8 Filters I Use to Determine the Content I Allow to Influence Me

8 Filters I Use to Determine the Content I Allow to Influence Me

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs, articles, books, the latest and greatest you-should-do-this or buy-this resources, and listening to a lot of podcasts, in fact I regularly throw my own stuff in the mix… yep, I own it, I am a blogger, I am a podcaster, I am a writer, I have a lot of things in my heart and my head and I have joined the ranks.

I love to read what other people are thinking, but more than that, I love to read insights from people who have an obvious relationship with God and have a few scars to prove they’ve remained faithful through some tough stuff.

This past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about who I will and should listen to, who I will read, and who I will take advice from. Hey, I’ve learned incredible things from the most unlikely sources, many of them secular. It irks me just a little that sometimes it seems more wisdom flows from “secular” authors than from Christ-following writers and leaders. After all, God is the source of the most excellent wisdom. (more…)

Mom Taught Presence, Dad Taught Process

Dad taught me the power of believing in myself. Mom taught me the power of believing in God. Mom taught me to pursue the Presence of God and Dad taught me how to develop processes to implement and execute vision.

Fathers Day

I am so weary of those who focus solely on plans and strategies to sucessfully push and shove their own agenda on everyone around them through sheer willpower and transactional leadership skill.

I am also weary of those who criticize those gifted to craft a strategy to fulfill a God-given vision because somehow they think it more spiritual to camp in the euphoria of the Presence, never fulfilling divinely birthed directives.

I am thankful for a Mom who taught me to value and seek the Presence of God in my life. She taught me dependence on God and to always seek God’s agenda. I am thankful for a Dad who taught me how to think and how to believe in what God had put in me.

We need to seek God’s agenda, His purpose and plan, His direction. We need to seek his empowerment to accomplish what He puts in our hearts. We need to understand how God made us and how He wired us.

My calling is to place my ear on the chest of the Father, listen to his heart beat, and then do what I heard. (Quote inspired by Henri Nouwin)

Once we hear and know God’s agenda, then it’s time to act, it’s time to believe in the gifts and abilities God has given us, it’s time to have confidence in what we’ve heard and build out an inspired plan.

Sometimes our purpose or calling is complex, but it finds fulfillment in layers of simple steps.

I need to courageously attempt things big enough that without God’s help I will fail, but also understand He has uniquely developed within me the faith, courage, experience and abilities necessary to do what He is directing.

Thanks Mom, for teaching me to rely on God and not self.

Thanks Dad, for teaching me that God put  good abilities and gifts in me.

The mix of these two, Presence and process, have made me who I am. I want to fully follow God’s agenda and I want to build structures and processes that will actually accomplish the vision.

On this Father’s Day I am thankful for strength in the two things I must have, the Presence of God and the process thinking to accomplish God’s agenda.

As a transformational leader, give attention to those two things in the lives of those you love and lead!