Or else it is derivative. And non-inspiring. 

No one has ever done what you’re doing: Led this organization. Served these people. Lived in this place at this time. Related to this family. Raised these kids. Befriended these neighbors. 

Is great advice for a four year old. But not for a fourteen year old.

They ask good questions. They know when they’ve come to edge of their understanding. They ask others for data, contexts, perspectives, and connections. 

Good leaders are not do-it-alls. They gather others around themselves who are more talented than they are. They build teams of those who can do what they can’t do, who have different inherent strengths, who have honed different skills. 

Not a solo event.

It’s more like soccer than tennis. More like baseball than golf. More like water polo than surfing.

It’s much easier to just plow ahead and make something happen, get something done, move something forward, or force the next step.

Waiting feels uncomfortable. Waiting feels passive. Waiting feels inefficient. Waiting feels weak.

They’re given to us by God to encourage us slow down and pay attention to something. However, instead of really paying attention we tend to employ other creative strategies:

Critics are those who want to give you an earful, to tell you what’s what, but won’t get their hands dirty to help you improve anything. They only shout from the sidelines and write emails from a safe, detached distance. Their goal is ultimately to shame you in front of anyone else who might be within earshot, to boldly display your faults to yourself and the world while declaring themselves the winners. 

It’s left out of most of the big lists. The Seven Deadly Sins don’t include it. The Ten Commandments don’t address it. Unless I’m missing something, Paul in his several lists of sins never mentions it. The only thing I can think of in the Bible is the reference to “the cowardly” in Revelation 21.

But maybe it should be in our lists.

But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

1 Samuel 15:22 NIV

It’s tempting to do a lot for God. Which is not always the same as doing with God. 

If you’re like me, your working definition of prayer for most of your life was pretty simple: Asking God for something. 

To do this well, it helped to have a list. In more “spiritual” seasons it was a mental list, or even an ad hoc “Spirit-led” list. In more practical seasons it was a physical list. A list of people’s names and needs, maybe places or organizations and situations. Prayer consisted of speaking these people and these needs aloud to God for his provision.