God and My Desires

This is a season of life in which I am exploring my desires with God.

Is it OK to have desires?

Is it OK to proclaim what I want?

Do I even know what my desires are?

When I start to explore the idea of me, my desires, and God, I am reluctant. I hesitate. I am uncomfortable. I am surprised. I thought it would be easier to identify what my desires are in this season of life.

Of course, I know God knows my desires, but I am somewhat detached from them at this time.  Somewhere inside of me I think my desires are either not good or I am not worthy to have them.  I think I need to control such thoughts, such ideas. I think I should not have desires or rather not admit that I feel unworthy. I think that all my desires should be complete and fulfilled because I believe in Jesus.

When I say it out loud or write it down it seems so crazy.

Has my faith created a fear in me to explore my desires?

Have I abandoned my desires or just covered them up?

God declared for me and everyone that He will give me the desires of my heart!

Take a look at Psalm 37:4, Psalm 20:4 and Proverbs 3:5.

So why do I hesitate?

Many of my desires are impossible to fulfill. When I look back, I wanted a good homelife growing up that was safe and nurturing. I wanted grandparents. I wanted a mentor. I wanted to not be cross-eyed. I think my thinking about the past and the idea of my “desires” confuses me. Current desires for past events are impossible.

So, I look towards the future. If you know me, I live in the future. But my future hopes and dreams seems to disappoint when experienced in the now. The future is always so big, so hopeful, so promising. The experience of that future today, not so much.

There I am, dissatisfied.

But what about the present? What about those current desires that are so difficult to identify. I am thinking I have allowed myself to be fooled. I believe that God is in the present with me. I cannot be in the past of in the future. He is inviting me to share my current desires, to identify them with Him, to allow Him to touch them, grow them, to release them.

I want more of God and I think my desires are connected to an open dialog with God about them. Here I am Lord. I am in my final season. I want more of you and perhaps the best way for more of God is to converse with Him about my desires.  I want to dream bigger as in other worldly. Lord, I think you are inviting me into such a life. Thanks for the invitation Lord.

Me, God and my desires will be a good journey. I will release the past, hold the future lightly and be with God today. Remembering that I am His beloved and He wants my best. I will be courageous. God is for me, knows my desires and will help me to discover them with Him.

My thanks to Curt and Debbie Swindoll and Grafted Life Ministries. It is through their work that I have stepped into this journey: “A Call to Desire and Discern.” Here is the website for more information:

www.graftedlife.org

A Godly Framework for Leadership

Are leaders born or made? I could argue for both positions. In the work I do (coach4ldrs.com)  I've seen some naturally gifted leaders, and some who've simply worked hard and grown into excellence.

The real issue is that all leaders can improve. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or a high-potential team member, you can boost your performance in five crucial leadership areas. I've seen this happen. I've been working with high potential people who've made some amazing improvements through executive coaching. I see this in Jesus as our example as revealed in Luke 2:52 “and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

More than half a million business books deal with leadership acumen, but studying the most respected experts’ ideas reveals a consensus on the foremost functions required for effectiveness.

In The Leadership Code: 5 Rules to Lead By, (Harvard Business Press, 2011) Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman have synthesized current thinking on leadership and developed a framework that blends idealism with realism. They’ve distilled leadership into five core roles, regardless of one’s industry or business environment:

1. Strategist—Leaders shape the future. (Psalm 37:23-24)

2. Executor—Leaders make things happen. (2 Corinthians 8:11)

3. Talent manager—Leaders engage today’s talent. (Matthew 5:16)

4. Human-capital developer—Leaders build the next generation. (Deuteronomy 6:9)

5. Personal proficiency—Leaders invest in their own development. (Colossians 1:9-10)

 Having a framework for the most essential leadership skills will help you avoid quick fixes and business-book fads. While the scope of leadership may seem overwhelming, these five golden rules provide much-needed focus.

Leaders must excel in many areas: innovative strategies, long-term customer relationships, quality execution, high-performing teams and accountability. They need to manage people, communicate well, engage and inspire others, exercise keen judgment and decision-making, excel at emotional and demonstrate ethical integrity. It’s easy to get lost if you pursue the wrong priorities.

With a clear and concise framework that covers the entire leadership landscape, you can concentrate on how to become more effective and determine the best ways to develop talent. The Leadership Code offers five pivotal rules that lay out how the game is played. Knowing them enables you to modify your behavior and ultimately succeed.

There's no doubt that people can grow and develop their leadership talent; I've seen it happen in the work I do as an executive coach (coach4ldrs.com).  But what's needed is focused, deliberate practice on the things that count, that really contribute to a leader being effective. These five areas pinpoint the most essential things to concentrate on.

In the next few blogs I will dig deeper into the 5 areas and then who leaders are and how they act that creates a commitment to follow. As always when I study leadership, I find secular writers presenting godly concepts that are received in the marketplace as new thinking and seldom is there a connection for most to God’s Word. That’s because people seldom look.

The reality is God designed people and leaders and offers His way as exemplified by the greatest leader of all time. The leader that changed the world, Jesus.

What do you think about these concepts? Do they encapsulate all of the areas required for a leader to be effective? I'd love to hear from you, leave a comment.

God - Give me Energy and Creative Flow

Having a purpose provides context for all of one’s efforts, and it’s a chief criterion for “flow”—the energy state that occurs when one’s mind, body and entire being are committed to the task at hand. Flow turns mundane work into completely absorbing experiences, allowing us to push the limits of skills and talents.

Flow and commitment also create healthier, happier employees, while driving innovative thinking. To tap into full engagement, leaders must clearly identify and articulate what truly matters to the company:

·       Why are we in business?

·       What difference do we want to make in the world?

·       What’s our most important purpose?

On some level, everyone wants to live a purposeful life, yet we are distracted by societal pressures to achieve wealth and prestige. There are indications, however, that this is changing. Just as GNP fails to reflect the well-being and satisfaction of a country’s citizens, a person’s net worth actually has little to do with personal fulfillment.

It is difficult to impossible to truly inspire the creators of customer happiness — the employees —  with the ethic of profit maximization…It is my experience that employees can get very excited and inspired by a business that has an important business purpose. ~ John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market

Leadership starts on a personal level and permeates one’s function in a company, community and society. While countless books address the importance of finding personal purpose, how does it play out within an organizational context? How do you link your personal purpose and values to those of your company?

The thinking around purpose is energized when centered in a Christian context. As believers we are certain there is an eternal meaning in all we do, which of course includes our work. Remember the classic Your Work Matters to God. When we allow ourselves to see our work with and eternal perspective the possibilities are endless.

It may seem that parts of your job are mundane and insignificant. Perhaps your organization hasn't articulated their purpose, vision and values clearly enough. Perhaps you have yet to articulate your own. I see this happen frequently in the organizations where I'm called on to contribute workshops or coaching (coach4ldrs.com)

What's been your experience? I'd love to hear from you, leave a comment.