Who I Want to Be

Is the world a little lighter this week, or am I a little heavier? Must be the former! I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holidays and that you gave a lot of thanks! I have been out of town enjoying the company of my family that I haven't seen in a while. Having my mom and my three sisters all in one place at the same time hasn't happened since 2005!

Thank you, Michele, for your last post on the end of the second chapter of 1 Timothy. As I lean in to hear a word from God for my life today, I'm reading 1 Timothy chapter 3. Please give yourself the blessing of reading these 16 verses with me. For our purposes, the key is to ask God what he wants you to hear personally.

Whoever desires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach. . . . In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect. . . . In the same way women are to be worthy of respect. . . . (v. 1-2, 8, 11 TNIV)

As I read the descriptions here of the kind of men and women that the church needs to serve in leadership or special roles of service, what I see is an image of the quality of a person's core that makes the world better. Interestingly enough, what is missing from the lists are the specific gifts that are obviously needed to serve in these roles. Those gifts are assumed. Why would you even think of appointing someone as a leader who doesn't have the gift of leadership? Why would you appoint someone to lead a compassion ministry who doesn't have the gift of compassion? The emphasis instead is on their character.

Why is that? Because that is what we might be tempted to overlook. We might see someone functioning as a high capacity leader in a company or an institution and assume that this person would be a great church leader or ministry leader, too. We might appoint them based on their intelligence and talent and success level without really taking a close-up look at their character.

That would be a big mistake. Why? Because as important as our gifts are, what drives the way we use them is the person we are inside. I may be smart and resourceful, business savy, well-spoken and connected, but the engine driving me is my character. And it will either lead me to use my gifts to bless others or to selfishly manipulate them. My character will either make my gifts shine or it will overshadow them. Just ask Ndamukong Suh. Giftedness is important. Character is essential.

I want to be a man that fits this profile. Regardless of whether I'm a church leader or not, I want to be this kind of man. This is the quality of man that makes a positive impact on his world. This is the kind of woman that I would look up to and trust. This is the kind of person I would want speaking into my life and influencing others. How about you? Go back and read the qualities mentioned here again. That's who I want to be.

And how do I get there? Follow the One who came as God in flesh, who couldn't be silenced even by death, who was raised and taken up in glory, proclaimed as the hope of the world throughout every generation since. Through his grace, his example and the power of his Spirit, I can become the man God envisioned when he created me (v. 16).