Thoughts On the Outward-Focused Life

Hello Readers of this blog!

As we come to the end of the year, I wonder if you have any ideas about topics you’d like me address in 2012. There are lots of directions I could go as we break into the new year, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. To make this an exciting blog I need to hear what God is doing in your life and where you are headed in the Kingdom.

Please respond below on this site or email me directly at SteveSjogren@mac.com.

Good things are on the way!

Thanks!

Steve

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.

How much practice does it take to become competent in your area of speciality? Beyond that, how much of a focus does it take to become an expert in your area specialization?

In his book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell makes a compelling case that history repeatedly shows that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for someone in any discipline to become an expert in their field of study. You can apply that truth to any discipline in life and you will come out an expert. Any area of study.

That’s an insight that I find encouraging and hopeful. It’s possible for us to move from average in an area of life where we feel called to excel – and to knuckle down, practice, focus, discipline ourselves – and to come out as dazzling experts in that field. Sure it’s difficult and costly. Not many are willing or perhaps even able to dedicate that many hours of disciplined practice to something, but if you do you will emerge as an amazing person others will seek out as an expert in your field.

What would your life look like if you spent 10,000 hours serving others? Split that up between cleaning toilets, cleaning windshields, giving away bottles of water, giving away bags of microwave popcorn, doing car washes, et al. (you get the idea)… If you did this for 40 hours a week in a systematic way that would be a several year trek – difficult to get there, but not impossible. You’d be the next Mother Teresa. Your inner compass would be permanently reset. I know I’d show up to hear you speak. I’d buy your book and so would plenty of others!

Want to be an influencer? Lots of people ask that question and they come up with almost as many answers. There is no end to the books that are written about how to direct people.

Do you ever grow weary of seeing leadership books galore? I do. For one, I think it’s because the very word isn’t entirely biblical. “Leader” is mentioned only 6 times in KJV of the Bible. “Servant” is mentioned over 900 times!

Do you want to make a long-term difference in the lives of many? Take Jesus as your model. Read the red letters of the Gospels. Do the red letters. Live as Jesus lived. Serve as Jesus served.

God-empowered leadership is one of the most powerful dynamics on earth. On the other hand, human-empowered leadership is stressful and manipulative.

“God strengthen us to serve in your power.”

It stands to reason that the younger we are – with the greatest number of years ahead of us and thus the most to lose – we would be wise to play it safe, to take fewer risks. But you didn’t do it that way and neither did I. It’s odd that the older we become the more conservative we grow. Sadly, human nature is to grow more controlling.

Usually the fewer years of life left in us the more we grip what remains. We cling to the little (as we perceive it) that remains, but there’s always more than we think! It’s better to go down fighting human nature by giving away – by radically investing in others while we have opportunity. Don’t forget what Jesus said – “Night is coming when no man can work.”