What if we all empowered other people?

I've been reflecting today on my role as someone who empowers others. I think we've falsely limited the use of this word to the church setting. We speak of empowering others for ministry, equipping people for works of service, delegating jobs and tasks to other people to get them involved in helping to accomplish the mission of the church. These are all good things and should happen within the local church. But what about the other areas of life? What about my family? What about my friends outside the church? What about your co-workers? What about your neighbors? This is the photo that has served as my desktop since my dad's passing in early January. As I've looked at it over the last several months I am reminded of the need to empower. Here's one man (the one clearly sucking his stomach in) empowering three other men to live life.

Sure, my dad could have just done everything for us. He could have cut the grass himself, he could have fixed the hole in the wall after one of our many angry brother fights, by himself. He could have changed the oil alone, he could have built the barn or the deck all by himself without any help from us at all.

Likewise, he could have forced us to create our own school projects all by ourselves without any help at all, he could have chosen to not show us how to handle a gun properly, he could have left us in the dark when it came to roofing a house, he could have left us all by ourselves, groping around in the darkness to figure out life on our own. But he didn't. He empowered us. He showed us the ropes, he guided our hands, he laughed when we made a mess of things, he likely cried when we really made a mess of things, but he knew, as we should also learn that it's all just part of empowering.

My father could have just plugged one hole. He was even good enough to plug several holes at once. But he realized that by empowering us, he was able to multiply his hole plugging ability. One man chose to divide his time in order to multiply his effectiveness and ultimately his impact. 
Here's the even greater part about multiplication, it's hard to stop once it's rolling.

Think for a minute about the lives that will be impacted by those that are represented in just this photo alone. One man's impact on three lives now impacting eleven other lives. You see empowering people has a trickle down effect. Those that have been empowered can't help but want to empower others. It feels great to be empowered but an even greater feeling exist when you're the one doing the empowering.

So what about you? Who are you empowering? Empowering shouldn't be limited to the church setting. We can empower neighbors, co-workers, class-mates, anyone and everyone we come into contact with. Teach, develop, train, better others, guide people. Learn to divide and then multiply. 

The Leprosy Epidemic

We've recently been studying the passage from the Bible out of Matthew Chapter 8:1-4 where the leper approaches Jesus in the midst of crowd, falls down to his knees and says, "Lord if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean." 

Now, the similarities between this leper and us today are striking and numerous, but the one that jumped out to me the most, the one that I've seen countless times in the last 14 or so years of pastoring is how the leper experienced banishment from the community. Having leprosy in Biblical times was more than a physical punishment, it also came with a tremendous amount of social punishment. You were literally kicked out of town. You were sent packing to anywhere but around people. You see, leprosy was contagious and the last thing anyone wanted was to be around a leper. Eventually, entire communities of lepers were formed on the outskirts of the community. It's this fact that made the leper of Matthew chapter 8 so bold, not only in his request, but also the manner in which he did it.

Of course there are still communities of well meaning believers that banish good people at the first sign of sin in their lives, but the vast majority of churches have learned to embrace people and meet them where they are at in their spiritual journey. After all, none of us have arrived, none of us have achieved the perfection that we project when we walk through the doors of the church. We're all messy people.

Why is it then that so many feel banished from the local community of believers? Why are so many people fearful of walking through the doors of the church? As stated above, there are unfortunately many communities of believers who still treat the struggling Christian as they would one with leprosy. They're fearful that their sin will become, "contagious". They're fearful that the one who struggles will somehow "taint" their holy sanctum.

While this does exist, I wonder how many struggling Christians banish themselves from the community of believers? I mean, isn't it easier to not subject yourself to conviction? Isn't it easier to not sit in a sanctuary or auditorium week after week and feel uncomfortable because what's being talked about isn't how you're living your life? What's happening with struggling Christians and churches across the community is no different than what's happening in our country and world at large: a lack of personal responsibility.

No one wants to take responsibility for their own actions and choices and so it becomes easier to just blame other people. We say things like:

-Everyone looks at me when I walk through the doors.
-I feel uncomfortable when I am at church.
-I feel like I'm being attacked.
-I feel like everyone is judging me.

I am certainly not naive enough to think that this type of poor behavior doesn't exist in many churches, but can it really exist in every church, in every case, with all people. We've become good at hearing about a few actual cases and projecting them on to our situations.

Now before you get really upset and fire off a comment to this post with your "actual real-life" example, remember, this may not be for you. But it is for someone.

Stuck behind a bus...

Today, as I was driving to an early morning meeting, I made the unfortunate mistake of pulling in behind a bus on a residential street. Now if you've ever made this mistake you know my pain. You can't pass it. You can't cut across a side street to get ahead of it, you'll never make it. You're just stuck. As that bus plods along stopping at every corner to retrieve its precious cargo, you are held captive.

Since I was afforded a lengthy opportunity to mindlessly drive down this ever lengthening street, I began to think about that bus. As frustrating as it was for me to plod along, the bus driver likely had a completely different perspective. The bus and more specifically the bus driver was perfectly accomplishing his mission. That bus driver had been tasked with retrieving every middle school student on each of those corners and safely delivering them to the local school. He was accomplishing his mission, albeit slowly, with perfect excellence.

In that moment I was reminded that at those time in my life when I become frustrated with my progress, it's not about the speed. It's about the quality of my work. As slowly as the bus was moving, he was doing exactly what he should have been doing.

Sometimes we become too consumed with progress and forget about the quality of our testimony. It's not about quantity, it's about quality. It's about a life welled lived. It's not about our speed or our flashiness. No one cares about how many babies a hospital delivers, they only care about how many of those babies come out of the hospital and head home with mom and dad.

How's your speed? How's your progress? How's your quality?