When I meet with people, I often ask them what are the highs and lows of some period in their lives – weekly, monthly, yearly. Awhile ago, I met with a sports minister and asked that question about the last couple of months.
The sports minister’s lows centered primarily on the busyness and pace of his ministry. After a while, I finally said to him, “Leaders bring direction and pace to the ministry. If the pace isn’t sustainable, that is your responsibility to address.”
We discussed the struggles he had with bringing such leadership – struggles we have discussed before. I asked him what he intended to do about this situation, and what his plan was.
“Try harder.”
This wasn’t exactly what he said, but it was the essence of what he said.
We discussed that this was the answer he had given in the past and the lack of results that solution had brought.
His focus was on behavioral change more than inner transformation, yet when we looked further, the issues going on in him were deep and difficult, ones that were much more at the heart level.
I asked him, “What would it look like to approach this struggle with a “Gospel Centered” perspective?”
This led to an excellent discussion about the need for such deep, inner transformation and the bold claim that only Jesus and the Gospel could bring about the change he needed.
As we talked about what that would look like, the essence of what we discussed was –
“Trust better.”
Now we said much more about digging into the feeling and beliefs beneath their behaviors, confessing the lies that drove those feelings and behaviors (processing this all with the Lord). We talked about turning to the truth (repentance) that God had put them in this leadership egardless of how inadequate they felt. We even looked at one verse to trust in better – 2Corinthians 3:5
,6″Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves but our adequacy is from God and he has made us adequate ministers of the New Covenant.”
“Trust better.” This is where our focus needs to be.
When we approach things from a Gospel Centered perspective we will focus more on trusting than trying – trusting in the amazing, life altering truths of the Gospel that renew our minds and bring about through the Spirit of God the promised transformation we all long for.
