodically recalibrate, something, somewhere is going to get out of whack. And the consequences can be devastating.

To The Brokenhearted and Discouraged

Life can be tough some days can’t it?

The past couple days I’ve been wrestling with some old, but familiar demons of insecurity. Questions that I know the real answers to such as…

Do you have what it takes to do what God’s called you to do?

Does anyone really want to work with you?

Do you really bring value to the table anymore?

Those doubts and questions have all been ferociously and relentlessly haunting me.

Isn’t it true that when life isn’t working out the way you want life to work out, or when you feel defeated and crushed, or when your relational world is falling apart or when you keep praying and praying and praying about something but there’s no progress that you start to wonder…

God where are you?

God why aren’t you answering?

Do you know?

Do you care?

We wonder if there is anything that STILL holds true.

Early this morning as I was still trying to search internally for some answers I came across one of my favorite verses.

Psalm 34:18 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

I’ll be honest. I don’t have a clue what you might be going through today.  But even in the face of your difficult and unexplainable circumstances  I think certain things still hold true.

I believe…

Hope is still stronger than despair.

There is a God who still answers prayer.

His mercies are still new every morning.

His forgiveness is still stronger than sin.

His guidance is still greater than human confusion.

His promises still remain more certain than human fear.

So to all of my friends with broken or discouraged hearts. Let’s choose today (yes, in the midst of our difficulties) to believe that one day light will win over the darkness, love will win over hate, and all things will be redeemed and exist the way they were intended… and until that day HE IS CLOSE. Closer than you ever imagined. Loving deeper than you’ve ever felt.

I’m praying for you. I hope you’ll do the same for me.

Transformational Leadership – Part 3

Watching Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane gives me incredible insight into one of the most important leadership lessons I can learn.

Mark 14:36 “Abba, Father, he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Someone once said that self-leadership is the hardest form of leadership and I couldn’t agree more. While I would like to blame many of my challenges, struggles, and issues on the people around me I’m trying to lead, I’ve discovered that I’m often my own worst enemy.

It’s not them. It’s me.

My pride.

My desires.

My selfishness.

My ego.

My ambitions.

MY WILL.

Jesus was a leader who lived up to His complete calling and mission because He was willing to sacrifice His will for God’s will. You will never be the leader God has called and designed you to become until you’re willing to surrender and sacrifice to God’s will.

The single most important prayer any leader can pray: Yet not what I will, but what you will.

Are you willing to pray that prayer?

Transformational Leadership – Part 2

Last week, we talked about managing disappointment and today I want to look at preparing for abandonment.

Very early in my ministry I had another leader tell me leadership can be a lonely activity. I’ve worked very hard in my life to surround myself with other leaders. I’ve worked hard to empower the people around me and build authentic community. However, I agree, there is an element to leadership that is lonely, whether it’s leadership in a church, leadership in the workplace, or even leadership in your home.

In leadership you carry a weight and responsibility which can drive you to a very lonely place, but a healthy leader will allow this loneliness to drive them to a greater dependence on God. Charles Lee wrote a phenomenal post on this which you can read HERE.

Luke 22:39-46 recounts how Jesus asks his disciples to pray with him. It was such an intense time of temptation, the Bible tells us as He prayed “his sweat was like drops of blood.” After he finished he walked back over to his disciples to find them asleep.

In leadership you’re often going to feel as if you’re fighting a battle alone. You’re going to ask…

-Does anyone care?

-Is anyone else as passionate as I am about this cause?

-Will anyone else sacrifice?

Jesus lived in the reality that even when you do life in community, leadership can be lonely. Just hours later even his closest follower would deny knowing him.

Reflecting on this passage and these principles makes me realize…

1) If it happened to Jesus it will happen to you. People will abandon you and yes, you will feel lonely. And let’s be honest, because you’re not Jesus and you have sins, like pride and arrogance, you’re going to bring some of this upon yourself. Whenever you step into any kind of leadership role make sure you count the cost.

2) Extend grace whenever possible. One of my favorite scenes in the Bible would happen a few weeks later in John 21 when Jesus and Peter have a little chat on the beach. Jesus would take this opportunity to extend grace to Peter and recommunicate his belief in him. Jesus always chose to see people for who they could be rather than who they were in that very moment.

3) Don’t get bitter and withdraw. I’ve had way too many pastors tell me they don’t do “friends.” Whhhhhhat? Listen, we’ve all been hurt. We’ve all been tempted to withdraw into our own little cocoon and never trust again. Don’t fall into that trap. Jesus invested in a bunch of guys who he knew would abandon Him in His time of greatest need. Developing authentic relationships is risky business in the midst of leadership, but it’s a risk you need to take.

How do you deal with the loneliness of leadership?