Evaluation and Correction

Do not quench the Spirit. Test everything; hold fast to what is good. Flee from what is evil.

1 Thessalonians 5: 19-21

Do not quench the Spirit...test everything....hold fast what is good...flee from what is evil. These are words to seriously read, ponder, and pray on. Peter is talking about the same Spirit Jesus referred to when He said He had to leave so the Spirit could come. I ponder and pray on that and I'm drawn to how the Spirit must groan in me..us; He groans because He sees and feels us going against God's will and He is trying to correct us.

As I ponder and pray about this verse, I have to assume that anyone who believes in Christ wants to follow Him well. To do anything well takes practice and practicing well takes a good discipline of evaluation and correction. Practicing Christianity well is different only in the aspect that it is the most important aspect of an evaluation and correction process, or discipline.

Many authors have touched on this discipline including Jim Collins with the Hedgehog (Good to Great) and Dennis Bakke's "robust evaluation and correction" (Joy at Work). Years ago I heard Max Anders, senior pastor at Grace Covenant Church, give a sermon where he talked extensively about looking back over your shoulder periodically to review how well your walk with Christ had been.

I like the "robust evaluation and correction" thing, but with some twists.

In the Navy, I was on a submarine and though a radioman (dit dah dit dit), I was a bit intrigued with sonar. Sonar is primarily passive and active. Active is the type you hear about in movies when the captain orders for a "ping;" the sonarman sends the single pulse (ping) out and then listens for the return. He can then evaluates the distance from the target. Passive sonar is simply listening for threats. In either case, once a sound is recognized, the captain would evaluate and take the necessary action. We would be out at sea for weeks at a time and someone would be in the sonar room at all times....listening and paying attention.

Practicing Christianity well requires a good discipline of listening, paying attention, evaluation and correction when those pings come back at us, whether invited (active), or passive (uninvited). Some behaviors to practice -

Pay attention to what is going on around you at all times.

Ask questions about how you are doing - listen to the answers

Be purposeful about your life; have a mission and a plan to carry it out.

Be aware that everyone has blind spots, including you and you can't see them from where you are at - that is why they are called blind spots.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to talk to you and be involved in your valuation and correction - this is where the real ROBUSTness kicks in. The bible tells us He is groaning inside us , wanting to help. We just need to listen and pay attention.

Don't ignore pingings you hear coming through your hulls.


Lord God, I pray that I listen to you today. I pray that I pay attention to where I am and what you want me to do - right here. Give me the wisdom and discernment to recognize the corrections that need to be made in my life. Help me to accept those evaluations and move towards the corrections. Help me to uncover and correct the blind spots. You are good and gracious and your mercy is boundless. You never said our lives would be easy and I pray that I am listening and paying attention to my surroundings, that I allow the Holy Spirit to work in my life. Blessed by your name, that I honor your name. Amen

To that end.....
 
Make it a great Sunday
 
Danny
 
(note...in the practice of "spaced repetition," this is an edited re-post from http://godandworkmatters.blogspot.com/2010/03/evaluation-active-and-passive.html)

It's Ok to Talk About Your Work

This morning I'm reminded of a post I made on 1/12/2010. Reminded because as I look back over my shoulder at this weeks work I find more than a couple of people with struggles at work.

The post....When you're asked "how's it going?" And you talk about your work, and whether it's a struggle or not, that's ok to talk about your work.

We were made to work and it was probably not a struggle before the "fall" but it sure can be now. But that's ok that it's a struggle and it's ok to talk about it.

Be someone others can talk to about their struggles at work; don't try to fix them, just be someone they can talk to. Encourage them.

I have a friend who I called and found out he'd been really struggling the past few weeks with everything (work and otherwise) and he can't figure out what's wrong.

Since then we've prayed, spent time together and just check-in with each other. During a quick cup of coffee two weeks ago, I asked him if he'd ever read a certain book and I almost choked on his response.."Danny, I haven't read a book since I got out of high-school over 20 years ago."

Ha...I just locked up again remembering the next few minutes of our conversation followed by a trip together to B&N and him buying the first book in his life!

We talked this week and he's read that book, spent more time in B&N, and bought another one!

That call to him a few weeks ago was meant to be about work, I asked "how's it going?" and he started telling me about the struggles he was having. Now he's reading books.

It's a great day.

Christians are to be the light of the world. How bright is the path you walk on your job? What you do speaks louder than your words. 7:24 AM Dec 31st from Echofon

We should pray that the work of our hands may be directed toward the goal of the good pleasure of God. Basil the Great on Ecclesiates 3:1

Created Old!

The bible tells us to be ready, to be prepared. Here's a conversation I hope to have with someone;

Talking with someone about how work came about before the fall, before sin, and as he expresses surprise at hearing this, the talk comes around to the "theory of evolution."

As we move from the subject of work into a territory I'm a bit uneasy about, I say, "the theory of evolution goes directly against the word of God." We go to the scripture and where it says God made man in His image, He made animals in their own image (this data was new to him). So, how could man have evolved from an animal if he was made in God's image. The talk then moves into even more uneasy territory as he asks where I stand on the old vs new earth? I say new.

He thinks he has me when he asks how I explain how all the fossils are millions of years old.

I refrain from "well, they seem, according to today's science to be millions of years old and instead say, what makes us think that everything started as something looking new? God made Adam, he was brand new and he looked to be about 30 years old; first day, looked 30 years old. He is God, He can make fossils!

I hope I'm able to say "ahhhhhhhhhh" as Matt Carter did when he gave this explanation in a recent sermon.

Jesus Developed Followers Before He Developed Leaders

We don't really know a great deal about the first 30 years of Jesus', though we can speculate. Historically, we do know a great deal about the culture, the people, their habits, etc. But have you ever wondered why there was such a long period of time for Him to be revealed for who He was? Was an appropriate age? Probably, but I can't help but believe it was also for Jesus to be developed as a follower before He became a leader. Only then could He begin developing his own followers. Not leaders, that would come later, but followers. Jesus spent 3 years developing followers and at times had hundreds, maybe thousands of people following him.

He taught these men, made in the image of God, to be followers. Or rather, those that chose to follow. What did He do with those that could not meet the standards he set? He let them go. He loved them all, but knew He had to develop good followers before they could be good leaders. When picking the 12, He knew they weren't perfect. But Jesus, the Christ, loved them and continued to give instructions and training.

When He died, He came back and gave them more instruction on and off for 40 days until giving final instructions before departing. Yet, still, Jesus knew their growth wasn't finished and would drift in their following, so he left a Helper behind to continue to guide and train these men left behind to lead.

To lead well, we must learn to follow Christ well. As we lead our family, those we are responsible for at work, we must follow Christ well. As we serve those in authority over us, we must follow Christ well. We must follow, not blindly, and sometimes following well means stepping being courageous in our leading.

Jesus trained followers to train followers to lead well.

Follow, lead, follow more, and do it well.

To that end....

Hmmm...if Christ had come back while I was at work today, would He have found me glorifying Him in my speach, actions, emails....? 5:53 PM Jan 8th from Echofon

#WorkMatters to ponder RT @oschambers-Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering and God will prove Himself  http://bit.ly/mu0206

Great workplace Point to Pray and Ponder RT @TomZiglar: You can disagree without being disagreeable. Zig Ziglar 9:04 AM Jan 4th from Echofon

Christian Thinking and Influence: The Pictures in Our Head

Doug Sherman, in his Bible Study, Your Work Matters to God, states "we believe that the workplace is today the most strategic arena for Christian thinking and influence. Moreover, until we become godly workers, we have little hope of becoming godly husbands, wives, parents, or church members. For unless Christlikeness characterizes the 60-80 percent of our lives spent at work, we simply are not living Christlike lives."

The most strategic arena for Christian thinking......hmmm. Have you ever thought much about your thinking being strategic? How about your thinking, do you think about your thinking? Thinking about thinking is not something most of us today think about. Think about it for a minute or two.........hard to do isn't it? How about talking about your thinking, or another's thinking?

How dramatically is your thinking influenced by what's going on around you? Think about how much your thinking is influenced by the thoughts of others, because the mind is hungry for more information and is looking to be influenced. Are you aware of how your thinking is changed? How critical is your thinking?

Prior to the invention of radio, tv, internet, and even the mass production of newspapers, the spoils and triumphs of what flowed from another's thinking a much more celebrated event. In reality, the recepient was much more aware of the absorbtion and how his thinking might be changing. He or she had time to be critical about it.

Thinking about thinking - talking about what we think - arguing about thinking is something philosophers have done for thousands of years. It wasn't that many years ago when people would travel for miles and miles to hear a simple speech and then stay to discuss their thoughts in local bars and meeting houses. Today, we get our information in bits and pieces, yet, as if from a fire hose; there is more information in one week's worth of the New York Times than the average 18th century American would come across in a lifetime.

Thinking, critical thinking, and getting one's message across to others has always been an important part of those intent upon critical thinking. Ben Franklin would write letters to his own newspaper under fictitious names just so he could express his thoughts about what he thought just that he could then write the rebuttals to further spin the thinking. He claimed years later that he did this in part to develop opinions within his readers' thoughts.

So what does this have to do with Christian thinking? Everything. Everyone is bombarded with news and information they don't ask to receive; from emails randomly read to story lines of favorite tv shows, but received and processe it is.

Writer, journalist, and progressive thinker Walter Lippmann, in the mid 1900's, wrote extensively about the tendency of journalists to generalize about other people based on fixed ideas. He argued that people—including journalists—are more apt to believe "the pictures in their heads" than come to judgment by critical thinking.

The pictures in our heads is what we tend to believe and these pictures are formed from what we watch, hear, and read. And what most of us watch, hear, and read, is accidental; not purposeful.

So, what does this have to do with our Christian influence? Everything. If we are not purposeful about what we watch, read, and hear, our thinking will not lead to practicing Christianity and if we aren't practicing Christianity, we aren't influencing others towards God's glory.

And if we aren't influencing others towards God's glory, then what are we influencing them towards?

What do the pictures in your head look like today, and what are they going to look like in 10 years? Are you purposefully drawing those pictures or letting others?

To that end....

Note: this is a re-post from 1/2010.

Struggling at work today? Put on the armor (Eph 6:11-18) and remember Psalm 35, John 16:33. Always remember - your work matters to Him.

Question to ponder: the armor doesn't appear to have any protections for one's backside.

What does that mean?

Challenges at work today? Remember Prov 25:2 and don't waste the struggle.

Pragmatism leads to leaning on values as long as they make money -On chapt "Being Impractical" in Dave Moore's "The Last Men's Book...." 4:39 PM Jan 3rd from Echofon

Is Christ@Work in your business?

Is Christ@Work in your business? Take this simple test to see how you are doing - http://fcci.org/atwork.asp

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