“SPOTTO!!”  

“That’s not yellow!  That’s gold!”  

“It is yellow! And anyway, you tried to spot a green bus before and buses don’t count.”  

“Mum, is that yellow?”  

Oh the technicalities of a backseat contest.  They request that the stereo be turned down.  They keep score.  They focus.  Keen eyes darting this way and that.  And the tally starts. It’s actually quite amazing how many green and yellow cars there are on the road.  I had never noticed until they became ALL we noticed.

Years ago I learned that Moses advised us to turn the car stereo down.  As a much younger mum Moses taught me that the car ride was one of four daily scenarios to seize in the training of our children.

He speaks to us in a language we know.  He is so faithful.  He’s not a far off, in some lofty place speaking in a refined manner that we cannot grasp.  Because He wants to engage us, He speaks to us in a way we can recognise.

He’s not after perfection, He’s after progress.

Every step of the way He speaks in a sympathetic tone.  He sets before us governances in bite-sized pieces.  Just enough for now.  For this moment.  For today.  For the next step.  We hear, understand and choose.

Everyday contains within it just enough revelation to satisfy for that time.  Revelation that sustains, nourishes and encourages. 

We live in a generation desperate to shake off chains.  Seeking to keep options open.  Seeking to please ‘number one’, unencumbered by the responsibilities imposed on us by others.  We want to live life on our terms.  We want to be free. 

The result?
Bondage.

In trying to ‘live free’ we are actually tied up. 
A life without boundaries is a ruin. 

The apostle Paul described himself as “a devoted slave on assignment” (Rom 1: 1-2).  The truth is, some bonds actually set us free. 

There are some relationships, some commitments, that actually set us up for freedom far exceeding the deceptive freedoms of independence. 

Like a song. 
She came like a song. 

The loveliest sound. She sung melodies of possibility.  

Each word another note cradling hope, joy and anticipation.  Rapturous.  Captivating.  Intoxicating.  And entirely attractive.  Every hymn a confession of excited premonition.  Through her smile spilled the most perfect song.  She ushered in a language I wanted in greater doses.  I knew I wanted her melodies in my space.

To be surrounded with a chorus of hope. 
What a lovely prospect. 

To hear a complimentary harmony to the daring song stirring in our heart.  Another voice added to the score being written.  Could we sing together?

We are wise when we build networks of faith. 

Step by step.  
Left.  Right.  Left.  
One foot in front of the other.

God is faithful to bring us through.  So faithful.  So good.
He knows the beginning from the end and just what we need. 

Life is a journey, and every moment counts.  When we miss what God is doing today we come up short tomorrow.  When we despise our present, we forfeit our promise.  So many times, in our haste to wake up in the new, we fail to collect the things we will need to eventually keep us there.  What we need for the next stage in the journey is what God is doing right now.

HOW TO BE A LEADER OF LEADERS WHILE SERVING A LEADER

It’s decision time.  

Are you a leader or are you a follower? 
Are you one of the crowd or are you a culture setter?  

Chances are, as a young leader, you have been given some degree of responsibility while also being part of a team and being led by someone ‘above’ you.  Am I right?  And you want to know how to be true to your gifting and how to cultivate it.  Am I right?  

First thing you need to understand is that you can actually lead those above you, as well as those who have been charged to your care.  

Here’s how:

A contrite heart overwhelmed with gratitude motivates true worship.  It cares little for etiquette, opinion, or reason, but desires only to be expressed.

In fact it will almost certainly incite a myriad of responses from onlookers.  True worship has the power to polarise people.  Witnesses can be inspired and offended all at once.  Quite incredibly, their judgements are effectually negated altogether simply because the object of that worship is the defender and cover.

True worship is extravagant.

She came to him, Jesus, and poured out an offering worth a year’s pay.  I once asked myself, “When was the last time you gave something worth a year’s wages?” I was undone and compelled with a desire to give like her.

“Can you preach a message about what to do when things don’t work out?”

She greeted me half way down the isle after a double service morning.  I had just delivered a message on the breakthrough power of praise.  The Church was on its feet in both services, cheering and shouting down their obstacles.  I felt like I’d run a marathon, given it my all and I was on my way out of the auditorium when she met me.

“I did all those things you talked about just now, and it still went bad.  Can you write a message on what to do when everything goes wrong?”

Her eyes I will never forget.  Her frame.  Her longing.

This is real life, I thought to myself.  This is where the rubber meets the road. 

How to deal with disappointment, she was asking me.  How to stay in the flow of breakthrough even when things go catastrophically wrong.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity – Albert Einstein

I have grown the most in sink or swim moments.   

A storm will set into steel the resolves we need to strengthen us.  It will train us if we allow ourselves to be taught.  After all, smooth seas never made a skilled sailor.  You have the power to determine, by your responses, whether you will grow into health and strength, or in the opposite direction.  The choice is yours.

People who are effective in unfavorable circumstances always fascinate me.  When the odds stack up and the conditions are off, how is it possible to still come out bigger and better?

Jesus cursed a bare fig tree when figs were out of season! (Mark 11: 12-25)

And when He asked a fisherman to pull out again after an unyielding night on the water, was He suggesting that they could expect a catch in unfavorable conditions (Luke 5: 1-11)?

It begs the questions:

How can I be fruitful in and out of season?
How can I live a life that is not at the mercy of my conditions?

If I had the opportunity, what would I say to a younger version of myself?  15 years into the life of leadership, what are the truths I’d to pass on to those ones starting out today? 

Simple things.  Timeless things.  Tested true things.  The long-haul things. 

Well here are four lessons I’ve learned and adopted.

Where are you turning?  In each moment, each decision, each encounter?  Where are you turning?

Turning towards or turning away. 
They’re the two options.

There are a million tugs, pulls and diversions drawing away your glance from the one focus that matters.  Casting your eyes downward, outward, inward, away.

Shame pulls our sight downward.
Guilt pulls our glance inward.
Pride pulls our view outward.
Fear drags us away.

If you would only see His face in those moments.
All the while His face is a well, deep and fresh, offering water to quench the questions.

Turning towards or away is a decision of paramount significance.

It’s all in the turn.

There’s something about that face, and being caught up in it, that transforms every type of person.

Every leader has a pace.  A unique stride and rhythm. 

Team members run together interpreting the rhythm for the common goal.

The leader’s responsibility is to set the pace and the direction.  They serve the team best when they are focused and continually moving forward – in their lane, in their stride and with eyes set on the goal.

Dear Leader, can you see the scores of willing hearts wanting to run with you?  

It’s an important question. 

I often speak to leaders who are overwhelmingly concerned with the opinions of nay-sayers.  They are keenly aware of all the people who are not “running” with them.  So aware in fact they have become blind to the ones who are.

The ability to withstand pressure, to absorb load, to be forged into strength through the fire, is determined by a revelation of personal identity.

Not a function or a position, it’s an identity.

You are not hired help.
You are a child of God.

You are a son, not a slave.
You are a daughter, not an underling.
You are royalty.

You loved and you are HIS.

It’s six fifteen. 

I’m with Biggie-Smalls rolling out the daily tuck-in routine.  Master Five is in the bathroom next door brushing his teeth.  Miss Ten is packing up her homework.  Miss Seven is turning down her bed.  They are on schedule, about to set out school uniforms and back packs for tomorrow.

It’s seven o’clock. 

Master Five poses the question, “Can we read Nalia tonight Mum?”
“Yes Honey, let’s wait for the girls to finish getting ready for tomorrow and we will read Narnia.”

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Albert Einstein.

People who are 'overnight success' stories will often say it felt like the longest night of their lives.

‘Suddenly’ moments are usually underscored by a long line reaching well back into years of focus, energy and diligence.

We love the ‘suddenly’ stories and the ‘lucky breaks’ because they motivate us, and so they should.  They are real and they do happen. 

They just happen to individuals who do the right things over a long period of time.

The life of a Jesus-follower is counter-cultural. 

When the world bends and breaks under the weight of personal sorrows and circumstance, a Jesus-follower is counter-culturally joyful and confidently at peace.

The landscape of our circumstances doesn’t necessarily change but the filter we see them through most certainly does.  We have an unspeakable joy.  The source of our gladness becomes independent of our external events.

Isaiah 61

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, 
because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

Talk about counter cultural! 

It is the character of Jesus to turn the bitter into sweet, to give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning and praise instead of despair.

Jesus literally dresses his loved ones in full party attire right in the midst of their grief.

So how does He do this?
How does Jesus turn our grief into joy?
How does He clothe us for celebration in the midst of our hardship?

How is it that He brings about this counter-cultural way of being in the lives of believers?

I did try for a long time, to balance my world.  And it is the number one question I get asked when I travel and speak to difference groups of people. 

“How do you balance everything in your life?”

The truth is, I don’t. 

I’VE NEVER LIVED A BALANCED LIFE.

Think about what it takes to balance a set of scales; a perfectly equal quantity on each pan.  So to balance my life would require I give an equal portion of time, focus and attention to every part of my life.

That’s impossible! 

I could not and would not give the same amount to time and energy to my husband as my job, my children, my friends, my hobbies.

IN FACT IF I WERE TO LIVE A BALANCED LIFE, I WOULD BE DOING A WHOLE LOT OF THINGS AND NONE OF THEM EXCEPTIONALLY WELL.

I wonder how many people are running around exhausted and completely ineffective because they haven’t been told that balance is not even a thing.

[It's a cheeky one for you this week...]

Walking faithfully into the promises of God is quite the journey.  It is a road marked with challenge.  Although the signposts and weather may vary, the destination never changes.  The course is wrought with trial, but the inheritance is always constant.  

Regardless of the path, Heaven intends to see you into blessing.  

Will you resolve to make it through?  Or will you self-sabotage part the way there?  

Not much has changed in thousands of years of humanity.  God’s intents towards His people are still and have always been blessed.  His people, on the other hand, were once and can often still be, champions of self-sabotage. 

The Israelites set a foolproof example for us on how to avoid the blessing and promises of God.  Sure ways to help keep us wandering in the desert and dying unfulfilled in the wilderness.   

From the lessons learned between Egypt and Canaan, here are six steps to successful self-sabotage.

Our children enter wild landscapes every day of their lives. 

School.  Day care.  Football clubs.  Dance studios.  Youth ministry.  Children’s church.  Every setting is a savannah of different habits, worldviews, norms, and influences. 

My role as a mother is to build individuals who are capable of accurately surveying the landscape to confidently establish their place in it, while holding their own cultural DNA without compromise. 

I have loved the challenge! 

I have desperately sought the very face of God more times than I can recall.  I have waited on Heaven for divine strategies and specific language to use in shaping the four lives in my care.

One such strategy I have wrestled in the Spirit over has been how to navigate the impact of friendship groups on my individual children. 

Whether it be a separation protest at the day care gate or anxious insomnia on a school night, no matter the age, their friends have at times weighed heavy on their hearts and their expectations.

Each time I had a choice to make.  Would my child be a victim of mean behaviour, or would they learn compassion, self-respect and confidence through it?  When they came home into my arms with hearts broken and heavy hopes, would I fall down with them or would I coach them out and up? 

Could I harness their experiences to bring out the champion I have always seen within?