Author: Rick Post

It has been over four years since I have written in my blog.  I have written in my journal almost daily but I have kept my writing to myself the past four years.  I feel like it is time to share a little about what has been going on the past four years!

Today was one of those milestone days.  My youngest son moved out of the house into his new home and Beth and I are now empty nesters.  While that sounds like it is great and that you finally after 26 years have the house to yourselves, it also means that you have completed a stage of your life and you are moving on to the next one.

The past 26 years have been spent preparing for children, raising children, watching them move from kindergarten to grade school to middle school to high school and then move out for college to then come home as they prepare for the rest of their adult life.  You spend years feeding, clothing and helping them get ready for this time in their life, but when it happens it is bittersweet.  You have prepared them the best that you can for life.  You tried to teach them values and integrity, a work ethic and morals, but until you release them you never really will now how you have done.  As a parent, we strove to raise our children to love God and to love others and to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We wanted them to get an education, find good jobs and find a spouse to love and one day raise children of their own.  When the day comes when they have all moved out of the house, you can’t help to ask yourself “where have the years gone?  How did we do?  What could we have done better?”  But you realize that the time you had to raise them is over and now you hope they will remember what you have taught them and still want to come home for home cooked meals and maybe a little wisdom along the way.

And now the house is a little quieter and little less messy.  There is less noise and questions about “what’s for dinner?” but there is also a void you feel.  Your purpose in life has been to provide for your family and to be their for them for whatever they needed.  But now you are not needed in the same way.  You have provided for them and launched them on their own, but what does that mean for yourself?  How do you find a purpose that is bigger than just doing a job and paying the bills?  How do you take all the time and energy you put into raising and providing for your kids into something that adds value to your own life and the life of others?

Thankfully during the years of raising our children I never stopped dating my wife.  I love to spend time with her and we have done some amazing things together.  But we both have to find what is next for us.  We have to identify how to spend our time and energy into what adds value and not just consume our resources on ourselves.  I do not fully know what that will be for me, but I look forward to spending the next several months working to figure that out.

As I start to blog again, you are welcome to come along with me on the journey.

Why Me?

Of all the people you could have selected to work for your church, why me?
What do you see in the future that You needed me to leave my old job for?
What God sized happening do You need me for that is worth the sacrifice of what I gave up?
What did You see in me that needed to change?

Why me?  I don’t have a background in ministry or training in the Bible.
Why me?  I don’t have experience as a pastor or the ability to teach in front of a crowd.
What did You see that I don’t?  Did you just want me for yourself?

I don’t understand what happened, I don’t understand why You wanted me, but I know that You have something big for me.
When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, I wonder did they ask why me?
They were not the educated religious leaders or the popular people, but look what You accomplished through them!

What are you going to accomplish through me?
When so many people ask for your guidance, but you are silent, why did you speak so clearly to me?
Why me?

When you removed the golden handcuffs of my former employer was it to see how I would respond?
Would I seek Your plan for my life or look for something to replace the income that I lost?
Have I learned to trust You and rely on Your strength and guidance or do I try to accomplish things from my own strength?

As I move forward in my new job, may this be my daily prayer:

Help me to be humble and open to coaching and feedback.
Help me to not push on things that are not needed to be pushed on, while also not allowing things that are just good enough to be ignored.

May my heart be seen in all that I do and may my motives for change be pure and be led by seeking Your purpose and plan.

Help me to lead as You would lead.
Help we to coach as You would coach.
Help me to inspire and motivate as You would inspire and motivate.
Help me to serve as You would serve.
Help me to love as You would love.
Thank you for this opportunity and may I be about accomplishing Your purposes in all that I do.
Help me to be part of accomplishing things that can only be accomplished by You through me.

It has been almost two months since I blogged last. I have completed my first two months at my new job. It has been an amazing start to a new phase of my life. Working for a church is very different from working at a large corporation like Target. Every day I have to remember that success in my job is much more than getting things done. It is also putting every decision through the filter of God’s purpose. Is the decision or action I am taking driven by God’s purpose and in an effort to make His church amazing, or is it driven by my own motives. It is very humbling to start each day putting your decisions and actions through the filter of being part of God’s purposes.My devotional from yesterday included the following verse: Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. —Proverbs 19:21What a great verse for me to remember and stay focused on!One of the best parts of my new job has been the time I get to spend visiting our campuses. It is amazing to meet the volunteers who give of their time to help make our church amazing. I have gotten to see servants at work and to hear their stories of how God has changed their lives or the lives of their family. It is these stories that makes it so exciting to go to work each day and look for things we do that are good, but with a little effort could be amazing. We have to never be satisfied with “Good Enough”.I feel so privileged to be able to give of my skills and abilities to serve in a way that allows me to find ways to make our church a place that is welcoming to new people, is a place where people can find community and is a place where people can serve based on their giftedness.My challenge is to always stay humble and strive to serve in such a way that God’s purposes are accomplished and that the things that are accomplished are done in a way that brings honor and glory to God. It is not about me, but rather what God can do through me.I am completing my training so that I can be a pastor. Who would have ever thought that I would one day be a pastor? See God does have a sense of humor.

It has been a month since I last blogged so I thought it was a time for an update.  After accepting my position with Eagle Brook Church, I took the next 4 weeks to spend time reading, relaxing, preparing and spending time with family and friends.  It has been nice to spend time not thinking about what I will be doing for the next phase of my life.

The last four months have been an amazing journey, and now I am coming to the end of the first step of the journey and start the next phase on Monday.  It has been amazing to see how God has guided and directed me these past 4 months.  Who would have ever thought that I would be going from Corporate America to working for one of the largest churches in the US in 4 months.

The last 4 months have been a great time of restoration, healing, spiritual growth and learning.  God has given me the time to restore my mind, body, soul and spirit.  I never realized how exhausted and controlled I was in my last job.  I’m sure my family and friends saw it, but truly my job controlled my life – my time, my energy, my availability to help or minister to others.  It is always hard to leave behind your comforts, but God had a bigger plan for my life.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, support and encouragement these past 4 months.  These have been incredible blessings and really have helped me learn about my priorities and how to spend my time.  It has also given me the opportunity to be available to pray and support others for the challenges that you are going through.

It is amazing to me to think that God wants to use me for His Kingdom.  I am so humbled to think about the big challenge that lies ahead for me in my new job.  It is truly something that I will not be able to do with out God’s help and guidance.  It is awe inspiring to think of being in a position as a spiritual leader who will be working to develop people’s talents and develop leaders to accomplish God’s purposes by reaching lost people with God’s grace!  God has given me great blessings and provided me with talents and abilities.  My prayer for the next phase of my life – the next 25 – that I will use these gifts for God’s honor and glory.

Please continue to pray for me in my new ministry and pray that God will continue to do great things through me.

After a three month journey and putting my future in God’s hands and trying my hardest to follow His guidance and direction, I have finally landed a new position.  As my last blog said, I had hit a fork in the road and I had two outstanding opportunities in front of me.

After time in prayer, discussion with family and friends and after reading Chapter 8 of Bob Merritt’s book When Life’s Not Working, I made my decision.  In Bob’s book, Chapter 8 was “Try Things You Can’t Do”.  It talked about stretching yourself and doing things you couldn’t do without God’s help.  There were three payoffs called out in the book:

• You Experience God’s Power
• You Expand Your Capacity to Tackle Greater Challenges
• It Inspires Others to Try Things They Can’t Do

The hardest part of any journey is when you get to a fork in the road and you have to make a decision – go left or right.  Of course in today’s world we have GPS units or maps that tell us what we will find with either decision so we can see the route and determine which one will be better for us.

However in life, that decision is much harder as we do not know for sure where each route will take us.  Each route may have great sights, great people to meet along the way and end in the same final destination, but the roads and scenery may be very different.  How do you know which is the right path for you?

What we want is for God to put a roadblock up that shuts off one path so we can only make one decision.  But what if there is no roadblock and there are greeters on each road that want you to choose their path – then what?  How do you decide which path is God’s plan for your life.  What if both are Christian Organizations with great purposes?  What if both are looking for a person that matches your skills, abilities and passions?

You can be thankful for choices, but choices are hard.  They can disappoint people you don’t pick and put you in a tough position.   What if you choose the wrong route and when you discover that and turn around, the other route is now closed?  There is usually no turning back once a decision is made.

I can and will put it in God’s hands, but what if He is pleased with either decision.  Then what?  We can look at things like salary, benefits, etc. to see which offers more, but those are things of the world and are hard to help in using them to determine a decision.

I can lean into family and friends and ask for their guidance, prayer and support, but what if they have a bias?

Mostly I can pray and ask God for His direction and peace and pray that He will make it very clear where He wants me to go – like when He told Abram to leave Ur and go to Canaan or Moses when God told him to go to Egypt and tell Pharoah to let God’s people go.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. —Psalm 32:8 nasb A great passage for me.  God will guide me in the way I should go.  I always have to remember to follow Him and He will guide my path.  This is easy to read, but sometimes so very hard to follow.Being a planner, I naturally start looking ahead and putting a plan together.  But every time I think I have the plan figured out, God stops me and says not yet.  He has a plan for me, but He is not ready to reveal it yet.  It can be so very hard to be patient and take each day one step at a time.Yet when you don’t worry about tomorrow it is amazing how much peace and contentment you can have for today.  Instead of rushing through each day to see what comes next, enjoy each day with what it has to offer.  The people you will meet and interact with, the nature that you can enjoy and the time you can spend listening and sharing with God.

As it says in Matthew 6:25 – 34:“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?  “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:25-34 NLT)

As I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what is God’s plan for my life and what will the next chapter of my life look like, I thought it would be interesting to share what God has been directing me with.  I put it into a model so that it is easy for me to remember.  Here it is:

The Post 4P Model
Passions
Principles
Practices
Purpose

PASSIONS – what are your passions?  What do you love to do and you find you never get tired when you are doing these things?  For me my passion is to coach and develop people to become better.  This takes the shape of engaging, inspiring and empowering people who I interact with.  Passions are your motivation.  It is the WHY.

PRINCIPLES – these are the standards that you try to operate by.  As I have led teams, I have tried to operate under the following 5 Leadership Principles:

1. Create a team that people want to be part of
2. Have open and honest communication – operate with an open door policy that welcomes anyone to come in a talk about whatever is on their heart
3. Development is a high priority – always focus on helping the person to be better at whatever they do
4. Do it first, do it best – speed and excellence
5. Maintain work life balance – create an environment that is helps people not be one dimensional

Last night I attended the wedding of a close family friend.  It was a beautiful wedding and there was a fun reception afterwards.  As I sat through the wedding and reception, I found myself comparing the events that lead up to a wedding with the process of finding a new job.

The dating process is a lot like the job search process.  You send out resumes, work your network with coffees and lunches and hope that through all of the hard work you will make a connection with somebody.

That first positive response from an employer is like that first date.  You are nervous and hope that you make a positive impression.  You hope that they will want a second date by calling you back for future meetings.

As you continue dating with your new potential employer you know you are only one bad meeting away from falling out of favor and your relationship could end at any time.  This uncertainty makes you wonder if you should play the field to see if there are any other potential hot dates out there – kind of like “The Bachelor”.  🙂

You go through the dating process that leads up to the proposal.  They want you to be their partner in employment.  Might be at a fancy dinner trying to help you want to say yes as they try to woo you to say yes.

Now you are engaged!  But you have not hit the wedding date yet.  You have to work through background check – meeting the extended family to see if they approve.  You go through the wedding planning and negotiations – big wedding or small intimate affair which is like negotiating the salary, vacation and fringe benefits.

You finally get to the wedding day which is your starting date.  You sign all of the paperwork and you sign an agreement for better or worse, sickness or health to death do you part.  Of course this is no longer true in most employers today, much like the marriage track record.

Then you have a honeymoon period until reality sets in.  You mean this company operates differently than portrayed in the interview?  You mean you leave dishes in the sink?  You know how this process works.

As I think about this I am glad that I have been married to my wife for 26 years and have not had to go through the job search process in a long time.  Its like starting the dating life all over again – back to my days in college.  Ugh!

But at least I have God helping to direct me in this process so I don’t have to do it on my own.  I have to still get out there and do the work, but now I can rely on God to open and close the doors and to trust Him to lead me to where He wants me to be.

A new year has started.  I am so excited to see what God has planned for me and Beth in 2012.  I don’t know what it will be, but I believe that there is something big that God wants me to be involved in to make a difference for His kingdom.

As I have started preparing for some potential job opportunities, it is interesting how my mind has focused.  I find myself asking some of these questions – Will this job give me the opportunity to make a difference in God’s Kingdom?  Will this job allow me to use my skills and gifts of talent development and team building to make stronger leaders for God’s Kingdom?  A totally different approach than any job search I have done in the past. For whatever reason, the things I used to be concerned with – salary, career growth progression, size of team, etc. just don’t seem to be important to me.

I can only attribute this to God being control and my willingness to put my future into His hands.  A very exciting but also kind of scary place to be.

I have just finished Steven Furtick’s Sun Stand Still, and there were a few lines that have really stuck with me:

“Vision begins when you hear the sound of God’s voice speaking something to your heart.  It’s not an audible voice.  It’s more like and unshakable impression, an inner sense.”

 “Between the promise and the payoff there’s always a process.  That process is where your audacious faith comes into play.  Without the process, there is no growth.”

“The process is the place where you lay down your pride and learn to rely totally on God.  Most importantly, the process is the way we grow to know God.  And that’s really the whole point.”

“Hope is a desire.  Faith is a demonstration.  Hope wants it to happen.  Faith causes it to happen and acts as if it’s already done.”  “Hope is the blueprint.  Faith is the contractor.”

“Audacious faith is not passive.  Neither is audacious prayer.  Every aspiration you have in prayer needs an accompanying action.  Otherwise, you’re not really praying.  Your just pontificating.  You do the natural.  Trust God for the super.”

I could go on, but from these quotes from the book you can see the pattern.  I am in the process!