Three Important Categories for Leaders

A few weeks ago, I was at the Drive Conference in Atlanta and heard Joel Thomas layout three important categories for leaders. Since then, I’ve been chewing on it because I think they are critical, and they also explain some frustrations we have as leaders if we don’t understand them.

Identity 

Identity is who you are. Your role in life as a husband, wife, parent, friend, boss, and child of God. 

These are also the roles you play outside of leadership and ministry; the hobbies that you have, the interests you give your time to. 

This is hard for us to think about, but this is the foundation of leadership. Too often, as leaders, our identity is wrapped up in what we do or our ability. 

Your identity is formed in a lot of ways that affect your leadership. 

It started years ago in your family of origin. It is formed in early experiences in school and friendships as you grow up. Your experiences and the heartaches shape it, as well as the celebrations you experience through life. 

If you grew up and learned not to trust people or that people can’t be trusted (real hurts), that shapes how you interact with people around you and how much trust you give to others. If you were raised to believe that what you did was the most important thing about you, that shapes how you go about leadership and teamwork.

Your story affects how you interact, show up, your motivations and how you trust or do not trust those around you. 

Connected to this is understanding how you are wired. You need to know your personality, motivations, desires, and fears. You also need to understand the things you carry from your past: shame, hurt and other parts of your story

Those things about you shape your identity as a leader and are easily overlooked.

Calling

Calling is what you feel like God has called you to do with your life. 

We define that differently. And we talk about how that calling comes to us in different ways, but we have it. 

Some feel called to be a pastor, in ministry, etc. You may feel called to leadership in the marketplace, a non-profit; your calling may be to eradicate something. But all of us have that calling. 

We get tripped when we confuse identity and calling. They are connected but not the same. 

And let me say this, being a pastor is a calling, but it’s also a job. A job that you will one day leave and retire from

In many ways, identity is who you are, calling is what you do with that or because of that.  

John Onwuchekwa said, “You HAVE a calling FROM God. You ARE a child OF God.”

Assignment

Your assignment is what God has called you to now. Your assignment right now might be to be a lead pastor, associate pastor, church planter, elder, or volunteer. 

Your assignment is your current season. It may be just beginning. You may be ending an assignment and figuring out what’s next. 

Again, we can confuse our calling with an assignment. We can also confuse our assignment with our identity. Many pastors and leaders don’t know where they end and where their church begins, which leads to all kinds of unhealthy things. 

Assignments can last decades, and they can last for a year. Assignments can change at the drop of a hat when you aren’t aware. 

These categories are critical to understand and keep separate. If we confuse them, we will find ourselves in some dangerous places as leaders and watch our hearts erode

Practicing Silence & Solitude

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Practicing silence and solitude will take some practice. It is a rhythm that we need, but often we don’t take the time to practice. 

For some of us, we struggle to make time for ourselves and God; we struggle to put it into our schedule. Our lives are so busy and fast that sitting alone in silence is uncomfortable. Some of us struggle with silence because it is in the silence that we hear voices and stories from our past or the enemy. 

As we looked on Sunday, some of us say we aren’t sure God will speak to us or wants to speak to us.

As you make this a regular rhythm, here are some ideas from Ruth Haley Barton’s excellent book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence:

  1. Identify your sacred time and space. Look for an area where you can be alone for a specific time, whether outside, at home or office. Does it help to use a candle? A cross to help you focus on the presence of God? Be sure to let family or co-workers know about your rhythm to have some time for silence and solitude. 
  2. Begin with a modest goal. Depending on your experience with this practice, and your life stage, take that into account as you think about your goal. Don’t feel the pressure to set a goal of sitting in silence for 15 minutes if you’ve never done this before. Barton reminds us, “The amount of time is not nearly as important as the regularity of this practice.”
  3. Settle into a comfortable yet alert physical position. Sit in a position that is comfortable but helps you to be alert. If you feel comfortable placing your hands up, do so.
  4. Ask God to give you a simple prayer that expresses your openness and desire for God. Choose a prayer phrase that describes your desire or need for God these days in the simplest terms. An example might be The Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Pray this prayer several times as an entry into silence and a way of dealing with distractions.
  5. Sit and be with God. The goal of silence and solitude is to be aware of the presence and love of God.
  6. Close your time in silence with a prayer of gratitude for God’s presence. 

Lastly, be gracious with yourself. The goal is to be with God. If you think of something you need to do later in the day, either hand that over to God or write it on a pad next to you to get back to your practice. No matter how long it lasts or how long it goes, trust that it is enough and what God needs it to be for you.

The Goal of Spiritual Rhythms

Sunday I started a new series at CCC called Summer Reset: Reevaluating our Spiritual Rhythms

When new year’s goals and resolutions roll around almost every year, millions of people make a goal connected to their spiritual life. It might be reading their Bible more, praying more, or being more generous, which is fantastic. But often we fail to move the needle in those places, or at least to the degree we’d like to see.

Many times we get frustrated with ourselves, think something is wrong with us, and then fail to reengage with God.

Have you ever asked why that is? There are many reasons this happens, but I think one of them centers on our spiritual rhythms.

Have you ever asked yourself: What is the goal of spiritual rhythms or practices? When I read my Bible, pray, give, fast, or any other spiritual practice, what am I hoping will happen?

I like the word rhythm and practice because it helps me see life as a rhythm. Rhythms get the idea of movement, timing, seasons, and life in that way. Practices help me to know that I am practicing, I have not arrived. Every time I fast, feast, pray, sit in silence or join in community, I am practicing. And, if I don’t get it right (which is often) or if things feel stale (which happens), I am practicing. 

What is your goal when it comes to spiritual practices? To your spiritual rhythms?

If you think about the question, you will start to think of things like growing close to Jesus, growing in my faith, and learning about Jesus. And those are good answers. 

Spiritual practices are how we connect with God and relate to God. But spiritual practices also do something else; they are how we become more present to God, others, and ourselves. They reorient our hearts and lives around the things of God, which is crucial in our world that is so loud and easily distracts us. 

This is why the goal of spiritual practices is so important. If we don’t know the purpose, we won’t understand why we need to practice them or what we are trying to experience or accomplish when we practice them. We will also miss what God is trying to do in us, around us, and in those practices. We can read our Bible, pray, take a sabbath, and miss all that it could be.

While spiritual practices do many things, I think they bring about two important things:

  1. They are about our formation, becoming more like Christ, and how we walk with Christ as his disciples, as his apprentices, alongside him.
  2. They help us to be present with God, ourselves, and others. They help us be aware of what is happening in us, what is going on in others, and what God is doing. They help us not to miss things.

As we practice them, we look for how God is forming us. As we experience difficulty or struggle through practice, we look for what God is doing in us, how we are being shaped, and who we are being shaped into. 

The Healing Power of Jesus

Sunday, I wrapped up our series, Questions Jesus Asked, and looked at a question that Jesus asked a man who couldn’t walk at the pool of Bethesda.

Before getting to the question, some background.

In John 5, Jesus is walking by the pool on the Sabbath. The pool is a place where possibly hundreds of people who were blind, deaf, lame, etc., would wait for the waters to stir. They believed that an angel was stirring the waters when the waters stirred, and the first person in the pool would be healed. The man that Jesus encounters has sat there and waited for 38 years.

38 years!

I don’t know what it is like to be an invalid or live in chronic pain for 38 years. But imagine that.

This is important for the question that Jesus will ask this man.

I wonder, did this man give up hope? Did he think, this is what life is like?

I think this can be easy to do when we think about places in our lives that we’d like to change or heal. Some of this might be being realistic, but other times, it might be a way that we protect ourselves from disappointment.

Because this man can’t get into the water, it seems like he is all alone.

So, Jesus asks him in John 5:6, Do you want to get well?

For some of us, I think Jesus asks this question because we have to ask ourselves, Do I want to get well? Some of us don’t want to get well.  Or, we don’t want to get well if it requires anything of us. 

We want to heal from emotional wounds without doing any work. We want to recover from relational wounds without dealing with anything from our past. We want physical healing without doing any work. 

Now, sometimes there is nothing we can do to heal. But sometimes, we play a role in our healing. 

I wonder, would Jesus ask us, “Do you want to get well?”

Healing is not something to be flippant about. 

The thing we want healing from is something we have potentially carried and dealt with, prayed for, and cried out to God about for years. Just like this man. I wonder if Jesus is also asking, “Have you given up? Do you still believe healing is possible?”

There comes a moment when it is hard to believe healing is possible. There comes a moment where it is hard to believe and hold out hope that anything could change. 

Something else can happen. This man was here for 38 years. He knew what it was like to live like this. He knew how to get through the day as an invalid. It possibly was part of his identity. The thing we want healing from slowly becomes part of who we are. 

Our brokenness can become a part of our identity and what makes us who we are.

Jesus tells him in verse 8, “Pick up your mat and walk.” Instantly the man was healed; he picked up his mat and walked.

I wonder what this moment felt like. 

Instantly he got well. Did he feel it right away? Did he feel the muscles move in his legs right away?

Jesus healed him, but the man also had to believe and stand up. 

At some point in our faith journey, we will have to take a step of faith. We will have to trust the impossible and believe in the power of God. We will have to respond.

As we apply this question, here are some things I believe Jesus is asking us beneath the surface:

  • Do you want to get well?
  • Have you given up hope on healing?
  • Is there a part that you play in your healing?

The Things that Sneak into the Heart of a Pastor

Every week when a pastor preaches, they talk about the sin that binds the people in their church, the idols they battle, the lies they quickly fall into, and the truth of Jesus that frees them and destroys sin and death.

Pastors, by and large, often struggle to apply this same medicine to their sins.

Much of the identity and idols that pastors fall into are residing in what happens on a Sunday morning at church. High attendance, strong giving, and loud singing were good days. A pastor will float through Sunday night, post about all that God did on Instagram, and wake up ready to charge hell on Monday morning.

Low attendance, a down week in giving, few laughs, and no one sings, and the pastor will go home, look at social media, get jealous of the megachurch down the road, wake up Monday morning ready to resign, and get another job.

The difference between the two examples?

The heart of the pastor.

Over the years as a pastor, I’ve ridden this roller coaster more than I’d like to admit. It is easy to do.

So, how do you handle this as a pastor? How do you protect your heart?

1. Keep Sundays in perspective. What happens and what you feel as a pastor on a Sunday morning can be misleading. Just because it felt great doesn’t mean that it was. I’m amazed at how many times I feel like a sermon was so-so, and the response from people is, “That is exactly what I needed to hear.” And how many times do I get off the stage thinking I preached my greatest sermon, and no one says anything.

While Sunday matters, it does not tell the whole story of what God is doing in the life of your church or its people.

2. Be cautious about what you see on social media. A friend of mine who is revitalizing a church called me and said, “It’s so hard to watch the megachurch down the road baptize more people on Easter than we had in attendance.” And that’s a real struggle.

Be cautious about what you follow on social media and when you look at it. If you are exhausted and feeling down on Sunday night, Instagram may not be the best spot for your soul.

Another thing to remember is percentages. This is important. Every pastor would say that every life matters, but when you see thousands getting baptized or a massive move of God, it is hard not to feel jealous or inferior. But a megachurch and a church plant are not the same, just like the small start-up isn’t the same as Amazon. For example, if a church of 5,000 baptized 80 people on Easter, that is incredible, but they baptized 1.6% of their church. If your church of 250 baptized 10, that is 4%. Yes, they both matter the same, but, and this may seem silly to you, percentages have helped me to keep things in perspective when my heart gets out of line.

3. Celebrate what God does in the church down the road or across the country. The flip side of this coin is essential. Celebrate what God is doing in other churches, don’t despise it. Don’t say, “They must be watering down the gospel; that’s why they’re growing.” Just celebrate with them, and thank God for how His Spirit is at work.

4. Make sure you do something life-giving on Sunday or Monday. Many pastors, when they get home on Sundays, are entirely spent. While it is exhilarating, it is also exhausting to preach, counsel, pray with others, and often leave church shouldering the people’s burdens in your church. That is part of what a pastor does. But in that, you must make sure that you refill your tank.

Too many pastors go home and sit down in front of the TV or scroll on their phones. While there is a place for this, you need to schedule some life-giving things for you.

We try to take a long walk on Sunday afternoon to get outside and move our bodies. Some reading time or a family game, and one of our practices on many Sunday evenings is to have another family or friends over for dinner.

Whatever is life-giving for you, a hobby, exercise, community, reading, do that on Sunday or Monday. Refill yourself after pouring so much out.

5. Spend time with Jesus and friends. Friends and community are critical. And many pastors struggle with this. And I get it. It can be hard to have close friends within your church because you are always the pastor to them. It can be worked through, but you need friends, whether in your church or outside.

It would help if you refilled your soul after pouring it on a Sunday. On Mondays, make sure you spend time alone with Jesus and read a book that fills your soul that isn’t related to sermon prep. Grow yourself.

If recent studies are any indication (and I think they are), it will continue to be a challenge to be a pastor.

You must make protecting your heart a priority.

I Worry About Everything

All of us worry.

About everything.

We worry about a child, spouse, or friendships. We worry about our parents’ health, our kids’ health, our spouse’s health, our friends’ health, and our health. We worry about finances, education, job prospects, and making ends meet. We worry about conversations we’re going to have, discussions we’ve had, and conversations we only imagine having.

We worry when we get into a car, take a walk, go to the gym, and get on a plane, train or boat.

We worry.

We worry in the woods, in a cabin, in an apartment, or a beach house.

Around every corner are disasters and calamities.

Some of us worry more than others.

The other day I was talking to someone, and he told me, “But I’m anxious. I was born this way. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

As we talked, he had a lot of anxiety. Much of it was about real things, but some of it was about imagined things, things that had not happened.

Most of our anxiety is about imagined things. Yes, we worry about things that are happening, but the conversation we’re worrying about having we haven’t had yet. Our kids haven’t walked through all of life that we have imagined for them yet, but we still worry.

As my friend and I talked, I asked him about some of the promises of God, like Jesus telling us in Matthew 6:25 to not worry about your life.

He shook his head and said, “But this is how I am. What am I supposed to do?”

What is so beautiful in Matthew 6 is that Jesus doesn’t berate us, guilt us, or scold us.

He simply asks, “Why do you worry?” What does worry add to your life? Does worry add to your joy?

Jesus wants us to evaluate our worries. This is incredibly important and powerful. It helps us to see what we focus on, and what gets our hearts and attention.

Think for a moment about what you worry about. If it helps, list it out on a piece of paper. Here are some questions to ask about those things:

  • What is worry adding to your life?
  • Are you fully trusting God with those things? Those relationships?
  • What is your worry revealing about your focus?

The reality is, my friend (like many of us) is a worrier about everything. That is his tendency.

So I asked him, “What is a sin, something in the Bible that we’re told not to do, that you don’t struggle with?”

Once he told me, I asked, “What if I told you people think they are just that way in the same way you think you are worrier, and that’s who you are?”

All of us have some tendency.

Some of us are more prone to struggle with sexual sin, greed, being a workaholic, or co-dependent in relationships. We don’t struggle with all those things.

I know that some of you read that last sentence and thought, “I don’t struggle with that.”

Just because you struggle with something doesn’t mean you get a pass, or you can disregard a verse about that or think that you can’t change that in your life. Jesus can.

Worrying, like many other sins, is a matter of focus. That is why Jesus points us to focus on the things of God, the kingdom of God and then, all that we need, will be added to us.

What the Storms of Life Teach Us

One of the things that many people struggle with at various points in their spiritual journey is wondering where they stand with God. This can look like working to feel and know God’s love, wondering if there is something you have done or left undone that is affecting your relationship with God, or even asking, “Can you or have you lost your salvation?” These struggles are real and can be debilitating. 

I remember in college feeling the constant struggle of wondering where I stood with God. I asked if this sin or that sin did me in. Looking back, I realize now that I didn’t have a clear picture of God’s grace and mercy and the power of sin. But that doesn’t make the questions any less painful in the moment. 

Thankfully, Jesus tells us some important things related to salvation and being able to have certainty about where we stand with God. 

In Luke 6 and Matthew 7, after giving what is known as The sermon on the mount, Jesus answers this question. Now, the context is critical. The sermon on the mount is where Jesus lays out what life is like in the kingdom of God, where Jesus is King, and we follow after him. He talks about what is truly blessed in the kingdom of God, which is different than the world around us. He talks about money, sexuality, judgment, and so much more. But all of that is in the context of following Jesus as Lord, Savior, and King. 

The first question a follower of Jesus must answer is, “Is Jesus my Savior, Lord, and King?”

Jesus asks in Luke 6: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?” What is Jesus referring to when he says, what I say? I think he is referring to what He has just said in the sermon on the mount. Jesus says a disciple listens to the words of God and acts on them, does them. They don’t push it aside, think it was for someone else, or it doesn’t apply to them. 

So, the first question we need to ask ourselves is, “Do I read my Bible and do what it says?” While this seems straightforward, it is easy to get out of it. 

  • Think back over your recent times in God’s word. Has there been something you read that you didn’t think applied to you?
  • Has there been a moment when you felt like the Holy Spirit was moving you to do something, say something, or not do something, and you brushed it off?
  • Take a moment to confess that and bring that to our God of grace. 

Then, to help us apply this on a deeper level. Jesus tells a story about two men who build houses and get hit by a storm. One of the men built his house deep into the rock and had a solid foundation, and his house stood. This man, Jesus said, “Listened and acted on the words of God.” The second man built a house on the sand that collapsed when the storm came. This person heard the words of God but did nothing with them. 

Take a moment and pull out a journal or a piece of paper:

  • Think back on a recent storm you walked through. It could be health, relational, at work, or at home. Write out what happened. 
  • What did you learn about yourself from that storm? What did you learn about God from that storm?
  • Would you say that your faith was built on Jesus and stood the storm, or did it collapse?

Jesus tells us that one of the ways we see our faith is how it responds in a storm. 

A storm has a way of revealing where we stand and what is happening in us. It shows how quickly we turn to God or how easily we try to manage our way through a storm. 

How to Survive Monday as a Pastor

It’s Monday.

For most pastors, worship leaders, kids, and student pastors, this means the hardest and worst day of the week. Sadly, many pastors resign on Monday.

There are a variety of reasons why Mondays are so hard for pastors:

  • In the spiritual sense, what we do is warfare. You may have had to deal with a relational battle yesterday. You prayed with people, counseled people, and are carrying their burdens and weight. You have shepherded them through difficulties, wept with them, challenged them to walk away from sin, and watched people destroy their lives one step at a time.
  • You slept terribly on Saturday night as you thought about the day, got up early, and then slept poorly on Sunday night as you were simply too tired to sleep or you are carrying criticisms and weights from the conversations you had.
  • Leading worship, preaching, and talking with people is incredible and the highlight of my week but it is also incredibly exhausting all at the same time. You physically have nothing left after a Sunday. You probably have nothing left spiritually, emotionally, or relationally to give as well.
  • There is a good chance you woke up on Monday to a pile of emails from angry people, or people leaving your church, or thinking about leaving your church. You may have some fires brewing that you are wondering if you can handle. Maybe there is an elder or a staff member or volunteer that is a thorn in your side. And you are tired.

So what do you do?

While every Monday doesn’t feel like this and isn’t this hard, many of them are. Because of this, many pastors take Monday off. If you do, that’s fine. But I feel like that is making a hard day worse. Your family doesn’t want you around if you are going to be angry, grumpy, and have a short temper.

Here are a few things that have helped me and my family survive Mondays:

Get out of bed. While I don’t set my alarm most Mondays, you definitely don’t want to sleep too long. Get moving as soon as you can.

Know that Tuesday is coming. Most of the things that seem insurmountable on Monday look easy on Tuesday. I’m amazed at how often I get stressed about things and in 3 weeks’ time I have forgotten about them.

Get a workout, bike ride, hike, or run in. I know, you are tired and can barely move. The adrenaline from preaching is hard to deal with the older I get. I actually do yoga every Sunday afternoon as a way to breathe, calm down and pray. Get going, do something active. It gets your blood moving and you are in a better mood afterward.

Take a nap. You should take a nap on Monday. You will probably have very little steam by the end of the day, so lay down.

Pray for your people. Know that while you are tired, they are also tired as they walk into their worlds today. Pray for their faithfulness, courage to follow Jesus, and the burdens they are carrying in their lives. I know that you do this, but praying for them also helps to remind you of why you do what you do and keeps you focused on others on a day that is easy to throw a pity party. 

Work on your soul. Read something that speaks to your soul. You preached your heart out, gave everything you had to students and kids, led worship with everything you had, and now you need to feed yourself. Monday is a great time to listen to a sermon by someone else to be challenged.

Don’t be around anyone that makes you angry. On Monday, you have a short fuse so do yourself and others a favor and only be around people you like. The fallout from not following this can be bad for everyone involved. If you can, connect with a friend or someone who is life-giving to you.

Do administrative stuff. Don’t have a meeting on Monday, don’t counsel anyone. I know lots of leaders like to evaluate on Monday because it is fresh, but write it down, and talk about it on Tuesday. Return some emails, blog, following up with guests, and new believers, those are fun and invigorating for a pastor.

Serve your wife. You were probably a bear to be around at some point on Saturday or Sunday. She was a single mom on Sunday with your kids while you worked and she is just as tired as you are. I know you don’t believe me and think your job is harder, let’s say it is even. Ask how you can serve her.

You have the privilege to do it again in 6 days. That may not seem like a privilege on Monday, but believe me, it is. God has chosen you to preach, lead worship, teach, counsel, shepherd, set up, greet, help kids follow Jesus, and talk with students through hard situations. He chose you and uses you. So, when Monday is hard, remember, God could’ve picked someone else. And you could’ve said no. Since God called and you said yes, get back up on the horse and get ready!

What Your Anger Reveals about You

text

Have you ever had a moment where you thought, that’s not how this is supposed to be? My life isn’t supposed to be like this. Or, that moment wasn’t supposed to go that way.

It happens to all of us. As we sit and process our emotions, one of them is usually anger.

We get angry at ourselves, the other person (boss, parent, child, spouse, co-worker, friend), and at God.

We get angry at God, ourselves, and the other person for many different reasons.

We get angry when something happens that we deem unfair. We get angry when something happens that we don’t think should happen. We also get angry when God moves slower than we’d like, moves differently than we’d like.

Ultimately we get angry at God because we aren’t God, and he doesn’t act like us.

Jonah and God have a fascinating conversation in Jonah 4 about Jonah’s anger towards God. Why is Jonah angry? Because God did what Jonah expected God to do. Jonah knew that God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Jonah 4:3) He knew that God would relent from destroying Nineveh, which is why he is angry at God.

What is fantastic about the conversation is that God doesn’t get angry at Jonah. He doesn’t scold Jonah. He asks, “Do you do well to be angry?” In other words, are you angry for the right reasons? Is your anger adding anything to your life, faith, and the world?

I remember a conversation that Katie and I had 16 years ago. We were sitting up at 3 am talking in our bedroom. This was one of those life-defining conversations. It was raw, emotional, and hard for me to hear. My sin, stubbornness, and pride had gotten us into a tricky spot as a couple and in my career. I was running from God’s call to plant a church, and Katie called me on it. God was moving to bring me to where I needed to be. Dan Allender said, “When we hear the call to go, and we run in the opposite direction, God has a way of having us thrown off the boat, swallowed by a large fish, and spit onto the shore where we are to serve (and be). God allows us to run and yet to know that He will arrive at our place of flight before we arrive so that He can direct our steps again.”

That’s where I was.

I was angry. Why wouldn’t God make it easier? Why did God have to send people into my life that were difficult and left painful wounds in my life? Why didn’t he stop that?

I don’t have all the answers to those questions at this point in my life, but I have some of them.

Like Jonah, we have good reasons to be angry. At least we are convinced they’re good reasons. And they might be good. Jonah felt Nineveh deserved justice, not mercy. They were brutal people. How could God forgive them? Was their repentance legitimate and authentic? Was it fake to get mercy?

We’ve been there in relationships.

We’ve been there in life.

You might be there right now.

If you are, let God ask you the question he asked Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry? What is your anger adding to your life?”

Take family relationships. Many of us have broken family relationships that have caused us enormous scars. We are hurt, we are angry, we are isolated. Many of us have a right to be angry. But what is our anger adding? Is it causing good in your life to be angry?

What is your anger adding as you think about your kids, job, or finances? What good is it doing?

Most of the time, the answer is no; it is not adding anything. It is not doing any good. We allow people to take up space in our hearts who couldn’t care less about us most of the time.

Notice that Jonah is angry, but God is slow to anger.

Remember: We get angry at God because we aren’t God, and God doesn’t act like us.

Like Jonah, we get mad at God because he doesn’t do what we would do or act the way we want him to.

Like Jonah, we know God’s words are gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, but in our hearts, we don’t trust those words, and we don’t embrace them or celebrate them.

God won’t let Jonah go, and he won’t let Jonah off the hook. He wants Jonah’s heart. He doesn’t just want him to stop being angry; he wants to get to the root of why he is mad. So God appoints a plant, a worm, and a scorching wind. We are being told that God can use all the good, the bad, and the hard for our good. God wants Jonah’s heart and will use whatever means necessary to get it.

God wants your heart and will use whatever means necessary to get it.

This is important, so I don’t want you to miss this.

What you get angry about is important. What you are angry at God for right now is important.

Because when we get angry, we know we are onto something. We know we have hit on something that matters, something we need to dig into. Whenever you are angry, you must stop and ask why and what is happening at that moment because your anger is revealing something you must face, you must deal with. It is important to you, and it is vital to the state of your heart.

That is the invitation God is giving to Jonah, and to us, as the book of Jonah ends.

What are you angry at? Is that a good thing to be angry at?

The Power of Regret (And How to Move Forward)

curve road signage

Do you have anything you wish you could undo or redo?

We all do.

Some moments stand out in our lives, moments we wonder, “what if I would’ve done this instead of that? What if I had said yes to that date or job? What if I went to that school instead of working after high school?”

We also wonder about things we didn’t have anything to do with: How would my life be different if I grew up in another city? How would my life be different if my parents stayed together?

Regret and memories of things done and left undone are incredibly powerful.

Daniel Pink, a researcher that I love, recently did the most extensive research project on regret and wrote a book called the Power of Regret. 

Because regret is powerful. 

Some regrets we carry are huge ones, and others are small moments of regret, but they still impact us.

He said there are 4 core regrets that many of us carry:

1. Foundation regrets. This is the “too much” or “too little” regret as you look back on your life and think about having too much alcohol or partying in college, too much time playing video games, or spending money to get into debt.

Or the flip side, too little saving or studying, too little time spent with family and friends. 

This can also be found in the failure to plan, work hard, and follow through on something.

2. Boldness regrets. These are the moments in the life of taking a chance, going big, or going home. Starting that business, going back to school, going on that date. The moments when we stood at the fork in the road and could, in the words of Pink, “take a chance or play it safe.” The moments of “if only.”

According to many studies, we regret our inactions more than our actions. 

We lay in bed wondering what if, what would have happened.

3. Moral regrets. These are the choices of integrity and keeping our word.

Regrets abound here: Giving ourselves away to a partner in high school or college, cheating on a spouse, cheating on a test, lying to someone, taking the low road, and compromising. 

These could also be when you should’ve spoken up but stayed silent. When everyone made fun of someone, but we did nothing. 

Pink says that “moral regret is the if only I’d done the right thing.”

4. Connection regrets. These are the fractured and unrealized relationships in our lives.

They might be broken because of divorce, frayed because of words spoken, or broken because they weren’t what you hoped or what they should be—the moments when that person comes to mind, but we don’t call or text. 

Pink says, “a connection regret sounds like if only I’d reached out.”

Before moving on, do any of these regrets resonate with you? Do you see any of them in your story? Take a moment to write them down or list them out in your head. 

For us to move forward from regret, we must know what we are hoping to move forward from. 

We all have regrets, but what we do with them makes all the difference. We are told of one of the biggest regrets someone carried around in the gospels: when Peter denied knowing Jesus. This actually appears in all four gospels (Matthew 26:33 – 35; Mark 14:29 – 31; Luke 22:33- 34; John 18:15 – 18).

Peter denies knowing Jesus 3 times, just like Jesus predicted he would.

In an incredible turn of events, in John 21, Peter encounters Jesus, and three times Jesus asks him, “Peter, do you love me?”

Now, leading up to this moment in John 21, Jesus recreates many of the moments in Peter’s life (the calling to be a disciple, the feeding of the 5,000, walking on water, etc.) to remind Peter, no matter how high or low the moment was, Jesus was with him, Jesus knows.

This is incredibly powerful as we think about regret.

We often think regret is the end of the story, the point of no return. And while it is excruciating and difficult to come back from, regret is not the end of the story, and Jesus wants Peter (and us) to know that.

In John 21, Jesus is reminding him: Peter, I was with you in all those moments, and all moments can be redeemed.

I think it is telling that when Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” the first two times, Jesus uses the word agape, and Peter responds by saying, “You know I love [phileo] you.”

The third time, Jesus asks, “Do you love [phileo] me?” and Peter says, “Yes, I love [phileo] you.”

This is a powerful exchange. Jesus says, “I’ll take it.”

What grace.

We often think we need to have this incredible passion for Jesus, but we can’t muster that on our own.

I love how Jesus tells Peter, “I’ll take what you have and multiply it.” And Jesus does, throughout the rest of Peter’s life.

A man who denied knowing Jesus goes on, through the power of the Spirit, to launch the church in Acts 2 and through one sermon see thousands begin to follow Jesus, all the way to the end of his life when he was crucified for his faith.

All because one (or many) regrets weren’t the story’s end.