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Podcast Episode 38 (part 11): But First . . . Be Teachable

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part eleven in the series titled “Complementary Contradictions.” Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Sometimes, you get conflicting words of advice, one which is good and the other which is not, and it requires discernment to determine which is the right advice to follow. But often, these seeming contradictions are, in reality, complementary and, when used appropriately and in the right way, can work together to help you make better decisions. In this series of articles and podcast episodes, we are looking at different leadership ideas or principles that seem to contradict, are opposite sides of the same coin, or at least differ from each other, and we are pairing them up to see how they actually complement each other to make you a better leader. Last week, in part 10, we talked about becoming a teacher, and this week, in part 11, is a reminder that before you can teach, you must first be teachable.

We started our discussion of this pair of principles last time when we talked about becoming a teacher. What I said was that you are already a teacher, even if you didn’t realize it, because you are modeling with your life, your actions, and your words, and others are learning from what they see you do and hear you say. I encouraged you, therefore, to be consciously intentional about those things. Own the fact that you are a teacher to your followers and do it with purpose. However, today, I want you to back up a little bit because in order to truly be an effective teacher, you yourself must first be teachable.

 One of my responsibilities as a school administrator was to evaluate faculty and to provide guidance and support in their professional growth. The vast majority of teachers I have worked with were committed to personal and professional growth and were always pursuing ways to change, improve, and develop. They would listen to my feedback, and look for ways to incorporate that feedback, as well as look for new ideas from other sources, like books, conferences, workshops, or their peers. But that has not always been the case.

One of those cases was a teacher who had a number of years of experience at that school and in that subject, and I was new in my role as their head of school. As I took time to meet with parents (and employees) to learn about the school and started to formulate a plan for my leadership there, I kept hearing from the parents about the challenges their students would have with this one particular teacher. I began observing and meeting with the teacher to see if I saw the same thing that was concerning parents, and I did. So, I prepared a plan of growth to help this teacher. When we met and I started going through the concerns I kept hearing and what we could do to address those concerns (and, therefore, serve students well), I was met with denial and blame-shifting.  I kept hearing about how it was the fault of the students, who didn’t want to learn, or the fault of the parents, who only listened to the kids’ side of the story, or the fault of the curriculum that the school had provided, or the fault of the administration who was not being supportive. There was no willingness to accept responsibility, and so there was also no willingness to learn, change, and grow. Ultimately, this teacher was let go, not because of the ability to teach, but because of the inability to be teachable.

 The missing piece for this teacher’s ability to be effective as a teacher was teachability. That begs the question of what was needed to be done in order to reflect teachability. Think about what we talked about in the corresponding podcast and website article about being a teacher, which was the idea that we are already teachers, because we influence others by our actions and words, by modeling and giving feedback, so that we can help others learn and grow. It makes sense, then, that being teachable is simply the other side of those practices. The other side of modeling by example is observing what others do; the other side of giving feedback and instruction is receiving feedback and correction; and the other side of pursuing growth in others is seeking to learn and grow ourselves from what we see and what we hear.

That kind of teachability requires humility, self-awareness, and personal responsibility. You must be confident enough to acknowledge that you don’t know everything and that you have a lot to learn; you must become aware of your own deficiencies and growth areas, even if you don’t want to admit it; and you must own the responsibility for what happens even if you are not the primary cause. When you do those things, you enable yourself to become teachable. When you become teachable, you enable yourself to grow.

Here’s what you need to know: in order to grow, you must be teachable. That is often harder than it seems, because it can be so difficult for us to accept our faults and deficiencies, whether that be because of pride, shame, perfectionism, or a need to please. To be teachable, therefore, requires that:

  1. You must be willing to seek and receive feedback, and then see and accept where you need to grow, even if it hurts. Proverbs 15:31 says that “the ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise.”
  2. You must be careful to listen and self-evaluate before you jump to a defensive reaction. James 1:19 tells us, “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry.”

 The bottom line is that a great teacher is also teachable. You are already a teacher. If you want to be a great one, then you need to want to be teachable just as much as you want to be a teacher. So humble yourself, open yourself up to receiving feedback, and be willing to honestly self-evaluate.  Then, take that feedback and self-reflection, and grow. 

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Podcast Episode 27 – Without Compromise (part 10)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part ten in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the ninth in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we are discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way.  It’s really a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, it’s time for you to decide what your commitment will be.

Years ago, early in my teaching experience, I heard my principal, Brooks Everett, give a chapel message to students based on Joshua 24. It stuck with me, and over the years I have used the ideas he shared in conversations with others, and so I am doing the same here. Here’s the basic story:

Joshua and the people had finished all their battles in conquering the land of Canaan, which was followed by dividing it up among the tribes. Joshua had lived through the escape from slavery in Egypt, the establishment of the nation at Mt. Sinai, the 40 years of wandering in the desert, and then finally the conquest of Canaan.  At the end of all that, he gathered everyone together and very carefully reviewed the lessons that had been learned from their experiences. After reviewing their experiences, he issued them a challenge in verses 14 and 15 and said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” (And here’s the part that everyone knows and quotes.) “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” His assumption was that the people – collectively and individually – would serve someone (or something), but it would be up to them to decide who or what it would be.  Joshua planted his flag in the ground on serving God and threw down the gauntlet.

When they responded by saying, “We’re with you, Joshua! We will also serve the Lord!”, that’s where the story gets a little interesting.  Joshua looked around at the crowd, considered what they said, and replied by stating, “No, you won’t.”  He tells them that they are going to end up quickly turning away from God, who will then have to chastise them and administer consequences for their unfaithfulness and broken promises. Once again, the people say to him, “No, really and truly we will serve the Lord!” That’s when Joshua challenges them to look around, to notice who is making this commitment, and to hold each other accountable.

Joshua and the Israelites were at a crossroads, and they needed to make a decision. The decision they would make was future-focused – they were deciding their behavior and their response to what they would face in their foreseeable future. That serves as an example for you and me. We will be facing pressure to compromise at different times and in different ways, and it would be wise for us to determine ahead of time what actions we will take when it happens. This seems like a simple truth, but it’s one that I had to repeat and emphasize over the years to teenagers that I interacted with; otherwise, when they would not take the time to do this, they would wilt under pressure because the prior commitment wasn’t there. In the middle of a crisis, it’s much harder to make that commitment at the moment and in the moment, so it behooves you to be proactive and decide ahead of time. And as we learned from Daniel early in this podcast and website series, that process begins by first establishing and committing to your beliefs.

What does that mean for you? It means this:  first, be clear and confident of what you believe, of your worldview. My worldview is based on the truth of Scripture and the confidence that God is the Creator of the Universe and the source of wisdom and truth. You have to decide what yours is. Then, consistently make your decisions and take your actions today that reflect your worldview. Finally, commit to holding true to that worldview in your decisions and actions tomorrow when you face the pressure to compromise.

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The bottom line is that your ability to resist the pressure to compromise tomorrow is directly tied to your commitment to hold to your worldview today. If you are not prepared before it happens, you will find it very difficult to resist, and are much more likely to give in and compromise your faith.

When we circle back to Daniel as our model of this, I end up in Daniel 1:8, which tells us that “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.” He decided ahead of time that he was going to hold strong to his belief in God and to the resulting implications and principles that aligned with that belief. When the pressure came, he was able to resist. Now, it’s your turn to make that commitment. Will you commit to holding fast to your faith in face of pressure? You get to decide.

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Without Compromise, pt. 10: You Decide

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon). When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students. As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”). 

The underlying basis of the story is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured. In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20). But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

Now, it’s time for you to decide if you will make the same commitment!

The Bible provides us with a great example of this in the book of Joshua, in chapter 24, when Joshua and the people had finished all their battles in conquering the land of Canaan, which was followed by dividing it up among the tribes. Joshua had lived through the escape from slavery in Egypt, the establishment of the nation at Mt. Sinai, the 40 years of wandering in the desert, and then finally the conquest of Canaan.  At the end of all that, he gathered everyone together and very carefully reviewed the lessons that had been learned from their experiences. After reviewing their experiences, he issued them a challenge in verses 14 and 15 and said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” His assumption was that they would serve someone (or something), but they would get to decide who or what it would be.  He planted his flag in the ground on serving God and threw down the gauntlet.

Whether you have realized it yet or not, you will believe and follow something. We have learned from Daniel’s experience in Daniel 1 that your beliefs and your actions go together. Ultimately, your beliefs will determine what you value (or what you will serve), which will then determine your behavior. Therefore, the reverse is also true:  your behavior reveals what you value, which in turn reveals what you believe. You now get to decide your starting point:  What do you believe, and therefore, who or what will you follow?  Will you choose God, like Joshua, and will you do it without compromise, like Daniel? You are the one who chooses for yourself what your story will be.

We have walked through several principles that you can apply to avoid compromise while maintaining excellence, but you must understand that it doesn’t happen by accident. Daniel modeled for us what we are striving for, which is the commitment to integrity in our character and faith, and excellence in our work, both at the same time. The world would have you think that you must leave your faith at the door when you go out into the real world, but I would contend wholeheartedly that you can be both Christian and excellent without compromising either. But to do so, you must intentionally and consciously commit to a belief in the God of the Bible and the accompanying principles by which you set your values and make your decisions, and you must consistently live those out in daily life. Leading with excellence while living without compromise is up to you. You decide.

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Podcast Episode 26 – Without Compromise (part 9)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the ninth in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we are discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way.  It’s really a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with a review of the lessons we have learned from Daniel’s experience.

We started this series with the purpose of digging into the story of Daniel, and specifically the story of how he navigated his first years in captivity.  Daniel was a young man when his story began, most likely a teenager.  Nebuchadnezzar was on the rise as the ruler of the Babylonian Empire at the same time that the Jews had demonstrated unfaithfulness to God and had turned to false gods.  In other words, they were confronted with pressure to compromise their faith, and . . . they compromised.  As a result, Nebuchadnezzar and his army conquered Judah and carried the people away in captivity.  In the process, a select group, which included Daniel and his three friends, was taken to the capital city and enrolled in a special program of study in preparation for serving in the kingdom.  Daniel 1 then walks us through Daniel’s experience, where we learn that in spite of the fact that his home country as a whole had compromised their faithfulness to God, he chose a different path and refused to compromise.  I love how verse 8 states his commitment when it says that Daniel ‘purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.”  And that’s exactly what happened.  Daniel refused to compromise, and demonstrated excellence at the same time, so much so that he “graduated” at the top of his class into an executive leadership position.

 Daniel’s experience laid the foundation for our series, a study on how to live without compromise in a world that pressures us to conform to worldliness and turn from godliness. Throughout his years in his university training, he maintained his commitment to God, did not hide his faith, faced conflict and pressure, and was able to stay strong.  There were certain and specific things that he did, and characteristics he exhibited, that form the basis of the lessons we can take away and apply to our own journeys as leaders. You might find more, but in our study of the last few weeks, we focused on these 8 lessons:

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  • The Foundational Lesson: What you believe and how you live go together.  Know what you believe and why it matters; just as importantly, your actions must match your beliefs.
  • The Lesson of Circumstances: In all circumstances, God has an intentional purpose for your life; you often have no choice over the circumstances, but you do get to choose your response, your trust, and your obedience.
  • The Lesson of Ability:  God has gifted you with talents and abilities that are unique to you, and He wants to (and can) use them for His purpose.
  • The Lesson of Wisdom:  The importance of intentionally pursuing knowledge (grasp of accurate information), understanding (knowing why it matters), and wisdom (knowing how to apply it godliness and life-decisions).
  • The Lesson of Integrity:  The importance of consistently matching your behavior (conduct) with your beliefs (convictions), with the refusal to compromise regardless of the pressure (while balancing truth with love).
  • The Lesson of Relationship:  Relationships matter, and they open the door to impact.  Seek and build positive relationships among believers, and be gentle, loving, compassionate, and considerate to all.
  • The Lesson of Outcomes:  God is involved and active in your life, even in the midst of trials and challenges. Learn to see and trust His hand in the process and in the outcome.  Be intentional about maintaining a community of believers to walk through life with you.
  • The Lesson of Purpose:  You have a part and a purpose in God’s story.  See your life experiences through that lens, and find where your identity and abilities align with the opportunities God places in front of you. 

We spent a week, one brief website article and one short podcast episode, on each of these lessons.  The intent was to identify things we could learn from Daniel and apply them to our own lives and experiences. Therefore, each of these was described and applied in a way that is useable for you and me but can be connected back to specific behaviors, decisions, and attributes that Daniel showed us.

 I would challenge and encourage you to review these eight lessons and look for your own specific examples that you can use to help you see how these need to be applied in your own life.  The bottom line, though, is that there are biblically based and clear steps we can each take to help us follow Daniel’s example.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s easy, but it is achievable.  We, too, can live and lead without compromise.

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Without Compromise, pt. 9: A Quick Review

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon).  When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students.  As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”). 

The underlying basis of the story is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured.  In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20).  But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

How did they do it? We have talked about a number of lessons in the last couple of months. You may find different lessons that are valuable for your own leadership, but I see at least these:

  • The Foundational Lesson: What you believe and how you live go together.  Know what you believe and why it matters; just as importantly, your actions must match your beliefs.
  • The Lesson of Circumstances: In all circumstances, God has an intentional purpose for your life; you often have no choice over the circumstances, but you do get to choose your response, your trust, and your obedience.
  • The Lesson of Ability:  God has gifted you with talents and abilities that are unique to you, and He wants to (and can) use them for His purpose.
  • The Lesson of Wisdom:  The importance of intentionally pursuing knowledge (grasp of accurate information), understanding (knowing why it matters), and wisdom (knowing how to apply it godliness and life-decisions).
  • The Lesson of Integrity:  The importance of consistently matching your behavior (conduct) with your beliefs (convictions), with the refusal to compromise regardless of the pressure (while balancing truth with love).
  • The Lesson of Relationship:  Relationships matter, and they open the door to impact.  Seek and build positive relationships among believers, and be gentle, loving, compassionate, and considerate to all.
  • The Lesson of Outcomes:  God is involved and active in your life, even in the midst of trials and challenges. Learn to see and trust His hand in the process and in the outcome.  Be intentional about maintaining a community of believers to walk through life with you.
  • The Lesson of Purpose:  You have a part and a purpose in God’s story.  See your life experiences through that lens, and find where your identity and abilities align with the opportunities God places in front of you.

Remember that the intent of this was to learn from Daniel how to keep ourselves from compromising our faith when we face the pressure to do so.  The starting point of the eight lessons is recognizing the importance of aligning beliefs and behavior, or convictions and conduct.  The basis of all the other elements is knowing what you believe and ensuring that your words and your actions reflect it.  If these things don’t match: 1) you will be labeled as a hypocrite; 2) people won’t believe you and therefore won’t follow you; and 3) you won’t have the internal strength to keep from compromising.  My challenge and encouragement to you is to resolve this first, then review the other principles and lessons to apply them in your own life.

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Podcast Episode 25 – Without Compromise (part 8)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the eighth in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we are discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way.  It’s really a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins by understanding your purpose.

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In the matching article to this podcast on the Leadership Ezra website this week, I talked about the story of how God moved me from a ministry in Christian counseling to a ministry in Christian education.  Here’s the rest of that story.  I left off in the article with a phone call that I made in desperation that opened the door to a job as a temporary teacher in a Christian school.  With no other options opening up, and at my wife’s suggestion, I contacted the church she had attended in high school to ask if they had a counseling position available.  They said they did not, but immediately transferred me to the office of their Christian school.  When they picked up the call, I gave them my name and told them who I was married to, and they begin singing the praises of my wife as one the most well-loved students that had graduated from that school, and invited me in to apply.  I said that my background was in Bible and counseling, but not education, and they told that a teacher who taught Bible, Psychology, Family Living, and ancient history had suddenly resigned the day before, and wanted to talk to me about at least taking a temporary position to help with those classes. Before the end of the day, I had met with them in person, been interviewed, and was offered the job.  Two things happened next.  First, almost every other place to which I had applied called me back about interviewing for a job AFTER I had already accepted the job at this school, and second, I began to get excited about the possibility of shaping the minds and worldviews of students.

Less than a month later, as I started teaching students in a classroom, I began to discover a passion for impacting both the minds and the hearts of these students, and began to connect for that purpose.  I discovered a passion that I didn’t know was there.  That redirection from God led to a 30-year ministry in Christian education.

That’s what we see in Daniel’s experience Daniel chapter 1. I would be certain that his personal career plan and life goals did not include being taken as a captive to another country and being forced into their training program. I’m sure he had different plans.  But when God unexpectedly changed his direction, he embraced it with a faithful commitment to God.  From our historical viewpoint when we read the account, it becomes obvious to us that God had specifically equipped Daniel for a purpose that God had in mind.  And in being obedient to that, Daniel found his purpose and his fulfillment, so much so that he served in a leadership capacity not just for the king that first took him captive, but for kings (and kingdoms) that would come after.

In the same way, God has specifically equipped and prepared you for a purpose, and He continues to use the people and circumstances in your life to shape you for that purpose.  In a big-picture view, we each have a story that is a chapter in God’s great story.  His story is much bigger than ours, but He intentionally uses ours as part of His.  When we understand that we get to play a part in what He is doing, we can get excited about the purpose He has for us.  We can see our lives through that lens, we can begin to align our identity and our experiences with what He is doing in and through us.

The truth is, God has a purpose, and He knows what it is and where it is going, even when we can’t see the whole picture.  What we can do is learn to identify the things we do well and the things we love to do, and pray for the wisdom to see the opportunities that God puts in front of us that match those things.  And once again, realize that God will be using all of our past experiences and relationships to help develop that purpose.  Interestingly for me, as God broadened my passion and purpose to helping Christian schools with brokenness and struggle, one of the schools He moved me to required the wisdom and ability to help people heal from great wounds.  In other words, it required counseling abilities.  Although that was almost 15 years after He moved me away from counseling ministry, I could see how that had been part of His intentional preparation for the work I would be doing in Christian schools down the road.

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The bottom line is that you have a purpose, and it’s not random.  God has equipped and gifted you, and He has put people and circumstances in your life as part of that preparation.  Learn to see your life experiences through that filter, and embrace what God gives you to do.  Find your purpose in His plan.

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Without Compromise, pt. 8: Finding Purpose

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon).  When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students.  As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”). 

The underlying basis of the story is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured.  In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20).  But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

How did they do it?  One way was by understanding their purpose.

When I graduated from high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, I only knew that God had called me to serve Him in ministry.  When I graduated from college, I still wasn’t completely sure what I wanted to do with my life, so I went to grad school.  When I finished grad school, I started doing what I thought I wanted to do with my life, but within a few short years, God changed my direction.  That’s when I finally figured out my purpose.

Because didn’t know for sure what I wanted to do when I was in college (other than perhaps teaching and mentoring in higher education, which is what I have now come full circle to end up doing at this stage of my life), I took the next step of grad school and earned a Master’s degree in marriage and family counseling.  With that degree in hand, I started working in a Christian counseling center under the mentorship of the director, with the hope and plan that I would eventually become the director of the center and have my own counseling and therapy practice.  As I was developing my experience and skill, I also found myself at times struggling with joy and contentment.  But it was what I had committed to do, so I threw myself into it, and was becoming effective in marriage counseling and in premarital counseling as specialties.  That is until God knocked my feet out from under me. 

The counseling director had an accident that was going to put him out of commission for at least 6 months, so he closed down his practice, which left me without a job.  I was mad at God and decided to move my family and go on to medical school for psychiatry or neuromedicine.  In my anger at God, I had decided that I just needed to do something that made as much money as possible, and I would support other people in ministry but I wasn’t going to serve God in ministry any longer.  We moved from Michigan to Florida (by my wife’s family), and I started applying for a job – any job – that would help make ends meet until I started medical school.  The problem I ran into was that in spite of all the applications I submitted, no one called me back.  I was getting angrier at God, and then one day my wife suggested I contact the church she attended in high school and see if they were hiring a counselor.  I didn’t want to, but felt like I had no other choice.  It was that call, however, that opened the door to a job as a temporary teacher in a Christian school, which, in turn, became the purpose and direction that God had for my life.  That’s another part of the story, one that I will talk a little more about, in the podcast episode that matches this article this week.

That’s a lesson we learn from Daniel, in verses 17-21, which says, “17 As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.  18 Now at the end of the days, when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. 20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. 21 Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.”

At the conclusion of their educational experience and training, Daniel and his friends were appointed to serve the King in leadership roles and did so for the remainder of that King’s rule (and during the reign of the next two rulers as well).  God had gifted them with specific talents, and abilities, and they had grown and developed in maturity and skill, all while maintaining their godliness and character.  When the King administered their “final exam,” they scored the highest grades and were placed in a position where they could have an impact.  In the end, it became clear that God had a purpose, and had given them purpose.  Similar to what God had done with Joseph’s captivity in Egypt, God used the captivity of these Hebrew children as a means to position them in roles within the highest office of the land so that He could carry out His purpose.  What the king was looking for was skill in understanding and wisdom, and (wouldn’t you know) that’s exactly where God gifted these Hebrew children.  As for his part, Daniel had embraced this mission and calling and was intentional about submitting to God’s purpose at every step.

Likewise, for you and me, all of the events, circumstances, and people in our lives are all things that God is using and has used to place us where we need to be in order to fulfill His purpose. You see, God has a greater purpose, and He has prepared, equipped, and placed you in a particular context within His greater purpose for a reason. Remember that your story is one chapter in God’s Grand Story, and within the context of God’s Grand Story, you can find the meaning and purpose in your chapter. Your responsibility is to seek out, embrace, and carry out that purpose. How does that happen?  To oversimplify, you need to write down the things you love doing and the things you do well; pray that God will give you the clarity and discipline to develop those; and pray that God will put the right opportunity in front of you at the right time. When it appears, seize that opportunity.

Like the #JeremyCamp song “These Days” says, “I believe that you and I are in the right place at the right time . . . Maybe we were made for these days.” That’s the Lesson of Purpose:  You have a part and a purpose in God’s story.  See your life experiences through that lens and find where your identity and abilities align with the opportunities God places in front of you. There, you can find purpose.

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Podcast Episode 24 – Without Compromise (part 7)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the seventh in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we are discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way.  It’s really a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins by trusting God with the outcomes.

In the matching article to this podcast on the Leadership Ezra website this week, I talked about an experience in my ministry of Christian Education that put me in the position of having to decide whether or not I was going to trust God with the outcome of that experience. If you want to get the full story of what happened that led to what I’m about to talk about, you’ll need to read the website article.  But here’s where I left off.  I went home that day and told my family that my position had been eliminated and that it would end in 28 days. But then, with a smile on my face, I told them that God had a perfect plan for us that we could trust.  I said that He was doing this for a reason, and therefore, we could fully trust Him and didn’t need to have any anxiety.  We prayed together as a family and committed to having peace and confidence in what He would do.

The next day (on a Wednesday), I prayed, and then I updated my resume and began to look for places to apply.  By Thursday afternoon, I had copies of my resume ready to go and in envelopes, with about a dozen different places to send them. We prayed over them, put them in the mail, and consciously determined to trust God with the outcome, choosing not to have any anxiety.

The next day, my daughter came downstairs and told us that she had been praying and that God had impressed on her that I would be getting a phone call the following week on Tuesday and would have an interview on Wednesday.  We assured her that God could do that, but that even if He didn’t, we would still trust Him. She was adamant that that’s what God had told her He would do.  The next Tuesday morning, as she left for work, all she said was, “Text me when you get a call.”  I left right after her for work, and when I sat down in my office, almost immediately the phone rang.  You guessed it.  It was a phone call from a school in another state, and I had an hour-long conversation with someone who finished the call by asking me if could do a conference call interview with their search committee the next day.  My daughter’s response when I told her was simply, “I told ya!”  The end result was that literally 3 weeks later, we unloaded a moving truck in a different state, starting a new job at a new school.  I didn’t know until after the fact that my resume landing on their desk was just as much a miracle of God’s timing for them as it was for me.  We were to learn over the next couple of years that there were clear reasons why God had uprooted and moved us so quickly, but that wouldn’t have happened the same way if we hadn’t been committed to fully trusting Him for the outcomes and then responding accordingly.

 That’s the same mindset that Daniel and his friends exhibited in Daniel chapter 1. They were uprooted from their homes and families, against their will, and taken to a place that was unfamiliar, lonely, and possibly antagonistic to their own culture and faith.  Yet they chose to have an attitude of complete trust in what God was doing.  In their case, they refused to compromise their faith by adhering to their dietary laws and trusted that God would still keep them healthy.  They refused to bow to an idol of the king even when the consequence was a fiery furnace.  And years later, Daniel refused to cease praying to God even when the consequence was a lion’s den.  In all of those cases, they trusted God for the outcome, regardless of what the outcome might be.  They knew that God had the best plan in mind for them, and they trusted wholeheartedly.

What this teaches us is the importance of trusting God for the right outcome in our own circumstances.  The hard part is often trusting Him even when the outcome might be different than what we anticipated or wanted.  But if you and I believe that God is real and that the Bible is true, then we can completely trust what God is doing.  That means, therefore, leaving the outcome in His hands because He has a purpose that He intends to accomplish for His benefit and for ours.  We still need to act, doing what is right, and intentionally planning and moving wisely toward the goal and purpose in front of us, but all while keeping in mind that God – not us – is in control of the outcome and end result.

So, when you face circumstances that are frightening, unknown, or unexpected, Daniel has modeled for us how to lean into God, and how to be confident that He is going to do what is best.  Knowing that, we can trust Him for the outcome.  That doesn’t mean that we stop doing the right things.  In fact, the outcome God brings about is typically directly tied to how we are living in obedience to Him, so what we really need to do is to first obey God without compromising and then trust Him for the outcome. 

The bottom line is God has a purpose with you in mind, so you can trust Him for the outcome and let go of the anxiety in the circumstances.  I also think it’s a lot easier to do this if you take some time and make an “altar” list – a list of personal experiences where God has worked in an unexpected way, as touchstones to strengthen your confidence in God, to serve as your constant reminder that you can trust God with the outcomes. Learn to see and trust His hand at work in your life.

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Without Compromise, pt. 7: What Happens Next?

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon).  When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students.  As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”). 

The underlying basis of the story is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured.  In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20).  But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

How did they do it?  One way was by trusting God with the outcomes.

My calling has been to serve in Christian ministry, and specifically in Christian Schools.  More pointedly, God called me to serve Christian schools that were broken, hurting, dysfunctional, or underperforming in some way, to be used by Him to help restore these schools to environments that honored God and performed with excellence. In one of those schools, I served as the secondary principal during the economic struggle and housing market collapse around 2006 and 2007.  This school was in Florida, which was hit particularly hard by this crisis. One of the results was that the enrollment of this school dropped from about 900 students to about 550 students in a little over 2 years.  Near the end of my last year at that school, my boss assured me that my job was safe even with the enrollment decline, so I continued on with the normal end-of-year activities, including chaperoning the senior trip.  However, on my first day back into the office after the trip (and also right after the graduation weekend) he called me into his office to tell me my position had been eliminated, and my job would end in 3 ½ weeks. At that moment, I was confronted with the opportunity to decide how I would respond.  I could panic, or I could lean into God and place the outcomes of the next few weeks into His hands.  In full transparency, my typical response would be to panic about my ability to take care of my family, but in this instance, I suddenly felt the peace of God as He brought to my memory Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” I decided almost immediately that I believed in God and His Word and, therefore, could trust that He was directing my steps.  So, instead of turning to fear, I smiled, looked at my boss, and said, “Thank you, I know that this means that God has something even better for me, and I am trusting His provision for my family.” 

I think that’s the mindset we see in Daniel, in chapter 1, verses 14-16, which say, “14 So he . . .  tested them ten days. 15 And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. 16 Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.”  What we see is that Daniel and his friends had negotiated a 10-day trial with their boss in a group experiment.  (It’s important to note here that by doing it as a group, so they were able to keep each other accountable and provide support, strength, and encouragement for one another.)  In this experiment, they were willing to place the outcome in God’s hands and let objective measurable results indicate the future course, trusting those results to God.  At the end of the 10 days, they measured the data (appearance and weight), and the data supported Daniel’s request.  Daniel had maintained his faith, trusted God, found a rational, reasonable, and gracious way to pursue a solution, and God responded in a way that fulfilled His purpose.

This makes me wonder, was the outcome supernatural or simply the product of a healthy diet?   They were eating healthier foods and ended up looking and feeling healthier (therefore likely a correlation to their diet). However, the speed and magnitude of the change in appearance were completely unnatural and hard to believe (therefore likely affected by God to honor their faithfulness and protect His name).  My conclusion is that it was both. As He usually does, a sovereign God used a natural process (and magnified it) to accomplish His purpose).  Regardless, Daniel and his friends were willing to trust God with the outcome: they were not trusting in their particular strategy or in the outcome they were expecting to see; rather they were trusting in God.

The end result of my own personal experience of trusting God with the outcome when the future was unknown was that God provided in an incredible, clearly God-caused, and perfect way to meet our needs and move us to the next step that He had for the life of our family (that’s a story for another time, perhaps on the podcast that will along with this article). But that’s what God does, He uses our circumstances to bring about the result that brings Him glory and furthers the Kingdom.

That leads to my questions for you: whether it is life outcomes or project/task outcomes, how are you navigating these things as part of your faith? Are you willing and able to trust God with the outcomes even if it’s not what you wanted? Do you see God’s hand involved in the process and the purpose when you are tested?  My encouragement for you would be to take some time and make an “altar” list – a list of personal experiences where God has worked in an unexpected way, as touchstones to strengthen your confidence in God, to serve as your constant reminder that you can trust God with the outcomes.

The Lesson of Outcomes, therefore, is that God is involved and active in your life, even in the midst of trials and challenges.  You need to learn to see and trust His hand in the process and in the outcome. 

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Podcast Episode 23 – Without Compromise (part 6)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the fifth in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins by cultivating healthy relationships.

I want to share two different stories today because they help paint a picture of the two kinds of relationships we’re talking about. The first story happened during and after high school.  I had a classmate that I was friends with by virtue of the fact that we were on the same team, Track & Field, and competed together in the same event.  He was not a follower of Jesus, and I was, and some of his behavior choices were very different than mine.  I tried to be intentionally public about my faith and my choices, but I also tried to maintain a positive relationship with him.  That meant that I didn’t act the same way he did, but I also wasn’t harshly critical or condemning.  Instead, I treated him with love and grace. A couple of years later, I made a trip home from college to visit my family, and he called me.  He had recently learned that his mom had cancer, and that had shaken him.  He remembered the demonstration of my faith and reached out to me to talk about what was happening.  I don’t believe that would have happened if I hadn’t established the kind of relationship in the first place that made him want to do that.

The second story happened when we were still fairly young, with infant and toddler-aged children.  My wife had a health crisis that resulted in several hospitalizations, lots of testing, deteriorating health, and no answers (it would be another 15 years before a doctor discovered a slow-growing uncommon cancer in her endocrine system that was likely the cause of all that had been happening). In that season, there was a group of friends who were part of our church and who worked with us together at the Christian school where we were employed, who stepped into our lives to help us get through.  They helped with childcare, meals, doctor visits, and spiritual and emotional support.  The circle of relationships we had established helped carry us through a very difficult time.  There is a verse in Proverbs that says, “A neighbor nearby is better than a brother far away,” and this was a demonstration of that verse in our lives.

Broadly speaking, I believe there are two circles of relationships in our lives that are important.  One is what I would call our inner circle.  Those are the people who share our faith and values, which the New Testament calls our brothers and sisters in Christ.  They are the ones who can walk alongside us in our faith journey, providing encouragement, support, and accountability (just as we do for them). The other is what I would call our outer circle. Those are the people who intersect with our lives, but who do not share our faith.  They may be co-workers, neighbors, classmates, or anyone else we interact with regularly and on whom we can have some impact.  They are the ones who give us the opportunity to be a testimony of Jesus to open the door for sharing the Gospel with what we say and with how we live. With these people, we win the right to share Jesus with what we say when we have modeled Jesus to them with how we live.

In both cases, the support and the impact happen because there is relationship that has been established first. Daniel showed us both of these in Daniel 1.  He had 3 friends – Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego – who were with him in his journey.  Their support and accountability of each other helped them to stay strong in the midst of the pressure they were facing.  He also built a positive relationship with his boss, who was not a follower of Daniel’s God and interacted in a way that maintained that relationship even when there was tension and conflict. That relationship ended up allowing him the freedom and flexibility to protect his convictions.  I want to make sure I point out here that Daniel was never condescending or antagonistic in this relationship, much like what I see in the communication on social media today that comes out of the mouths of people who say they are believers, which I believe damages the opportunity for the impact of the Gospel.

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Here’s what you need to take away:  It is important that you intentionally build and maintain relationships with like-minded followers of Jesus, so that you have support and accountability as you navigate the pressures of life.  It is also important that you intentionally cultivate healthy relationships with people around you who are not followers of Jesus.  This does two things.  It gives you the opportunity to impact them toward Jesus, and it gives you the support to stick to your values even if they may not hold those same values.  Both of these groups of relationships are important for us, and for the message of Jesus.

The bottom line, therefore, is that you need to build and maintain healthy relationships in both circles.  Years ago, I had a pastor preach a message in which the core idea, one that was frequently repeated throughout the message, was that “People matter to God.” All people matter to God.  So the lesson for you is this:  Relationships matter, and they open the door to impact.  Therefore, seek and build positive relationships among those who follow Jesus and those who don’t, and be gentle, loving, compassionate, and considerate to all.

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