A calm, peaceful and untroubled heart

 

I am one of those individuals who overthinks things. When I think about the past I ask the “what if” questions. What if I had done this or not done that? When thinking about the future I want to have it all worked out as if I can actually control what happens tomorrow. And on any given day I have loads of questions about my life and what is going on around me. And if I watch the news or read social media I am aware that our world is messed up and that messes with my mind and heart. 

What I desire most of all is to live each day with a peaceful, calm and untroubled heart. I’m guessing that you want the same. We also know that for many of us this seems to be an elusive goal but God says it is possible. 

In First Peter 5:7, the Apostle says this: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” We don’t need to carry around our anxiety! Jesus says, give it to me because I care about you and because I am the only one that is equipped to deal with it. 

The key here is that we need to actively choose to give our cares and anxieties to God. The reason that we don’t live with peaceful, calm and untroubled hearts is that we don’t give our anxieties and worries to the Father on a daily basis. 

The great women and men of the faith often had what were called the morning and evening office or prayers. It was a set time each morning where they came into God’s presence and gave their concerns to Him along with a time of confession and worship. It was an intentional discipline to acknowledge their failings, their need for Jesus that day, to give to Him their concerns and worries and receive from Him the strength and guidance they needed for that day. The evening office is a time of thanksgiving for His presence and protection for the day.

Drawing on the example of these men and women of God, I start each day by writing out a prayer to God. Much of it is the same prayer each day - written again each day because my need is new each day. It grounds me in my need for Him, my brokenness and need for His forgiveness and transferring my anxieties and worries to Him. 

These are the opening words I pen each and every day. “Father, Grant me the serenity to accept that which I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Grant me today a calm, peaceful and untroubled heart. Bless me and keep me, shine your face upon me and be gracious to me, turn your heart toward me and give me peace.”

The latter portion is the prayer that the priests of the Old Testament prayed over the people when they came to worship. It is beautiful because it represents God’s heart for us. He wants to give us peace and He offers to us His peace. Each and every day!

If you want to live each day with a peaceful, calm and untroubled heart, it starts with a practice of asking God for that very thing. It is what He offers us and it is what He wants to give us. That today He would give to us a peaceful, calm and untroubled heart and that He would bless us and keep us, shine His face upon us and be gracious to us and that He would turn His face toward us and give us peace. His peace.

Three questions and three disciplines that drive ministry forward

 

Workplaces are designed to keep people busy with activity, but often, that activity does not drive a meaningful missional agenda forward in a disciplined way. There are meetings without clear agendas, decisions that get made and forgotten, leaders who have their own priorities that are not necessarily connected to a larger overreaching goal, and employees who are busy with good things but not aligned and moving in the same direction.

This is especially true in the ministry or non-profit world where the disciplines related to profit are absent. It is easier to get away without discipline, alignment, and focus. Of course, that is not our desire: We desire to be mission-driven and deeply effective, so what is the key to seeing this happen?

Meaningful work, alignment, and focus always start at the organization's top. The senior team has the responsibility to set the organization’s agenda. This is not simply about mission or vision but about annual and quarterly priorities, which will help move the organization's agenda toward that mission and vision. Without this discipline of annual objectives and quarterly goals contributing to that annual objective, there is simply activity without focus.

Leaders drive meaningful agendas and progress by asking three questions and establishing three disciplines. This is both simple and profound.

Question One: What is our picture of our preferred future? Everyone has a mission or vision statement. A picture of the preferred future is a written document of one to three pages that clearly describes the end result of the organization’s work and the practices and culture of the organization itself. To move your organization toward a target, you must define the target. Once written, this picture of your preferred future should be revisited once a year to clarify and make any necessary changes.

The first discipline is writing your picture of the preferred future. Leaders who have not defined in specific terms what their organization or ministry is about do not have a target to hit. They are like Charlie Brown, who never used a target because that way, he could hit it every time. Amusing but not fruitful.

Question Two: Once we have our picture of the preferred future in writing, what are the specific things we are committed to accomplishing this year to best move us toward that preferred future? In the absence of asking that question, many things will happen in the course of the year, but it will not be focused in a laser way on moving toward your goal. Without a target, dozens of small “moves” will not substitute for three to five organization-wide moves toward a specific goal.

Thus, the second discipline is identifying the three to five key initiatives the organization must make in any given year to move toward the preferred future. This is hard strategic work that often does not occur precisely because it is hard and because, with this work, accountability is inherent in making these commitments. This is what separates great leadership from average leadership. It is the discipline of moving the organization toward its preferred future annually with accountability.

Question Three: What are the specific “wins” that every department or leader will accomplish in the next 90 days by quarter? Large wins are made up of smaller wins, and 90-day win cycles keep staff and departments focused on moving the agenda forward. They allow you to break down large goals into bite-size goals that build on one another and make the annual “wins” possible. In this way, every department or leader identifies what they will focus on in the next 90 days. Focus is everything!

So the third discipline is that of running 90-day “win cycles” where the “scorecard” is the 90-day plan. This takes discipline and a regular rhythm of work that is calendared and built into the fabric of the organization's annual, quarterly, and monthly work. While the first few quarters may be hard, the ongoing discipline becomes easier, and the wins make it all worthwhile.

Organizational leadership is always about asking the right questions and living with the right disciplines. These three will move your leadership and your organization’s results to the next level.