Category — Communication

A unique calling from God is upon your life.

It’s easy to think that only special people – those set apart – who are special or have an amazing connection with God. If that’s you, take heart. Most don’t have clarity about their assignment yet that calling is there just the same. God wants to speak clearly about your uniqueness.

He is able to most clearly speak when we stop trying so hard to hear from him. It’s about trying less. God speaks when we look beyond ourselves. Go serve someone and God will speak.

A few years ago I did an interview with the Wall Street Journal concerning originality in weekend messages. Several pastors were asked about their views pertaining to one-of-a-kind messages. Most of them said they thought it was okay to borrow insights from other’s messages. Rick Warren, who says, “If my bullet fits your gun, then shoot it,” also says modern day messages of pastors are the equivalent of yesteryear’s commentaries. I agree with Rick.

Over the years I have borrowed from others – and some have borrowed greatly from me – some have even published my stuff in their books (sometimes with permission, sometimes not). Consider a couple of thoughts.

No matter where you stand, don’t get too arrogant about your claim to originality. I’ve had people tell me they never lift other’s material – that they only share original information. I don’t believe them. The Bible says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” No matter what you say, you are pulling information from somewhere that has been stored in your memory banks from input you’ve received along your journey. Some are better at recalling pieces of input than others. That doesn’t mean they are more creative.

When you use other’s stuff, do so humbly and thankfully, not exhaustively. Your audience is usually bored with that. On Sunday mornings you are giving a helpful message, not a defense of a doctoral dissertation. If you share a lot of ideas, I don’t think it’s necessary to offer all of the sources of information you share in a message.

Robert Schuller once shared with me his policy for giving credit in messages. “The first time I use someone’s stuff I say, ‘Like so-and-so says and I name the person.’ The second time I say, ‘Like someone has said…’ The third time I say, ‘Like I’ve always said…’”

Creativity is a gift from God. As we call upon him his ideas will flow. Let’s move in it by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

I’ve come to believe that most success in life is about doing things that are distasteful – or at least a willingness to do the things others aren’t willing to put up with. That’s the key thought – to put up with it – it’s mostly about having patience for the long haul. Many can at least briefly do something that is difficult, but how many can hang in there for the intermediate or long haul doing what isn’t all that much fun…? I know I’ve gone through most of life not being able to endure at that level, but then God broke through and gave me a gift.

I’m coming up on the anniversary of my devastating medical accident – some of you are aware of that so I won’t explain that here (you can read about it in my book The Day I Died). Of all I have gained from that time of suffering what remains is the lesson of endurance. A lasting level of patience came to me when I was tied to a bed for an extended time during my recovery. At the time I thought something was taken from me. Now I realize I was getting in touch with the ability to move through life and do what is distasteful.

He’s in the business of giving gifts, though not in the way I received mine.

I was always told not to worry.

As a kid I was a natural worrier. When I couldn’t figure things I usually resorted to worrying.

Is there ever a good time to worry? Does worry accomplish anything good or worthwhile? It always has the promise something productive but it never produces good fruit. Abandon it! It is an utter waste of time. Instead, exert the faith God provides – a much stronger response to the unknown than the “w” word.

“To me faith means not worrying.” – John Dewey

We’ve heard it hundreds of times – Without a vision we perish… On the other hand, sometimes the problem isn’t an utter lack of vision – it’s unclear vision. In those times we can also perish. God calls us to persevere until we have gotten clarity.

Sometimes we rely on mere data to convey what we could call vision. That’s the shell of things – the tip of the iceberg. God is calling us deeper. Let’s capture mere information and live it out in profound ways. It’s then that lives will be empowered, real vision will be released and there’ll be no more perishing.