What am I not seeing here? Is there something I am doing wrong, or maybe something that I am not doing that I should be doing? Next month marks the 15th anniversary of our departure from Halifax. Fifteen years and this struggling little church plant is still just that – struggling! My brother and fellow planter is still forced to be bi-vocational, we laugh only half-heartedly now at my early promises of “two years at the most” before he would join me on staff full-time! Now my son has joined the team; doing a great job with the College and Careers, but what do I tell him? Hang in there? We’ll get there; it’s only a matter of time?
I don’t want to give the wrong impression here, to come across as whining or complaining, I still love this calling – can’t imagine anything that would even come close in the job satisfaction department – I just can’t understand why things remain as they do. Years as a disciple of John Maxwell have burned into my psyche the idea that “Everything rises and falls on leadership”, so here I am; asking the same questions – again!
Is it the weight thing? Is it my horrific administrational abilities, is it failure to delegate, is it organizational ineptitude or is it something as simple as my little suit and tie rebellion? Here is the one that really rattles me: - Am I like one of those first round American Idol contestants completely deluded in an incorrect belief regarding my own abilities?
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:12-13)
None of us is fully sanctified, we all have blind spots, and most of us do not handle criticism well – even when it is given lovingly with the purest of intentions. In spite of the fact that we can easily see what others are missing in their blind spots; we refuse to accept that someone else in the Body is better equipped than we are to see the things that we are missing.
I am certainly no exception to this rule… so here goes! If you are seeing something that I am not, if you are a member of DCC - or maybe even better - if you were but now are not. If you considered Dakota but decided against it; AND if the chief reason for your decision is something tucked away just out of my field of vision, hidden as it were in my blind spot, would you please let me know. You can comment on this post, or if you prefer a more private venue send me an e-mail or message on Facebook.
Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. (Proverbs 27:5-6)
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