A2G: Celebrating Christmas!

Celebrating Christmas is about remembering Christ; his birth, death and resurrection.  It is a time to remember His mission to provide each and everyone of us the opportunity for salvation.  He has given us the ultimate gift and in doing so endured a taste of humanity, as well as the joys and sufferings that accompany it.  We, by being his chosen ones, celebrate him daily and come together during Christmas to share His joy with our loved ones, friends and even those strangers we run into. Gifts in the form of purchased items, time, and behaviors are provided to reflect our love and faith in Christ.  

Let us not lose site of the spirit of Christmas by spending more than we can afford, by worrying about what others may think of our gifts, by failing to act with kindness or by being critical of others’ efforts.  Let us faithfully remain within the Spiritual realm of the meaning of the Christmas season remembering to celebrate Christ by caring for our loved ones, loving those who for some reason or other hurt and battle depression in this season, and by loving the strangers with whom we come in contact each day with a simple act of kindness.  

May your Christmas be a true celebration of Christ, one in which you faithfully practice the love of Christ!  Just a little advice to go! 

A2G: Peace, Discipline, and Teamwork!

I wanted to share Pat Lencioni's Article on Peace Discipline and Teamwork as this week’s devotional because it could not be said better.  It applies to work, home and church!  Pat is a regular presenter at the Global Leadership Summit and an expert on team building.  Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Peace, Discipline and Teamwork 
All people want the same thing in life: peace. Not happiness, which is an unsustainable and fickle emotion, but rather peace, which is the deep understanding that all is well, even when happiness is not possible. And we all know when we have lost our peace; it’s when we feel fear, anxiety, angst or dread. As much as those feelings are painful, they are actually blessings if we respond to them correctly.
See, fear and anxiety alert us that something is wrong, and force us to make a decision. Will we work with courage to recover our peace by identifying and addressing the causes of our anxiety and fear? Or will we choose to distract ourselves from those feelings through self-indulgence, and allow them to continue? Here’s how this choice manifests itself in my life.
I often lose my peace when I get caught up in following the news and indulging in entertainment, and neglect to pray. It’s like clockwork. I start to feel uneasy, even anxious, and I know I have a choice to make. I can either turn off the TV or shut down my computer, and make real time for prayer, or I can try to distract myself by finding something more stimulating on television or the internet. The first option is a little painful because it requires discipline and sacrifice, but it always works. The second option is certainly easier and more convenient, but ultimately leads me further from my source of peace.
Okay, so what in the world does this have to do with teamwork? Well, I recently came to the realization that teams also want peace. They want to know that all is well in the group, regardless of whether the organization is in the midst of great success or struggle. Essentially, they want to know that everyone trusts one another deeply, and is aligned around a common cause. They need to know that no toxic, painful issues are fermenting beneath the surface, and that teammates say what they mean and mean what they say, without fear.
But peace on a team, not unlike in our hearts, is elusive and precious, and must be maintained through discipline. Otherwise, it can be easily lost in the swirl of daily stress, sometimes abruptly, but more often, gradually over time. We usually know we’ve lost our peace as a team because we see the signs of it; team members hesitate to disagree with one another, they use passive aggressive language, or they engage in back channel conversations after meetings. Whatever the case, everyone knows that something isn’t right, but no one is talking about it openly.
These signs, as unsettling as they are, can be invaluable if we see them as alarm bells alerting us to take the steps to reestablish peace. They can provoke us to address whatever it is that is causing the problem, regardless of the discomfort it will inevitably, though temporarily, entail. It is always worth the effort.
But we leaders are human, and we’re often tempted to look the other way when we see signs that peace is threatened on our teams. Sometimes we just underestimate the cost of the problem. But all too often, we know the magnitude of the issue and simply choose to blunt the pain by indulging in the very behaviors that are causing the problem in the first place.
In my weaker moments, I’ve done this by failing to directly and compassionately confront a difficult or struggling colleague, instead indulging in water cooler discussions about them with others in the organization. I’ve also held back frustrations from my team to avoid potential conflict, choosing instead to vent to my wife or a friend. Of course, those behaviors only took our team further from the precious peace we wanted and needed, requiring unnecessarily painful recovery efforts later on.
The next time you feel that your team is losing its peace—trust me, it will happen and you’ll know it—challenge yourself to be the kind of leader that embraces temporary suffering for the good of everyone else. Enter humbly into the discomfort of that situation, because that is the only real remedy. When you’re tempted to choose the easier but destructive path of distraction and stimulation, opt instead to be the leader your team needs, and that peace demands.
Pat Lencioni

The Value of Family!

The value of family is beyond question critical to who we are and what we most treasure.  A weekend with my two daughters; one who lives in New York and the other who is away at school, made for a very emotional but complete experience.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have my son and his family join us.

Family doesn't come without challenges, but in the end all of those challenges are overcome by the love we have for each other.  That love is only enhanced by the common union we have in our faith in Christ.  Now we are not just a physical family but a spiritual family, united in one accord and serving the God we love and abide in.

But it gets better because in Christ our family is expanded to all believers, loving and caring for them as if they were our own children, brothers, sisters, moms and dads.  The scripture tells us in John 13: 34, 35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Yes, that is a command not an option, we must love one another in Christ as if we were one family, one body in Christ.  We must celebrate the time we spend together, the words we share, the messages we write each other, and so forth.  Imagine all of us united in Christ as one amazing enormous loving family, wouldn't that solve most of this world's problems?  In Christ this can be a reality if we honor the scripture and love one another the way he loves us!  Just a little advice to go!

Changing Bad Habits!

John 14:23
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Yes, living God's word is about developing good habits and developing good habits means getting rid of the bad ones.  Changing habits is not always easy but definitely possible.  There is a great deal of research implying it takes 21 days to change a habit.  This means you have to change the behavior and then practice the new behavior for 21 days before it imprints; it becomes a habit.  Some would debate the number of days arguing it takes much longer to really change behavior, but the point is that developing good habits means practicing new behavior until it becomes our new habit.  That is a challenge we as believers must face when we live for Christ.  The Holy Spirit dwells within us as our comforter and helper, helping us to achieve the seemingly impossible.  The word verifies this as it tells us we can do all things through Christ, Holy Spirt, who strengthens us.

My challenge to each of you is to take the time to think about your habits, the good and bad, and then initiate a plan to change your habits so they all align with God's purpose for your life.  Can you do it?  Are you willing?  Will you at least identify one habit you know needs to change and the purposefully plan to change that habit?  If you answered yes, then try pulling out a monthly calendar and writing at the top the habit you plan to change.  Then start each day by looking at your calendar and committing to the change and ensuring the bad habit will not take place and the good one replacing it, will.  At the end of the day, look at the calendar and draw a big red X through the day if you were successful.  Soon you should see a consistent chain of big red X's going through the calendar.  If you revert back to the bad habit, don't mark the calendar and start the next day.  Soon the pattern will let you know how you are doing; remember you are not alone in this journey for He is with you!  Just a little advice to go!

A2G: More Than Conquerors!

Romans 8: 31-39

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written “For your sake we face death all day long we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Where are you today in Christ?  Are you living the word or still wasting time living in the weakness of your flesh.  Not an easy start to this message, but yes we need to be called out and challenged regarding our engagement of God's word; its integration into our daily living.  Too many times, I find myself conversing with believers about emotional tribulations they are experiencing reflecting the need for God's word to be integrated into their lives.  Desperation surfaces often about the same challenges, many of which are caused by the same person or persons.  Often the advice is the same, focus on God's word and understand its truth, we are more than conquerors!  His word does not return void and given that fact we must then acknowledge that the challenges we are facing are nothing more than an opportunity to conquer.

For many of us, we believe challenges our opportunities to pray for the person or persons whom responsible for those challenges, we focus on the individuals or the problems failing to focus on the opportunity.  What opportunity?  The opportunity for individual spiritual growth, the opportunity to integrate God's word into every facet of our lives, and the opportunity to learn to practice the unconditional love God demonstrates to us with those who present the greatest challenges.  We must learn how to keep our egos in check, our pride under control, our emotions from being triggered by the actions of others, our low self esteem in check, and our insecurities from overcoming our rational thinking.  The word is intended to help us grow beyond our brokenness into the conquerors God created us to be.  Our rebirth begins the recreation process and it becomes our obligation to engage God's word, the tool that will help us grow into his perfected child able to overcome life's challenges and frustrations, becoming more than conquerors.  I say yes, I am more than a conqueror!  Just a little advice to go!    

A2G: This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine!

We have all heard the lyrics of this children's bible song, but have we really considered the meaning of the words.  As Christians we all have a little light ignited within us the moment we accept Christ as our personal savior.  We are reborn moving from the darkness to the light, being renewed and transformed into his image.  

Our challenge as new believers is to grow our light, to develop into strong and responsible Christians able to shine in the darkness.  We become a light shining before all as evidenced by our actions.  Growing our light takes place as we commit to prayer, to learning and living the word, and sharing his message.  We move into the place where our light shines in the midst of the darkness.  Darkness is no longer a place to flee from but rather an opportunity to let our lives shine bright, reflecting the message of Christ.  We often pray and complain about the darkness in our lives rather than recognizing that Christ places us in the darkness so we can illuminate the path for others, a light helping them find their way to salvation.

Recently, I dealt with a situation where the person was dark and unreasonable, a person I wanted to avoid at all cost.  I prayed what most of us might think of praying, God get this person away from me.  But today as I prayed God revealed that this person was not placed in my path so I could complain about them, but rather so I could love them and shine the light of Christ.  I fell into the trap of the flesh not recognizing an opportunity to serve my Lord, and instead criticized the person rather than loving them.  I now realize my mistakes; I failed to love the least lovable and to illuminate the path to Christ.  Fortunately God is forgiving and provides opportunities for us to overcome our mistakes and carry out the work he needs us to complete.  He wants us to be the light that shines in the darkness and gives us multiple opportunities to achieve that goal.  We can shine our light on those we serve at work, our families, our friends and on the strangers we meet each day.  Let's all let our lights shine!  Just a little advice to go!

Are You A Toxic Handler, A Peacemaker?

In the world of organizations and organizational behavior we look at how people formulate an organization and how their interactions create, manipulate and establish the culture within the organization.  Churches as places of worships are organizations replicating many of the same challenges because once again, people are coming together to impact the culture of the church.  Peter J. Frost's article regarding the impact of the Toxic Handler within the organization spoke to my heart with regards to the role of the Toxic Handler within the church, and every church has at least one or more toxic handler.  Unlike author Frost, I identify this person as the Peacemaker within the church.

So what is a Peacemaker?  Why do we need a Peacemaker within the church?  Many would argue the leader of the church, the Pastor, should be responsible for ensuring there is peace within the church, but I believe the role pertains to those God anoints to be peacemakers which can be anyone from the Pastor down to the Custodian.  The peacemaker recognizes the importance of helping reduce the divisions commonly found in so many of our churches today.  First and foremost, he or she practices God's word ensuring they listen carefully to the issues without becoming part of the conflict and without concluding they have all the answers.  A peacemaker focuses on reading between the lines to ascertain the true cause of the pain, does not take sides even if he or she has one, and helps individuals talk through the pain.  If trusted, they can bring a level of greater understanding of the word and its application to the conflict at hand.  Peacemakers are well connected throughout the church and the various groups within the church, they have the uncanny ability to walk on the waters that divide the various groups.  Succeeding in the role of peacemaker involves a deep understanding of self, the strengths and flaws existing within self enabling us to ensure his or her strengths are a blessing to others while keeping individual flaws in check to prevent an escalation of the conflict.

There is a lot to be said about identifying the role, talents, and skills of a true peacemaker.  Each of you is challenged to search within yourselves and assess if you are one of God's peacemakers; one who has been critical to addressing conflict and creating peace.  Perhaps you simply never realized that this is a calling a gift God has given you and the importance of being more intentional in using this gift.  Are you a peacemaker, able to alleviate the toxicity existing within your church, workplace, or school?  Jesus provides us with a prayer reminding us He was a peacemaker seeking his people to be united as one body in Christ.  Here is his prayer for peace:

22"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24"Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.…
John 17: 17-24

Let us come together in one mind and one accord to celebrate being the Peacemakers where ever we are!  Just a little advice to go!