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A mentor once told me that the two most vulnerable moments for any leader are after a great failure or after a great success. And it’s those moments of success that I want to talk about today. I think it’s when God has breathed on something that we are involved in; When God has done something more than we could have ever asked or expected. We tend to want to take more ownership of those things than we should. And it’s not that we don’t have a role to play, but I think in those moments of success when God has just multiplied something beyond our wildest imaginations, we can tend to pat ourselves on the back. Maybe begin to arrogantly think we were more of the causation for that than we actually were. And there’s going to be moments in any leadership journey of failure, but there’s also gonna be these moments where things just work. Where you look back and you realized, “Oh my gosh, look what has happened in and around me.” And it’s in those moments that we need to humbly fall on our knees and remember that we have a role to play. We are stewards. We function in obedience and response to God but the work, and ultimately the glory, for any success, in any endeavor, goes to God alone. And so, I want to encourage you, in those moments of success, to stay close to the heart of God. Cause there’s gonna be moments where God just miraculously breathes on something and it’s in those moments, we should be grateful that He allowed us to be a part of that journey.

Merry Christmas friends. I absolutely love this time of year. I’ve always loved this time of year, but I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten a little bit sappier and even a little more weepy this time of year because ‘ve grown to feel the weight of what the Christmas season really means, and I think all of us understand there’s something that’s just not right with the world that that even when good things happen, they’re not ultimately fulfilling.

For those of you who may not know, I’m a huge Indianapolis Colts football fan. In fact, my family gets a little concerned about me during the games, during the autumn football season, because I can get pretty intense. Weather I’m physically at Lucas Oil Stadium, you know yelling and screaming, or if I’m in my own living room screaming, the dogs underneath the table in fear or making my neighbors wonder if they should call the police for a domestic disturbance.

You know every Monday morning at our housing company, CRF Affordable Housing, we have a conference call where all of our staff across the state of Indiana can call in and kind of give updates on things that are happening at each of the properties, share stories, and we’re able to share things with them as well. But, the way we have committed to start this call every Monday morning is that everyone shares a win; everyone shares something good that’s happened. Maybe at their property, within the context of their work, or even within their own family or something personal that’s happened.

You know one of the things we talk about here at The Stone Table is how our stories, the story of our life, the story of our careers, really the story of everything as a follower of Jesus, is really part of a much greater story. We talk about our work and the great story and I’ve had some folks ask me, you know, “What does it look like to engage my work and my career and my vocation through that great story? Is it ok if I like my work? Is it ok if I pursue a career that excites me? Is it okay if I make money and profit from my work? Or, does embedding my story in a greater story mean that I can’t enjoy any of those things?”

We were so excited here recently to launch this brand-new book, this resource, from The Stone Table called Missional Marketplace: Finding Your Everyday Work in God’s Eternal Plan and want to let you know that the paperback has been available for a little while now, but now the kindle book, and also the audiobook, of this is available now at Amazon and at other retail distributors. So, if you’re into audiobooks, I can actually read this book to you as you kind of go about your business. So, if you’d like to hear me read this book to you, you can download the audiobook right now as well. So, Missional Marketplace: Finding Your Everyday Work in God’s Eternal Plan, go pick it up right now and we pray it’s an encouragement to you.

Let’s talk a little bit about humility in leadership. You know leaders are leaders oftentimes because they are very skilled. They’re very talented, they are charismatic, they can draw attention, they have good ideas, they can cast vision, and sometimes that can cause leaders, including me, to begin to think they are the driving force. And so, as Christians, we know that we are called to humility; that arrogance doesn’t really partner itself well with the gospel and the gospel redeemed life.

Is there any eternal value to your day job? Is it possible to find gospel meaning in your "secular" career? If you really love Jesus, shouldn't you quit your job and go into full-time ministry? How does your everyday work have anything to do with God's mission in the...