Something about back to school week gave me a different idea for how to kick us off this morning. I proposed some optional homework at the end of last week’s newsletter, so I figured I’d turn in my assignment and share it with you.
If you didn’t read last week’s newsletter, take 4-min and check it out here!
Alex’s Homework
Here’s my current professional development plan:
Know Everything —> Go to seminary, read all the books, and build relationships with the most knowledgable people in the industry.
Master Communication —> Become a sage communicator and mentor who knows exactly what to say and when to say it.
Be the Change —> Win the hearts of others by displaying how God has made me through my work
As I sat with this and asked Jesus what he thinks, here is what I heard.
“Alex, you want to be impressive”.
And then, “Alex, you want to be different.”
And then, “Alex, I want you to be my son.”
Or as Carolyn would say, “remember you need Jesus too, Alex!”
It is never easy to see my own sin, but I’m grateful for the loving correction the homework brought me. Doing this exercise also made me realize that if we are going to talk about our development plans, we need to first back up and ask, what is our target? Development plans are designed to take us from where we are, to where we want to be. So where do you want to be?
What is your Target?
Given where the Lord led me in my homework, I started thinking about the sons and daughters of the most successful people in the world. I asked Claude what the research said about kids of successful “impressive” parents, and this closing summary really struck me:
“The children who seem to land well are usually the ones who found something — a skill, a cause, a craft — that was unambiguously theirs before the family name could attach itself to it.”
It’s kind of weird how that works. Successful parents pour their hearts into building something great, but so often their children want nothing to do with it.
Of course, as a parent, I can see the good in this. No matter what I do, I never want my kids to feel pressure to follow in my or Carolyn’s footsteps.
That said, isn’t this dynamic what we all do to our Father in Heaven? In Genesis 1:28, God invites us to partner with him in creation.
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth”
How do we respond? We say, thanks but no thanks God, I’ll pave my own path and make my own name. If you are honest, isn’t that what you want? To make a name for yourself?
To make a name for yourself in your friendships
To make a name for yourself in your marriage
To make a name for yourself through your work
My homework revealed it plainly, that is what I want. My target is to differentiate Alex from everyone else, and to make an “impressive” name for myself.
Our Perfectly Successful Father in Heaven
Here’s the beautiful, but not want we want to hear truth. We are the sons and daughters of the most successful person in the Universe. Our Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) accomplished it all already.
The evil one desperately wants us to reject our inheritance as children of the King of Kings. He wants us to make our own names. He wants us to find a job that we claim as unambiguously ours and to keep our Father’s name out of it.
Instead, the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s famous first answer is that “the chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever”.
As believers, that is our true target.
It is frustratingly simple. It can make us feel like we don’t get to contribute. Don’t listen to that voice. Instead, I’ll leave you with these two incredible truths.
1) Even though our Father created everything and called it “very good”. He also said to us, go and continue it (Gen 1:28). I got it started, but I left really important work for you to do, and I’ll be with you while you do it.
2) While we work, our Father works in us, and he reminds us that no matter what we create through our work, we are his masterpiece (Eph 2:10).
If we keep glorifying and enjoying God as the target, and allow him to sanctify us through our work, the Devil will have no foothold in our development plans!
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With Heart,
Alex
