With You I Am Well Pleased

What are you motivated by? A lot of us are motivated by praise. We want to know that we’ll be appreciated and that our diligent work will be acknowledged. In general, people like to be thanked and honored. Whether you are a leader, a co-worker, a parent, a friend – we’ve learned that people get braver when when love gets expressed.

Jesus was no exception. In reading the gospel according to Mark, we find in the beginning a brief account of Jesus being baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. It was a significant act that honored John and fulfilled the work he came to do: “prepare the way for the Lord.” God honored them both as John raised Jesus up out of the water by speaking over them saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Who are people that you need to speak into today? Who needs encouragement in your home? Who should be honored at work? Who of your friends do you need to affirm and appreciate? This is more than just being nice. This is the kind of stuff that sustains life and gets us through the tough times.

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The very next story in the gospel of Mark has the Spirit of God sending Jesus out into the wilderness. The same Spirit that descended upon Jesus at the baptism, bringing with it words of love and affirmation was the same Spirit that sent Jesus out among the wild animals and the satan to be tested and tempted for forty days.

The Father knew that his Son needed to be strengthened with encouraging words because a very difficult test was coming. John also will soon face a terrible test. While Jesus was out in the depths of the wilderness, I imagine the words of his Father echoed deep in his heart: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

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Most people are under-encouraged. And most people are going through a tougher time than you imagine. So take time to notice. Make space to be present and pay attention. Don’t just throw out empty platitudes. Give a gift of speaking into someone’s life, noticing them and giving honor and kindness. Words can heal, embolden, and sustain.

It may be that the tough times people are going through are designed by God as part of their mission in life; it could be the tough times are just because life is rough; and sometimes tough times come from our folly and sins. But all of it can be used by God for good, if we let him. And sometimes that gets spurred by our diligent work of speaking words of kindness and hope into the those around us enduring tough times.

A lot of life is preparation for what is next. And a lot of times what is next is going to be hard – especially if you are a leader, and are one who is being sent to bring healing and reconciliation to our world through Jesus. So as followers of Jesus, we know that tough times are ahead, testing is part of our path, we must endure temptation – but it’s for a purpose.

In the midst of your wilderness, remember these words of honor and love from your Father in heaven: “You are my Daughter, You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Now go, and do likewise.

Prepare The Way

Everything is preparation. 

But for what? 

Everything is preparation for the future. Everything is seemingly meaningless if there isn’t a future hope you are keeping your eyes on. A future hope helps put the past – the pains, the failures, the disappointments – in perspective.

But even a future hope is kind of vague. For Christians, that future has a name, the future is grounded in a person, that future is becoming present through the presence and work of Christ Jesus. 

So for Christians, we can believe that everything that happens to us now is preparation for the future – maybe for tomorrow, maybe for next year, maybe for something Christ is working on in three decades that he needs us to do.

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We get this kind of perspective in the opening lines of the Gospel According to Mark:

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” –

” …a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'”

John the Baptist was born before Jesus in order to be the messenger who went ahead of his cousin to announce the good news of his arrival as the anointed deliverer of Israel and their long awaited King. John is the one appointed to prepare the way for Jesus. For thirty years John lived with this mission, knowing that someday his moment would come. As a young man he sojourned into the wilderness as part of his preparation. It was there that he began his ministry.

What about you? What are your future hopes? What are the tough things you are going through now that could be prepration for something in the future?

More importantly: what might God be wanting to send you to do as a way to prepare others for the arrival of Christ Jesus in their life? How might what you are going through now be preperation for that future work of Jesus becoming real to someone important in your life? 

It’s important to know that John didn’t know how everything is going to play out. Jesus had to give repeated instructions to John about what was going on, what was going to happen, and why. John had his doubts, and so do we – especially when times get really difficult.

The medium is the message. 

It wasn’t just the words that John was preaching about repentance for the forgiveness of sins, it was John’s life, him as a person embodying this message that added power to his words.

Repentance is about change, about returning, about new possibilities.

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John was in the wilderness re-enacting the story of Moses, preparing the people of Israel to re-enter the Promised Land as a cleansed, made-holy, recommited kind of people of God. Everybody came to see John to be baptized – they were so sick and tired of the corruption and evil – they wanted to see a change, they wanted to see God rule the land again – and that starts with a people being changed by letting God be king of their hearts, mind, body and soul.

You embody a message. You are a message. You are a message of hope (or despair), of repentance and forgiveness (or embittering grudges), of restoration and reconciliation (or envy and hate).

God sent John ahead of Jesus into Israel to prepare the people for the Christ (anointed one) to deliver them from their sins and sow seeds of shalom (peace). John preached a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and renewal of allegiance to God.

God is wanting to send you ahead of Jesus into the world to embody the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When you repent of your sins, when you receive and extend forgiveness, when you sow seeds of peace and reconciliation, you are not only preparing people for the presence of Christ, you are embodying and extending the presence and work of Christ himself.

John begain his ministry on his own, but eventually formed a community from which he continued his ministry of preaching and baptising, of teaching the people how to repent, forgive, and start their lives over again in God. The same goes for us: whatever God calls us to do, wherever and to whomever he wants to send us, it will need to be in community. The gospel is embodied best by community. cropped-Community-Service-YUSA-Pic.jpg

How might your perspective change on your present pain in light of the preparation God might be bringing you through in order to extend the healing and reconciling work of Christ to others in the future?

Who has God laid on your heart? What if some of the tough things you are going through now are preparation for what Christ wants to do through you for them?

If the medium is the message – and everything is prepration for embodying the message of the gospel – what kind of work do you know God needs to do in you now so that others can more clearly hear the good news of Christ through your words and works?

Everyone Wins When A Leader Gets Better

This core conviction is at the heart of the Global Leadership Summit, produced annually by the Willow Creek Association, which is led by Rev. Bill Hybels.

My big takeaway of the day:  build character in others and INCREASE YOUR PAIN THRESHOLD!

Fort Wayne is one of many satellite locations for this event which is hosted on the campus of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, and then broadcast live to cities around the world. About 300,000 leaders attend the event, with over 3,000 in Fort Wayne (making it the largest satelite venue in the world).

A big plus of this big event is seeing so many friends, reconnecting, networking, and sharing insights gleaned from the two day conference. I’m thankful to the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne for sending 20 of us to participate in the Summit.

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Here’s a few takeaways I had from the Thursday sessions:

  • The highest virtue in leadership is humility. It’s the willingness to learn from anybody in any situation, it’s about mutual respect, and honoring what we hold in common.
  • Humility is not about low self-confidence, or thinking less of yourself or discounting your passions or talents – humility is more about putting the Golden Rule into practice, from a servant’s heart. Like Jesus Christ.
  •  Leaders are better when they help those they lead become better leaders. This happens best when the focus turns from I to We, and from Me to Service. (Alan Mulally, CEO Boeing & Ford)
  • “People want to lift up their own lives.” Melinda Gates was the most inspiring leader who opened up about their work and life (Mulally was a close second). Leading and serving must be infused with dignity for the humanity of one another. All lives have equal value.
  • The work and spiritual practices Gates pours herself into are shaped by early influences in Catholic Social Justice, primarily in her gradeschool education. She submits her brilliant intellect and ambitious spirit to the Lord through daily practices of solitude, spiritual direction, and dwelling on the Word. The same practices of being present, attentive, and open to the Lord are what she does with the poorest in the world, and the richest. And this caring spirit is a beautiful example of leadership that serves.
  • Enlarge Your Vision / Empower Your People / Embrace Risk (Jossy Chacko, a church-planter Asia/India, with a goal to see 100,000 communities transformed).
  • We respond emotinally to our experiences before we can think about our experiences. Everyone is emotional, and everyone analyzes. But if we ignore or discount our emotions, we’ll distort our reflection about it.
  • Three Virtues of an Ideal Team Player: Humility, Hungry, EQ Smart

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