Where would you like to be in five years?
Where would you like to be in five years? I’m not talking geographically but in your forward movement. What would it take to make you feel successful about your progress five years from now?
If you are like me, you love quick fixes. We are always looking for the secret sauce that will propel us forward in short order. Lotteries and casinos thrive on our penchant for rapid wealth. Diet plans offer quick weight loss, getting rid of pounds it took years to accumulate. Gurus offer seminars for leaders seeking to grow their organization quickly and painlessly. The list could continue ad-infinitum, couldn’t it?
Even Christians search for expeditious ways to enjoy spiritual depth and maturity. “If I just do this and this, and this, I’ll become a spiritual powerhouse in a few months.” Pastors attend conferences and seminars offering shortcuts to produce in-depth discipleship and church growth. A plethora of books are released each year, promising secrets that will rapidly revolutionize your life.
I’ve got bad news. Quick fixes and rapid advancement are an anomaly. We love to read about meteoric success stories, and they do happen, but not often. After our church became large, younger leaders would sometimes inquire how we grew so fast. Ha! I appreciated the recognition but then put things into perspective for them.
I told them, “Well, if you work for forty years, attend college and graduate school for sixteen years, and make thousands of mistakes that slowed your growth, you might experience overnight success.”
Growth is a matter of patience, determination, focus, and failure; all those noble words that sound good but nobody wants to experience.
Jesus talked about how things grow when describing the Kingdom of God. In His masterful manner, the Teacher boiled the process down to a simple formula.
“26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:26-29)
Seeds, like people, are naturally designed to grow, but all in their own time. You can sing or shout or talk kindly to a kernel, but it will not sprout any more rapidly, nor will it bear fruit before its appointed time. You can show it pictures of a fully developed plant or even place a piece of ripened fruit like the one it will eventually produce right next to it, and none of that will expedite the process. Instead, “all by itself,” the plant does what it is made to do.
Plants really only need three amenities to grow: proper amounts of light, water, and nutrients. When those conditions exist, it will do what comes naturally – grow.
Humans and churches are like plants. They only need a few key ingredients in the right amounts to develop. Spiritual development results from the light of God’s word, the Living Water of a relationship with Jesus, and the nutrients of genuine healthy relationships with like-minded people of faith and, finally, outlets for the fruit they produce.
If you want to move forward in the next five years, apply yourself to those fundamentals, and you will do naturally what you were created to do. You will find yourself further down the tracks, almost imperceptibly through the process. Be patient, grace-filled, and forgiving with yourself and others.
Is there a simple fundamental change that you could add or detract from your life that would pay big dividends down the road? Give it a try!
Live Inspired!
Don Mark
P.S. Next week, I will embark upon a three-week road trip out west, starting in Denver. I’ll be visiting some beautiful sites along the way and will place video updates on my Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages. Consider this an invitation to follow my progress and perhaps get a glimpse of some beautiful and interesting locations.
