/// dream the journey

It's so nice to have our taxes done already. No worries or overnight shipments to a CPA, because there's no way I'm taking care of them.

I would rather pay a small amount at this point. We have a great firm doing our taxes and are fast, efficient, accessible, and easy to work with.

Our return was done in a matter of days, and our return is already in the bank.

E-filing is nice, as well as direct deposits on returns.

Who you are is more important than what you do.

As a leader, your character and integrity define your leadership. This is true in any arena of life. In the business world, it doesn’t matter what a leader accomplishes, if he loses his integrity.

Serving God is not too different. It’s just taken a step further.
Jesus said it best in Matthew, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

In other words, it doesn’t matter what a leader accomplishes, if he lose his intimacy with God. Nothing else can take it’s place.

We strive to develop as leaders in such a variety of areas: delegation, creativity, conflict resolution, etc. But do we strive to develop in leading ourselves spiritually?

Not just in spiritual knowledge, but spiritual action.

Are you acting on opportunities to do good for others?
What character is being developed in your life?
What fruit is being seen by those closest to you? Is it changing in a positive way?
Is their sin in your life that needs to be dealt with?
Is God speaking to you on a regular basis?

John Maxwell is famous for saying, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
And spiritual leadership rises and falls on your growing relationship with Christ.

Who you are is more important than what you do.

Young leaders have fresh ideas, different philosophies, new and diverse value systems, and a whole lot to learn.

We are inexperienced, but our tendency is to “know it all.”

The fact is our passion for progress and change gets in our way of our relational skills. We want to be heard. We want to be listened to.

But what we say and how we say it reveals the tone of our personality. We want to see “things done right,” but we forget we must first act right. The message so often gets killed by the messenger, and relationships are burned at the same time.

It’s this twisted irony that kills any influence we could or could have had.

Change, though, doesn’t happen overnight. Neither do values. And nor does influence come as soon as we step into a position. Just like our values have been developing in us over the course of our lifetime, so have the values of others we differ with. And some of them have been embedded for nearly double the time, and experience have proved them to be true.

For whatever reason, there is this subconscious thought that when serving God, there are times we don’t have to act like God. Patience when someone makes the same mistakes again and again… it doesn’t matter. Forgiveness when we’ve been corrected … throw that one out. Arrogance when our idea wasn’t used, and it may (or may not) have worked better… yeah, throw that one out too.

And if anyone ever disagrees, it’s almost always personal, right.
But to be a leader in Christ requires that we give grace to others' mistakes and shortcomings. We want it when we make a mistake, so give it at all times.

The book of Romans deals heavily with God's grace in our lives. Grace for life in Christ and grace to have different gifts and abilities. God gives so much grace to us.

Romans 5:2
"...through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."
Romans 5:15
"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!"
Romans 12:6
"We have different gifts, according to the grace given us."

And I love what Peter has to say in his first book, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." We are to administer grace to everyone we serve.

Christ was a model of grace in his life and ministry. And to follow after Him in every area of our lives demands that we extend the same grace that we've been given.

Remember, we were first called to emulate the character of Christ before He called us into ministry. He calls us to be filled with grace.

Live out the words of Paul to the Ephesians in Chapter 4, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

Not everyone will see eye to eye with every decision we make or every decision we think should have been made by someone else. Some things we would change don't need to be changed, and some things do need to be improved upon. But wherever the tension of grace and truth meet face to face, administer grace.