Are You Growing?
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:1-2
Question 1: What is your single most important contribution to your organisation?
This is the question my professor asked me over a decade ago. But it is so powerful that I keep coming back to this question over and over again.
Are you a teacher, executive, banker, doctor, artist, lawyer, business leader, architect, secretary…? How would you answer this question?
If you are a father, mother, husband, wife; change the word “organisation” to “family.” Now, how would you answer the question?
Asking the question “What is my single most important contribution to this organisation?” helps us to clarify our calling and focuses our energy to be a good steward.
Question 2: Are you getting better at your most important assignment?
Recently, I challenged myself to do one of my assignments in a way that I have never done before. Honestly, it scared me to death, but I am so thankful that I did.
This is a paradox. We are by definition confident in what we are good at. But when our ego gets the better of us, such confidence may lead to complacency and ruin the very things that we are good at.
The late professor Howard Hendrick said, “If you stop growing, you stop leading.”
We don’t get stagnant. We are either improving or declining.
Apostle Paul tells us that we are all stewards (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). Whether it is our job, finance, or family; we don’t own them. God is gracious enough to “entrust” them to us for a period of time. What is required of us is to be “faithful.” (Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25 is a great teaching.)
However, we are not alone in this assignment. Paul also encourages us “to be strong in the grace that is in Jesus.”
Our life is based on God’s grace. It is upon this grace that we are encouraged to be strong, to be faithful, and to pursue excellence. Without grace, it is purely performance. But with God’s grace, however, we are free to live out a life that glorifies God.