Q: Last month you shared how your mentoring has been positively influenced by your backstory as an atheist, how it gave you an appreciation of doubt as a growing pain of sincere faith. For both you and Barry, your current mentoring focus is leaders in the marketplace and the church. How does doubt manifest in the life of seasoned leaders?
A: We have tended as a church to make multiplication the pinnacle of spiritual maturity. Jesus mercifully saves our souls. We repent in response to His call to holiness. We learn to follow Him in ever expanding realms of our lives. We ache for the needs around us. We devote ourselves to bringing others into Christ’s Kingdom and health. Viola! We are “mature”–reproducing, serving, volunteering, leading…multiplying what has been entrusted to us.
However it is not uncommon for extended fruitfulness to be followed by somewhat of a fog. The pure satisfaction of serving somehow begins to ebb and flow. Some simply pep-talk themselves back into positivity but many in leadership will begin to wrestle with an unexpected flatness or seeming stall or outright doubting of what it means to love God and be loved by God.
And this is where intimacy with God invites us into a new and beautiful venture.
God never wanted to use us. God always wanted to love us.
As a mentor, when a soul can discern and risk describing this cold-ish place in leadership, the spiritual formation potential is unparalleled. Ancient writers called such spaces thresholds. Spiritual thresholds can not be crafted by human hands. The are divine offerings. When we stand before them we have a choice: either shrink back to something more tame, known, and controllable, or step across into His offered, mysterious, presence.
Walking with souls into that glorious invitation is among the most beautiful privileges of my life.
(P.S. This month, the application window for the 2016 Mentoring Encounters opens. If you would like to consider journeying with Barry, myself, or any of Lii’s extraordinary affiliates for a year of intentional spiritual formation, visit www.leadershipii.com or email grow@leadershipii.com)
I have never heard this before. I wish I had earlier, then the last year might have been easier. I’ve always been my own worst critic, and driven would probably have always shown up on the top five words to describe me. But I’ve not been myself for the last few years. And this year there was for the first time no energy left for the pep talk, and no desire to push through. But I feel that something deep is taking place as time and again I’ve heard God tell me no to my attempts to occupy myself with something productive. They were all great projects, but the answer was clear, and not to be ignored. The only word I keep getting is Sabbath…For the first time I’m beginning to believe that God loves me for who I am, and not what I do. I’m beginning to enjoy getting up in the morning again. Tasks are no longer something I have to “get through” I’m trusting God to give me my daily assignment and enjoying Him in the process. I hope that this is only the beginning.