Looking in, out and up: made for stewardship

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear
fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can
you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
- John 15:4


Attending a mastermind group focused on John Maxwell's book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Griffin, a Maxwell certified coach and trainer, gave us assignments to bring 2 questions about the next Law to the next meeting. While these 7 weeks together doesn't give us time to do more than hit the top-of-the-waves, the book and Griffin's poking caused me to dig, as I was hoping. Yet, I wasn't necessarily expecting the digging to be in regards to work.



I've taught facilitated that mastermind myself at least 9 times over the past 2 years and still, the two biggest "hmmmmm's" come from the laws of reflection and curiosity. This is from a guy (me) that understands God's design for us to work, was already heavy into evaluation & correction, and doesn't like to ask "why?" (but instead, "what?".....it's a QBQ thing).

This post was originally written on 11/4/2012 and as I was preparing to take Bubba for a walk that morning I had a strong desire (from Holy Spirit?) to listen to a Keller message. Made for Stewardship jumped out from the podcast list. This was at least the 5th time I've listened to the message but it collided then, and now, with the study about growth.

This is the first in a series of posts on Dr. Tim Keller's message on Made for Stewardship.

Today, two years later, I'm reading Matt Perman's What's Best Next and still pondering and practicing how I live out my Christianity at work. And all my life. Perman's book is giving me new purpose to my pause though.

I'll be writing more about my learnings from What's Best Next, and there's some really good stuff in there. For now, though, I'm about to go for a walk (without Bubba) and listen to Keller's Podcast again.

We are called to work because God also worked - He created the world! We can work for God by using out gifts for others. We also need rest from our work, which comes from our security in God through Christ. - Dr. Tim Keller

Dr. Keller continues to intrigue me with his delivery style. It's a mix of intellect, humor and a soft stab to the gut. Dave Moore mentioned once that he's so glad that Keller doesn't yell! Amen to that.

Keller hits the top of a number of important points in this short message without going too deep into any and leaves the listener with much to ponder. At around 14 minutes lays out the three guidelines to use in our work:

- looking In at what you're gifted to do,
- look Out at what people need and
- look Up to the One who's called you.

- look In to work because of who you are,
- look Out at the world around you and give the world what it needs to have and
- look Up to realize what you're destined to be


Dr. Keller's message can be found by clicking here.


To that end..........I pray I'm looking in, out and up, paying attention and growing purposefully.

Danny
512-773-6528

Ps....John Griffin's purpose is to help people live by design and not by default. He did a good job with that mastermind.


Link's mentioned in this post -

John Maxwell
15 Invaluable Laws of Growth
John Griffin
Dr. Tim Keller
Made for Stewardship
What's Best Next
Original Post

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