Watching Out for “Hurry”
It’s rarely a crisis that pulls us away from our deepest intentions. More often, it’s the back-to-back demands of a full life that slowly crowd out the things we care about most. Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” (Colossians 3:23, NIV). The problem is that even when we want to work with all our heart for God, the demands of a full life have a way of quietly putting this desire aside. In other words, it’s easy to forget. Dallas Willard put his finger [...]
The Harvest You Can’t See Yet
There are seasons in life when nothing seems to be working. Efforts that should have produced fruit haven’t. Prayers prayed for years still haven’t been answered. People poured into have walked away. In those seasons, it’s easy to wonder whether any of it is making a difference. Paul, writing to the churches in Galatia, offers a different way to read that silence: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up,” (Galatians 6:9, NIV). Notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say the harvest [...]
The Real Bottom Line
Every leader I know tracks numbers. Revenue. Attendance. Headcount. Growth. There's nothing wrong with that. Data matters. But here's a question worth asking every day: What am I really optimizing for? It's easy, almost imperceptible, how the urgent crowds out the eternal. A full calendar. A tough quarter. A difficult personnel decision. Suddenly, the kingdom feels abstract, and the movement of business feels very real. But Jesus doesn't leave us guessing about priorities: "[S]eek first his kingdom and his righteousness…" Not second. Not when things settle down. First. A.W. Tozer put it plainly: "We are called to an everlasting [...]
