January 20. Help, I'm Out. Wait, I Have Options.

As a leader, what do you pay attention to as your tank empties? Think of an automobile vehicle and say that your fuel tank is full at eighteen gallons. You go driving for a while and the tank is down to only one gallon left.

One might think that the tank is nowhere near being full and stress would likely set in. One would start looking for a refilling station. Concerns over finances might even enter your mind thinking that one place is more cost effective than another to replace the fuel.

If you have been consumed with other thoughts or distracted, you might even find yourself afraid that you are going to get stuck along the side of the road. But the tank is not actually empty. While it is true that it only has one gallon of fuel the other seventeen gallons are filled with air.

That air is important because it shows that we always have capacity. It is a natural law that the space or capacity will be filled, so what will you fill it with? It probably gets filled with the easiest and least energy absorbing effort. The easiest neural pathway can be fear.

However, fear is not the interruption that leads to value. We do not need to trust our feeling of fear as I quote a line from a song title, “Fear is a liar.” When your tank is empty as leader, a different interruption than fear can serve the team more effectively.

Sometimes the best interruption as leader is to simply stop what you are doing and let that serve as the interruption. Changing our thought patterns and thinking about the air we have in the tank will change the chemicals in our brains.

It can free up creativity as the cortisol release subsides in our brains. We cannot stop natural laws, but we can do an intervention against the way we react to them. What capacity do you need to capture? Look for fear and frustration and know that there is capacity behind their curtains.

Our teams look for us to find a new action to fill what might have bee n emptied. Fear, interrupt, and find action to fulfill capacity. That just might be the equation to fill capacity. What is the first thing that you can interrupt as leader today?

As brothers and sisters of faith, we are never full. We live with the perception that we are being emptied. It is important to recognize that we are going to get filled back up whether we want to or not. If you empty yourself of love, joy, or pride and hate, then something will take its place.

What will you have to take its place? In the book of Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus teaches about an evil spirit leaving someone. That person’s life is put in order and swept clean. He also taught in the same story that the bad spirit will come back, finding it neat and tidy.

The evil spirit gets seven other spirits to come live with it. If that was me, I was probably full enough with just one evil spirit. I certainly did not want any more. But this lesson teaches us that we have more capacity. The story also tells us that the seven new spirits are more evil than the first.

This might teach us that choosing what we refill in those places is critical. If there is capacity for evil, then there is capacity for good as well. With Christ, we have the capacity to choose to fill this void by the decisions that we make with things aligned with him.

Let us choose today to fill any of those voids that we have with those things that honor Christ. Just as we use the gas and energy in our automobiles, we need fuel in our faith walk. Many times, the fuel for us are the decisions that we make.

We can choose what air and space will be filled within our relationship with Jesus. Are you feeling that your tank is empty? Then you likely have some space available. What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, prepare us for the season of Lent. This year, as we think about a sacrifice that we might make, help us to think as well as to what we might replace. Encourage us to find more peace, love, and joy.

Inspire us to read the Bible more, write to others often, and give words of encouragement. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,