Life Coaching Far Beyond Merely the Good Impressions
Read I Samuel 16:1-11
God knew David possessed the quality of integrity. Today we live in a woke culture that seemingly no longer thinks it is important to even make a good impression. A generation ago or two the maxim to make a good impression was all that really mattered. And the generation before that, your life history mattered; it was called reputation! Oh, how the never once mighty have fallen!
Such short-sighted philosophies will not grow you into becoming the man or woman of distinction excelling in your God given destiny. Never! We can not fake it with the Almighty. He is not impressed with the externals. God always focuses on our inward qualities, those things that take time and discipline to cultivate during our sanctification. It is evident that as with David, He trains us for our leadership role with four disciplines.
First, consider how God trained David in solitude. He needed to learn life’s major lessons all alone before he could be trusted with responsibilities and rewards in the public sector. Solitude has nurturing qualities all its own. Anyone who must have superficial sounds, relationships, chemicals and rampant addictions,etc. to merely survive, lacks depth. If you can’t stand to be alone with yourself, you have deep, unresolved issues in your inner life. God uses solitude as a unique way of bringing those issues to the surface so we can reconcile with Him and others.
Second, David grew up in obscurity. That’s another way God trains His best personnel – in obscurity. Men and women of God, servant-leaders in the making, are first unknown, unseen, unappreciated, and certainly not applauded. In the quiet context of obscurity, character is built. Strange as it may seem, those who first accept the silence of obscurity are best qualified to handle any applause of popularity later.
Which leads us to the third training ground, monotony. That’s being faithful in the menial, insignificant, routine, unexciting, uneventful, daily tasks of life. Life without a break … without the wine and roses. Just dull, plain L-I-F-E, though joyously better, once we upgrade our Pilgrim status from “standby” to His “first class,” such as “living in faithful evangelism,” strictly a spiritual perspective of His love being shared with those about us devoid of any hope. Without hope, life is just a constant, unchanging, endless routine of tired monotony as you seek to become a man or woman of God … with nobody else around, when nobody else notices, when nobody else even cares. Monotony provides us the training we need to “wing it before we king it.”
That brings us to the fourth discipline: reality. Up until now, you might have the feeling that despite the solitude, obscurity, and monotony, David was just sitting out on some hilltop in a mystic haze, composing great pieces of music, or relaxing in the pastures of Judea having a great time training his sheep to sit on their hind legs. If so, it is definitely time for us to seek a quantum leap of faith from our inhibitions expressed in the works of our hearts and minds to the realms beyond, as we determine what is actually spiritual reality in our lives right now, especially with the proliferation of oppressive deceptive narrative noise bombarding our consciousness today.
When we in the pews seemingly prefer silence and to remain uninvolved, especially in light of the events on our world’s stage today, we as the older experienced congregants must mentor the younger to focus on what scripture teaches us about Holy Spirit empowered solitude, obscurity, and monotony …all while rooting down into His revealed reality so we all are prepared when persecution comes knocking on our doors!
FYI: The classic book on integrity was written by Christian author Dr. Henry Cloud, titled “Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality.” (tonight available for $3.95 used from ThriftBooks).
This post was inspired by and adapted from Chuck Swindoll’s devotional book “Great Days with the Great Lives,” Week 15 – Friday.