Welcome to the April 30th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
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The Story of My Week
During the week, I faced a significant challenge at work.
Most of Wednesday was spent trying to break the “third wall” and come to a solution.
I was so much taken by it that I “thought myself to sleep”. Yes, I was thinking so much about the problem and slept off.
I woke up and I still didn’t have a solution.
And then I thought, “Why was I burning brain calories and getting no breakthrough?”
I sent messages to my spiritual director and an accountability friend about the situation, asking for their prayers.
Fortunately, I had a meeting that morning at 10 am about 2 minutes from my apartment.
Due to traffic, it was better to stay back at home instead of going to the office and heading back for the meeting.
I used the waiting time to pray.
As I prayed, God gave me a text of scripture that spurred inspiration for me. He also reminded me about a foundation scripture He had given me to live by.
I came out of prayer with an idea to pursue. More than that, God inspired someone else with an additional idea.
So, between the two ideas, we are closer to the finish line.
I got reminded.
God can inspire the solutions I need to lead with at work.
He is more concerned about my success than I could be.
Things I Learnt
1-The Job for All and the Job for Few: I was speaking with a much older Christian and our conversation went into faith & politics.
According to her, most Christians use the directive to pray for leaders in the scriptures as a cop-out excuse not to confront bad leadership.
I didn’t have an answer for her during the conversation but I knew there was something incomplete in what she had said.
After a bit of thinking, I came up with the right answer for it.
Speaking the truth to leadership is the job for a few.
Why?
Because God does not expect us to overwhelm leadership by all of us talking about what is wrong.
All you have to do is remind yourself about what the Israelites were accused of doing in the desert - they were complaining.
Most of what they talked about was correct - lack of water, limited food options and so on.
But it was not meant to be a conversation for everyone.
But you know even for the few that God has given the job to speak the truth to leadership, this is not meant to be their focus.
Think about King Ahab, he was one of the "baddest" kings of Israel. You'd expect that Elijah would have in on speed dial to tell him what he was doing badly.
But it wasn't so.
Elijah's rebuke to Ahab was far and few between.
But we all have the job of praying for leadership.
2-Courage to Ask: I was listening to a Q&A session where a couple of life coaches were taking questions on goals & decision-making.
A thought occurred to me.
It's easier to get help or get what I want if I dare to ask for it.
Asking for something is not as important as "knowing how to ask for it."
Everyone has a way they want to be spoken to, knowing it is a key skill to get the right response.
I am grateful to some of the people in my life that taught me how to ask.
This has helped me in life.
I hope you learn that skill too.
It will help you go further and faster.
Postscript
May fear not keep you from asking people for the help you need that they can give. Amen
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Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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