As I’ve taken time to assess the purpose, priority, and effectiveness of the growing mountain of activities I’ve allowed to creep into my life, including this blog, I’ve realized that I’ve wandered from the above principle. And, as a result, diminished the potential for any kind of worthwhile impact to you…the reader.

Here’s the reality…no blog, (not even one by a person as blatantly “full of it” as me…ha), can be about everything and be genuinely impacting. With this in mind, I’m going to limit my writing to those things that are on point with my God-given purpose, passions, and experiences in life and leadership.

In recent years, I’ve begun stating my purpose and passion as represented by one word…”CHANGE”! (This was the topic of my book, “Change Your Church for Good”; and it’s also the point of my regular column in Outreach Magazine called “Leading Change”).

However, for greater clarity, I’ve spelled out the four areas of change that I believe God has called me to, I’m passionate about, and, at least in my mind, are clearly interconnected to one another. They are: life change, leader change, church change, and culture change.

From now on you can expect this blog to focus on these areas. If they interest you, it’s my prayer that you’ll take the journey with me, personally benefit from it, and share it with others.

Have you noticed the change in the past month? What are your thoughts?

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This is all about the great exodus of God’s people from Egypt. In Exodus 14, we discover that God specifically led His people into an impossible circumstance. From a human standpoint, it was the worst leadership possible. He, through Moses, led them to a place of certain disaster…destruction. And, the people responded appropriately to this sorry leadership. They dogged Moses and God. Though it was a bit late, they wanted different leadership. They wanted out.

There’s only one problem with their response. It forgot to take into account that God ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING AND CAN ALWAYS BE TRUSTED. As the Psalm above notes, God led them there because He had designed a pathway that was invisible to His people…but real none-the-less. It was the perfect pathway.

And, as you can read in Exodus 14, Moses, though He couldn’t see the pathway, knew and trusted God. In verse 13, He says to the complaining crowd…don’t be afraid…watch our God, the God of the impossible and invisible, do His AMAZING WORK. And, God opened up the invisible pathway by parting the Red Sea.

What a God! Yes. But, think of Moses. Because He genuinely knew God, He trusted, even when He couldn’t see the pathway, that God knew what He was doing. And, the result? He made a profound difference. He lived a life of significance. He was a leader worthy of following.

As for me…though I’m a great distance behind Moses…I want to be like Him. I want to know God so well that I am willing to follow Him into the impossible…I am willing to step off an obvious cliff when I know He’s leading…because I know that He sees the INVISIBLE PATHWAY that I don’t see. I want to make a difference, live a life of significance, and be a leader worth following. But, to do it…I have to trust God enough to walk the invisible pathway.

Come on…let’s follow God into the impossible and then through the Red Sea together. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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For me, the saying would be far more valuable if it were cut in half.  ”Work smart.” Now, we have solid and more complete counsel. “Work” suggests the need for some discipline…some sweat equity…giving our all. “Smart” suggests the need to invest your labor in a way, place, and area where it has a chance…a greater probability to succeed.

Here’s my point, (finally, 3 paragraphs in), if we’re going to experience genuine success in our spiritual lives, (the most important and valuable area of our lives), we have to “work smart.” As with all of us, I experience a lot of seasons where, though working really hard at it, I’m sliding backward spiritually. In my devotional time with God this morning, I found a passage that highlighted the problem for me.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green…,” Psalm 92:12-14.
Think about it. No matter how hard I work to flourish spiritually, if I plant myself in a spiritual wasteland…a place where God, His truth, and His people are not being experienced or expressed, I will fail. Where as, if I plant myself in a spiritually fertile place…(represented by the “house of the Lord” in the passage above), I will flourish when I invest myself in knowing, loving, obeying, and serving God
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So, for me, working hard at my spiritual life isn’t the whole issue. I need to make sure that I’m “working smart.”
How about you?

PS If you want to take this idea further, contrast Abraham with Lot. Where they planted themselves made a huge difference.

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First, the better books and/or reading experiences weren’t always the most impacting. In fact, this is often true. Many of the books that I enjoy the most are far from the most impacting or memorable.  Of course, reasons abound. (e.g. I enjoyed them because they simply restated what I already felt or believed; they were simply fun or entertaining; they were well written but not necessarily thought-provoking for me; etc.)

Second, some of the more thought-provoking and memorable books are the ones that I disagreed with most profoundly. This only makes sense. My disagreement forced me to interact with them in a far more purposeful, and personal way. (I think that I some times write more notes on a page than the author.) I also tend to read and reread portions of these books. A good example of this in 2011 was Rob Bell’s “Love Wins.”

Third, I find that the reading experiences I have makes me better whether I ultimately remember or am in some way directly impacted by the specific book or not.

Fourth, I have a growing disdain for books that, like many movies, are simple repeats of the same old, (dare I use the word one of my English teachers taught me to never use?), thing. I really have grown tired of superficial drivel. After all, Christians are in relationship with the Creator. Shouldn’t we be the most creative, inspiring, thought-provoking people in the world? (If the answer isn’t obvious to you, then you’ll probably take issue with my view of so many of the popular Christian books these days.)

Fifth, this is not my exhaustive reading list from this past year.
Books of note and why…
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield – This was my second go around with this book. As a person who is constantly seeking to communicate the most important truth of the universe, God’s truth, in creative and impacting ways, I found this book to be sensationally motivating. Steven Pressfield gets the struggle of constantly creating…thus the title. Warning…he is not a believer and all of his ideas are not representative of or in line with God’s truth. But, as one human committed to writing or communicating with excellence to another, he has written a valuable little book.

Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola – Though I have to confess that I’m not a real fan of the style or typical thrust of Sweet’s writings and that this book is far from the best or most consistently written, it impacted me. To be honest…one simple but profound thought in particular impacted me. “What is Christianity? It is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less.” YES! Sadly, I (we) so often make Christianity about all of the little stuff we’ve added to it or personally value about delivering it to the world rather than about Christ Himself. This challenged me, and I’m thankful that they wrote it.

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard – I had to work hard to get through this book…again. (I think I’ve read it before…either that or I’ve started reading it so many times that I just believe I have.) So many of the concepts Dr Willard addressed in this book impacted me…really made me think again about my view of, value for, and personal application of God’s Kingdom in my life. Dallas Willard makes me wish I was smarter than I am, and, even more, makes me want to live, experience, and represent the Kingdom of God more and more and better and better.

King’s Cross by Timothy Keller – a simpler, more accessible book about God’s Kingdom than Willard’s “Divine Conspiracy.” It’s actually written from talks he gave from the Gospel of Mark. But, it was an engaging and impacting read. I really appreciate Keller’s ministry and have found personal value from experiencing it through his writing.

John Adams by David McCullough – This was an enjoyable read…but it had impact as well. Three examples: First: revolution tends to be a young man’s game. The older John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would have never done what they did as young men. We need to release young people, with their energy and idealism, into ministry and leadership. Second: leaders on opposite ends of the spectrum  can make each other way better than they would be without them. Third: what we’re experiencing today between leaders, politicians, etc., though undesirable, is nothing new. Solomon was right…there’s nothing new under the sun.

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Hmmmm! Sound familiar? I’m finding this isn’t a news thing…or a Brad thing. It’s a nature thing; a habit thing; a human thing. We all tend to fall into ruts and, instead of doing something to get out, we just keep pushing down on the gas pedal. We do it in our personal, relational, and vocational lives. Even worse, we do it in our spiritual lives.
But, there is a solution. Identify the problem, (rut, habit, etc.), and make the choice to change your behavior. I’ve begun doing this with the news. After instinctively turning it on, I then consciously change the channel or turn it off. In my car, I’ve been listening to a lot more music lately. It’s been refreshing.

Now, of course, there are areas of life and certain habits that are far more challenging to overcome than watching the news. (How’s that for understating the obvious?!) But, the principle is the same. Identify the problem and make the choice to change your behavior. It always helps to invite others into the circumstance to help…especially those who don’t have the same weakness or have overcome the same problem themselves.

Sometimes, inviting others into the circumstance is the only way out. This is certainly true with our spiritual lives. Apart from Christ, we can’t get past or overcome our sin, and we can never know or experience the love of God. But, it’s often true when dealing with other powerful habits that have developed in our lives…from an obsession with food to pornography.

So…here’s my simple encouragement. Stop watching. Change the channel. Do something else…anything else. Identify the problem, make the choice to change, and invite some trustworthy person or people into the circumstance to help.

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Whether we know it or not…believe it or not…God is the only source for these. He is the author of life and fullness. It’s what Jesus came to bring us…”life and life to the full,” John 10:10b. To know God’s blessing is to know the life only He can provide for us. Do you know it? To be honest, I often find myself without it. Not because it’s not always available to me but because I seek it in the wrong way…my way. So, when I wake up and discover I’m living outside God’s blessing, I have to refocus myself on the prescription Jesus gave us for experiencing it…hearing and obeying God’s Word. e.g. Luke 11:28 – He (Jesus) replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
There it is…simple and clear.

Are you missing God’s blessing these days? If so, it’s a clear sign that you either haven’t been really hearing His Word or you’re not obeying it. There’s an easy fix…but you have to apply it. The question is…are you awake enough to recognize if your missing His blessing or not?

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Think about it. Life is filled with unavoidable redundancies. Breathe in and breathe out. Go to sleep and wake up. Eat three or more times every day. Go to work and come home. Celebrate the weekend, then say goodbye to it. And on and on it goes. But life doesn’t have to be boring.

What makes the difference? Changing it up. Though you have to eat three times a day, you don’t have to eat the same thing. In fact, you don’t even have to eat the same way. Where is it written that certain kinds of food are for certain times of the day? In our family, my wife, Roxann, messed with this concept all the time. She initiated reverse night, which always began with dessert. Of course, it usually resulted in no one eating the salad. But who cares? It was a lot of fun. Our kids still talk about it to this day. By changing it up, she created lifelong memories.

We can apply the same lesson to our churches and ministries. Sadly, many leaders seek to overcome boredom by switching churches instead of making the investment to change up their present church. But changing locations usually leads to the same result. Over time, the new church will become boring as well. We need to learn to create new and fresh experiences in the midst of the unavoidable redundancies of our present circumstances. We need to learn to “change it up” where we are.

Scripture offers the same affirmation. God wants us to sing new songs (Ps. 33:3; 40:3). But it’s difficult to sing a new song when we’re not experiencing anything new. We keep telling the same old stories about God because we’re having no new experiences with God. We’re living in and off the past and consequently, we keep repeating the same stories over and over and over again. Boring!

As a pastor, I’ve had to learn that it’s my responsibility to lead and teach in a way that creates opportunities for new experiences for our church family. If I don’t, church and ministry become boring—and it’s my fault. However, I’ve also found that my leadership and teaching won’t be new, fresh and alive if it’s not happening in my personal life. I must be encountering and sharing new stories about my relationship with God. After all, we lead and teach out of who we are. If our spiritual walk isn’t fresh and exciting, our ministry won’t be either.

So let me give you some suggestions for staying fresh personally.
Pull away. Break the cycle of redundancy. Disturb the routine of your life and ministry and refresh yourself (Mark 6:31-32).

Look within. Evaluate yourself for predictability, staleness, loss of passion, excitement and joy. Examine whether your faith, experiences and stories are more focused on God’s work in the past or present (2 Cor. 13:5).

Look around. Open your eyes and seek to be more observant of God’s creation. The wonder of His work is all around you (Ps. 8:1, 3-4).

Fill up. Pour yourself into God’s Word or, better stated, pour God’s Word into yourself. As you know, the Bible isn’t just about who God was and what He once did; it’s about who He is and what He’s doing in the present. We need to experience Him and hear His voice today. When we do, we start to sing new songs (Col. 3:16).

Change it up. Simply, do something new. Change up your devotions (where you have them and how you do them). Listen to and learn new forms of worship music. Get to know and expose yourself to some new authors, teachers and believers or nonbelievers. Serve in a different way (Ps. 33:3).
I believe that genuinely embracing these practices will help to make and keep your life, leadership and ministry new and alive. Then, when you’re actually doing them, you can lead and teach your church to experience them as well and say goodbye to boring church.

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Inevitably, as we repeat that mind-numbing conversation, one of us mentions how we wish we could go to Chick-fil-a or the Cheesecake Factory…two restaurants that we’re always hungering for because there isn’t one near us. When we travel, we’ll actually go out of our way to eat at one of those “heavenly places.”

However, the same use to be true of Carrabba’s, P.F.Chang’s, and even Baha Fresh. But, not any more. They came to our area. We ate at them frequently…too frequently.  And now, they’ve just become like every other restaurant in our area. BORING! We go once in a while. They still have decent food. But, they’re old hat. We can have them any time. We want something different.

And, there we have it. The interesting truth about appetite. We tend to hunger and long for what we can’t have rather than what we can have. It tends to be a huge problem in our lives…in every area. Relationally…we tend to get bored being with the person we once would have given anything to spend a day with. Vocationally…we tend to get bored with the job we once would have given anything to have a shot at. And, tragically…the same thing happens spiritually.

Of course, when it comes to restaurants, who cares if we get bored and move on to other ones. It makes no difference. But, when it comes to our relational, vocational, and, more importantly, spiritual lives, we all need to care. It’s a big deal. If we get bored in our spiritual lives, we can (and will) get our minds on the wrong things and make messed up choices. (e.g. Peter in Matthew 16:23 – Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”)
The question is: what can we do? Here’s a suggestion…we can intentionally do new things to keep our spiritual lives fresh without changing the underlying appetite. We can’t stop hungering for God and His Word. But, we can try new recipes for filling and fulfilling the hunger.

Here’s one example from my life. I used to read the Bible through every year…year after year. To be honest, it got boring. It became a bit formulaic and even ritualistic for me. So, I began doing alternative things every other year. (e.g. Having read through the Bible last year…this year I’m taking a deep dive into the life and teaching of Jesus in the Gospels and reading as many books as possible focused on Jesus Himself.)

Point: I didn’t stop hungering for God and His Word. On the contrary, I’ve actually increased my hunger by intentionally doing “new things” that keep me growing in and longing for the right things. (I’ve done the same thing by getting involved in new areas and ways of serving.)

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I believe there is also another application to this. If a spiritual teacher doesn’t live out the truth that they’re teaching…doesn’t enter it themselves…they will become a natural obstacle to others experiencing it. Simply, we must lead the way in words and life. Ultimate teaching stems from demonstration. (e.g. Jesus washing the disciples feet.)

Do you have spiritual influence as a parent or with someone who doesn’t know Christ? Are you a spiritual leader in any capacity? If yes, make sure your words and life are helping not hindering others to know Jesus. There are enough spiritual obstacles in the world without us being one.

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