Where Do I Start?
Whether it’s a project, a road trip, a difficult conversation, or a catastrophic emergency, this is a question we face every single day and often need to resolve quickly.
As leaders, we frequently address the question subconsciously. Our routines, patterns of behavior, and experience kick in.
Before we realize what’s happening, we are four or five steps into the process and probably don’t even appreciate that we have not addressed this most basic of questions directly.
Although this pattern of execution may sound efficient – maybe even a base expectation for the seasoned leader – is it the best way to approach the significant crossroads we face in our business, life, and faith journey?
Terry Looper, author, family man, and oil industry executive (Founder/CEO of Texco LP), outlines a simple, repeatable, God-honoring, 4-step decision-making process in his book “Sacred Pace” that Christian executive leaders would do well to consider.
His answer to the question “Where do I start?” may seem a little cliché to some. Pious to others. Ridiculous to a many.
But for the few leaders who are seeking to honor God in all areas of their life – those seeking to understand the concept Brother Lawerence wrote about in “The Practice of the Presence of God” – the obvious nature of this starting point cannot be overstated.
Step 1: Consult Your Friend Jesus
Be honest with yourself.
When you faced up to your most recent challenge, is this where your heart and mind went first?
If you’re like me, probably not.
Even as a Christian leader, making this our habitual Step 1 does not come naturally.
Making this a consistent habit would be like developing a spiritual muscle – a practice that would require intentionality, training over time, and consistent reps.
Terry says it this way, “If you don’t train yourself to wait on the Lord, your flesh can mislead you.”
If you are a committed reader of my content (thank you!), you may realize that I don’t often go so overt as to regularly incorporate Scripture or direct biblical reference into the leader development material I create.
Make no mistake – it’s in there! I just don’t highlight the source directly every time.
But as I launched into the new year, I took a minute to ask myself – and by proxy ask my readers – “Where do I start?”
Ruminating on that question for just a few moments, Terry Looper’s wisdom came rushing forward, and I felt the need to share it with you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
- John 15:13 – 15
Step 1: Consult Your Friend Jesus
Happy New Year blessings to you, my friends!
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This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
"Sacred Pace: Four Steps to Hearing God and Aligning Yourself with His Will"
– Terry Looper
From Amazon: At just thirty-six years old, Terry Looper was a successful Christian businessman who thought he had it all—until managing all he had led to a devastating burnout. Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams but miserable beyond belief, Terry experienced a radical transformation when he discovered how to align himself with God’s will in the years following his crash and burn.
Sacred Pace is a four-step process that helps Christians in all walks of life learn how to
slow down their decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
sift through their surface desires and sinful patterns in order to receive clear, peace-filled answers from the Lord,
gain the confident assurance that God’s answers are His way of fulfilling the true desires he has placed in their hearts, and
grow closer to the One who loves them most and knows them best.
Sacred Pace is not another example of name-it-and-claim-it materialism in disguise. Instead, it walks Christians through the sometimes-painful process of “dying to self” in their decisions, both big and small, so that they desire God’s will more than their own.
MMS 25-01
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Blessings to you, my friend!
