12 Characteristics For Leadership

Read this over on the Catalyst Blog…

12 Characteristics For Leadership

1. Be Humble

2. Be Authentic

3. Be Generous

4. Be Christ-like

5. Be the Best at What you do

6. Be Consistent

7. Be Courageous, willing to go first and take risks

8. Be Honest and trustworthy

9. Be Thankful

10. Be a Learner

11. Be Inspiring and vision giving

12. Be Adaptable and open to change

What’s your thoughts?

God Can’t Use A Broken Vessel

I read this post below that is bolded from Jason Curlee’s blog and it totally resonated with me.  There are days when in all honesty you just want to throw in the towel.  When you question if you have ever really made a difference?  When you question will you ever feel like God can use you?  When you question, why is this so difficult?  When you question why others don’t get it when they have been told over and over?  When you question why you don’t get it when you have been told over and over?  I wake up some days so excited about how God wants to use me today and in the future and then I go to bed deflated feeling like I have lost the battle and the will to try again.

It comes down to this question, who is it really all about? You?  Others?  God?  You probably know the answer and yet our emotions and our feelings get in the way.  Our pride and our anger get in the way.  Our self-pity and horrible excuses get in the way.  Just in case you didn’t know the answer, it has nothing to do with you or with others so that leaves only that it is all about God.  It is only God that frees you from your past and from chains that are holding you back today.  I love what Jason wrote below and I ask you the same questions, what’s holding you back?  How can you start living free today? Trust me this is a journey that I am on and I don’t have the answer, but then again neither do you.  We struggle with this together, but we struggle because we focus on us.  There should no struggle when we focus truly on Christ and the grace that He presents us with.

“There are often times I feel God won’t ever use me fully. I mean how could He…my past is not the perfect one. I messed up A LOT. There are even days now that I walk between self-doubt and self-confidence.

I feel God wants to use me and yet I feel how can He use me.

It is in those days I have to realize I’m making it about me and not about Him. I’m not allowing myself to just be the vessel for Him to use.

BUT how can God use such a broken and ugly vessel I think……

Have you ever felt like that? If you have you are not alone. That’s why I love Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.“

Take that verse today and think on it…

what’s holding you back? how can you start living free today?”

Architect Learnings

So there is this urban legend that is on most college campuses about an architect who builds a phenomenal library that is state of the art in every way, shape or form but there was one problem, the architect failed to take into account the weight of the books. The legend goes on to say how the library is condemned because the state deems it unsafe do the fact that each year the library is sinking due to the weight. I don’t know if there is any truth to this urban legend or not but what I do know is that there is a principle that we can learn from it.

Obviously the weight of the books did not cause the library to sink over night, it was a long, slow process that caused it to happen, just as in our lives there are blind spots and areas that are slowly causing us to sink and we don’t even see them before its too late and we are condemned. Sometimes that could be a present situation but many times it is our past that keeps us from moving forward and being used to our full potential.

You can have all the greatest ambitions in the world, you can have a sound plan, you can do all the research that you want to but if you don’t take into account the blind spots or the dark areas of your life they will sink you.

Do you really want to live your life only to find out that you didn’t take into account the weight of the books?

Catalyst East 2010-Francis Chan

In this segment, Francis focuses on a thought that his wife had about “Thinking Biblically”. For more leadership content or to purchase the full talk go to http://catalystspace.com