Author: walker029

Our thoughts are one of the most powerful forces we must learn to navigate. What do they say about us? What we think about ourselves and others is what we can become, unless we learn how to change them. As a young man, I had a pretty rough time at it from the age of about 12 – 17 I was abused. For so many years, I lived with the fear that I could become the monster that I knew. It has kept me from doing things that I have wanted to as well as cost me the friendships of some fantastic people. Every day I reminded myself that I could become the monster. Until one day, my wife looked at me and told me that God didn’t create you to be a monster and that my past and these thoughts do not define me. I had allowed my thoughts to turn into actions and words that I started to believe. If I kept trying to control these thoughts instead of changing them and speaking who I am over myself, then I become a slave to them.

    Philippians 4:8 says, “And now dear brothers and sisters, fill your mind with those things that are good and worthy of praise: Things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.”

    So how do we do this? How do we put into practice what Paul is saying to the Philippians?

1. We have to honestly assess what we have been putting in (self-talk, TV, books, internet, social media, even people that we know). Think about it. Professional athletes have to be aware of what he puts in his body. Eating junk food and not sleeping right usually results in poor performance on the field or even worse injury. Our mind is the most important muscle that we have, and if you feed it garbage, it will put out the garbage. 
2. We must go to God. Spending time with God each day will help us to remember who we are as men and as leaders. This keeps us centered on Him, filling our minds with good things and praising him. I know that for me, any time that I go to worship, it is almost impossible to get me back into a negative thought process. 
3. We have to put this into practice. We need to pick someone or and area in your life that you want to change and start thinking of it in a godly manner.

So here is my challenge to you:

Identify that person or area of your life that you want to reverse the negative thoughts in once you have identified that area or person. Make a list of what is true, honorable, right, pure lovely, and admirable about them or this area and speak it over yourself every day for a week. I promise God will not only change your thoughts, but more importantly, He will change your heart.

One of my favorite podcasters is former Navy seal and author Jocko Willink. He has coined the phrase discipline equals freedom. In the phrase discipline equals freedom, Jocko is talking about having the discipline to push through to freedom, such as financial freedom. A daily grind that we must endure so that we can reach our earthly goals, goals that ultimately don’t matter, goals that we can store upon the earth, and never take with us. These goals can become the yoke that is heavy and burdensome and comes from living in the world we live in. But what if we rearrange this statement to read; With Freedom comes Discipline. 

In Galatians 5:13, Paul says in a letter, “For you were all called to freedom brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” 

We all have the choice of freedom from this world, but it takes real discipline to stay on the path that comes with this freedom. I know that for me, I have personally been struggling with staying on the path and even getting the two statements confused with each other. I was thinking of the path as a way to get what I want in the world, not being on the path of discipline so that I can serve and love others. I actually needed to be reminded of this and what my motivation is. The freedom that we get from God comes with a mission. It should be our motivation to stay on the path. To serve and love those around us, men that may be weaker than us, men that might not even know God. So what steps do we need to take:

First, we must recognize that we have we are free from the heaviness of this world. We have a path we can choose to follow or not. Second, we must embrace this path and step into it with strength and boldness so that we can maintain a disciplined life. A life that is worthy of example and influence so that we can complete the mission that God has given each of us. No, it’s not easy, and yes, we need God, but he has given us freedom from this world so that we can look to him for all that we need and have the discipline and strength to lead by example in our families, our work, and our church. So my question for you is:

How can you use your God-given freedom to serve the men and people that God has put in my life?

Order and Chaos

How do I separate myself from the rest? What will separate me from the rest? Where am I in life? What is my biggest fear? Why don’t I push myself harder? What is holding me back?

These are all questions that we have all asked ourselves at one time or another. I know that for me this is something that I honestly walk through most days and have to battle. Whether it is work, family life and marriage, or even in my ministry. We all live in a world where there is chaos all around us and sometimes we just want to live in what seems to be order, but what is chaos and order. I think that Jordan Peterson best describes them both in his book 12 Rules for life, “Chaos is where we are when we don’t know where we are, and what we are doing when we don’t know what we are doing, and order is the place where behavior of the world matches our expectations.” 

What does this mean, when we start thinking about the questions above.

Are we to busy living in order so that we don’t have to deal with the chaos that is outside.

But we are all called to live in the chaos so that we can strive to the order that is coming. I love how Hebrews 12:2 shares Paul’s thoughts, “Looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus embraced the chaos not only in his death and resurrection but in his life. He was the founder, trailblazer, pioneer of our faith. He did things that know one else was doing, he did not try to stay in the order of comfort and what was expected of him. He embraced the chaos and uncertainty of life. As leaders we exist for uncertainty, if we all lived in order there would be know need for us to build things, grow, get better. We would just be and God did not call us to just be.

I challenge each of us to think about what areas in our lives that we are just living in order and staying comfortable, because it is easy. Once you identify that place, think about one way you can improve and grow in that area and enter into the chaos of the unknown and watch how God will grow you, because he is with you in the chaos. 

What is your Chaos?

Then I heard the Lord Asking, “whom should I send as a messenger to the People?” I said, “Here I am. Send Me.” Isaiah 6:8

As men, we all know the overwhelming feeling inside us that there is more. A mission or operation that we are supposed to be on and leading. I know that I always feel that there is something more, something bigger than me, that I am supposed to be doing and striving towards. The question is, how do we figure that out. What is this purpose that we feel drawn to, and how do we implement and execute a way to reach it. 

The first place that we have to look is God’s word.  

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 NLT. 

God already has a plan for our lives; our mission is to understand and live it out. So how do we do that?

When I served in the Marine Corps and as a chef. Each time we either went to the field for training or I was getting ready for dinner service, there were four things that we did. Plan, prepare, execute, and assess. 

Planning – This is vital to the success of any mission. In the planning stage, you will not only identify the objective, but you are setting the key results. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there. 

Preparation – in the kitchen, we use the French term Mise en Place, which translates into everything in its place. When your life and focus is in order you are prepared to take on what’s ahead. As men of God we need to be prepared on three different levels, spiritually, physically and mentally. Before we accept God’s call to speak for him to those around us we must be cleansed, confessing our sins and submitting to God’s control. This is the process of growth and how we get better. So that we can truly represent our Heavenly Father.

Execution – This is where the rubber meets the road. We have spent time creating a plan for a target that we want to reach. We have prepared ourselves spiritually, physically and mentally. So now we have to take the first step. The great thing about this is that we dont have to make it to the end on the first go at it. Our goal is to get to our first milestone. Then we can look back and….

Assess – This is honestly the hardest part and the most important part. When we are able to look back over a set period of time and expectations. It allows us to see not only the things we accomplished. It also allows us the ability to evaluate how we did and make decisions on how we can do them better, make changes, or even stop something that may not be working. This is hard because we have to be willing to embrace the possibility of failure, but not failure like the world looks at it, but with the mindset that without failure I will never get better.