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Without Compromise, pt. 6: It’s About Who You Know

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 cultivating healthy relationships. 

We see this in Daniel 1, verses 8-14 which describe the circles of relationship that Daniel had formed, when it says, “. . . therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 9 Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. 10 And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king.”11 So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king’s delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants.” 14 So he consented with them in this matter . . .”

The reason why I talk about his circles of relationships as plural (“circles”, not “circle”) is that I think Daniel shows us two circles:  the inner circle, or those with whom he has a shared faith, which the New Testament would call our brothers and sisters in Christ; then there is the outer circle, or those who do not share his faith.  Daniel’s inner circle was made up of his three Jewish friends who were also captured with him and in the same program.  We see them referenced together in a couple of different places in this chapter.  His outer circle involved his work relationships, specifically the one he established with his “boss.”

What we learn about his circle of friends is that he had a personal “small group,” and therefore was not navigating his life challenges on his own.  What we learn about his outer circle is that Daniel built a good relationship with his boss even though his boss wasn’t a “Christian.” He knew that he (Daniel) represented God, and so he reflected that truth in the way he acted toward his boss.  Therefore, in this circumstance (asking for a different menu plan), he approached his boss with kindness, not contention.  When his boss denied the request (after all, the boss was protecting his own job), Daniel responded in a way that pushed back while still preserving the relationship and respecting his boss’s authority.  Going about it this way allowed him to model his faith and “prove” God.  What was also important in this was the fact that he had his inner circle of relationships, a community of believers around him in the process.

We need to understand that relationships matter (because people matter to God, as I heard my Pastor say in a sermon message repeatedly many years ago).  If you are going to be a reflection of Jesus to the world, then it is important that you build relationships with the people around you and that, at the same time, you carry your faith in a gentle and loving way, with compassion and consideration toward others.  Be intentional about seeking and building positive relationships.  And you need to do that within both of your circles:

  1. Your inner circle: the people you would call brothers and sisters in Christ, who you need for support, accountability, encouragement, and spiritual unity.  This is so important, in fact, that Scripture tells us in 1 John 4 that you can’t say you love God if you don’t love your brother.
  2. Your outer circle: the people that you come in contact with who are not followers of Jesus but who are probably paying attention to your faith and can be impacted by it. It is vital to remember that these people will most likely judge your faith by how you treat them. 

So, then, are you building the right kind of relationships with other Christians?  Are you being relational with people who don’t know Jesus? Like many of the characteristics of faith, those two things don’t happen by accident!  They happen by making sure that you always have a community of believers who make you better, and that you are consistently engaging with unbelievers, always in a loving way.  The lesson for you is this:  Relationships matter, and they open the door to impact.  Therefore, seek and build positive relationships among believers, and be gentle, loving, compassionate, and considerate to all.

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Podcast Episode 22 – Without Compromise (part 5)

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 fourth in the series, all of them based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with matching your beliefs and your behavior.

When my children were young, somewhere in their early elementary years, I was involved in a very minor accident when I was driving them to school one morning.  I had pulled out of our neighborhood and onto the main road, which had a large intersection and a streetlight on the corner of our neighborhood community.  The light was red, so I pulled up to my place in the line of cars, in the middle lane behind another, and with cars on either side of me.  As I was sitting and waiting at the light, I glanced in my rearview mirror, and I could see a minivan approaching from behind me, and it did not appear to be slowing down. I could see in the mirror that the driver of the vehicle was looking at something in her hand, and not at the road, so she wasn’t seeing the collision she was about to cause.  In that moment of time, I knew I couldn’t move out of the way because of the cars around me.  I could see my kids in their car seats sitting behind me with no awareness of what was about to happen.  I remember thinking that I needed to not react before the accident happened, otherwise the kids might tense up, which could lead to more injury.  And then the lady looked up, and I could see the panic on her face as she slammed on her breaks and screeched to a stop, enough that when she did hit the back of my car, it was only a slight bump.  That’s when the kids jumped and asked if we had been hit by a car.

At that point, a very specific thought flashed through my mind, and it was this:  “My children will learn something important by how they see me respond or react right now, and they watch me to see if I really believe what I tell them when I talk to them about how important it is to treat each other with the love of Jesus, regardless of how the other person may have wronged them.”  Honestly, that was my first thought.  Therefore, I chose the words that came out of my mouth with intention, and I said, “Kids, somebody bumped into our car because she wasn’t paying attention, so she must be having some really hard things going on in her life. While I get out and check the car, why don’t you pray for her?”

The opportunity I had in front of my kids at that moment was the opportunity to reflect integrity, and my response didn’t happen by accident in spite of circumstances being caused by an accident.  I believe integrity is best described as consistent wholeness between what you say you believe, and what you do, and that is something you choose to do on purpose.  That’s what Daniel demonstrated in Chapter 1, v. 8, which tells us that he “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.”  In this situation, he knew what he believed, and made a conscious decision and commitment to ensure that the next actions he would demonstrate would match with what he knew he believed to be true.  He determined to show behavior that would be consistent with his beliefs.

What we need to understand is that people will judge our character – and specifically, our integrity – by how we live out our convictions and our stated values.  I once shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a successful businessman who was a moral person, both with his business and with his family, but not a Christian.  When I pressed, he responded by telling me he knew a lot of people in the business world who said they were Christians and that he was more moral than they were, so why would he want what they were offering?  A lack of integrity on their part impacted his willingness to hear the message.

Here’s what you need to take away:  It doesn’t matter whether you think someone can see you or not.  Integrity is a character trait, and therefore, if it is part of your character, it will be exhibited no matter who is or is not watching. If you don’t have integrity when no one sees, you won’t have integrity when people are watching, either.  So forget about whether or not anyone will see. Instead, like Daniel, purpose in your heart not to defile yourself. Make the conscious and intentional choice to act in obedience to God and His Word, with a visible consistency between what you say you believe and how you act in any circumstance. Choose to live with integrity.

The bottom line is that your ability to refuse to compromise in the face of pressure is directly tied to your commitment to consistently match your behavior with your beliefs.  It doesn’t happen by accident

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Without Compromise, pt. 5: What If No One Sees?

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 story’s underlying basis 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 consistently matching their behavior with their beliefs while consciously refusing to give in to the pressure. 

We see this in Daniel 1, verses 5 and 8, which say, “And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. . . .  But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” 

Daniel and his friends, as part of their intensive preparation for their future careers, were placed on a specific regimen of classes, activity, and meals.  However, when they saw what was on the menu, they tried to opt out of the meal plan. The issue wasn’t really that it was expensive and rich food (in fact, the New Testament indicates that any food is acceptable, as is recorded in Peter’s vision in Acts).  Rather, Daniel and his friends knew that the law they had received from God at that point in time had specific dietary instructions, so even if they didn’t understand why, they trusted God and were committed to obeying His Word.  They knew that, even if no one else saw it, they needed to live consistently with who they were as Jews, therefore they were unwilling to compromise.  But they did it with gentleness and kindness, not with harsh conflict and confrontation (he didn’t demand, he requested, and later in this same passage we learn that Daniel even built a positive relationship with his boss, not a judgmental, antagonistic, or condescending one).

The next question I ask, though, is why it really mattered, if they were in another culture where it was normal to eat those foods and no one from home would know what they were doing? Since we know from the New Testament that following the law doesn’t save us, and we know they were in a place where they could be “anonymous,” then why did it matter? I believe it mattered for three reasons that are transferrable to our own circumstances:

  1. They were maintaining their commitment to their Identity in Christ in a world that was trying to reshape their identity;
  2. They were maintaining their commitment to God in the face of pressure, even when compromise seemed like no big deal (or could even win them favor with the world); and
  3. They were maintaining their commitment to obedience to God’s Word regardless of how it made them look.

What we learn from this is the understanding that living our faith in the world requires a commitment to consistently match our behavior (or conduct) with our beliefs (or convictions), with the refusal to compromise regardless of the pressure.  And this is the essence of integrity.  For us to live this way requires some things from you and me.  It requires a confidence in who God is and what He says, a commitment to Him and to His Word, a predetermined plan of response to pressure, a conscious choice to act in obedience to God and His Word, a visible consistency between what you say you believe and how you act in any circumstance, and all while living your faith in a loving way that reflects both compassion and character, tempering truth with love.

My personal question for you is, can the people around you see that this is true in you? Are you consistently matching your behavior with your beliefs, with the refusal to compromise regardless of the pressure?  This doesn’t happen on accident.  It happens when you, like Daniel, fully trust God and His Word, purpose in your heart to not defile yourself, act consistently with that purpose regardless of the pressure, perception, or outcome, and do it in a way that balances truth and love. That’s the lesson of integrity.

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Podcast Episode 21 – Without Compromise (part 4)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part four 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 third in the series, all of them based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with knowing how to become a “wiseguy.”

T

My dad was my greatest counselor and mentor in my life.  I always knew that I could bring my questions and challenges to him, and he would respond with wise insight. That’s one of the reasons why it was hard for me when he passed away. In the first few years after he passed, I couldn’t tell you how many times I had something I needed to deal with, and my first thought was, “I wish Dad were here so that I could talk to him about this.” At his funeral, my two brothers and I each shared part of the message, and all three of us, in some way, referred to the wisdom that my dad would share with people.  But it was when we got to the graveside that I heard what I think was one of the best descriptions of this.  Another pastor, one that my dad had mentored, gave the graveside message.  In his message, he described my dad as being characterized by knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and proceeded to explain how each of these was different, that many people had knowledge, a lot had understanding, and a good number had wisdom; but very few had all three like dad.  That characterization stuck with me, and now, when I read Daniel 1, I see the same thing.

 Daniel 1:4 specifically says that he and his friends were “gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand.” Verse 17 adds to this a bit and points out that these gifts were from God, in the way that we talked in the last article and podcast about our abilities, about how our natural abilities, our supernatural abilities, and our spiritual gifts all come from God.  And it is the combination of these three mental categories – knowledge, understanding, and wisdom – that can equip you to make the best decisions.

How, then, are knowledge, understanding, and wisdom different but related?  As I said in the Leadership Ezra article that matches this podcast, it’s not enough to just to “know”, whether it’s broadly (knowing a little about a lot, like a jeopardy champion) or deeply (knowing a lot about a little, like an expert in a specific area).  Either way, that is simply knowledge.  You also need to know why it matters – that’s understanding – and then know how to make application of knowledge and understanding together in order to make good decisions – that’s wisdom.  Here’s the wonderful part about this:  wisdom is attainable!  James 1 says God gives wisdom liberally to anyone who asks.  Proverbs teaches that wisdom is grown by intentionally seeking God’s truth and listening to the right voices.  It also teaches that it comes through humility and teachability. 

Here’s what you need to take away:  It’s not enough to know, or even to know why.  Wisdom means taking the next step of applying those things, with the counsel of God and of godly people, to the dilemmas, choices, and circumstances in every part of your life.  Or, to paraphrase what I once heard Tony Evans share in a message, wisdom is taking knowledge and understanding and slapping shoe leather on it to make it walk.

The bottom line is that the pursuit of knowledge is important in order to have the most accurate and complete information.  Understanding is important in order to know what is true and why it matters.  But the pinnacle is wisdom, knowing how to apply what you know to godliness and life decisions.  And don’t forget, as Proverbs also says:  the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

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Without Compromise, pt. 4: Becoming a Wiseguy

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 story’s underlying basis 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 developing (and using) knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

In Daniel 1, one of the ways we see that Daniel and his friends were gifted was in their mental acuity.  Verse 4 tells us that they were “gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand.”  Then verse 17 says the same thing, but with the added description that these were gifts from God and that Daniel had a special, God-given level of understanding that would be for a purpose.  Based on the context, it is important to remember that Daniel and his friends knew that these gifts were from God, and they also put in the personal effort to develop these gifts.  Therefore, because they had these tools, they were equipped to make good decisions.

When it comes to our own equipping, you need to realize that it’s not enough to just to “know”, whether it’s broadly (knowing a little about a lot, like a jeopardy champion) or deeply (knowing a lot about a little, like an expert in a specific area).  You also need to know why it matters and how to use it to make good decisions.  I vividly remember hearing my dad described this way at the graveside service of his funeral in a message spoken by a pastor that my dad had mentored, and that description stuck with me.  This is how I would describe these three levels of mental effort and ability:

  • Knowledge:  having a grasp of information, with the knowledge and awareness of information that is relevant to your context, career, community, and culture.
  • Understanding:  having the ability to make sense of knowledge, to connect the dots, to grasp what it means and why it matters, and to recognize truth.
  • Wisdom:  having the ability to apply knowledge and understanding to good decision-making, with meaningful, practical, and effective application to life.

These three tools help equip you for decision-making.  But here’s the really good news – these tools are attainable!  You can develop knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, but it doesn’t happen by accident.  It happens with intentional effort and certain characteristics that you choose to employ.  Those characteristics include seeking wisdom from the right people and places (just for fun, do a comparison of I Kings 12:1-19 and 1 Kings 3:9, and make note of who each person listened to), being humble and teachable, and asking God (see James 1 as a reminder of how important this is) but then making sure to listen.

The lesson we learn from Daniel in this is the Lesson of Wisdom: the importance of intentionally pursuing knowledge (grasp of accurate information), understanding (knowing what truth is and why it matters), and wisdom (knowing how to apply it to godliness and life decisions).  Make the choice to develop knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

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Podcast Episode 20 – Without Compromise (part 3)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part three 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 third in the series, all of them based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with recognizing how God has gifted you.

In between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I got a job as a door-to-door salesman.  Here’s what happened.  I was paying my own way through college, which meant that during the school year, I had been working about 30 hours a week in a restaurant as a busboy and kitchen helper.  It just about paid my bills, but as a minimum wage job, it did little more than that. Well, sometime in the spring of my freshman year, a company came on campus to recruit for summer work.  Someone talked me into attending the recruiting presentation, and by the end of it, I was convinced I could make a whole lot more with this company than I could working in the restaurant that summer.  So I signed up.  The job I signed up for was selling books door to door for 13 weeks.  More specifically, selling a 2-volume encyclopedia of knowledge and a New King James Version Study Bible.

So, as soon as my exams ended, I loaded my car and drove to Nashville, Tennessee, for a week of training and inspiration. At the end of that week, I was sent to my territory, which was Sumter, South Carolina.  As soon as I arrived, I found a place to live and mapped out my area, the tobacco farmland outside of the side.  I proceeded to get up every morning and start driving from house to house, knocking on doors, and asking people if I could show them these books.  There is an important piece of information in this that you need to know:  I was very much an introverted people-pleaser afraid of rejection.  You can imagine that it didn’t take long before I figured out I was not cut out to be a salesman and began regretting my job choice for the summer.  In fact, as the weeks went on, it got harder and harder for me, and by about the 10th week – I’m being very transparent here – I was calling my dad every single day, in tears, asking him to help me find the courage and discipline to go out and face another day of this.

In the end, I actually did make enough to pay for my next semester of college, but the point of this story is that I learned a very valuable lesson about what I was NOT good at doing.  I had certain skills and abilities that enabled me to do well at some things, but cold sales and knocking on strangers’ doors were most definitely not within my abilities.  I refused to quit – that’s just part of who I am – but I finished that summer with the realization that no amount of money was worth a job that hated and didn’t have the ability to do well.

That’s one of the things we learn from Daniel in Daniel chapter 1.  God has gifted us each with skills and abilities, and we function best when we operate within those abilities.  Now, I think those abilities fall into three different groupings:  natural abilities, those that we have been born with (the ones that are part of how God designed and created us from the beginning); unnatural abilities, which I define as those abilities that are not natural to you but that God has specifically given you for a time and a purpose; and spiritual gifts, which were given to us as part of our spiritual nature when we became a part of the family of God through salvation.  These three groups are designed by God to work together so that we can perform with excellence when we commit and submit our work to the Lord.  That’s what Daniel showed us.

Here’s what you need to take away:  Liam Neeson once said in a movie, “What I do have are a very particular set of skills.” And so do you.  God has gifted you with spiritual gifts, natural abilities, and unnatural abilities, and He has given you those for a reason.  Your responsibility is to accept, hone, and use those gifts to carry out the call He has given you. 

The bottom line is that God has given you gifts and abilities, and He has done so for a reason.  Daniel used his with such excellence in his obedience to God that he excelled above everyone around him.  I would challenge you to do the same.

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Without Compromise, pt. 3: Use Your Abilities

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 story’s underlying basis 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 their unique giftedness for God’s purpose.

Daniel 1, verses 3, 4, and 17 together highlight the specific set of gifts and abilities that characterized Daniel and his friends.  Some of those were the required skills and abilities for acceptance into the program of study that they entered (verses 3-4), and some were very specific to these young men (verse 4).  When I look at that list of abilities, I see three categories:  natural abilities (those abilities that were part of how they were uniquely designed and created by God), God-given abilities (those abilities that God specifically endowed to them for a particular purpose), and spiritual gifts (those abilities that they received as part of their spiritual nature).  It is important to note that these attributes are not specific directives of the gifts you have to have in order to succeed or be used by God, but rather their abilities were unique to them and specific to the needs of the circumstances.  Therefore, they serve as a picture of how God will also give you the required abilities for the task to which He calls you.

What we need to take away from this is that God has gifted you and me with talents and abilities that are unique to each of us, and He wants to (and can) use them for His purpose.  He has given us natural abilities, God-given abilities, spiritual gifts, each with intention.  What matters is not that you or I have the best ability, but rather that you and I are true to the abilities God has given each of us and that we use them for the task or purpose to which He has called us to carry out.  In the process, there is value in being excellent, and for that reason, we need to learn to use our abilities in the best way possible so that they represent Christ and establish credibility. 

The lesson we learn from Daniel in this is the Lesson of Ability:  God has gifted you with talents and abilities that are unique to you, and He wants to use them for His purpose.  How will you develop them, and what will you do with them?

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Podcast Episode 19 – Dealing with Your Circumstances (part 2)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article of the same name, “Dealing with Your Circumstances.” 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 second in the series, all based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with an understanding of how to deal with your circumstances.

When my wife had been married for a little over 20 years, we experienced a crisis point in her health.  At that time, we had a child in college and a child in high school, and her health had been in a state of decline for about 10 or 15 years, but without any clear conclusions or answers about why.  She had seen numerous specialists, and at different times had received different diagnoses with different treatment plans, and yet her health continued to deteriorate.  But then she began to see a new doctor, a general practitioner, who had an investigative nature.  As she started to get a better understanding of Nora’s health and issues, she also started digging for information.  Eventually, she sat down with us and informed us that she believed that Nora had an undiagnosed cancer that might be at the root of many of her health issues.  This doctor started the process of testing and searching, and the end result was the discovery that Nora had neuroendocrine cancer, with a large tumor in one of her lungs, and emergency surgery was scheduled to remove the tumor and most of the lung.  We later learned that this type of cancer wreaks havoc on your endocrine system, and therefore is often misdiagnosed as a variety of other things.  I am grateful for a doctor who refused to accept the status quo and was determined to discover why things were happening as they were.  But let me back up to the moment in time in that process when Nora began to cough up blood, and her doctor scheduled an immediate scan of her lungs.  I can still picture us sitting in the radiology waiting room of the hospital, by ourselves after everyone had gone home, and the doctor calling us immediately to say that Nora had cancer and we needed to do surgery.  At that moment, we had a decision to make on how we were going to respond.

The point of this story is that we often have no control over the circumstances that surround us in our lives.  Those circumstances may have a physical cause (like Nora’s cancer), or they may be caused by our own choices, by someone else’s choices, simply by our environment, or by God for a purpose.  Regardless of the cause, no one controls our response other than ourselves.  We decide how we are going to react and what we are going to do.  In that moment with Nora, as a husband and wife committed to honoring God in our marriage, we made the conscious decision to trust and thank God regardless of whether we understood what was happening and why.  We chose not to let that bombshell blow up our lives but instead to live in faithful confidence that God loved us unconditionally and would use these circumstances for good.

That’s the lesson that Daniel modeled in Daniel Chapter 1.  He had not personally been unfaithful and disobedient to God, even though much of his nation had been.  Therefore, when his nation and the capital city of Jerusalem received judgment from God, Daniel was included as a recipient of that judgment even though he was not guilty.  He was taken from his home and family and carried away in captivity, and he had no say or control in those circumstances.  However, when you read his story, you see that he chose to respond with trust in and obedience to God.  He determined his own response and let God manage everything else. The same is true for you.  Regardless of the circumstances, whether good or bad, you are responsible for how you respond to those circumstances and how you respond to God.  God is responsible for doing what is best with those circumstances, circumstances for which He has a purpose to accomplish.

Here’s what you need to take away:  You have very little control over many of the circumstances that occur in your life.  You do, however, have control over how you will respond when those circumstances occur.  Nothing that happens takes God by surprise, and Romans 8:28 assures us that God will bring good even out of the worst things (note:  that doesn’t necessarily make those things less painful when they happen).  If you believe that God is who He says He is, and that the Bible is true, then you get to decide to respond in complete trust in God’s work in your life. 

The bottom line is that your response to your circumstances falls squarely on your own lap.  When circumstances seem outside of your control, lean into God, trust Him, and let that trust settle your fear, anger, or anxiety.  When difficult circumstances seem like they are going to overwhelm you, as my dad would say, “You can be better or bitter, but better is better than bitter.”

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Without Compromise, pt. 2: Dealing with Your Circumstances

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 seeing their circumstances in the right light.

Daniel was living in a time and in a place in which his nation was rejecting God and disobeying His commands.  God had promised judgment on Israel when they did that, so . . . that’s what happened. God allowed another nation to conquer Judah and take the Jews captive.  Even though Daniel (as we see later) was living righteously, he was not immune to the fallout from the events in his world (as the Bible says, “The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.”).  One of those effects was the “kidnapping” of talented teenagers, who were to be trained (“brainwashed”?) into a new identity, and this included Daniel.  Little did he know at the time that God was actually orchestrating something.

So then, how do we see Daniel respond when his world was turned upside down? He could have blamed or rejected God, given up on his faith, followed the crowd so as not to be singled out or persecuted, and/or chosen to follow a path of disobedience and sin. Instead, he trusted God even when it didn’t seem fair, remained faithful to the truth, refused to compromise even if it set him apart, and continued to be obedient in the face of great pressure.

What can we take away from the example of his response? There are both good and bad circumstances that occur in your life, and they may or may not be your own fault.  They could be a result of your own sin (bad choices) or righteousness (good choices), a result of someone else’s sin or righteousness, or a result of original sin or God’s favor or His plan. Regardless, in every case, God is working out His purpose for good, and I am accountable for my actions and my response, not for God’s role in the process. For God’s part, He is still in control, has a purpose, and uses people and circumstances – both good and bad – to carry out His purpose (and shape you). I, on the other hand, am responsible to do my part (Prov. 16:9) and to remember that my circumstances – both good and bad – are often outside of my control, but never outside of God’s.  Therefore, I need to answer for how I respond.

The lesson we learn from Daniel in this is the Lesson of Circumstances:  God has an intentional purpose for your life within your circumstances, and you get to choose your response, your trust, and your obedience.

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Podcast Episode 18 – Without Compromise (part 1)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article of the same name, “The Most Important Thing.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the question we are going to talk about today.  This discussion is going to be the first in a series, all based on a study of Daniel Chapter 1 and corresponding to articles posted on the website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with an understanding of the most important lesson.

When I was a senior in high school, I had a job working in a local meat market and butcher shop.  My job was to come after the shop was closed in the evening and clean everything up from the day.  Keep in mind, this was a butcher shop so that included cleaning up after the slaughtering and process were done for the day! It was not only messy work, but it was also lonely work, because I was there by myself after everyone else had gone home.

One day, in the late spring, I was doing my job while listening to a Detroit Tigers baseball game on the radio (they won the World Series that year, with the dynamic team of Alan Trammel at Shortstop and Lou Whitaker at 2nd Base, and the outstanding pitching of Jack Morris).  My boss was a heavy smoker, and on this evening, he had left a pack of cigarettes behind, which had never happened before. As I was cleaning the front, I came across the cigarettes and was faced with an ethically dilemma.  I had never smoked before and had been vocal about my faith with classmates and adamant that smoking, and the use of substances, didn’t mesh with my faith.  But now they were right in front of me, and no one was around to see it.  I had the chance to pick up a cigarette and smoke it just to see what it would be like, and no one would know.  I picked one up and held it in my fingers, looked at it, wondering what it would taste and feel like, then put it away and never lit it up. 

Why did I make that decision?  In retrospect, that’s a simple answer:  I had already established my internal framework to guide my decision-making process, driven by my worldview that was based on my commitment to Jesus Christ and to the Bible. So, when the situation presented itself in front of me, I had actually made the decision ahead of time by doing that.  As tempting as it might have been as a teenager to try a cigarette, my beliefs and resulting personal principles directly corresponded to my behavior.  Therefore, I didn’t smoke because I couldn’t smoke and still be true to myself.  My behavior reflected my pre-established beliefs.

One of the most important – if not the most important – things you need to do to prepare yourself to stand against compromising your faith is to understand that your beliefs and your behavior are inseparable.  I’ve quoted my dad on this before, but as he used to say, “Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your walk talks.”  Your beliefs will result in your behavior, and your behavior will be a reflection of your beliefs.  Because this is so, two things will inevitably happen:

1) when you are confronted with a circumstance that challenges your faith and your values, how you respond will be a direct result of the worldview belief system that you have intentionally developed, and

2) Everyone around you will make judgments about who you are based on how they see you act in these circumstances.

Here’s what you need to take away:  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 bottom line is that your walk needs to be consistent with your talk, and that happens when your talk is consistent with your worldview, with what you hold to be true as your foundational belief system. Therefore, if you want to be able to navigate circumstances that challenge your faith and your integrity and come away without having compromised, then you must be purposeful about solidifying your worldview.  You won’t have one without the other.

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