Welcome to the August 27th 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
I am happy to be in the Church life that I am in for this season of life.
Why?
Because of my pastor.
My current pastor is an older man with wisdom from experience & spiritual depth.
His focus on the deeper things of God driven by a pursuit of intimacy with God and a healthier inner life is something uncommon nowadays.
During today's sermon, he spoke about 1 Samuel 16:14 "The Lord's spirit left Saul, and an evil spirit sent by the Lord tormented him." in a way that shows a greater grasp of the supremacy of God over all His creation than most pastors.
It was clear this was one person who was not going to ignore the difficult parts of the Bible or give a soft cover to make people feel good about it.
And he is very clear about what his capabilities are.
About 20 years ago, after serving as a missionary in Guinea, following a leading from God, he returned to Canada.
Interestingly, he didn't get the sort of pastorate jobs he wanted. One of the ones he got was to lead a congregation of about 1,500 persons. In his words, "I didn't have the capability to lead a congregation of that size."
Another man would have jumped at the opportunity.
Here was a man who knew when temptations were disguised as opportunities.
And to say "No".
I am glad to learning under him.
Things I Learnt
1- Take the "IN" you get to Establish Yourself: I was speaking with a business coach and consultant who works from Western Europe. We had a great conversation as we went into the origins of how she got into business coaching and consulting.
According to her, she had been employed to help with the English communication of a senior executive in a major company based out of a non-English speaking country.
He had presentations to make in English which dealt with strategy and business plans. He would meet with her to review his talking points to be sure he was saying what he wanted to say.
After a while, she asked him if it was okay for her to give her input on some of the strategies & plans he was proposing. He obliged and he found her insights valuable.
This changed the game. He would regularly meet with her to discuss strategy & plans to the point that he said "We need to make this official."
Eventually, she ended up doing this with most of the senior executives in the company and the CEO.
What started as an English language aid evolved into business coaching and consulting.
A simple evolution because she agreed to walk through the "small door" that was opened for her in the company.
Lesson learnt.
Take the little "IN" I get to establish myself.
2- When God Gives Direction: God is committed to protecting His interest in every one of us.
Because of that, He may give directions that seem odd.
I've got one of those at the moment in the business I am leading.
I have a weird directive that I am following. It's weird because I am not following my usual strategy of creating multiple options for myself.
I am following just one option. It hasn't yielded the sort of results I want so far.
And this is a motivation for me to want to have alternative options.
But I am sticking to the one option that God is keeping my hand on the trigger.
Challenging to do so but trusting to do it.
Postscript
May you have the trust in God to commit to the unusual options He asks you to follow in your life. 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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