Two Questions to Think About

I read a great leadership post by Mac Lake this week and he made the statement:

“Spiritual leadership isn’t just about accomplishing God given results, it’s also about caring for the souls of those we lead along the way.”

And then while reading through John Ortberg’s latest book, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You, I came across two powerful questions. I think God is trying to tell me something. So listen and think about the well-being of your soul and ask yourselves these questions often. Many times we are so busy doing and serving, that we don’t let God work in us.

I asked a wise man, “How do you assess the well-being of your soul?”

He immediately said, “I ask myself two questions”:

• Am I growing more easily discouraged these days?
• Am I growing more easily irritated these days?

At the core of a flourishing soul are the love of God and the peace of God. If peace is growing in me, I am less easily discouraged. If love is  growing, I am less easily irritated. It was a brilliantly helpful diagnostic to assess the health of my soul.

How would you answer those two questions?

For me, the answer is not always good.  When I am stressed, these are my biggest two problems. And if you ask my wife, I’m afraid that she would easily be able to confirm my struggles. So let me ask you, are you becoming the person that God wants you to be?