Ideas

Isn’t it funny how those who clean houses for a living have dirty homes? Or how repairmen have all kinds of broken things around the house?

It seems backwards, but I’m an offender myself. I’m a missionary who isn’t missional.

Talking with college students about Jesus is my day job, and I’ve recently realized I have a tendency to leave my work on campus. I have a heart to reach Ohio University for Jesus, but I’ve managed to forget my duty to share my faith outside of my vocation.

All of my coworkers are Christians. Most of my friends still in Athens are Christians. I don’t have classes to attend with non-Christians, and I’ve graduated beyond student organizations where many of my friends didn’t know Jesus. I’ve allowed myself to become trapped inside a Christian bubble.

When we first come to know Jesus, we often have only a few Christian friends and many who don’t know the Lord. Then, as we grow in our faith, get plugged into a church and Christian community, our friendship pendulum swings in the opposite direction, and we end up having nearly all Christian friends and only a few friends who don’t follow Christ.

Jesus ate at the table with those who didn’t know God. We’re called to do the same thing. We’re on this earth because God has given us a mission: to go to the ends of the earth to tell people about Jesus.

It’s time for me to start inviting people to my table who don’t know Jesus. I want to live life with them, share my faith with them, and love them right where they are. I want to be missional in my life, not just in my day job. I want to go into the community, meet new people and tell them about how God has transformed my life.

Christians, no matter what your day job is, you’re called to make disciples and be missional. Jesus has given us the words of eternal life. We’ve got to give people and opportunity to respond to them.

If you’re a Christian, will you open up your table? Will you be missional wherever God has you?

I’ve never been in a fight, but from what I understand, the biggest group with the toughest guys normally wins.

Except in the case of Gideon. He is the self-proclaimed weakest person in his family, and he comes from the scrawniest family around. But God promises to win a battle with him and his 32,000 men. That is, until God decides that’s too big of an army.

Judges 7:3
Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.

God decided to use 10,00 men instead of 32,000. That’s a pretty substantial decrease.

It doesn’t stop there.

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3086908057

God says something along the lines of, “Gideon, that’s still too many! Go to the river and only take the crazy ones with you, the real Neanderthals who drink the water like a dog and lap it up with their tongues—the ones likely missing large parts of their brains. All I need is 300 scrubs.”

Let’s take a timeout here. God has effectively asked Gideon to fight with a Swiss Army Knife instead of a convoy of tanks–and Gideon obeys.

Then, in typical God fashion, Gideon’s army goes to battle and defeats the Midianites with less than 1% of the original army and no weapons but trumpets and torches.

How do you win a battle with 1% of your army using only trumpets and torches? With faith in God.

No military leader in their right mind would ever send 99% of their army home before a battle and only take instruments and flaming sticks. Unless God is the one leading the army.

God gets more glory when things are unexplainable apart from Him.

When things are so tight financially that only a miracle can fix it, when things are so wrecked only His hand can rescue it, when things are totally and completely beyond human repair, God gets all the glory when things are redeemed.

• When a marriage is on the brink of divorce, don’t think God can’t turn it all around.
• If the doctors have only given you months to live, don’t think God isn’t bigger than a timeline.
• When money is so short you don’t know how you’ll eat tomorrow, don’t think God isn’t bigger than your next day.

God can do far more with 1% and a grain of faith than we could ever do with all the resources in the world trying to make things happen on our own.

God works best when time is short, when resources are scarce, and when things are overwhelming. In those moments, He only requires faith.

Results show that over thirty days with no change in diet and no exercise you can lose 20 pounds!

What a delight! All we have to do is take a pill, make no changes in our life, and we can lose weight. Sign me up!

Whether or not the claims we hear each day from every direction of the media are true, I think it highlights a problem much larger than obesity in our culture.

Photo provided by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/dariuszman

We want things to change without having to sacrifice anything.

We want to lose weight but eat all the Twinkies we want.
We want to fix our relationships but we don’t want to turn off the TV and truly communicate.
We want a job we love without having to do anything more than submit a resume online.
We want to go to heaven but we don’t want to stop living for hell.

We have been inundated with laziness and apathy thanks to everyone from infomercials to Disney. We want to do what we’ve always done but achieve different results (some say that’s the definition of insanity) because that’s what we hear everyone else is doing.

No sacrifice. No change. No problem.

Take a pill; fix your life.

My friends, there is no diet pill for your life. There is no change without sacrifice.

If you want to lose weight, you need to die to your old diet and laziness.
If you want to repair broken relationships, you need to die to yourself and put others’ needs above your own.
If you want a job you love, you need to die to the old way of doing things and create value that no one else can.
If you want to go to heaven, you need to die to your sin through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

There are no shortcuts to change. There are no life-changing pills. You have to die to your old ways if you want to live differently.

Within the past week, millions of resolutions have been made by people all across the world…

lose weight
exercise more
read a book
watch less TV
spend more time with my family
invest more money

…and the majority of people will give up by the end of the month.

Why is it that we quickly give up on making changes? The issue is the “resolution” itself.

A definition for resolution says,

“finding a solution to a problem”

Great. A solution to a problem.
“Problem: I’m overweight. Solution: I need to lose weight.”

“Problem: I’m retiring in two years and I don’t have a penny in savings. Solution: I need to invest more money.”

The issue with the solution to the problem is that there is no plan. There’s no intended course of action. There’s no commitment. It’s like saying the solution to the United States deficit is spending less. It’s true, but that’s not going to fix the problem if there aren’t clear, tangible steps for moving forward.

Here’s what I recommend to turn your resolutions into implementations:

1. Narrow your resolutions down to three or less. More than that is simply impossible to focus on, and by trying to focus on too many you won’t accomplish any of them.
2. Create a plan with hard deadlines and measurable outcomes. If you want to cut your TV consumption in half over the next two months, start by watching an hour less each week until you reach your desired goal. Take baby steps to get where you want to go. While you’re taking small steps, make sure to track your habits to see if you’re making progress. Buy a notebook. Write it down. Set a goal for each week or month and refer to your notes to see if you’re on target.
3. Tell everyone you know about your new change. Tweet and blog about it. Call your closest friends. Send out an email to your coworkers. Ask them to keep you accountable. When your reputation is on the line, there’s no doubt you’ll be more likely to implement.

What are your New Year’s “Implementations” and how do you plan on making them happen?

Leaders don’t exist without followers. It’s like a peanut butter sandwich trying to exist without bread. A zoo existing without animals. Northeast Ohio without snow. It’s simply not possible.

So how do you attract more followers (the real life kind, most importantly, but inevitably the Twitter kind too)?

Authenticity and Engagement.

Photo provided by Odyar

Don’t be afraid of who you are. Whoever you are, wherever your from, there are people who want to know the real you. Not everyone will give you a chance, and that’s their loss. People crave authentic, engaging leaders.

The Two Keys

1. Authenticity
Don’t hide who you are. Don’t be embarrassed by your interests. Don’t conform to a mold because you think that’s what leaders are supposed to look like. Don’t tweet about sports if you don’t care about sports. We can see right through it when you tell us someone just kicked a touchdown.

It’s clear when people are putting on an act. Be who you were created to be. Embrace your passion for stamp collecting or your obsession with scrapbooking. There is no normal.

But there is a huge problem with trying to be what other people consider normal at the cost of your sincerity and authenticity.

Do what you love. Lead people who are interested in what you’re interested in. They need you.

2. Engagement

You can’t be a leader without followers. You won’t have followers if they don’t know who you are.

When people reach out to you, you must respond. You have to comment when they say something interesting, you have to encourage when they do something spectacular.

You are not bigger or better than anyone else. You have a unique platform and opportunity, but ignoring (or, perhaps, ignorance) is not an option.

Engage people. Meet with them. Message them. Build them up. Show them the benefits of trudging forward and of being unique.

People are out there. They want to be led.

Be real. Be there.