All Hands and Feet Needed
Good Morning,
For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body… But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design. 1 Cor. 14-15; 18
As a businessman and pastor, I often find myself in positions where I am bringing people with various gifts together to accomplish something any one of them could not do alone. As a Life Coach I often find myself in the position of helping people discover their God-given uniqueness, and how that might play itself out in a particular season of life. It is a fun job.
For example, I was on a business trip recently, which was really a “connections” trip. The purpose was to raisie funds to help inner-city teens from Indiana get to Colorado for discipleship and leadership training. During that trip I met with the local retiring president of a world-wide not-for-profit, a retired executive from a large steel company, the founder of a 100-million-dollar business, and local ministry leaders. What do all these people have in common? They have a heart for the Kingdom, young people, their city, and want to do what they can to help. And then there was of course me. A small business owner who embarked on a second half career change to fuel others toward greater life fulfillment and impact. For a moment I found myself thinking, “I am small potatoes to compared to these other folks”. One of these other leaders also voiced the same sentiment about what they had to offer. Have you ever caught yourself thinking the same thing? Well stop!
I was reminded of a powerful leadership principle (as well as Biblical principle). Each of acting on our own in this effort, will be less influential and impactful than if we work together. We are all needed. There can be a common tendency to wish we were more like others in the misguided belief that we would be more valuable to the cause. That is a lie from the Enemy. We are most effective when we are ourselves! When we discover and live into our own strengths, skills, passions and abilities we will find ourselves in our personal wheelhouse- crafted by the Creator before the beginning of time. The attitude that we don’t have much to offer is… I can’t say those words here.
In the situation I described above, it takes people with the vision to connect people, the communicator of the vision, the funders to make it possible, and the boots on the ground to do the life on life training. Each is important, each plays an important role, and the collective effort, through the transforming power of God, is changed lives. The vision is and should always be bigger than us. If we can do it without others, we may be dreaming too small. The collaborative power of people being all that they were divinely created to be is astounding. The impact may well be eternal.
This Monday morning, I would challenge you with the old marketing slogan of the U.S. Army: “Be all that you can be.” And take it one step further by embracing it in concert with others trying to be all that they too can be.
Live this week on purpose,
Ron Klopfenstein
