Dare Great Things For Christ

Let’s face it, trying to accomplish things can be exhausting.  Acting upon decisions that we’ve made means spending valuable resource, our time and our energy in pursuit of them.  At first this experience can be euphoric, but soon it can turn into burn out.  We who are in leadership have engaged in lives that are dedicated to this type of action.  What are we supposed to do when we feel burn out?  What did St. Paul do to counter his exhaustion?  In this next class we will try and find out.

One thing is for sure: to do anything, you have to start doing it.  A lot of people have ideas, ideas that can even change the world, but if they don’t start and actually make things happen nothing will ever get done.  The same held true for the lives of the saints like St. Paul.  He too had to face many obstacles, and he lived in constant uncertainty, and yet he started things anyway.  Starting is an art and a science, and I hope St. Paul’s example can inspire you today.

If there’s one thing anybody in charge of anything has in common with each other it’s that leaders of any kind need to know where they’re going.  So what do we do when we don’t know where we are going?  The situation can even be harder for Christian leaders who are trying to become instruments of God.  How do we do something that is entirely beyond our power?  St. Paul gives an example of how to walk in the fog.  His life was full of unknowing and yet he moved forward bravely and God used him as he went.

Vision is certainly one of the greatest challenges to leadership.  In many ways leaders are called to stare into the void where nothing seems possible and find a path forward.  Already this is a terrific blessing for our world, because it allows for innovation and success.  But God wants to do something even more with vision.  He wants His leaders to accomplish His will and to work His plan.  St. Paul teaches us just how to cooperate with God to make this happen.

Christian leadership like anything else is an art and a science.  Of course, there are many things we can do to increase our influence and to use it at the service of God.  But foundationally there is something out of control in Christian leadership.  Namely, the fact that God will use us as He desires.  This requires that we learn a secret, the secret St. Paul knew so well and that he tells us about in 2 Corinthians 12.  I’d like to help you learn that secret today.