Work doesn't define you

I often here Christians talk about their jobs or career and many times we get it all wrong. We think our calling and our purpose is tied up in our jobs. There are times when people are called to specific tasks. Nehemiah was called to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Noah was called to build a boat in the desert. However, neither of these were the career occupations of these two men. Nehemiah was able to leverage his position as the cup bearer for the King and the fact that he had exceeded expectations in his post to complete what God had called him to do. Our jobs don't define us. Jesus does. His purpose in life is not found in a job, but can be acted out through one. Do you think David felt called to tend sheep? Doubtful, but God acted through the things he did in that position to give David the faith and skills needed to slay Goliath. Jesus is much bigger than our occupation. The most God honoring thing we can do with our occupation is to work at it as if we are working for God and prepare for the opportunities God will send our way. It seems most often in Scripture, God uses our occupations to position us in places for maximum impact. We mistake that for needing God to "call" us to a specific job. Yes, we should seek His council in our careers, but He is the God of the universe and can work through whatever situation you are currently in.

Look to Jesus

The third and final principle from Hebrews 12:1-2 is, fix your eyes on Jesus. In the evenings when my kids want to head down the street to play in the cul de sac, they invariably say "Daddy let's race!" This scenario plays out the same every time. Their youthful exuberance shoots down the street at breakneck speed. Finally my pride tells me that I can't lose a race to a five and three year old so I start running them down. When I do this, they start looking back over their shoulder. When they turn their head, they veer off course, dangerously close to mailboxes, ditches, and other potential hazards. They have taken their eyes off the goal. You see their direction is determined by their vision. The spiritual principal is the same, our vision, where we fix our eyes, determines our direction. Jesus gave his apostles a simple command when He called them: "Follow me". He essentially said, fix your eyes on me, because your direction is determined by your vision. Look to Jesus.

Look at yourself

Quick recap from my previous post. We are looking at Hebrews 12:1-2. The author is teaching us how to properly prepare to succeed. The first principal was to look at the previous winners and emulate their faith. Here's the second principal: Assess yourself. "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles", which tell us to look at ourselves and evaluate our lives. To finish the race of life as a winner, we must constantly pause to step back and honestly look at everything in our lives. This could mean giving up that extra TV time or scaling back on our facebook time to open up space to read God's word. It could mean dropping some religious activities to open up more time to reach out to those who don't know Jesus. Maybe strictly monitoring your budget so you can give generously.

The key here is constant self assessment to determine if you are still listening to and following God's direction. Throw off the things that distract you from who God has called you to be. Just like an athlete who trains with an intentional impediment, such as sprinter running with a parachute or someone performing tasks with weighted apparatuses, lay those things down before you enter the arena of your competition. Run His race freed from the impediments that so often slow us down.

Back in Saddle

So its been over a year since I blogged! I thought it might be time to get back on the wagon. I recently preached my first sermon to a group of guys who are also trying to hone their preaching skills. It was a 20 minute sermon on Hebrews 12:1-2. I'm going to hit a few of the points on the blog on the next couple of days. First here's the text: :

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Here is what I hope you can glean from the text over the next couple of blogs: The author of Hebrews gives us tips on how to "win" at life. How to look back at our lives when we get to the end and marvel at all the things God used us to do.

The "therefore" that verse 1 begins with asks us to look back at the preceding section of scripture. In chapter 11, the author (most likely Paul, but he is not specifically named in the letter as the author) talks about the heroes of the faith as recounted in the old testament. He names many of them and shows by faith in God and His promises what was accomplished through their lives. With that in mind, the first sentence gives us the first secret to winning: look back at the those who have won the race and emulate their faith.

The reason they won the race is not because of any innate ability, dogged determination, or supreme intellect... its because they had enough faith to listen to God and do what He said. God many times communicates to us a message that is nonsensical. God's miracle's work not through reproducible acts, but through the faith to believe what He tells us. For instance, Moses split the red sea with a staff, can you pick up a stick in the YMCA parking lot, walk inside, hit the pool with it and part the waters? Of course not, don't copy Moses' actions, emulate his faith! Does marching around a heavily fortified city seven times and then shouting and blowing trumpets seem like a successful battle plan? Of course not, but God had ordered Joshua to have the Israelites do this, so He could fight their battle for them.

God has provided us ample evidence of his faithfulness, but unleashing his power rests in our capacity to listen and believe what he says. Look at those who came before us and learn from ability to believe God and see Him move in and through their lives.

Change: Opportunity

The second principle is opportunity. Your ability to see the opportunity created by change is controlled by two things: 1) your availability and 2) your perspective

Your availability is controlled by the discipline with which you have lived your life. One of the reasons Laurina and I are able to embrace this move to Raleigh, is because we have been disciplined financially. We are not wallowing in a cesspool of poor financial decisions that have left us grasping for straws and searching for two ends just long enough to reach so we can tie them together. The way you live your life, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and financially can propel you to high ground putting you in a position to take advantage of the change or it can sink you into a valley so deep you cannot see a way out. Living a life guided by biblical principles helps you be available to see and seize your opportunity.

Your perspective is controlled by your attitude. When change happens, do you think "why did this happen to me" or do you think "how can God use this for His Glory"? If you can see God's purpose in the change, it can take a lot of the anxiety out and replace it with anticipation about the new and exciting way God is going to move in your life.

A quick recap thus far. To succeed with Change.
1) Be generous and invest in those around you, so you can be satisfied with the impact you have made
2) Be prepared for opportunities by living in a disciplined manner and look for what God wants to do through your situation.

Change: Give what you got

We in the Sigmon family are currently undergoing a lot of change. My job has been moved from Charlotte to Cary, NC and we are in the process of making the transition from firmly rooted family in Mount Holly with established friends and a church we love to a situation ripe with uncertainty and opportunity. I want to share the principles that have kept us grounded and moving forward with great anticipation and not fear during this period of change.

The first foundational building block is generosity. Generosity in this sense, means investing in the people God has placed in your life for you to influence. Investing as a financial term is a way to take current assets and turn them into future gains. Financially, investing your money and letting it work for you has replaced the old images of stuffing your money under your mattress or digging a hole in your backyard. Investing in people is taking your current assets (time, talent, etc) and turning them into exponential future impact. The only way for your gifts and talents to have impact beyond your sphere of influence is for you to give them away. Generosity of yourself is the key to enduring change initiated by powers outside of your control without any regrets. If your current situation forcibly changes: loss of job, death of a loved one, job location change, whatever, being able to focus forward rest in the knowledge that you gave everything you had in that past situation. The supreme example of generosity in your current situation is Jesus. Jesus was a healer, a teacher, a friend, and a savior. He had time for individuals and groups and seen by his interactions, be it with a woman at a well, his disciples, or feeding 5000 people, he always gave everything he had in those situations. The key to generosity is overcoming the desire to fulfill our own needs and seeing the needs of others. It is difficult in our current over scheduled, over stimulated society. We always feel like we are way too busy to invest in others. The truth is we choose what our impact and legacy will be by how we use the gifts we have been given. Will we invest them for exponential impact, or will we stuff them under our proverbial mattress by hoarding them all for ourselves? It is a lot less painful to deal with change if you have invested rather than living with the regret of the impact you could have made.

Sitting through church, Part 2

Wow, it took me a long time to get back to the blog. Big happenings as John Deere is closing my office in Charlotte and moving us to the Raleigh area. Needless to say, we've been busy, but here is the blog I've have planned for about 2 months!

Last time I tackled kids "sitting through church". This time I want to talk about why we as Christians value that. Here are the top reasons I could come up with:

• Its the "right thing" for our kids to do
• If we make them go now, they'll want to go later
• If we have to sit through this, they should too (yes I did just say that)
• If our kids can sit through church, it will make us look better and more holy
• Maybe they'll catch some Jesus or the Holy Spirit by just being in the sanctuary

Lets see what the bible says about Jesus and children. Mark 10:13-14 says:

¹³People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

So when these people brought their children to Jesus, did they make them sit in the temple courts and listen to the teaching Jesus did among the adults? No, they were brought into close proximity with Jesus and let him touch them, right where they were. Give me that for my children, give me an environment where they can be in close proximity to Jesus and be excited about it and want to come back.