The subtitle of this great new book by David Platt is taking back your faith from the American Dream.  This is by far one of the most challenging and rewarding books I have read in a long time.

When you become a follower of Christ you accept both the privileges and responsibilities of that relationship.  Discipleship demands radical obedience to be on the mission of impacting the world with the gospel.

The mission is to be carried out as you are going about your life everyday at home, work, neighborhood, community and ultimately to the ends of earth.  This means that we all need to see ourselves as missionaries and our task is to tell our story to as many people as possible.

The most challenging part of the book is how we as American Christians have bought into the lie of the world and committed the sin of materialism.  He is not saying in my opinion sell everything you have and give it all to the poor. 

He is saying that we have been blessed beyond measure compared with the rest of the world and every Christian should be living a lifestyle that reflects biblical priorities.  We may not need to sell it all but we sure don’t need to buy it all either and we must be generous in helping others who are literally dying every day from preventable causes.

According to David, “today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty.”  This reality forces us to move beyond mere knowledge and even debate to sustainable action that seeks to do something to help. 

How many starfish are you willing to throw back into the sea?

We have all had good and bad experiences with this wonderful but sometimes problematic annual rite of passage in corporate America.  It is always helpful to know what is expected of you and to hear from your superiors how they think you are doing.

As Christians we must never forget that ultimately our real employer is our heavenly Father. Because of the price He paid for our redemption we should have a passion to live our lives in reckless abandonment to His will.

His expectations are very clear as we are going about our everyday lives we are to be spreading the aroma of His grace to all of the people we come in contact with in every situation.  Our lives should be living epistles to be known and read by all at home, at work and in the normal patterns of life.

As we unconditionally minister grace to other people we are earning the trust and opportunity to share with them the reason of the hope that lies within us.  Our conviction is that stuff and success don’t really matter in the end but what we have done to move others toward knowing Christ does.

Jesus said it so clearly that it cannot be missed as the Father has sent Him into world He now sends us. We are to be storytellers of His personal grace and compassion in our lives and hope givers for all the broken people who live in utter despair.

During my final performance review I only want to hear one comment, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

There is wide agreement among most evangelicals that acquiring debt as a principle is not sinful but the accumulation of it can be devastating.  The borrower is indeed servant to the lender and when we use debt instead of living within our means then we have crossed a line that can lead to broken homes and failed businesses. 

As someone who has counseled many couples with marriage problems a clear majority of the time financial problems are near top of the list.  When couples do not take the time to develop budgets that reflect their mutual priorities in life then they eventually grow emotionally distant because they are trying to find happiness in things rather than relationships.

In a very real sense when we consistently have a lifestyle that is supported by debt rather than income we are living a lie.  Whether it’s the clothes we wear, the car we drive or the home we live in, the bottom line is we are trying to meet a real need in the wrong way.

The only way we can maintain our integrity as a believer is to make sure when we have to acquire debt that we clearly have the means to pay it back within a reasonable time period.  When we fail to pay our bills on time and in full we damage our testimony as a Christian and lost people see absolutely no difference in our values than the rest of the world.

God tells us clearly in His word that if we cannot be trusted with material things then we surely cannot be trusted with the deeper and more important spiritual truths in life.  He promised to meet our basic needs but we must all come to the place of answering the question: How much is enough?

The ability to gain wealth according to scripture comes from God.  He expects us to use that ability wisely and yes meet our needs but more than that have plenty left over to share with those who do not have enough food or water to make it another day.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been sorry in my life.  As I look back on all the mistakes I have made and the consequences I have suffered a clear pattern has developed.

Most of the time when I have been sorry it has been for the wrong reason.  I was sorry that I had been caught saying or doing the wrong thing and I knew that there was a price to be paid.

My sorrow was that I was not going to get to do what I wanted and it was nothing more than a form of self pity disguised as real quilt.  I was sorry because of the personal embarrassment factor and how people would think negatively of me as a person.

I also say I am sorry many times just to end an unpleasant conversation so that I do not have to deal with my own personal responsibility.  It can be a quick fix but never a permanent solution.

Sometimes I went a step further and really felt sorry for the damage I had done to other people.  Because of my actions they had to suffer and no one should ever feel good about that.

I will never forget the first time I really understood II Corinthians 7: 9, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.  For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.”

God is not very impressed with our prayers that merely tell him what He already knows about our mistakes.  What He is looking for is a genuine spiritual grief at what we have done because we have believed a lie by not trusting Him.

Sorrow is never real until we change what we believed in our minds to what God has already said in His word.  There really is a change of mind that always produces a change of direction.  Sorry, anything less is a disgrace to grace.

Most leaders understand there are powerful forces in place to maintain the status quo both on a personal level and with an organizational culture as well.  Therefore choosing the timing of when to start a change process that you want to be successful is critical.  

If you don’t have any of the following priorities in place then do not light the fuse because it will blow up in your face:

1.      Problem to be solved—at the very basic level of motivation for any change is the reality  that something  is clearly wrong and you know it needs to be fixed.  I am overweight and if I do not start an exercise program and change my diet I am going to be in serious trouble.

2.      Opportunity to be taken—sometimes doors seem to open that we were not expecting and the benefits gained far outweigh the risks involved.  A good friend offers to pay my membership in the health club for a year if I will commit to go.

3.      Crisis to be avoided—in this situation you recognize the perfect storm is brewing and if you don’t act immediately the consequences of my inaction could be catastrophic.  I have now had a heart attack and my doctor says without major change I will have another one and it will probably be fatal.

4.      Need to be met—this moves the motivation point high up on the scale because there are hurting people involved and the change process will directly benefit them.  If I am not willing to act based on what I need surely because of the people I love the most I will do whatever is necessary to be there for them.

5.      Calling to be followed—as a Christian I am called to represent Christ to the world in all that I do with my life.  If I do not take care of the body He has given me to be used in His service then I can lose my testimony and damage my effectiveness in helping other people.

These priorities also apply in our professional lives as we seek to lead the change process in the context of a company culture that tends to react after it is too late rather than respond to what should be obvious.  Leaders must be willing to cast a clear vision that the benefits of leaving the current reality behind far outweigh any pain involved in moving to a new and better place for all involved.

We all want to accomplish the things that are really important in life and learn the discipline to walk away from everything else.  Most of us have not taken the time to write down specific goals in a life plan that involves everything personal, family, faith, friends and our professional lives.

So how do we know if we are just filling our schedules with things to do without any serious evaluation or if those are the things that should even be done at all?  We don’t want to get to the end of our lives and look back realizing that a lot of our time was totally wasted on things that don’t really matter.

A great place to start is to evaluate how we are spending our time and our money.  Calendars can tell us a lot about our core values and priorities because they reflect the choices we are making.  No doubt some of our time is not our own to schedule but how we are spending a large percentage of it reflects what is really a priority and what is not.

Are you making time for the people and relationships that you care about the most or are they getting the leftovers at best?  If you really  want to know take the time to track how you are spending your time for at least a month.  You will be amazed how much of it is scheduled based on what appears to be urgent at the time but in the end is not really important at all.

The next big indicator of what is a priority in our lives is to look at how we are spending our finances.  If we are living beyond our means and accumulating unnecessary debt then we have a major character problem that must be addressed.

More stress is brought into marriage by this one area than almost anything else.  The only solution is again to write down a budget that includes all of your expenses and then have the discipline to post all your transactions and make necessary adjustments to live within your income.

You may think this sounds like way too much work to me and I am already busy enough.  Trust me you are already using calendars and checkbooks anyway but you may not be gaining any of the benefits of leading your life instead of just letting it happen.

When we all think about the concept of time we tend to focus on the immediate and what needs to be done right now.  Timing on the other hand takes the long look and always wants to ask the question why am I really doing this?

That pause to look beyond what I need or want to happen now can keep us from making some major mistakes in our lives that haunt us for years.

1.       Time focus hurts relationships:  All of us have been hurt or offended by what someone else has said or done at home and at work.  If we react in the moment many times we will say the wrong thing only to wish later we could take it back.  It is never enough just to be right we must say the right thing the right way and especially at the right time.  If your son just failed a major test it is probably not the right time for you to start that you are not going to be able to get into college speech again.

2.      Time focus diminishes faith:  When Joseph was in prison for something he did not do I am sure he wanted out now and many hours were spent questioning God’s judgment.  Joseph was concerned about immediately changing his circumstances while God was concerned about building a nation to lead in His plan of worldwide redemption for the whole human race. 

3.      Time focus rewards urgency:  Just because something hits our inbox or demands that we deal with an immediate crisis at work does not mean that it is really important.  Driven people are extremely busy doing everything they can as fast as they can without ever asking the question should this be done at all?  Time focus is all about efficiency of schedule while timing is primarily concerned about effectiveness of resuts. 

As people of faith we must be patient and remember that even sometimes to our dismay God is never early but always to our benefit He is never late.  He will be true to His word and in every situation of life even when we want to give up His grace will be sufficient for the need and it will always come in His perfect timing.

As Christians we are to do everything as unto the Lord and not unto men.  That means we have far more than a job we have a calling.

We tend to live segmented lives with separate time and devotion given to work, family, faith, friends and entertainment.  What comes with this mentality is the faith part of our lives tends to be limited to what we do on Sunday and it has very little practical impact on how we live the other six days of the week.

For some of us it goes way beyond that.  Our careers become the major source of emotional fulfillment in our lives and we become seduced by all the power, position and possessions that come with worldly success.

In my opinion every Christian should see themselves living in full time ministry on mission for God.  Their career then becomes their platform for impacting other people and not merely project deadlines and performance reviews.

When your whole life is integrated around your faith everything you do and every relationship you have takes on eternal significance.  The person you are now working for is not your boss but the One who died for you so that you might live for Him. 

Changing the world one person at a time is a career worthy of God’s grace in our lives and it is way beyond any paycheck that any company can give.

The days of build it and they will come are over for churches.  We may not want to admit it but for most Christians when they talk about church in their minds it’s about what happens at the buildings and not out in the community.

We must as leaders move the conversation from what we do on Sunday to what we do every day of our lives.  The Christian life is not just about coming to church but being the church everyday where we go to school, live in our neighborhoods and work in our careers.

I recently met with a very successful committed Christian who is a pediatrician who wanted to grow more spiritually and get more involved in ministry.  It was obvious to me from the very start of the conversation this meant to him taking on more responsibility at the church.

I began to share with him the vision that he could do more through his practice to reach young couples for Christ than we could ever do at the building.  They would not even come to the building to hear Billy Graham but they were several new couples sitting in his waiting room every week expecting their first child.

In this postmodern age, we must never minimize the importance of the church gathered for worship and ministry but we must prioritize the church scattered for evangelism and missions.  We must find new ways to take the gospel to where people live, work and play.

By the end of the conversation the light had come on for my friend because he no longer had a career but he now had a calling.  That’s what happens when you change the definition of success from increasing profits to impacting people.

There are many leaders today that want to move beyond just making a profit to really making a difference.  They want to be successful and that’s great but they also want the significance that only comes from adding value to other people.

When leadership is approached from a Christian perspective a new model starts to develop where the leader becomes more of a shepherd to their people than a boss to their employees.  They do care about performance and productivity but they also feel responsible for developing alignment around core values and creating the right culture for work-life balance for their people.

They also see life beyond the immediate pressures of planning, project management, staffing, goal setting and execution.  The legacy they want to create for their life and organization includes eternal metrics that must be included when talking about the ultimate bottom line.

The clear plan for every Christian is to use your professional life as a platform for ministry because we are all in full time Christian service.  Our lives should no longer be seen as segmented into faith, family, friends, recreation and entertainment but become totally integrated into being one life on mission for God.  The various roles that we fulfill are no longer competing with each other but complimenting the calling God has for our lives.

In the end there is only one performance review that really matters.  The evaluation criteria is simple, How faithful were you with all that I entrusted to your care?  Thinking about that moment should overwhelm us with gratitude and give us a renewed sense of passion to hear well done my good and faithful servant.