Great leaders manage change well. Great pastors also manage change well. But it’s not easy. In research for my book, Brain-Savvy Leaders: the Science of Significant Ministry, I learned that brain insight can help us navigate change successfully. Consider these 4 ways to successfully navigate a change you’re facing.
Is it possible NOT to repeat defeat? Absolutely. Do you feel frustrated, defeated and like you want to give up? You haven’t made it even a month or two to achieve what you’ve set out to do. If you’ve accepted your responsibility and confessed sin, then the next and best thing to do is look up. Psalm 121:1, 2 says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”
“Oh, Christine! This isn’t how I imagined my retirement years would be. I was hoping to travel and enjoy my life, but all of that is gone.”
My dear friend was lamenting to me during a recent visit to her nursing care facility. She is two years younger than I am, and she relished reminding me of that fact every year as new birthdays arrived. But now her life was ebbing away because of a rare neurological disease.
Why is this happening to me? This is a question that we have all asked ourselves. You don’t understand why things keep happening that hold you back. You sit in a chair at home, in the office or perhaps church and think about the job or the promotion that you didn’t get. If you had only made a different decision. You should have taken that high visibility assignment when it was offered, but your plate was already full. At home things aren’t going well either. You relive the argument you had with your spouse or child. You wish you could take back the hurtful words.
Before I was born my father had worked as a long-haul truck driver on the U.S. east coast. After I came along, he took a position that kept him closer to home. My father and I had a great relationship. He was my go-to person for everything. I loved him with all my heart.
I don't know about you, but as I look back on my childhood and teenage years, I don’t remember life being so hectic. Both of my parents worked, yet I have many great memories of playing with them and spending afternoons with neighbors and friends.
Today life seems so rushed. So full of activities. So unsympathetic and almost merciless toward patience, waiting, rest and unannounced visits. Even those of us who follow Jesus often struggle with the “be still and know” aspect of our walk with Him. (Psalm 46:10)
Facebook reminded me of a memory from four years ago the other day. It was a drawing from my, then 8-year-old, grandson. The caption I put with it indicated that I had had many technical challenges that day that were apparently overheard by my grandson. He drew a great little person and then wrote, “I belive (believe) in you mimi you can do it !!!!!!”
I believed a lie for two decades. It was something I had been told as an 8-year-old ballet student. The other students made negative and demeaning comments about my appearance. “You are fat” which my mind translated into “You are not good enough.” It felt like a poison dart and it affected my self-perception. You might struggle with the same lie; or perhaps the lies you believe are different.
It’s January 1st and we’ve decided to go to the gym daily and to lose weight in the new year. We’re all geared up and ready to go! By February 15th at the latest, we are not going to the gym and losing weight will have to wait for another year.
Why is that?
We’re a high school senior and looking at college choices, degrees, lifetime decisions, etc. and we finally find the college/university of our dreams and then we put that life on hold and decide to go to work to save money.
Why is that?
“For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3, ESV).
Our hubris and inflated (or deflated) ego tend to blind us.
According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, inflated ego is the enemy of good leadership. And if you’ve ever interacted with someone who has an inflated ego—be it at work, home or in friendships—you know its destructive power.
