Practising the essentials

Happy New Year! 

Here we stand in the doorway of 2024. Even through the mist of uncertainty, I'm sure that, like me, you can sense the many challenges ahead, in the workplace, in our families and in our spiritual walk.

In his book "Essentialism", Greg McKeown suggests that the productive life is facilitated by what he calls (surprise, surprise) essentialism. Instead of "the unfulfilling experience of making a millimeter of progress in a million directions", we should seek "significant progress [only] in the things that matter most".

McKeown echoes what many others have observed. 

Harvard Business School's Michael Porter famously taught that "the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do".

Steve Jobs observed that "... people think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are... [Succeeding at] innovation means saying no to 1000 things."

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews exhorted "... let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us." 

If I may paraphrase what I heard at my church service this weekend, life is not a walk to be strolled, it's a race to be run.

Any race, short or long, is necessarily run with effort. So no one runs a race well if he is weighed down and entangled. 

I remember this well. Back in the army when the Standard Obstacle Course was a much longer run than it is today, my instructors made us train with extra non-standard gear hung all over us - mine prodders and various other tools and baggage. When the actual test came around, the instructors allowed us to revert to the standard gear - and whoa, it felt like I could fly!

So the first reminder for myself for 2024, is to keep my focus. Throw off the stuff that doesn't matter. Learn to say no to the unnecessary. 

And no, despite what the world may shout in my ears, not everything is necessary. 

Let me discard the projects which appeal only to my vanity, the demands which my fear stops me from declining, the habits which my stubbornness claims "that's who I am" and that I cannot change.

Teach me instead to fix my eyes on God and the good works He has prepared in advance for me to do (Ephesians 2:10). The old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

But it's not enough to just throw out stuff.

In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus gives the example of an evil spirit that is chased out of a person's life. The spirit wanders around, can't find any place to rest, and finally decides "I will return to the house I left". When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first!

When we take a bad thing out of our lives, the space needs to be filled with something good. The vacuum needs to be filled. Otherwise we're just making space for the old thing to return, with even more entanglements this time round! 

Whether it's an addiction like smoking, gambling or gaming, or a vain ambition, or a fear or past hurt - when we clean it out, we don't just eliminate the bad, we've got to fill the vacuum - and only with what's truly essential.

This means a real commitment to change. We can't just get rid of something, but continue to do everything else the same. We've got to grow. Step up.

At work, if we're good at our current job, we get an increment or we get promoted. But if we want to see further progress, we can't just keep doing the thing that got us the increment or promotion. 

I've seen this many times - someone is a great team member, and becomes a senior team member or leader. But sometimes, he just continues to do the same great things he did when he was a top team member. 

Maybe he busily does the work himself, instead of letting someone else do it (initially, not as well as he himself would). Maybe he continues to network at his old level, and not his new one. Maybe he keeps hitting his team's targets, but doesn't see the broader organisation's goals. And all this causes him not to progress. 

So we have to change. Become real leaders.

It's been said that one of the most important jobs of a leader is to create more leaders. Jesus didn't just make disciples. He made disciple-makers. He wasn't afraid of being upstaged. In fact, he told his disciples "whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)

This year, I really want to be that kind of leader who makes others succeed. My wife, my children, my team at work, my cell community. Those who come alongside and after me - I want to help them to be better, and do better than me.

As I heard at the sermon last weekend - "though by this time you ought to be teachers, you [still] need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You [still] need milk, not solid food! ... But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:12, 14)

I don't want to remain a baby. It's time to grow up. Time to train through constant use. If not now, then when?

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As a coda to the past year:

I've had the benefit of serving under many good leaders. They inspire me with their example, with their selflessness, and their love for God and His people. They've shown me how to be a leader.

The founding pastor of my church led the church for many decades, and has since transitioned leadership to my present senior pastor. Pastor has inspired me over the years with his uncompromising and enduring passion for the work of God, and his surprising humility and teachability despite his strong character. I imagine that it can't be easy, since the church is sort of like his "baby", but he lets the next generation make decisions, shine, and yearns for their success.

There's a part of the church's Celebration of Life show that never changes, even over the many iterations across the years, where Pastor "shows" the audience how to do a particular bit of magic. I've seen this part of the show countless times, and have even learned it myself as part of a mission trip/outreach programme. I've practically memorised what he's going to say!

I last saw him perform the show a month or so ago. With the lights on him, and the rest of the stage darkened, the familiar words of his closing patter rang out again, but this time they struck my heart strangely deeply. 

After all these years of seeing his example, it's time to do more than observe and applaud. It's time to do.

As he pulls out the handkerchiefs out of thin air one more time, he declares to the audience, and to me:

"Now that I've shown you how to do the trick... all you have to do... is practise!"

Onward, 2024!