Let’s make this easy. Below is a list of ways you can misuse prescription drugs. In addition to the explanation for each misuse is a parallel misuse of Scripture. See if any of these abuses hit home with you.
In most of my posts, I take my time in leading you to a question, an idea, or a problem we all deal with. Today, I will start with a tough question right off the bat. Do you truly want life change from Jesus or do you simply want to be part of the crowd around Him? Don’t answer too quickly – think about it for a minute.
I recently posted about my quiet time process and how it occasionally needs an overhaul. I listed the materials I am currently using in this process. I also included a timer that helps me stay on track. I got some good feedback from that post, but I had one reader question the materials I listed in that post.
Her approach was very professional and considerate. She simply stated that she feels the Bible is the best and only proper component for use in a quiet time for building one’s relationship with God through Christ. She made some very good points about the potential for mistakes or false teaching in materials produced by man. She posed an excellent argument and never got personal or rude.
Have you come to a place where you have lost your passion for what you do? Maybe you are in a rut or just burned out. Maybe you are just not that “into” the purpose you once felt. It could even be that business going better than ever, but you just don’t “feel it” anymore. I have a couple of ideas that might just help you regain your passion for your God-given purpose!
In my last two posts, I have referred to a passage in Revelation where Jesus chastised the Christians at Ephesus for forgetting their first love. He praised them for some of their good works, but He called them out for their wrong motives. In drifting from their relationship with Jesus, they abandoned their first love.
I made a new friend recently. During our conversation, he told me about his decision to walk away from a very successful business because he felt God calling him to something different. He did not know where God was calling him, but he knew he had to follow. I think you can draw inspiration from his story – whether you have ever considered walking away or not.
In 1993, Mark Cress was part owner of an Inc. 500 company. At 37 years old, he was extremely successful and it appeared he had nothing but blue skies ahead. But then he started to realize that God was calling him to something else. Once he and his wife made the decision to follow God’s call, things changed rapidly. Within months, he was walking away. He had sold his business to the employees, sold his house on the lake, and enrolled in seminary. In less than a total of three years, he had started the organization that is now Corporate Chaplains of America.
Corporate Chaplains of America (CCA) now ministers to more than 800 different business locations. Those locations represent thousands of employees served on a weekly basis. Can you imagine the impact God is having through this organization?
As I listened to Mark tell his story, I saw a few clear parallels to my own story. At the same time, God sent us down different paths.
All of my life, I had been working toward taking over my family’s business, an automobile dealership group in Georgia. In 2001, I was General Manager of two of our seven locations. I planned to expand and take the company to new heights! I had visions of grandeur and everything looked like it was headed that way. But when I began spending time in God’s Word, I realized that everything I wanted and was working for was only temporal. None of it would really matter in 1,000 years.
I realized I was only giving God the Christian requisite one day per week (actually, just Sunday morning) and an occasional Wednesday evening. The rest of the time was spent trying to juggle my job in the car business and my family at home. Even when I added the daily quiet times, God was still not the central focus of my life. This was not the way He wanted it!
I began searching for answers. If God wanted all of me, what would that look like? I had heard of people getting “called” into full-time ministry, but I did not feel that call. I knew of others, like Mark Cress, that were “called” into the mission field, but I did not feel that either. What exactly was God asking me to do? What was I created to do?
To tell the truth, I did not have a clue! I only knew I was not comfortable with the status quo and had to change it. I sat down with my father and explained that I was walking away from the business. Because I was already in a significant leadership position within the company, I told him I did not want to do it effective immediately. I wanted him to have time to replace me and make any other arrangements that may be necessary. This would likely involve downsizing the business and could take a couple of years.
I did not feel God calling me to leave right away, only to let go and be prepared to walk away. I had no idea where I was going or when. I only knew I wanted to be spending more of my time working for God – whatever that entailed.
Fast forward eleven years, and I am still in the business! It was almost two years after that conversation with my father that God showed me where He wanted me. Though I thought I was walking away, He showed me that He had placed me in the position I currently held for a purpose and a season. He wanted me to do all I had envisioned in ministry, but He wanted me to do it through the business. As a good friend recently told me, God wanted me in the car ministry!
So that is exactly what I am attempting to do. I have said it many times – I do not have it figured out. Yet I keep showing up. I am determined to allow God to have the eternal impact He desires, through this business. I am only the steward of this business for now. Until He changes my direction, that is the role I will play.
See, Mark Cress followed God’s plan and he is enjoying the fruit of that decision. There is incredible eternal impact coming from his decision to step out of his business and start CCA as a non-profit organization. For me, walking away is not in the cards (at least for now!). God has called me to stay in business and I expect there will be eternal impact from that decision as well.
My point is this…regardless of where God calls you, you can have an eternal impact. There is no reason to think that you have to be a paid staff member of a church to do ministry. Seek God’s guidance, but know that He just may want you doing ministry right where you are!
What would you do?
Do you think this move was too drastic?
Have you thought about walking away?
An impact player is someone who changes the game when he or she steps onto the court. You know the kind I am talking about. When it appears they may have been injured, the crowd gasps! The team does not want to lose them, even for a short time. These are the players that we all strive to be in our fields…at least that is what we say.
Recently, my daughters tried out for and made the local middle school girls basketball team. Now they are athletic, but they have not actually played organized basketball in several years. Soccer has been their dominant sport. In soccer, they have been impact players for years!
Last night, I watched something that surprised me. Last night was their first basketball game of the season. I truly do not know what I was expecting to see. Maybe I thought it would be a slight step ahead of the last time I saw them play (when they were 7, now they are 12). Maybe, I just pictured a cute game of basketball because dad’s think that way about their daughters. Regardless, I did not see what I was expecting to see.
I witnessed a game that was MUCH faster paced and more aggressive than I ever imagined! I was blown away. Because my girls had not played organized ball in several years, they were told to watch the first game and get a feel for the flow. I am glad he held them out of this game. They were simply not prepared. Neither was I!
After the game, we talked. They were frustrated with not being starters and not even getting to play. We discussed what they needed to do to catch up. They are so athletic and competitive that they can if they put their mind to it. Each of them can be an impact player!
Fortunately, we also have a friend that was a hometown hero and star on her high school girls basketball team. She still holds scoring records there after more than ten years! She has agreed to spend some time with my daughters, giving them some one-on-two coaching. She knows what to do and I believe they can do it. It will take work on their part, but I know they can pull it off.
So, what is the point to all of this? My point is that many of us go to work every day expecting to make a difference. If you are a regular reader of this blog, then I assume you also go to work hoping to impact people there for eternity. I will assume we all want to be an impact player that makes a difference in God’s Kingdom when we step into our everyday roles.
Let me ask you this…if that is the case, how are you doing at your preparation? What does your quiet time with God look like? How much time every day are you spending with your Lord to grow spiritually so you can fight the battle at the level it is being fought around you?
Would it have been reasonable for me or my daughters to have expected starting positions on the basketball team with little to no real preparation? Is it reasonable for you or me to expect different results in life?
How is it that so many people can go out on a day to day basis, expecting to change the world for Jesus, without spending significant time in Bible study, prayer, and one-on-one seeking of God’s will?
I guess it is understandable when we occasionally get off track and skip our quiet time or let it get stale. I know none of us are perfect.
What is not understandable is when we are shocked at the results we see! We are genuinely surprised when we trip and fall into temptation. We are stunned when things begin to unravel around us. We just don’t understand why the people we want so desperately to reach will not listen to what we have to say. Is this consistent with being an impact player?
How can this be?
In my next post, I will give you some suggestions on how to power up your ministry impact! In the meantime, I am going to leave you with these questions.
On a scale of 1-10, how would God rate your quiet time with Him? Consider quantity and quality!
If your score is less than you think He would like it to be, what are you going to do about it?
What is your very next step?
In my last post, I began to tell you about another crucial step in this journey – one that changed everything for me.
In my last post, I explained how, after 20 years as a Christian, I was convicted of not treating the Bible as God intended – as an instruction book for this life. This conviction had come through reading a book on a trip to Hawaii and left me eager to start studying my Bible.