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“When there are too many people in a room, nothing gets done!” This is what I got this week.  This is true. Too many initiatives, too many projects, too many tasks, too many agendas! Just too many people!

It brings me back to the story of Gideon’s 300.  When they first started out with 22,000 men –down to 10,000 men and ending with only 300 humble savages.  Yes the violent take it by force –which we must practice and live by from day to day.

“And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.  But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” Judges 7:2-7 NKJV

Here is the thing with having too many people.  We have too many ideas, too many opinions, too many differences –all leading to too many struggles for the team. Ideas are great and welcome but how do we deal with too many. Which is right and which should be excused?  One of the ways that we learn this is just taking the basic principle from the text with Gideon.  Choosing the right collaborators and team members.  Those that are willing to listen, carry out tasks and have a sense of humility.  Things are not always going to work in our favor but for the success of the team –we must surrender our own agenda so that we can collaborate well. The leader that God placed in that moment was Gideon.  One day we will all get to that stage and when we do, we need to handle it well.

Gideon heard God and carried out his example and the men heard Gideon and followed through.  That is what true leadership is about.  Can you drink from the river like a dog?  How humiliating that must have been –completely out of the ordinary.  Only 300 did and were selected to be a part of a tremendous victory for the entire nation!

What you do is not just for you –its about the people. It is about the greater cause and there should always be a better way to be the leader that also knows how to serve for the entire team.  That is the goal. This is where everyone wins.

Here is a prayer from “The Maxwell Leadership Bible”–that we would be discerning leaders, good listeners, intuitive, well-networked, flexible, optimistic and perceptive.
Let us be the kind of leaders that are ready to surrender our own will so that we can attain the greatest victories ever! God we know you want us all to win. May we begin with that submissive heart that makes a way through demonstrating the right attitude. This way we truly know we have the right collaborators, the right contributors and the right community of excellent leadership.
Amen and Amen!

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
Psalm 3:5

I woke up this morning and the first thing that ran through my mind was —

“I wish I could just take a sleep day! Take the whole day and just SLEEP!”

I don’t think I ever wake up any morning bright eyed and bushy tailed! AT ALL.  I always want to sleep. I love sleep. My mom told me that when I was a baby she had to WAKE me up to eat because I just wanted to sleep all the time.

I am so so so so tired and I don’t know why.  Get me a blanket, a pillow and I am in the best cuddle mode. Like this is me every time, every morning and I can’t wait to get back home so that I can either take a nap or go back to bed! I have the BEST blankets, the most comfortable bed ever and I just want to wrap myself up and continue in dreamy dream land.

Am I the only one like this? I could use some feedback and/or comments!

What it is like for you when you wake? What are the first things that run through your mind? How is your sleep? Are you sleeping well?

I think about the call to prayer –jump on when I can.  Try to be as revived as I can, but even the whole time I am still so sleepy all over. It is such a struggle for me. Not really so much of a morning person.  I am always hoping that I will be better at this one day–but then here we are 44 years later and I still feel like I LOVE to sleep.

God help me! Sustain me! Give me the strength to keep on. Revive every bone in my body so that I can take on the day as productive as I can be. I don’t want to feel this way and I don’t want to feel like I never get enough rest. Let that not be the first thing that runs through my mind, except how happy that I am to be in Your presence.

In His Name.

Amen

Today I was driving up the narrow but fast Bronx River Parkway… It is like you are in a video game!  The driver in front of me becoming slower and slower until he became more abrupt and then quickly turned to get off the narrower exit –NO SIGNAL!

Here I am –frustrated –annoyed –and then I just pick up my pace and resume.

Don’t you detest that?  When you are driving and people either try to come into your lane without signaling or they are exiting the highway with no signal or warning at all! YEP! That is what happens to us all.  The NO SIGNALS of life. The things that take you off guard, off course, off track and literally by surprise.

You are focused, going in the direction you know and see fit and here comes the NO SIGNALS  of life. No warning, no heads up and no consideration of your flow and foundation.

There goes that! Right off the road or trying to disrupt your lane!

God tells us in His word.
“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘DO NOT FEAR, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.  See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, NEW AND SHARP, with many teeth, You will thresh the mountains and CRUSH them! And reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up and a gale will blow them away.  But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 41:13-16

Those situations we encounter make us feel vulnerable and exposed.  Trying to catch us up in a world of emotions but that is not the place that will sustain us or set us free which is why in those moments we become the MOST resilient when we STAY IN GOD!

They are just like the wind and will be carried away.  Let it be! Let it go! It is in the hands of the Lord.  What else can we do in those moments where we are left without signal from PEOPLE.  In Christ we will have the stability that we need.  In Him –we will see how much that He has been signaling us all along in the INSIDE.  In the deepest parts of our soul and spirit where no one else can see or touch! That is the place that keeps us the strongest.

I hate being side-swiped, side railed or side tracked in anyway by the effects of PEOPLE!!!! I have to let that go and move in the lane that God has safely established for me.

I think I get so worried these days from the double impacts that I faced in July just breezing through normal situations.  One guy just drove right into my lane without signaling. Another lady three days later hits me from behind! Like how aggravating that was for me when all I was doing was driving in MY lane carefully.  It’s like no matter how careful you try to be and how much you invest in this stuff called life, your still gonna get side-swiped by the non-signalers of life.

I know we invest HEART! SOUL! TIME! MONEY! Wisdom poured out only to be later treated like nothing.  How many people have we literally poured into that are now gone by the wayside or on to other pastoring streams… it’s like you can’t keep or force them to stay, they have their own agenda. How many friendships, relationships or businesses have we invested in only to get those “no signal” moments.

Now what?

Now God! Always God! Before God! This should always be our center.

Hang onto that steering wheel of faith, the seat belt of His presence and Word covering you and trust that in that vehicle He is leading you to stay in your lane safely.  When it’s time to move –the signal that you need to get is the one that He will give you –not the peoples.

TRUST GOD.

TRUST HIS PROCESS.

Trust that the only place that He is leading you is deeper into His very presence where there really is no space for anything else BUT Him! ❤ That’s key.  Then everything else will fall into place right where it needs to be. Just like His Word says –you are gonna come out NEW and SHARPER!

No signal is God’s signal back to the heart of His first real love. To Faith. To Trust. To Hope. All that we need to be through Him.  So pick up your pace and resume with Him. Don’t allow others expression of no signal to divert all the ones that God has been showing you all along.

Amen and amen!