March 20 Forgotten Tools Can Keep New Tools From Being Used.

In business, industries have different tools used to provide products and services. But today I want to challenge us about the tools we use to build and advance our teams. The internet helps us to gather information. Phones help us to communicate as do electronic letters called emails.

The written letter is almost a foregone tool of antiquity. We have personality tests that help us to know how others relate to one another. We have conative tests to understand how people get their work done. As a leader of a team where do you keep a list of the tools you use to advance your team.

I would be curious what tools the industry leader in your market uses as compared to what tools you are using now. Do we have all the tools we need? How would we know if we have not considered doing an audit and searching for new tools?

What tool do you use in your company to help yourself and your team members adjust their attitudes? My actual toolbox for mechanical fixes has over one hundred different pieces in it. I can almost guarantee you that many toolboxes have tools that are not used daily.

The mechanic with a toolbox will also likely be able to tell you the most recently added tool. In your toolbox, what tool have you not used on yourself as the leader? Why not? Leaders need occasional maintenance just as our team does. What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

In Numbers 25: 1-10, we read the story of Phinehas and how he runs a spear through a man and a woman to stop a plague against the nation of Israel. This is an example of a recurring theme in the Old Testament. God gave laws and then the people broke them to which God then sends his judgment.

But we learn in the New Testament about Jesus’ most powerful tool, love. As Christian brothers and sisters, which tools are we using the most? Love or hate, envy and jealousy or compassion and generosity are all choices. Our toolbox of how to treat people is full of different tools and some can be destructive.

Some of the tools are being used by us more often than others while some of them are rusty and not being used at all. Tools might lay in the bottom of our box and simply take up space where another tool could be. One challenge for us is to look in our heart which is the toolbox of our soul.

What is down there that we have not been using very much lately? What tool is in your heart that is no longer needed? Perhaps the tool of bitterness, anxiety, or revenge are there. Maybe it is a good time during this season of Lent to pull out the toolbox and do an inventory.

Maybe even throwing out some tools that are outdated and no longer helping us grow can draw us closer to God. I might think that our attitudes towards one another change when we do that inventory. What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, we need you. Our attention gets drawn to the concerns and pains of this world so easily. Give us the ability to focus on you. Employ the tools of love, forgiveness, and compassion upon our hardened and cluttered hearts.

Shine your light of hope in the recesses of our minds so that we might grow together to honor you. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,