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Never Assume ‘It’ll Do’

I’ve thought it.

You’ve thought it.

You’ve been asked to do something that you didn’t really want to do and you get to a point and you think ‘this will do’.
It’ll be good enough.

Or

You’re stuck with leading a project or special assignment and you really don’t see the importance of it.
You see that the results aren’t as good as they could be, but you eventually say, ‘this will do’.

Whatever you do, make it the best you can.

  • That task may also be an opportunity.
  • That responsibility may lead to other opportunities.
  • It may be this annoying task that’s gonna get you noticed by the boss and get you that promotion.
  • It may be that getting to lead that special project may lead to getting more opportunities later.

Never take what you’re doing for granted,
Never assume that ‘it’ll do’ when it’s not as good as it could be.

Do you agree? Is there a time when ‘it’ll do’ is the goal?

07
Nov 2011
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Encouragement, Life

DISCUSSION 14 Comments
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Following: Simon Says Let Me Lead

Simon says, “hop on one foot.”
Simon says, “raise your right hand.”

We remember the game Simon Says and playing it as a child.

One person would lead the group and give commands.
If it didn’t begin with “Simon says,…” the group wasn’t supposed to make a move.

A wrong move meant that the person was out of the game.

I haven’t checked lately, but I’m betting that fewer and fewer kids are playing Simon Says.

Why?

Because we’ve quit listening to commands,
we’ve quit being willing to follow Simon or anyone else.

Instead, we’ve all decided to be leaders when we often have trouble leading ourselves and our families.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in leadership…

I’d even go as far as to say that I believe that we all have a little ‘leader’ in us.

BUT,

We also have some follower….
a lot of follower.

To follow Christ,
to follow Mom and Dad,
to follow our husband,
to follow our teacher,
to follow our mentor,
to follow our boss,
to follow our pastor,

to follow our leader.

We have to get back to being willing to follow where those people who have been placed in leadership over us want us to go.

To follow,
before we lead.

Simon may say it,
but we’ve quit listening.

Follow your leader. 

03
Nov 2011
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Leadership

DISCUSSION 9 Comments
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Kim Kardashian, Kris Humphries, & The Rest of Us

In case you haven’t heard (how did you escape it?), Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are getting a divorce. Yes, it had been just 72 days since the multi-million dollar wedding, but Kim has submitted the divorce papers. Some people are wondering if it wasn’t some huge publicity stunt, but I don’t think it was. I think it was a real wedding (grant it, played up for TV) and marriage that fell apart in the ‘real world’ (as real as theirs could be).

Even more so, I think it illustrates just how little we as people think of marriage…
even how little we think of committment as a whole.

We all know the numbers that more than 50% of all marriages end in divorce.
Even more than 50% of all Christian marriages end in divorce.

The problem?

We see nothing as ‘permanent’ anymore. We seldom make a full commitment to anything… think about it…

  • We have trouble committing to a 2 year cell phone contract.
  • We have trouble committing to a 30 year mortgage.
  • We have trouble committing to a contract at our work.
  • We have trouble committing to graduate.
  • We have trouble committing to volunteering.
  • We have trouble committing to marriage.
  • We have trouble committing to Christ.

Seriously.

We’ve created a culture (both inside and outside of the Christian culture) that’s afraid of committment… that may not even believe that committment is ever necessary. We can just come and go as we please and leave someone else with the mess.

The result?

A lack of values, a lack of real progress, and a lack of impacting our world.

What do you think? Why are we afraid of and not very good at commitment?

02
Nov 2011
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Life, Random Stuff

DISCUSSION 21 Comments
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Beauty From Distress


Why do leaves change colors in the fall?

Well, to summarize, it’s because the shorter days and smaller amounts of sunshine force the plants to begin storing food in itself for winter. In short, the trees begin to realize that they’re only weeks away from dying if they don’t do something.

It’s really just a coping mechanism.

But amidst the panic and distress of the autumn trees, God brings about beauty.

In the midst of the plants scurry for food and their lack of photosynthesis (a big word I learned about in science class), there comes about something beautiful that you and I get to enjoy year after year.

What if…

  • What you’re going through right now is meant to end in something beautiful?
  • Your surroundings are preparing you for a bounty?
  • Your worry is gonna result in God’s perfect work?
  • Your distressed now because the beauty is not far?

Hang in there.

God has a way of bringing about beauty from distress.

In nature.
In me.
In you.

How have you seen God do beautiful things through tough processes?

01
Nov 2011
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Encouragement

DISCUSSION 17 Comments
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It’s Bigger Than You

Every now and then, we need to be reminded…

It’s bigger than me.

Bigger than my agenda
Bigger than my plans
Bigger than my advancement
Bigger than my platform

It’s GOD big!

Ultimately, all of eternity comes down to something so much more than my dot on the map and my dash in the timeline. It’s so much bigger.

Creation,
time,
earth, and
sky have something so much bigger than us behind them.

Genesis 1: 1-5 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

They’re GOD big!

31
Oct 2011
POSTED BY Jonathan Pearson
POSTED IN

Blog, Devotional Thought

DISCUSSION 4 Comments
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