Refiner’s Fire . . .

Jesus is a study in wise thinking when it comes to service. Reading about the feeding of the five thousand reminds us of his retreat that quickly followed. Just as the crowd grew, He retreated. Why? This was his finest hour so far. The crowds were for Him, but Jesus knew the crowds weren’t with Him. They wanted to make Him king but they didn’t want a suffering servant for a leader. They wanted a commanding leader. Jesus retreated to recalibrate His life to God’s plan, not the people’s plan.

Causes fail because leaders loose their way in an ocean of red tape. Causes fail because leaders lose their passion. Causes fail because followers have little to do and they back bite and destroy from within. They fail because times have changed and they have not. Finally, they fail because the leaders had a false sense of how things worked in the first place. This is not an exhaustive list by any means.

Causes succeed because leaders and followers have passion for what they are doing. There is a clear and definable vision of the cause. The focus of the work carries back to accomplishing the vision and that is clear to everyone. The purpose is valid enough to draw loyalty, giving people drive to work. Simply put, the reason causes succeed is because workers and leaders recalibrate to the simple value that this cause needs doing, we are passionate to do it and we know what “IT” is.

When Jesus retreated from the successful activity of His ministry, it wasn’t to get a break. He retreated to recalibrate His Father’s will for the world and Himself. Is that what we do? Is that what you do? Do we ask ourselves to use retreat time to reconnect to the Father’s work and His part for us in it? If you don’t, try it, you’ll like it. Your passion will grow, the vision will become clearer, your drive will increase, and loyalty will show in your work, and most of all, God will be glorified. Now that is a worthy cause.

Dr. Stanley Spence