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January 28. What Have You Rescheduled or Canceled Because You Lost Something?
Would you consider losing something on purpose?
As a leader, how do you lead when something is lost? Imagine that you have lost an important file on your computer or an envelope with $1,000 cash. What would you or your team do? Human instinctive behavior will have you spend time looking for the lost. Why? Because our minds want the status quo.
We are more concerned with what we have and have had than for what we might gain by doing something new. The brain likes being comfortable and it does not want our situation to change. That is how compelling in our minds a loss is. We will ignore the potential of what we could accomplish by looking forward.
That looking forward is even seen as a threat to the status quo. But that is totally unreasonable when our focus is on growth and value for others. The value of the past is not the value of the future. But we live with the way our brain works and that is exactly why, as leaders, we need to challenge ourselves and our teams about the lost.
Have you lost a file? Great, create it again and make it even better. How about considering losing something on purpose to grow. Where can you deal differently with anything lost?
Remember the story in Matthew, where Jesus talked about the lost sheep? ““If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Will not he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?” Matthew 18:12 NLT.
The fact is the other ninety-nine sheep have much more potential. The flock is going to produce several more lambs in the spring. But off we go, chasing the lost, and then when we find it what does he say we will do? We hold a celebration for the recovered one and for the status quo.
But he states after the celebration that God’s will is that the little children do not perish. What keeps those children from perishing is God’s concern. A challenge then, is will you and I have the courage to look the other way, to lead, when we lose something?
Will we look forward from our sin of this morning to draw closer to Christ this afternoon or will we wallow in fear, shame, and regret of how we lost our closeness to our savior? The opportunity of growth in Christian love and living is here and so is the desire of keeping the status quo. That battle is the tough part.
This is one of the reasons that being in a community of believers is important. It can help us so that we can stand up for one another and help to gently prod each other along. We can be moving forward to what could be, not staying focused on what was. What is the first thing you can do about it in the next seven days?
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, life with you is a bounty. Our minds’ eye cannot comprehend all the ways that you love us. We are trapped in this world for now but thank you for giving us Christ as an example of your love. Guide us to love him, to love others and not to be focused on loving the past or the status quo.
Encourage us along our path of personal growth with Christ. Send your Holy Spirit to move us, to move your church and to move our small communities that encourage each of us. Help us, as the flock, following the great Shepherd, to move towards a deeper relationship with him.
May the lost in our path be found where the Shepherd is leading us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen
Be strong and courageous today.
Mark
