EMPOWERING!

I learned a valuable lesson the other day. . .I'm not Superman! Wow it took me a while to figure that one out! No seriously, I'm not Superman, I'm not Batman, nor am I any other superhuman hero dude. I'm Davey. Your average American, twenty-year old, un-married, and I have limits.

We had an event this past Wednesday called "Super-Soak Me." We played all types of water games outside and got absolutely soaked! It was a blast! And while we pulled everything off, I was about to pull my hair out during the planning and setting up of everything. Why? Because I was in charge of everything, and I tried to do most of it myself! BIG MISTAKE!

You always hear things about delegation and how it's a MUST! It seems like when it comes down to it, it would be easier for me to do it all so I don't have to entrust someone else with getting it done, and then discover that it never got done. WRONG! My mindset up until now is that I can carry through MY ideas and MY visions better than anyone else because they're MINE. Sounds familiar doesn't it? The two-year old mentality of mine, mine, mine. That's exactly what I sound like. What happens when you take a two-year old's toy away? "No! Mine!"

HaHa. Oh I crack myself up drawing parallels to my attitude and a two year old's but seriously, that's what it's like. Inside I don't want to give away these things to other people after I've put in the time and energy to plan and envision, but the reality is, these people could probably take these ideas, run with them, and make them into something far more creative than I could have ever come up with.

So I learned a lesson in empowering. How do I become a Superman? By not thinking that I am one, but by entrusting other people with my vision, and they can in turn propel me to think bigger and better than I ever dreamed of. I want to be the kind of person that people are drawn to because of (1) the way Jesus shines through me and is made famous in my life (it's not about ME becoming famous but about JESUS being so) and (2) the way that I empower people by entrusting them to excell in areas that they're passionate about.

I read in John chapter 4 today two instances in which Jesus delegated jobs to his disciples. The first is in verse 8 when it says in parentheses that the "disciples had gone into the town to buy food." This was during Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman. Jesus' disciples had to do certain jobs so Jesus could concentrate on what HIS purpose and HIS destiny was on Earth, ministry. It's funny how John puts this little piece of "insignificant" information in his gospel in parentheses. It's like he says, "Oh by the way, even Jesus had limits in his human form. He got tired, he got frustrated, he couldn't DO everything." So if Jesus had limits and delegated, how much more limited am I, and how much more do I need to pass responsibility on to other people. EMPOWERING!!

Jesus didn't even baptize people according to John (ch. 4 ver. 2). He had his disciples do it. Why? Cuz Jesus had to preach. Who was going to get the people to come and here the message of the Kingdom and get baptized if Jesus didn't preach? The disciples didn't know jack squat at this time about the Kingdom because Jesus had not EMPOWERED them yet with the Holy Spirit. Hmmm. Never thought about that one. Pastors, Youth Ministers, church staff can't do it all. The church is a community and its survival is dependent on volunteers. Everyone has a part. Davey, get off your high post and let someone else get involved!