Play to win

I was driving to work yesterday and it occurred to me how easy it is to walk through life with a glaring lack of faith and not ever realize it. I think often times we lack faith because of wrong expectation. I wrote the other day about some things JFK said about responsibility. I referred to a statement in his inaugural speech, "to whom much is given, much is expected." That's a tricky statement because it's pretty easy to apply that statement to our current circumstances and use it as a justification for tremendous guilt.

Too many of us are walking around with tremendous weight on our shoulders because we never really heard anyone tell us what right expectation was. Too many times we look to the world for our sense of purpose and position. We end up comparing our worst to the world's best and we lose every time. God's expectation for our life has nothing to do with material trappings like careers, status, money, homes, or even the size of your church. God's expectation for our lives is entirely about our relationship with Him.

Let's look at a scenario and see if you can identify the right expectation.

You went to a top 25 school and graduated in the top 15% of your class. Now, 10 years out of school, you have switched jobs 5 times, the last two being in a completely different field than your degree. You work hard day in and day out, but don't feel like you've found your niche yet. Are you:

1. Ashamed at your nomadic tendencies and desperately seeking any opportunity to "catch a break" so you can really make a career out of your current job?
2. Expecting the axe to fall any time and praying to God that you can find a new job while there's still more money than month .
3. Applying to night school because you see how your successful friends - who all stayed in school, got their Masters' degree and drive nice cars - live.
4. Happy to have a job and comfortable that if you lose this one, something else will come along because you believe in yourself.
   

Which did you pick? I'd argue the latter two probably let you sleep better at night, but that none of them are based on a foundation of truth. We're not defined by our job or circumstances. It doesn't matter if you work one job for 50 years, or have 50 jobs in a single year. We are defined by who we are in Christ.



Think about it. God himself sent His only son to die for us, so we could spend eternity with Him in heaven. Along the way He gave to us all the power and authority of His son as well as equal ownership of this world and the next. When we accepted Jesus into our lives the life we lived up to that moment died away, and we were reborn as an inheriter of the Kingdom. Through Christ we are now the kid of a king. That is the truth. That is the reality of life.

With that in mind, let's look at what JFK said again. "To whom much is given,..." What is it exactly we've been given? Is it intelligence? A name? Physical talents? No. Everyone who accepts Jesus is given the same gift, it's the gift of life. Matthew 25:14-30 tells the parable of the talents. The point of the story isn't what he originally gave each servant, it's that each was responsible for doing something with the gift they were given.

As a culture, I think we get too caught up on talent. I'm not sure why. It starts when we're young. Coaches tell parents their kid can run or jump or throw better than the rest, so he's going to grow up and be "special." Teachers tell parents their kids are "gifted" and need to be put with other "gifted" kids so they can blossom to their full potential. Relatives, friends, members of the community all notice that one child who stands out from the crowd. "That kid is meant to do something great," they say.

Hogwash. Talent is no indicator of success. "Do you know where most of the seeds of greatness are planted? In graveyards." Most people will go to the grave never using the gifts God placed in them. We spend our lives praying for new or different gifts because again, we're comparing our worst to the world's best and making ourselves miserable.

Forget about talent. You've got enough. Trust me. There's not a single person on this earth who had a any input into the talent with which they were born. None of us stood around before creation negotiating with God what he would and would not put into us when we were born. No one sat down with God and said, "Listen, here's what I want..."

Whatever talent we have is a gift from God. There's nothing special about the ability to sing or dance or run or see. No one talent is more meaningful than another. Praise God He gave us any talent at all. The credit for anything we have goes to Him. It's all His doing, not ours. The only reason he gave us any gifts in the first place was so we could fulfill the second part of the quote, "...much is expected."

We were given our talents so that we would be able to fulfill His expectation of us which are:

"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself."
-- Luke 10:27

Why? Because in doing that, we are most like Christ. In living as Christ, we can minister to those around us by example and in doing so, build His kingdom. That's the whole of the story.

Now back to where I started. Faith. Many times we get caught up in frustration, worry, anxiety, doubt, depression, and anger because we are not where we think we should be in life. We feel guilty because we have not lived up to our expectations and we begin manifesting all these emotions as a result.

Ask yourself where your expectations are coming from? There's only one expectation you have to meet and that's whether or not you're letting God use up every ounce of talent He put in you. On the day of judgement, He won't care about how fast we paid off the house or how quickly we were promoted at work. He'll ask two questions. "Jesus, did you two know each other?" and "How did you advance my kingdom?" He won't care that one was given more than the other to work with, He'll just want to know what we did with what we were given.

So, as we race our way up the corporate ladder we find ourselves questioning God and praying for help to change our situation, we should first ask, why are we unhappy? Perhaps our expectations aren't quite lining up with what he wills. We've got one shot at life. Let's make sure we're aiming at the right target.

Price of your dreams

I am your constant companion. I am

your greatest helper or heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down

to failure. I am completely at your command.

Half the things I do you might as well

turn over to me and I will be able to do

them quickly and correctly.



I am easily managed - you must merely

be firm with me. Show me exactly how you

want something done and after a few

lessons I will do it automatically. I am the

servant of all great individuals and, alas, of

all failures as well. Those who are great, I

have made great. Those who are failures,

I have made failures.



I am not a machine, though I work

with all the precision of a machine plus

the intelligence of a human. You may run

me for profit or run me for ruin - it

makes no difference to me.



Take me, train me, be firm with me,

and I will place the world at your feet. Be

easy with me and I will destroy you.



Who am I?



I am Habit.

"Responsibility Strengthens Your Talent"

Our church in Austin, Celebration Church had John Maxwell booked in to speak today. Due to Hurricane Ike, Dr. Maxwell was not able to make it. His promotional material and book store did arrive as scheduled, though. Funny how that works.

I really enjoy Maxwell's writings because he has a great grasp of marketing and salesmanship. From the title to the stories, he has a gift for getting and keeping my attention. Today was no exception. I was looking across the display when one of his newer books, Talent Is Never Enough, caught my eye.

In the book he has a chapter entitled "Responsibility Strengthens Your Talent." What a great title. It's like something out of a John Mason book. I had to find out more. I'm glad I did.

The chapter (and really the book) basically makes the argument that talent won't mature into gifted leadership without a stimulus of grow. That stimulus in this case is responsibility. Here are some highlights as I understood them:

1. Responsibility provides the foundation for success. Success cannot come without a challenge. A challenge cannot be won without first accepting the responsibility of fighting to the finish. He makes a great point that our founding fathers left a huge hole in the design of the nation. They wrote the Bill of Rights, but declined to draft a Bill of Responsibility. In doing so, they told us what we were entitled to, but failed to call us to be the people God wants us to be.
   
2. Responsibility handled correctly leads to more responsibility. Once a person shows themselves worthy of a task, they no longer be given simpler tasks. Success breeds success.
   
3. Responsibility maximizes ability and opportunity. As an employee, it's our responsibility to be a contributor. We are hired to produce. That is our job. Not working is more than wrong, it's criminal. On the other side, by performing, we grow as employees. When leaders find responsible people, they reward them with opportunities and resources to be more effective.
   
4. Responsibility over time builds solid reputation. Simply being consistent and dependable will build your reputation. Maintaining your responsibilities day in and day out lets people know you are a person of character in whom they can trust.

How does one become a talent-plus person? (i.e. a gifted leader?)

1. Start where you are. Start small. Build on your successes, however small. How do you eat an elephant... Often times the best helping hand you will ever receive is at the end of your own arm.
2. Choose your friends wisely. Where you are in 5 years will be determined by two things: what you read and with whom you associate. When you wrestle with a pig, the pig doesn't get clean.
   
3. Stop blaming others. The world has enough victims. It doesn't need another one. Take responsibility for your failures as well as your success. You are exactly in life where you chose to be.
   
4. Learn responsibility's major lessons:
   
   

   
   
   1. Gaining success means practicing self discipline. This is the first and greatest victory of any leader
   
   
   2. What you start, you finish. If people can't count on you to finish, you won't be entrusted with much responsibility.
   
   
   3. Know when others are depending on you. Sometimes it's about more than just you.
   
   
   4. Don't expect others to step in for you. Again, this has to do with seeing things through. At some point you're going to have to realized that you're the stop gap and that's a good thing. Be empowered by the fact that if something has to get done, you can do it.
   
   
   
   
5. Make tough decisions and stand by them. People will respect you more for your resolve and your determination. No one likes a squid. Stick to your guns. Show your backbone.
   
6. Take responsibility beyond yourself. To whom much is given, much is required. We all stood on the shoulders of giants. We own it to give someone else a lift.

In the end, it all boils down to the fact that taking on more responsibility is the opportunity for greater success. Bigger challenges require more of us. Striving to overcome those challenges provides the catalyst for our talent to develop at a new level.

The irony of the whole thing is that as we take on more responsibility and our impact increases, our rights actually decrease (selfishness fades away as we serve more and more people). In my opinion, it's a worthy trade. Freedom is not free. It is, however, always worth the price.

Everything I know about love and leadership i learned from...

Last Thursday evening at around 9pm, Bianca Rizzutto gave birth to a 9.5 pound baby boy named Blake. Blake is Ryan and Bianca's first son together. Congrats to the proud parents!!


In the Dooley household, the big news is that Shell is now an aunt. I'm not sure if that makes me his uncle in law, his uncle, or just the guy his aunt married, but whatever the title, what it really makes me is happy for Shell. She's been looking forward to this for a long time. Congrats Shell. You're going to be the best aunt ever.

That being said, I've used the time while shell is out fawning over the new addition to the family to catch up on some sleep (hahahaha), reading and housework. My reading list has been rather erratic for the last month or so. I've read books on leadership, people skills, religion, finance, humor and marriage. It's been a challenge keeping it all straight, but I've come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter how you put it in there. As long as you get it in there, you'll figure it out somehow.

----

Today I was reading the one year bible. To be completely transparent, my heart was really only half in it. I had my day all planned out and I was itching to get started. I could hear errands and housework and todo lists calling my name. My mind was already half way to the book store when I got to 2 Corinthians 2.

Why I keep looking to new random authors to answer my questions, I have no idea. Every time I look to some hot new author to give me a 200 page explanation to my question, I have a day like today where it's all summed up in 2 pages. Everything I know about love and leadership I learned from Paul.

Let's set the stage. Paul has been running around the Middle East, preaching the word, getting arrested, planting churches, taking beatings, developing leaders, escaping execution, and at all times keeping a PMA. He's doing God's will, carrying the torch that Jesus passed to him. He's not perfect, but he's doing his best.

One day he hears about this new young church in Corinth. Emphasis on the words new and young. Corinth was kind of like an ancient New Orleans. Millions come to worship. Hundreds seek the cross. Never the less, he hears that this small group of people is trying to spread the word. They're trying to learn about this thing called Christianity. They're hungry to know about this man called Christ.

Lesson 1: Paul sees an opportunity to serve, so he goes. He doesn't ask for anything in return. Paul wants to be a blessing, so he takes what money and food he does have and goes to the people to serve them in whatever way he can.

When he gets there, he finds that the young church is having some growing pains. They are off the mark on quite a few areas: divisions in dogma, impropriety, gender confusion, marriage confusion, disorderly worship, borderline idolatry. It must have been quite a site for Paul. He comes expecting a vibrant young body of believers and he finds a gang of pagan converts shooting at nothing and hitting it every time.

Lesson 2: Paul sandwiches correction with praise and keeps the attention on Christ. Paul sees how far off the mark the church is, yet he still finds ways to praise the good before suggesting areas God would like to see them improve. Jesus does the same thing in Revelations when he's addressing the 7 churches. This is a very fine point. Paul isn't acting as a judge, he's positioning himself as a messenger; a servant; simply someone who accepts them either way, but whose obedience to God compells him to tell them these things.

Lesson 3: Paul offers God's solution for every area he criticizes. Rather than just correct them, Paul lays out God's will for their lives and lets them know the benefit of living God's way.

I've been praying for days for an answer to this very question and bam! There it is. It's a little leadership, but mostly it's just Paul loving on the church of Corinth. 2 Corinthians is where Paul shows some amazing leadership. Keep in mind, Paul has had a tough time since Jesus died. He's trying his best to keep all these churches afloat and in line with Jesus' teachings. He's poor, hungry, and constantly on the move. Every city he visits is on foot. Dr. Scholls and Berkenstocks weren't around just yet.

Now, it's time for Paul to return to Corinth and he gets word that nothing has changed. All that work. All that time. Speaking into their lives. Praying for them. Showing them the right way. All that work and they're no better off today that when he left them. What does Paul do?

Lesson 5: Paul knows his limits. He knows what his hot buttons are and rather than put himself in a situation where he could hurt the people he cares about, he shelves the visit for a few months and gives them time to digest his last visit.

Lesson 6: Paul gives the Corinthians room to grow. Paul gives them time to work through their own problems and succeed without him there to lean on.

Lesson 6: Paul is more concerned with developing leaders than developing a following. The easy thing to do would have been to go in there and lay down the hammer. Paul could have micromanaged the church. He could have come in and taken over and whipped everyone into shape himself, but that would not make the church any stronger. As soon as he left, the church would regress and all his work would be lost.

Rather than rushing in to fix things, Paul allows the church to struggle through it's problems without him. In doing so, he's forcing the leaders of the church to stand up and in doing so, become better able to overcome adversity in the future.

Lesson 7: Paul removes confusion. When Paul finally does arrive in Corinth, he removes any doubt or wonder as to why he didn't show up when he said he would be there originally. In doing so, he allows everyone to see his motives and know that it's not his will being done, but that of his Father in Heaven.

It's unbelievable what you can learn if you just read the right thing. I was going to dig through shelf after shelf of books trying to find answers to my question. "How do I help someone who's waay off the mark get back on target and still let them know I love them?" I was willing to spend a day or two to find a whole slew of answers. In one short chapter, Paul answers all my questions and more. I guess that's why they call it the Good Book.