October 21. Cut. Do It Again.

As a leader, is it ever appropriate to call a do over? It might be important to do just that when our value delivery gets interrupted. When communicating with our team, we want our attitudes and hearts to be in the right place. If they are not in the right place, I suspect that our conversation will not wind up with the right result.

At times it can then be appropriate to call a do over. If our team is about delivering a blue product, then to put a red product in the client’s hand will lead to disappointment. It is appropriate to call a do over at those times. It is important to recognize that our brain always wants us to be right.

But being right does not recognize the power of the do over. Living the life as a leader helps both yourself and your team avoid allowing regret to spend much time in our hearts or minds. If we can accelerate the do over then regret does not have much of a chance to live in the environment of our team.

Have you ever been in an environment where regret seeps into the work environment? People can avoid rooms, people, and projects because the regret lives there. Where might you want to consider a do over for this week? Watch for it this week and see if you can collaborate with others to do it faster. What is the first thing you can do about it in the next seven days?

As followers of Jesus Christ, we understand the do over. Our lives are to be modeled after it. When we accepted Christ, we chose to be born again. A life following Jesus is the ultimate do over. If God gave us the ultimate do over, I think it is a method that we can adopt in our lives as well.

We read, “But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.” Jeremiah 18:4 NLT. This verse from the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel speaks of God's desire for Israel to be reformed. We have the opportunity to wake up every day anew.

The pains and suffering of yesterday are behind us. The joy of life with the gift of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit are not limited. We are the ones who limit our ability to do over. Where might you use the do over this week? Do you have a person on your team, in your family, or in your community that you need to experience a do over with?

Do you have a do over that you need to complete in your faith journey? Perhaps your do over is a matter of forgiveness for someone or it might be that you want to say yes to something that you originally said no to?

If you are not sure where to start, consider collaborating with someone to take on the project together. We all need a do over every once in a while. Some of us want one daily. What is the first thing you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, you are the Creator of the universe and the Master of the do over. Your creation is born anew daily. You have given us the ability to experience it over again every day. Each day is a new sunrise full of potential.

Empower us to leave the pain and suffering of yesterday behind. Deliver us your love in the relationships that we acknowledge today. Comfort those that are mourning and make our do overs an eternity with you. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,