Faithfulness

In our culture, it is something everyone values – and everyone practices. Those of us who realize genius in some capacity are faithful to ourselves, our skill-sets, our individual potentials. Those of us who realize amazing gains in fiscal matters or material increase are faithful to our investments, our imbursements, and our lucrative potentials. Those of us who realize profound relationships are faithful in engaging others, respecting others, and enriching others.

Each of us might find our own capacity for any one of these three to be superior to the others. Those of us who are distinctly aware of our abilities and liabilities will often wage war against our own potential, in the hopes of optimizing outcome. Thus, by focusing on results, we are often the most productive of the three. We often lose sight of God earliest because our focus is not on what God wants from us, but what we can do for God. It is a short walk from claiming one knows what one can do for God to telling God what you will do for Him.

Those of us who are distinctly aware of our incomplete skill sets often pick a second area of attention, that of investing in ourselves. Thus, by focusing on research, we often have the most resources. We have studied finance (and so know the best investments), engineering (and know the best load bearing structures, optimal flight paths, or mathematically optimal way to use game theory to resolve conflict), or art (and so are aware, by training, what colors or textures are most effective in a different scenario). We often lose sight of God because our focus is not on what God wants from us but what we think God means. It is another short walk, interpreting the scripture and wisdom of God to suit a perspective.

Those of us who find our focus is not on individual talents or research often find our energies focused upon our capacity to network with others. We find it innately rewarding to engage in discourse with many people, seeking first quantity, then quality, of connection. Those of us engaged in building relationships can find it rewarding to define the quality of our walk by the quality of our relationships – and can run the risk of focusing on relationships for their own sake. It is a short walk from maintaining a relationship with a small group of Godly people to personally engaging many non-believers, because we might be focused more on reaching out than being led by the Lord.

So the question is – what do we do?

Each of the three has a place in each of our lives.

Being mindful of ability, resources, and relationships provides us a comprehensive paradigm, and is a properly proportioned perspective. Knowing where your strengths and weaknesses are can help you be mindful of exactly where you need God explicitly, and where God has graced you with sufficient talent or experience to act in faith with wisdom. Knowing how to invest your strengths and gird your weaknesses through research and timely training can help you be mindful of how God wishes your own set of strengths and responsibilities to be exercised. Likewise, it can indicate to you where investment can be less than fruitful, and thus we can often find wisdom in relying upon the wisdom of others, instead of investing in the research ourselves. Knowing when to literally and comprehensively trust God, by establishing a relationship with Him, can be the single-most effective tool in guiding one’s life.


Today’s call to action:

Take stock of your own life and ask yourself which of these three you are too heavily focused on.

If your life seems to revolve around personal growth, possibly for its own sake – try volunteering or spending time every day deliberately praying to Jesus, engaging in intercessory prayer for those around you, or evaluating what forms of personal growth can glorify the Lord.

If your life seems to revolve around physical activity, try electing to set aside time out of your week to study scripture, or ensuring that the activity you are engaged in gives you more peace and draws you closer to the Lord.

If your life seems focused on predominantly networking, evaluate whether the people you are networking with are bringing you closer to Jesus and whether more of your own personal time might be better spent networking with Jesus.

As always, if you have some testimony concerning this, please share!