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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!

This morning I started reading “Sun Stand Still” again from Steven Furtick.  I had started reading the book after the Leadership Summit, but had put it down a couple of months ago and had not read it since.  The chapter I started with today was about a simple theology – God is Great, God is Good!  Under God is Great, the book said “Dream God-worthy dreams.  Pray faith fueled prayers.  Live a life that can be explained only by the existence of a God who is infinitely great.”  “If your problem is too big for you, it’s just the right size for God.Under God is Good, the book said, “Knowing God is great enables you to dream, pray and live beyond your means because you know He is able to repond.  But knowing God is also good enables you to dream, pray, and live beyond your means because you know He wants to respond.”The chapter ended with this comment: “Build your confidence in his goodness and his greatness, and he will do the impossible.  In our day, in your life.  For his glory.”This chapter was so powerful in its timing – Eagle Brook Church’s Christmas message was on “Doing the Impossible” and being a willing a servant, the same story as I had blogged about in Mary’s Message.After reading this chapter it made me want to go back and read the chapter before to see where I had left off.  That chapter was the “Surcharge of Sacrifice.  It talked about the sacrifice of Joshua and the personal sacrifice you have to make to do something amazing, as he said “Trade off to Trade up”.  In the book it said: “There’s always a trade-off.  Before God can bring his promises to pass in your life, he has to strip away all the stuff that keeps you from trusting him wholeheartedly.”  “Crossing over into God’s promise is always accompanied by a cutting-away process.”  and it continued:  “The things that God will call you to lay down or walk away from will depend a lot on where you’ve come from and where he’s taking you.”The book continued with the story of a corporate leader who was fired due to his decision to do what was right and not lie.  He lost his job, but took this opportunity to take on a job leading a mission area that is sending a thousand people to help dig wells in a foreign land.  Some of the comments that hit me:”But God stepped in and initiated a divine downsize.” “God often has to cut away our selfish goals to make room for the gospel in our lives.” “Now the question loomed:  was he willing to follow Jesus into a place of costly obedience?” “Now he realizes that when God removes something from our lives, it’s not because he’s trying to take away something good.  It’s because he’s trying to make room for something better.” “The same divine downsize that threatened to break him down laid the foundation for God to build him up to a greater height of peace and potential.” “Will we let God take away something we want now in order to make room for the thing we ultimately want?” “It’s a trade-off.  It will definitely cost you something.  But it’s always a trade-up.  Why?  Because God always gives back so much more that he takes away.  When he takes something or someone out of our life, he’s just clearing space in your hard drive for an update.”These comments hit me right where I am today. I feel that leaving Target was a “Divine Downsizing” and God is preparing me for something amazing. Hebrews 12:11 – No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.The book then talked about the story of Joseph.”Before God positioned Joseph to save an entire nation, he cut away all of Joseph’s security and tested all his loyalties.” “Don’t let anybody but God himself put you in your place.  And don’t stop forging ahead when you encounter opposition.  The fact that you’re fighting big battles means that you’re close to even bigger blessings.  The reason you’re facing fierce resistance now is that God is preparing an astonishing reward in your future.” “A high calling often exacts a high price.  But it always yields an astronomical return.” “He’s aligning your desires with his desires so that he can accomplish the impossible in your life.  And once you’ve made up your mind to pay the price and to trust the Lord with all your heart, no level of spiritual achievement is out of reach.  Because when you want what God wants for the reasons he wants it, you’re unstoppable.”It ended with a pledge: “By God’s grace, no matter what it costs me, I’m going to live by audacious faith.  I’m going to believe God for the impossible, to accomplish by and for him what I cannot accomplish on my own.  No matter what people think about my Page 23 vision for my life, I’m going to take God at his word.  I’m going to to trust him with my whole heart and follow him step by step, even when my surrender requires sacrifice.  Even if it seems like he’s taken me over the edge, I will trust that he’ll be there to catch me if I fall.  I will trust that he is good and that somehow, someday, he will work all things in my life together for my good and his glory.”This was the last chapter I read several months ago.  Why did I stop after this pledge?  Was it a God prompting to wait to read about the action steps until after I was ready to move on the pledge. I found myself crying as I thought how God worked these together.  The Leadership summit and this book began the process of moving my mind to something else other than Target. In my journal on September 18th I wrote the following prayer: God give me the faith to do great things for you.  Help me to know what you want me to do that I can only do because of you and with your help!Next thing I know, God begins the process of answering my prayer by removing my “Golden Handcuffs” at Target and the tradeoff process begins.  Then after the past 3 weeks of beginning the “trade-up” process, God prompts me to pick up the book and it was the perfect chapter to begin to move my process forward.What is the impossible that God wants to do through me? I feel God leading me in a direction. I find myself thinking about some pretty impossible things that only He could do, but I would sure be excited to be part of. I am finding the people around me affirming this direction in my life by their suggestions and thoughts. Could I be at the beginning stage of being part of helping an organization do some impossible things that are truly God sized. Has God been preparing me the past 20 years for a role that can use the gifts he has given me to do something impossible?    When I left Target, I received many notes and emails from people I had worked with over the past twenty years sharing with me the impact that I had made in their lives. The comments over and over affirmed that God has given me the ability to lead teams, develop people and connect value with the work that people do. It broke down into three simple words – engage, inspire and empower. I feel God leading me to use these three simple words to do the impossible.How exciting to see how God is weaving this all together!

During this Christmas season, a lot of time is spent thinking about gifts – gifts for your family, friends and a list of things that you want for yourself.  Most of these gifts lack eternal value – they are things we will play with, use, wear and then find a place in our closets, storage areas or garage.

But do we really think about the gifts that are given that have eternal value?  Think of the gift that was given to us by Jesus coming to this earth as a baby and dying for our sins.  A gift of eternal value that all we have to do is accept.

This Christmas is different for me as it is the first that I have experienced without a job and with having to think about how much should we spend on gifts for others.  It has also been a time where I have had more time to reflect on the many gifts that God has given to me.  I think of the great health my family and I have had, the great job that I have had for 20 years that has richly provided for my family needs, the great friends that God has given to me to share my life with and many more.

But one thing I had not thought of as a gift was this job change until having a lunch with a friend from Target yesterday.  He asked what has been the hardest part of leaving Target and I explained it was explaining why had left Target.  As I explained to him how I answer this question when asked, he said to me:  “It sounds like you have been given a gift”.  I had not thought of it this way.  But yet what a gift I have been given – I have had time to spend with friends and family.  I have had time to spend listening to God and let Him work in my life.  And I  have had time to look at other things to do with my gifts that God has given to me in with my skills and experiences and time to look for where He would like me to use those gifts to help His Kingdom.  What a gift!

What gift has God given to you that you have not recognized because you saw it as a hardship or loss?  What does God have to give you if you just listen and accept what He is giving.

As I begin my journey looking for the next phase of my career, I can’t help but compare what I am going through to a “free agent” in professional sports. A free agent has to put together their career accomplishments and stats and put a compelling case together why another team would want to spend their money on you. There are all kinds of free agents – there are those that everybody wants but only few can afford, there are those that you’ve heard about but the team has to spend more time with to see that they are the right fit for the organization, there are others who are the missing pieces a team feels they need to make them better.When I think about myself, what are my career stats? What skills, production, intangibles do I bring to the table that would make another team want me? What are my skills worth? Do you look for where you can make the most money or where you feel it is the right fit, even at less money than others can offer? How do you market yourself? Do you relay on your past successes to speak for themselves, rely on the word of mouth of past team mates or peers or agressively market yourself with a stat book and DVD of yourself?Now in human terms this would all be overwhelming, but as a Christ follower, I have a great Agent (God). God has a plan for my life and He will be there to help open the doors and negotiate the contract. That doesn’t mean I do not have to do anything. I have to take the time to listen to Him, take the time to study His Word, and be willing to follow His paths, no matter what. I have to be able to hear His ideas and be able to speak God’s vision into the opportunity that I may be applying for.Will this be easy? No way – I want to be in control and make things happen. I see the season starting and want to get on a team so that I am ready to play on day one. Allowing things to happen in God’s timing is not always easy, as His timing and plans may be very different than my own. This is why I have to lean into my Agent and trust Him. He has my best interests and wants to see me end up on a team that brings honor and glory to His Kingdom and in the end, His team always wins.

During this Christmas season, I found myself thinking about some of the parrallels in my life to how Mary felt and reacted when she was told that she was going to give birth to the Savior:
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38 NLT)
When I knew that my time at Target was coming to an end, I felt confused and disturbed and did not understand, but I felt God saying to me – “Don’t be afraid”. That night I journaled that I believed this change was driven to remove the “Golden Handcuffs” that I had at Target that would keep me from looking at other opportunities that God had planned for me. And while God’s plan for me is nowhere near His plan for Mary, her response is a lesson for us all: “I am the Lord’s servant”. This has been my prayer through this change in my life – make me Your servant. Help me to see what your plan is for my life.
While I have not had an angel come to me and tell me the plan for my life, I have had many of God’s people come and provide opportunities and encouragement about what the next step should be in my life. There probably won’t be a census that brings me to my new Bethlehem, but I do believe that there will be a door opened that God will call me to walk through and it is up to me to get on my donkey and go through the door and trust that God will provide for financial needs of my family.