Be All You Can Be: A Challenge to Stretch Your God-Given Potential (19 page)

Eric’s turn came up again. This time the ball was already in the catcher’s mitt before Eric realized it had gone by, but he swung the bat. I stood on my feet and yelled, “Great swing, great swing!” The rest of the fans kind of looked around at me as though I was a little odd. On the next pitch, Eric swung and missed. It didn’t matter. “Great swing, great swing!” He struck out; I was on my feet cheering for him. He was so proud, because he did what he was supposed to do—swing the bat. So Eric was happy; I was happy. Margaret was at the game with me, and she was not happy. She thought that I was making a fool of myself, so she said, “I think I’ll go to the car and read a book for a while.”

I went over to Eric, tousled his hair, and said, “That was great. Next time Butch pitches, three swings again.” He got up a little more confidence now, because all he had to do was swing the bat. Butch struck him out, and I gave him a standing ovation.

I knew that sometime during the Little League season, if Eric kept swinging the bat, the ball would eventually make contact with it. Sure enough, when Eric was up the fourth time, the ball accidentally hit the bat. I ran right alongside him to first base, cheering him on all the way. “Don’t stop, Eric! Keep on going!” As Eric rounded third, I was running alongside him again and we slid safely into home together.

Too many people stay in the dugout of life. They never swing a bat; they never face the challenge of a fastball or a curve. They may play manager, or be a batboy, but they never get into the game. Someday they’re going to wonder why they never saw any action.

Now it could be depressing to think that life is passing you by—but here’s the good news:
Failure is not final
. So you never got into the game, or you tried and struck out? I strike out every day of my life—but that’s OK. Get that bat off your shoulder and swing—give it the very best you’ve got, and then watch God make up the difference in your life.

chapter 11

YOUR DECISION DETERMINES YOUR DESTINY

T
ODAY IS A DAY OF DECISIONS
—
AS IS EVERY
other day of my life. In fact, I began the morning with the decision to get out of bed. My next decision, which apparently wasn’t well thought out, was what I should wear. As I confidently stepped out of the bedroom to face the world, my ten-year-old, Elizabeth, took one look and said in her most gentle and loving way, “Dad, the tie is OK, but I think maybe you could have done better with the jacket.” Ten minutes into the day and I had already made a wrong decision!

In this chapter I want to help you understand that decision making is a process that, if practiced, will enable you to make better decisions for the glory of God. Joshua, in the well-known “choose you this day” passage, provides an excellent example of what goes into making right choices. As he is about to die, Joshua gives his farewell address to the people. First, he reviews the history of God’s blessing the children of Israel; then he says:

Now, therefore, fear the L
ORD
and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the L
ORD
.... Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the L
ORD
. The people answered and said.… “We also will serve the L
ORD
.” (Josh. 24:14–18)

We can draw several conclusions regarding decision making from these few verses.
First, leaders bring people to a point of decision
. Joshua led his people in the decision-making process. As leaders, you and I are responsible for bringing our people to some needed decisions in their lives. Our journey through life is nothing but a process of decision making. As leaders, the better we are in bringing our people to right decisions, the more effective our leadership will be.

The second conclusion that we can draw from this portion of Scripture is this:
Many things in life are decided for us and are therefore beyond our control
. Joshua realized this when he assumed that people, by nature, are subservient to someone. We have no choice. There are many other circumstances of life over which we have no control. We had no part in deciding whether or not the sun would rise this morning. We didn’t decide to have a thunderstorm today. We didn’t choose when, where, or to whom we would be born.

As we grow up and become independent, though, conclusion number three comes more and more into play:
There are many choices in life that we can make
. Joshua realized that his people could not choose
whether
they would serve, but they could choose whom they would serve. We can’t always choose what our circumstances are, but we can choose what we’ll do with them.

The fourth conclusion has to do with responsibility:
Not only can we make right decisions
, we are responsible to
make the right decisions
. I find it interesting that as Joshua laid out the possible options for the children of Israel, he made this statement: “Choose for yourselves.” In other words, Joshua looked them right in the eye and told them they were responsible for their own decisions. He was saying, “I may be your leader; I may do my best to bring you to a point of decision; but the choice is still yours. You have to choose for yourselves.”

The most important point I can make in this chapter and the most important one you can take away is that where you are today, in all probability, is a result of decisions you made yesterday. Until you take responsibility for your decisions and resulting actions, you will always be looking for a scapegoat to blame for your problems. You and I are responsible for our choices. This is one of the most important lessons we can teach our children. When we have taught our children to accept responsibility for their decisions, to be able to say, “I was right,” or, “I made a mistake,” we have moved them to the head of the class in maturity.

Conclusion number five follows:
The sooner we make the right choices, the better
. Notice that Joshua said, “Choose for yourself
today
.” He didn’t add, “If you feel up to it,” or, “If it’s convenient.” Joshua knew that delaying a decision could lead to destruction.

Sixth,
leaders must decide first
. Often, as I observe a leader who is not moving his people forward, it becomes obvious that the leader is waiting for the followers to decide where they want to go next. This tactic never works. There is a reason “It’s lonely at the top.” Someone has to stand in front of the crowd and make choices. A good leader has to be willing to stick his neck out and give direction.

Joshua did exactly that. He stood out from the crowd and declared unashamedly, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” He didn’t know where his people were going to go, what direction they were to take. But he boldly declared where he was going. He knew that leaders make choices first; they don’t wait for the people to decide what to do and then hop on the bandwagon with them.

Conclusion number seven is a corollary of number six:
The leader’s choice influences other people
. If you are a successful leader, the moment you make your choice, people will follow, as in Joshua’s case. Actually, this is the acid test of leadership. When you make a decision, do people follow?

Read verse 18 again: “We also will serve the L
ORD
, for He is our God.” Did you notice that word
also?
In effect, the people were saying, “We’ll serve the Lord, because you’re serving him, Joshua.” And verse 31 says, “Israel served the L
ORD
all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the L
ORD
which He had done for Israel.” A tremendous amount of influence lies with the leader who recognizes the power of decision making.

There is, of course, more to making a decision than saying, “Let’s do it.” In fact, the decision-making process is a complex one. But if you are to be a leader that people follow, it will be worth your while to understand this process. It involves five progressive phases. By way of illustration, I’m going to walk you through a major decision-making process in my own life—the call to come as senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church.

Before you can make a wise decision, you need to understand the background of your situation. Why are your people where they are right now? Who made the decisions that led them there? It is impossible to jump into a situation and take control without ascertaining some historical information.

When Skyline’s pastoral search committee called and asked if I would consider being a candidate, I answered yes. I was familiar with the church; my impressions were favorable. But there was a great deal I needed to know before committing myself. Returning home to Ohio from my first trip to meet with the search committee, I spent the entire time on the plane examining a large box of background information. I read year-end reports, financial statements, anything and everything that would help me better understand the church’s history.

There were seven questions that I needed to answer and that you will need to answer before you have thoroughly worked through the foundation stage:

After the pastoral search committee had grilled me for several hours, they began to draw the meeting to a close, satisfied that they had all the pertinent information. But I said, “Wait a minute! It’s my turn to ask you guys some questions.” They had found out what my goals were. Now I needed to know what their expectations of me were. “What do I have to do if I come to this church?” We all agreed that I would be expected to show up on Sundays and have a sermon ready. Besides that, the search committee expected me to build a great church. But then I discovered that there were a number of people who were counting on me to make home visits on a regular basis. Others expected me to perform all weddings and funerals. Not everybody’s expectations of me were compatible. I had to evaluate their goals and my goals and then decide what was important.