December 1. Turn The Tap.

Leaders, across the board you might have some exciting members with unique and even extreme skills and capabilities. If you are adding people to your team with those qualities, then I would like to see the results of your leadership. I think that might be a strong team.

But think of our leadership as a faucet which adds hot or cold water to the mix. When we need the hot water, there is not any need for the lukewarm or cold. They do not deliver value at that point. And if it is cold water we need, adding hot water can be wasteful or even dangerous as well.

The leader is the controller of the faucet. You decide which temperature to acquire, what quantity is needed and when to stop. We do not waste resources by heating cold water to then transport it to an aircraft to put out a forest fire. What would be the purpose of putting hot water on a forest fire?

 Not only does it waste our resources, but it can also endanger the team.  Hot water can scald or even burn members in the process of heating it up.  Think about a cast iron cooking pot beginning to boil over an open campfire.  We need to be thoughtful about how to handle that pot as the pot will likely be hot like the water. 

Would you hand the pot to someone to carry without providing them oven mitts or some sort of protection or tool to carry it? Where do you need to add some cold or hot to your organization? What tools or equipment do they need to handle it?

We the leaders are accountable to assist with the hot and cold. Who on your team can you help to get back to their hot or cold? 

Are you lukewarm in your faith right now? Have you ever been that way? If you have, you might have figured out how to get to the proper place by modifying your perception, attitude, or activities.

We read, "“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!” Revelation 3:15 NLT. When we are lukewarm, it can be difficult to share and show the love Jesus taught us to do. It can be challenging to accept that love as well.

The cold tap is totally separated from the hot. The two taps do not put water into one another. They might be combined by the faucet that delivers the water to the sink though.  Where might you need to get cold or hot? Is your reading of the Bible hot or cold? 

How is your prayer life right now, is it hot or cold? What area of your faith do you want to warm up?  In the northern hemisphere wintery conditions have arrived.  If you live there, you can either accept that you will be cold because of the weather, or you can bundle up and dress for it.

We are the first step of being accountable for the growth we experience in our faith. What is the first thing you can do about it in the next seven days?

 Let us pray, Heavenly Father, our world attempts to move us to the average. But you have asked us to be more than average, more than lukewarm. Move us to warm up in our faith as easily as the faucet gets hot when the handle is turned. Send your living water Lord.

May the cold be cold and that which is to be hot, be hot. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,