Pat Maulsen Isn't Good Enough

I'm sick.  I got up this morning for my 6am Hermeneutics class feeling like a legitimate zombie.  When I got home, I went straight to sleep and didn't move until about 3pm.  Now, here I sit surrounded by a mountain of used Kleenex with nothing better to do than update my blog.  

I was trying to think of what to write about.  What is going on in my life that could be blog worthy?...................

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I sat here for like 30 minutes before my brain thought of anything other than "man I wish I was asleep right now."

The truth is, there's nothing out of the ordinary going on right now.  My life consists of spending time with high school kids, doing my theology homework, and occasionally working at Woodward.

But I guess in a way that IS kind of note worthy...I work at a church right now!  What's up with that?  Ever since being hired on staff at Cornerstone it has seemed a bit surreal to me.  Why would anyone want me of all people working with high schoolers trying to bring the message of the gospel to people?

Every time I attend a staff meeting, I always feel really under qualified.  These guys have been walking faithfully with God for decades.  Even some of the other staff that are closer to my age feels way beyond where I'm at in terms of maturity and knowledge.  

Does the church even know what they're doing in hiring me??  Don't they know that in high school I got kicked out of a class for insulting my teacher one too many times?  Or that I made a fellow staffer's wife cry in high school because I called her the B-word?  I consistently feel like I know less, fail more, and am less effective and passionate than my co-workers.

But here's the crazy thing...God decided in his sovereignty that I would be on staff at his Church in Ames.  And that's all she wrote.  I don't know why.  I don't know for how long.  I don't know if I'll screw it up or not.  But what I do know is that when I read the Bible I see great heroes of faith who, when they were called initially by God, felt the same way.

Look at Moses- he had a million excuses why he wasn't good enough to go and be God's agent to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.  Or David- he was the youngest son of a sheepherder who knew nothing about how to lead a nation when God anointed him King over Israel.  Or what about John the Baptist?  He said that he wasn't even worthy to untie the sandals of Jesus and yet Jesus insisted that John baptize him.

Often times, many of us will be full of self doubt about whether we're "good enough."  Here's the honest to God truth:  NO ONE IS EVER GOOD ENOUGH!!  You.  Me.  Your Mom!  No person that has ever lived has attained the standard to which all men are called: perfection.  But God, for whatever reason, specifically chooses to work through the weaklings of the world- the ones who could do nothing by their own power.  He empowers them and uses them to demonstrate his own glory and ability to work out any weakness for good.

For me, I am encouraged by these passages: 

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12)

"If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him." (James 1:5)

The truly important thing is to remember that anything you do, you do not by your own power, but by the power of God.  This should greatly reassure us when we reflect that where we are in life is exactly where God wants us to be.  We may not know the how or the why but we can take solace in the fact that God knows and he desires our ultimate good.

Peace.

The Return of Pat Maulsen

So if you are one of my three official followers, or if you are one of the many who read my blog posts without subscribing (shame on you!) you will know that I took a bit of a blogging break this summer.  It wasn't really intentional...I just got lazy.  BUT!!  I have returned to the world of online rambling and intend to once again make it a part of my daily routine.

In the meantime, I shall satisfy your no doubt anxious minds with a few updates-after all, so much can happen in one summer.  This summer I:

-Took a family vacation to Colorado which included an all day white water rafting trip
-GRADUATED COLLEGE!! With a BA in Criminal Justice (about flippin' time)
-Officially commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Iowa National Guard
-Got hired as a youth ministries intern for my church's high school ministry (Escape22)

So within 3 month, I attained 3 jobs, one working as a Fire Support Officer for the Army, one working as a Teacher/Counselor/Mentor for troubled youth at a juvenile rehabilitation center, and one as a ministry leader in the church!  That's pretty cool.

God has been preparing me to enter the "real world" (even though I still live a block from the ISU campus).  So what have I learned this summer?  If anything, God has been teaching me about His sovereignty- the fact that He is the one that directs the course of my life, not me.

The point is driven home most excellently by James the half-brother of Jesus when he writes this to the church:
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."  As it is, you boast and brag.  All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16).

I find it interesting that right in verse 15 he tells us that we should say "If it is the Lord's will, we will live..."  Even our very existence, the very breath of our lungs, continues at the pleasure of an Almighty God.  When faced with such a truth, I think we have 2 main options:  (1) We can grow bitter that we are not ultimately in control.  Those who chose this option spend their lives raging against what they perceive to be an arbitrary God who can and will snuff them out of existence the moment we displease him.  They then choose to live life "their way", making vague references to a noble idea of forging their own destiny.  Or (2) we can grow better with the knowledge that we are not ultimately in control.  Those who choose this path are enabled to still their anxious minds, knowing that they rest safe and secure in the hand of an all-powerful, all-loving God.  Their lives then reflect it by living according to the will of Him who holds their destiny in his hand.

So friends, choose for yourself.  Will you grow bitter or better knowing that you are not in control of your life?  The cool thing is that God will prevail no matter which you choose and He can and will work out your bitterness for good if that is the path you choose.  But here's a little secret to help you choose: the only path which ends with your happiness intact and the maximum benefit for the others around you is number 2.

PEACE OUT GIRL SCOUT!!

Vices on Trial Part I: Pride

So this is something new that I've decided to try for a while- I want to do a series of topical posts rather than pick something at random to talk about every time.  In this way, I hope to bring a bit of focus to my own life as I try my best to research the topics before posting about them and hopefully it will result in you, the reader, getting more out of it.  So over the course of the next few weeks I will be posting about various sins or vices- particularly ones that I struggle with myself and examining 1) what they are and 2) best practices on fighting them.

So without further ado, the first topic to cover is the sin of Pride.  I decided to talk about it first because, as far as I have been able to discover, all of Christian teaching on the subject points to pride as being the greatest sin. This is hard for many people to imagine; no one is opposed to the idea of it being a bad thing, but the worst thing?  Surely murder, or rape- something more measurable- would be the greatest sin right?  And doesn't the Bible say something about the love of money being the root of all evil?  So wouldn't the title go to greed then?
(Well actually the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil- pretty big difference.)

Before I go into what pride is, I want to make a few points about what it is not to clear up any misunderstandings as you read.

1) Pride is not taking pleasure in being praised.  Being praised for doing something, or for possessing certain qualities is not sinful.  A woman praised by her husband for her beauty or a child being praised by his father for scoring a goal in soccer are not in any way in sin when they feel good about the praise they are receiving.  In fact, all Christians long to hear God say to them on the Final Day "well done, good and faithful servant."  The trick is that the pleasure you receive in the praise lies not in what you are, but with the fact that you have rightly pleased someone that you wanted to please.  When your focus ceases to be on the other person and begins to shift towards yourself, thinking "I deserve their praise" or "I'm so great to have done all these things", then you are being prideful.

2) Pride is not having admiration for something.  When your parents tell you that they are "proud of you" for some accomplishment, they are not sinning.  Nor is there anything wrong with taking pride in belonging to a certain school or team or what have you.  The apostle Paul (who wrote a great deal of the New Testament) says in his letter to the Corinthian church that he "takes great pride in [them]."  Pride rears its head when you stop being proud of the thing and start feeling superior to others because of your involvement in that thing.  If your father is a famous something-or-other and you go around feeling special and telling everyone you can all about how great your father is compared to theirs, then you have crossed into the sin of Pride.

Now, the reason why Pride is considered the Great Sin is because pride is what leads to every other sin.  It is, as C.S. Lewis notes, "the complete anti-God state of mind."  He goes on to explain very well the nature of pride:
"Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive- it is competitive by its very nature- while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident.  Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.  We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.  They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better looking than others.  If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good looking there would be nothing to be proud about.  It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest."


That, of course, explains why it is a complete anti-God state of mind.  God is, in every way imaginable, superior to you and I and to every man, woman, child, animal, or spirit that has ever existed.  And yet Pride wants only to be better than someone or something else.  Well, you can't do that with God- it's literally impossible.  In order to know God at all, you must first come to the realization that you are absolutely nothing by comparison.  That is why the proud can not know God.  In fact, Proverbs states: "The Lord detests all the proud of heart.  Be sure of this: they will not go unpunished." (Proverbs 16:5)

So, we have established that Pride is a bad thing.  But the thing about pride is, it can be immensely difficult to detect in yourself, let alone root out.  Because it is so deeply ingrained in our very natures, we sometimes do not even recognize right away that we are being prideful.  Here are a couple of tests that I have found helpful in determining pride in my own heart:

1)  First of all, if you don't think you're prideful, it means that you are very prideful.

2) Do you have a hard time accepting criticism?  No one enjoys honest feedback about our faults-it hurts.  But the difference between wisdom and pride is that wisdom honestly considers what is being said and doesn't get defensive.  Pride will immediately get defensive and try and make excuses, distract from the issue by pointing out someone else's deficiencies, or simply refuse to acknowledge that the other person has anything worthy to say.  Wise people actively seek honest feedback and assessment of their character on a regular basis (Proverbs 15:31, 10:17, 12:1) but proud people actively avoid it.  Maybe you are even reading this post with a critical attitude, saying to yourself something along the lines of: "I bet Matt does all of these things himself!  Who is he to tell me about my pride?" rather than honestly examining your own heart to determine if you are guilty or not (and here's a hint that may make it easier to swallow: every single one of us is guilty, including me.  Including you.).

3) Do you have a pattern of lying?  Maybe you don't tell really big lies, but you just tweak the facts a little bit to present yourself in a more favorable light.  Do you make up stories for why you were late to work, or why you can't go out with a friend, or why you got a bad grade in a class?  It's never your fault right?  When we lie to make other people think more highly of us, we can be sure that pride is at work in our hearts.  I admit that I do this one all the time.

4) Do you always have to add your two cents to a conversation?  Some people are just more talkative than others, but some people want to be heard so much that they always have to say something.  And why do they want to be heard?  So that other people can hear them of course (what good would it do for them to just talk to the air?).  They want everyone to know just how funny they can be, or just how knowledgeable they are, or just how many names they can drop in a single conversation.  It all comes back to looking good in other people's eyes comparatively speaking.

I think it's even possible to be proud in the way we go about dealing with pride.  I know for me at least, I often catch myself confessing to people "I know I have pride in my heart" as if the act of confession makes me somehow more humble than they are, thus really making me more proud in the end!  It's so easy to slip into pride and false humility!  How can we escape it?

I think that the best way...no, scratch that; the only way to combat pride is to do what I should be doing all the time anyway: focusing all my attention on Jesus.  If pride is elevation of the self, then I must put myself to death!  Once we have experienced the death of the natural sinful self and begin to let the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to give us new life, we will begin to be drawn into the life of Jesus.  Pastor Mark Driscoll says this about humility:
"Humility is a byproduct of focusing our attention on Jesus.  Then you grow in humility because, again- it's about knowing your place.  You get to know Jesus and you say 'yeah, I really don't have anything to brag about.  Jesus is my Lord and He is good to me and He saves me and salvation is a gift and I know my place; it's not seated on the throne, high and exalted.  My place is before the throne, face on the ground, saying thanks.'"


If pride is the anti-God state of mind, then humility is the "God-state of mind'' so to speak.  It all comes back to an acknowledgement of our own depravity and our helplessness to change by our own power.  When we forget about ourselves completely and focus everything on getting to know God and be more like Jesus, then we will be transformed into humble people- not by our own power, but by the power of God the Holy Spirit working through us.  And from that point, we may begin to interact properly with our fellow man, because knowing God means knowing and loving your fellow man, for He has commanded it.  But now we love with a more humble love that sincerely seeks to put other's interests before our own (Philippians 2: 3-11).  That's the power of God in us my friends!

One last thing to add.  If you ever need to confront someone on their pride, do not approach them with a prideful attitude yourself!  Pride is conflict by its very nature.  If you know a proud brother or sister and feel like you need to approach them about it, be humble yourself: admit right from the start that you yourself are proud too and offer to explore humility together with them.  For that is really my point in all of this:  you are proud.  I am proud.  We are all proud.  We all need the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus.  The End.

The Story of Pat Maulsen

Friday was my birthday!  I turned 22- a completely worthless age to turn.  I guess after 21 nothing special really happens except that you are just a year older.  I assume that once you hit 30, it goes from making you feel more mature to feeling more depressed that you're not in your 20s anymore.  At least I have 8 more years before the depression sets in!

I think at big events like your birthday, or new years, or whatever, it is natural to reflect on how things have been different since your last big shindig.  Or not...maybe I'm the only one that feels that way.  But regardless, I found myself in a spirit of reflection yesterday.  This was particularly enhanced by the fact that Anthem was also on my birthday.
*For anyone who doesn't know; Anthem is a once a semester worship event at my church that draws easily over 1000 worshipers (primarily college students) for a night of awesome (and mostly original) worship.

The theme of Anthem this year was "Pause".  The goal was for people to pause and think about their lives in the midst of a busy season and determine what they were really living for.  Since it coincided with my birthday, it was an excellent opportunity for me to pause and reflect on the past year and where God has taken me.  And more than simply the past year, it's a great chance for me to expound on the direction of my life.  I guess you can consider this my God Story post.

The Early Years

I was raised in a Bible believing, God fearing, church attending household with parents that did their best to teach me about God from a young age.  My mother would make me read my children's bible with her before bed many nights (back in the days when my bible had pictures!).  As a result, I grew up with a healthy helping of knowledge- I knew all the most popular bible stories (my favorite story was the classic David vs. Goliath) and I memorized scripture through my participation in AWANAS (wow that was a long time ago...).  Typical christian upbringing.  Of course, what I had attained in my head, I lacked in my heart; I didn't understand what it all meant and it did nothing to affect my behavior because ultimately, it meant nothing to me.  Even as a youngster, I tended to alienate myself from other kids.  I had one close friend throughout all grade school and middle school and avoided everyone else for the most part.

High School

I particularly disliked high school.  I moved to Muscatine Iowa one year prior to high school and didn't make any friends before my freshman year.  The next three years were mostly the same.  While I was friendly with many people, I was friends with virtually no one.  I particularly hated going to my church youth group: a lot of people from my high school attended but it felt more like a social function than a time of growth and fellowship.  I felt excluded at church functions where cliques would inevitably form.  This made me mad because I felt like church was the one place where I should be included and that wasn't happening.  I had a lot of anger boiling inside which manifested itself as disrespect for authority: my parents and I had a lot of arguments that got pretty heated, and I had a reputation among my peers for talking back to teachers at high school (you can read about one incident in one of my previous posts).  I was lonely, angry, and prideful.  I also wanted nothing to do with a church family who didn't rush to make me feel welcome (see aforementioned pride).  The bottom line was that I was living life in denial- I thought it was all about me.  I didn't drink, smoke, do drugs, or have sexual relations with anyone during high school and I thought this made me a decent dude.  Even though I mentally believed in a god, I didn't believe in capital G God in a way that made him more than a character in a really old book.

When God Slapped Me Upside My Face

Despite my attempts to avoid my youth group, my mom pestered the crap out of me to join a small group and to keep going, so I did just to make her leave me alone.  Joining Tom Allen's small group was a turning point for me.  Tom was a very godly man who took initiative to pour into my life- the first time someone other than my parents had tried to challenge me.  I also really liked the guys in my small group (two of them turned out to be my best friends today).  Tom convinced me to go on a summer retreat that our youth ministry did every year called Xcursion.  It was a week of games, waterboarding, bonding, and worship with peers from the high school ministry.  It was towards the end of the week- we had just heard a powerful presentation of the gospel and I was thinking hard about the direction of my life.  That night, all the guys decided to pitch their sleeping bags outside under the stars rather than stay in their tents.  I was sleeping next to a dude from my small group named Brance.  We were talking about random stuff for a while and then he drew my attention up to the sky.

"Dude...just think about the stars.  Just think: God personally made trillions of them and yet here on this little planet he also made you and me and he knows our names and cares enough about us to send Jesus to die!  That's pretty sweet!"

I couldn't help but agree.  I thought about that for a long time.  After everyone else had fallen asleep, I was still thinking about it.  I was also thinking about my empty life and how much I hated it- all my anger and pride had gotten me no where.  I couldn't stop the flood of tears.  I got on my knees right then and there and prayed to God that He would forgive my wickedness and lead me for the rest of my life.  That was undoubtedly the best decision I ever made.

College 

It would take way too long to tell of all the things that I've learned since college.  I originally attended Carthage College in Kenosha Wisconsin.  I hated it- mostly because of a lack of community.  I was still an immature Christian at that point.  I transferred to Iowa State the next year and loved it.  I got involved in The Salt Company and learned about how to really live for God.  I became a leader and was challenged to really develop my character.  I'd say that the biggest change that God has wrought has been to grant me a variety of relationships with people.  I didn't have many friends in high school and so when, three days ago- on my birthday, I paused to consider the crowd of legitimate brothers and sisters that had gathered in my apartment to celebrate me, I was overwhelmed.

The one thing that God has taught me about relationships in the past four years is that they are not meant for my happiness.

Relationships exist not to make us happy but to make us more holy.


I wish I had figured that out before this year- it would have saved me and a few others a lot of grief.  I love what God has done in my life.  And I love that He has chosen to use other people as the primary catalyst for change.  People that lead me.  People that follow me.  People that struggle along side me.  Even people that irritate me.  They all have served to make me more holy in one way or another.  I can only hope that in some way I have been able to help others towards holiness as well.

And that's my story.  I wish I could tell more of it.  If you're curious, just ask me and we can chat!  Take some time now, at the end of the year to reflect on what God has done in your life.

Pat Maulsen Stands at the Crossroads

I realized that I have been slacking hard!  This is only my second blog post this month, and April is half over already!  There are only three weeks left of my senior year of college!  After this, I will have one summer class to take and an internship requirement to fulfill and I will officially be a college grad!  I am SO ready for that.  Today was my first full day of work at my new job that I landed recently!  I will be working at Woodward Academy (a juvenile rehabilitation facility) for at least the rest of the summer and most likely for at least the next year.  I feel like my life is slowly but surely coming together (at least for the short term) which is awesome because a major source of stress up to this point in my life was wondering exactly what I was going to be doing after I graduate.

 I have been really encouraged by the fact that things seem to be finally falling into place.  I mean, sure- I'm still single, poor, and have no plan for my life beyond the next year (assuming that the world doesn't end this year) but things could be worse.  I think that it is precisely at times like this that I have to be the most careful to guard myself from falling into bad habits and old sins.

I notice that it tends to be during periods of life where things seem to be going OK that I forget to focus fully on God and to be continually thankful for the good things that have been coming my way.  Case in point:  the other night, right after salt, I said somethings in an off hand way to one of my friends that really offended her and caused unneeded pain.  It came out of no where- I was simply too comfortable with myself and too confident in my ability to avoid sin.  I was viewing life like some sort of video game where I had achieved the next level and now had nothing to worry about from the "lower level" monsters that I fight against.  But the reality is that at any given moment, even when you or I are feeling at our most holy, that we are a mere hairsbreadth away from disaster!

The apostle Peter warns us of this in his letter to the church: "Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
  In other words, as long as we live in this broken world, we will be under the constant threat and lure of the Enemy to walk in a path that will make us ineffective as Christ followers.  On the one hand, we can take comfort in the fact that making us ineffective is ALL he can do; that is, he no longer holds any power over the souls or ultimate destiny of any who follow Jesus.  But on the other hand, it would be a great tragedy if we allowed the fact that we are relatively safe to dictate the intensity of our fight against stagnation and ineffectiveness.

It is really easy to get into a rhythm and get comfortable with where we are.  It is easy to overlook the little details- but it is the little details that sometimes matter the most in the end.  C.S. Lewis said it like this:
"Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions that you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.  The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.  An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line from which the enemy may launch an otherwise impossible attack."


There is a great passage from Jeremiah that I have been meditating on for the past week:
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." (Jeremiah 6:16)

God is calling to each of us.  He has shown us through His word what the good way is.  Each day, we come to and stand at many crossroads; to one side is the way to God and life, on the other lies death and destruction.  This may be as small as the decision to go to class instead of sleep, or be responsible with your money and not go out to eat for dinner.  It may be something more significant like holding your tongue when you have the option to say something that will wound someone else, or choosing not to look at porn when you are alone in your apartment.

 God stands at the end of the Good Way and calls with a fierce longing for his children to turn back from the wrong turn they have taken at the Crossroads, repent, and run to Him so that he can lavish his love on us.  The promise we have for such obedience is astounding in its simplicity and its scope:

We will find rest for our souls

Meditations on Leadership

I'm one month away from the end of my last spring semester of school ever!  I have a job lined up for the summer (and possibly beyond) and I am fighting hard against senioritis.  One thing that has helped me through the monotony of my life at this point is the fact that two of my roommates (Kyle and Justin) are applying for Salt Company Leadership next year!  I have been hoping that they would for some time now, and have been actively encouraging it, which is why I am so pumped that they actually have gone through with it and taken that next step in their growth.

Thinking so much about having other people step up to the plate and take on the mantle of leadership has made me pause a little bit and give thought to why I am in leadership myself.  I love being a Salt leader- it's been one of the best experiences of my life to be responsible for the spiritual well being of a group of like-minded men who desire to seek God together.  It isn't just leadership in the spiritual realm- I've been training to be an Army officer for the past four years as well.  It is lucky for me that the two tend to overlap in their principals of leadership (they just take on different external forms).

So why leadership at all?  Why not be content to just stay a follower?  And what constitutes a good leader anyway?  Well, I don't know that I exactly qualify as a "good leader" so I'm not sure that I'm fully qualified to answer these questions, but I will simply try and speak from my own experience (because, hey- aren't leaders supposed to take the initiative in uncertain situations?).
* A quick note: I am going to speak mainly to my leadership experience in the Salt Company, but I think that you can take what I am saying and apply it broadly to any situation where leadership is required.....so pretty much anywhere.

So why be a leader?  There are over 850 regular attendees at the Salt Company every week and somewhere around 200 of them are student leaders.  Why take the step forward to be a leader among your peers when there are clearly plenty of others who are willing to do it.  So many aspiring leaders are held back by a voice that says something along the lines of "you aren't good enough."  In Salt, a common excuse is "I don't have a lot of Bible knowledge."  I would submit to you that stepping into that leadership role will confer upon you that which you seek.  This isn't to say that you magically know the bible better when you become a leader, but rather to say that when you are a leader you will be put into situations that require you to study your bible more- thereby gaining the knowledge you once lacked.  If you're not good at relating to people, putting yourself into a situation where you HAVE to relate to people will quickly teach you those skills.

 Leadership is as much about your growth as it is the growth of the people under your charge.  The difference is that you are growing so that you can help others grow more, not so that you can become a super stud that everyone admires.  That, I think, is critical to understanding good leadership.  Good leaders are in charge, BUT they serve those they lead.  If you are a good leader, you should never be considering your own growth, well-being, or comfort, but rather the growth, well-being, and comfort of those you lead.  When you do that, you will find that you grow yourself as a result.

Ultimately, the truth is that  everyone engages in leadership on some level.  At home, in class, at work, in church, etc.  Someone is always watching and learning from your actions and that makes you a leader.  The question is: will you, knowing that people are watching, step into the role and be a leader that others watch and learn to be more like, or will you be a negative example for what you stand for?

I will readily admit this:  I am a much better leader in Salt and personal areas of my life than I am in ROTC.  The reason is this: for so long, I compartmentalized my life and said: "here's something I enjoy (salt) and here's something I generally dislike (ROTC) so I will put all my effort into that which gives me the most enjoyment."  This makes me a bad leader.  Let me explain.  Leadership is NOT about a title.  It is molding yourself to a certain set of standards and ideals and then taking others along with you.  This means that leadership should permeate EVERY aspect of your life- not just the ones that give you the most enjoyment.

This is particularly true for Christians.  As I have said in earlier posts, all of life is spiritual.  The way we work at any given task reflects on the character of Jesus.  Therefore, when we fail to give our all at something (even if it seems to us at the time menial and un-enjoyable) we reflect a poor image of Christ.  That is what I do many times in ROTC unfortunately.

Another trait of a leader is that they are the first to recognize and admit their flaws.  For me, this post is an effort to take my own advice.  All leaders have areas that they struggle in and some that they excel in.  The trick is to turn the weaknesses into strengths and to allow what is already strong to be multiplied.

While there are literally hundreds of things that could be talked about with regards to leadership, there is one that is the most important that I still have not touched on.  For Christians to be good leaders in anything, they must first learn to submit themselves to Jesus.  You cannot be a leader if you are not also a follower.  This means that leaders should constantly strive to seek advice from those who have been there and done that- who have a real heart for Jesus and who are in tune with his will.  If we do not submit to Jesus (and, by extension, the godly leadership that he has placed in our lives) we will find ourselves leading others down a path that ultimately leads to destruction- for both you and your followers.  That would undoubtedly make you a bad leader...

So, in summary:  Leaders should be the first to admit where they are and the first to do something about it, be constantly seeking wisdom and council from other leaders, and place the interests of others over their own interests.  These three things, while by no means all-inclusive, are a great starting point for leaders.  I hope by God's grace to continue to grow myself (I know I certainly have a long....LONG way to go).  I hope that you may have found this useful for your own life.  If you didn't............sorry; maybe you'll like some of my other posts more?

Oh, and Happy Easter!!

Pride and Projection

This whole week, I have been musing over a question (big surprise): If Jesus were here on Earth today, would he want to come hang out with me?  Kind of a random question but it has really been bothering me all week.  I was having difficulty wrapping my head around the concept of God's love for me.  I know that He loves us- so much that he gave his life for us, in fact.  But the thing is, He didn't necessarily die for ME, He died for all of humanity.  Now, I am obviously included in this, but my heart and mind were darkened by the question: was the sacrifice of Jesus merely a professional courtesy so that he can save everyone, and then pay special attention to certain people that he happens to enjoy more than others?  It sounds so bizarre that I feel dumb writing it out here, but dumb or not, that's what was going on in my heart all week.

I envisioned it going something like this:

Jesus:  Whew!  Glad that's over!  You doing ok there Matt?  The process of salvation is pretty cool huh?

Me:  Yeah, no kidding!  Thanks for saving me and junk.  You wanna go grab some Taco Bell?

Jesus:  Ohhh shoot man, I would but um.....I totally promised Moses I'd help him put some new rims on his chariot today.

Me:  Oh ok....well, uhh you maybe want to do something after that?

Jesus:  Look bro, there's billions of souls that all want to hang with me.  I gave you my Spirit, isn't that good enough?  I mean I'm living inside you all the time... I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything but Joe Schmoe over there is really doing some sweet stuff in my name.  What have you done lately that you just can't wait any longer?  Quite frankly, I just find it more refreshing to hang out with Joe...he's not so needy you know?  Now run along and shoot me a prayer later if something sweet comes up.

Me:  Yeah ok...well...see you around I guess...


I KNOW!!  It's a majorly flawed representation.  Don't sue me.  I hammed it up a bit too for comedic effect, but in a less extreme way, I was actually envisioning something along those lines.

It seems silly, but I think that many of us, whether new or old Christians can have a flawed perception of God and who he really is.  Some people see God as an Angry Judging God who sits on the legal bench watching surveillance footage of us messing up just waiting to throw a lightning bolt at us at the first sign of weakness.
Others may see God as a Peaceful Old Grandpa God who sits in his heavenly rocking chair and beacons us to come sit on his lap and tell us all about how hard our life is so that he can kiss our boo-boos and make us feel good about ourselves.
Or you can be like me and envision a Disinterested Bro God who, even though at the end of the day he cares about you, would rather hang out with someone cooler than you and doesn't really want to hear about your day.

Or it could be something else altogether.  What, exactly, your picture of God is isn't the point.  The point is that, at some point along the way, we project ourselves onto God and turn Him, in our mind's eye, into something less than He really is.  How arrogant and proud!

Lately, I've been struggling with how to love individuals that I am less than fond of.  I think I took that struggle in my soul and projected it onto my image of God.  As if God's love can be limited in some way.  And the real tragedy about it is that I turned God into a Prideful God.  But pride, is intrinsically opposed to the very nature of God.  For the very nature of God is love, and love is the opposite of pride.  (It is appropriate to note, at this point, that God can, should, and does value Himself above all else- but this is not what we call the sin of Pride.  It is because he values Himself above us that he can have love for us- because his love for us enables us to know him and bring Him the Glory due his name).

And now we have come full circle!  What began as a thought exercise examining the nature of God on a philosophical level has led us to examine our own hearts and realize how sinful they are if left to their own devices.  And isn't that just what we should expect?  I have talked in previous posts about how God calls us to perfection.  A lot of people (again projecting themselves on God rather than allowing Him to project Himself on them) think that this means "Unless you are perfect, I will not help you."  What He really meant, I think, is more to the effect of "the only help I will give is help to become perfect."

In case you can't tell from my previous posts, I'm a C.S. Lewis fanatic.  Again, Mr. Lewis has the perfect words to say here:
"Dozens of people go to [God] to be cured of some particular sin which they are ashamed of (like masturbation or cowardice) or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like a bad temper or drunkenness).  Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there.  That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment."

Like a father looking on at his baby's first steps, he is pleased with us.  But no father would be satisfied if the same child, when he was 20 years old, was still crawling everywhere instead of walking upright like a man.  Hence, He will always bring us to a place where he hears our questions and answers them with a question of his own that exposes our hearts and helps us on the path towards the perfection that he has planned for us so that one day we will stand before him and hear "well done good and faithful servant."

For me, I know there is much pride in my heart that I need to repent of and replace with humility and compassion for others.  Whatever it is for you, my reader, know that you are not alone; until the last day we will struggle side by side.  And God is not disinterested- he is supremely interested and he will not stop until you become the kind of creature that can obey the command "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

"The Lord your God is with you.  He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)