March 13. Not Just Stuck But Stubbornly Stuck.

Defining moments occur. For some businesses, they treat many aspects of their businesses as defining moments while other businesses allow most of their tasks to become mundane. But a great business can be shaped by defining moments.

One example can occur when a customer of your product or service becomes a raving fan. You know you have achieved a defining moment for the customer when that occurs. The defining moments can be separated into two basic types.

I like to call them challenges and open opportunities. Challenges get our attention because they have at least a little fear associated with them. Some challenges are when something has not lived up to the expectation of the customer. Our open opportunities might be about the growth of the business or its team.

What are the immediate challenges your business has seen in the last ninety days? Both open opportunities and challenges can be transformed by anyone on the team. It takes a transitional moment to move into action is all. A mountain top experience does not occur unless you take the time to look and experience it.

Our brain has five times the neural receptors for the low points, so they are likely to be experienced without much energy to look for them. What can you do in the next seven days to transform either perspective into a positive defining moment for a bigger future?

In the book of Luke, we read the story of how the baby who became John the Baptist was named. His father, Zechariah, experienced a vision. It happened in his and his wife's old age. In that vision he is told the baby is special, but there will be another born who is more special than he.

His son will bring people to God and prepare the way of the Christ. He is to name his son John regardless of the tradition to name the first born after the father. I see this as a defining moment. It was an open opportunity for Zechariah to follow or abandon course.

He chose to follow the instructions and treat itas the defining moment it was. It shaped the future. As followers of Christ, we have had at least one defining moment, the moment we decided to give our hearts to Christ. In the next seven days, we can watch and be ready for more defining moments.

The decision now is how will you decide to recognize the defining moments of today? Today, I will decide and define, what about you?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, you have defined forgiveness. There is no other gift greater than you forgiving us for the many shortcomings that we have here in our world. Work on our hearts to look for those moments in our lives that can be defining.

Shape our understandings and our misunderstandings so that we might serve you more. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen