“The Spirit of Caleb”

Dr. John Maxwell writes: "When I began my career I was very ineffective as a leader. My problem was that I wanted to please everybody. Making people happy was the most important thing to me. The bottom line was, I lacked the courage to make right but unpopular decisions. How did I turn things around? By making small decisions that were difficult. With each one I gained more confidence and more courage, and I began to change. The process took me four years. At the end of that time I felt I had learned many valuable lessons, and I wrote the following to help me cement what I had learned:

"Courageous leadership simply means I've developed:

(1) Convictions that are stronger than my fears.
(2) Vision that is clearer than my doubts.
(3) Spiritual sensitivity that is louder than popular opinion.
(4) Self-esteem that is deeper than self-protection.
(5) Appreciation for discipline that is greater than my desire for leisure.
(6) Dissatisfaction that is more forceful than the status quo.
(7) Poise that is more unshakeable than panic.
(8) Risk-taking that is stronger than safety-keeping.
(9) Actions that are more robust than rationalization. (10) A desire to see potential reached more than to see people pleased."

If people-pleasing is your problem, you might want to go back and re-read those ten things. You don't have to be great to become a person of courage. You just have to want to fulfill God's plan and purpose for your life - and be willing to trade what seems good in the moment for what's best for your future! And that's something you can do this year, regardless of your level of natural talent. There is a very good example of this in the Bible, in fact it is my favorite person in the Old Testament…Caleb.

He was a leader that faced his fears with courage. Listen to what God said about him:

Numbers 14:24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

Caleb wasn't into "safe living". As a young man he came back from the Promised Land, stood with the minority and announced, "With God on our side we'll take it!" At 85, he was still slaying giants and claiming mountains. That's because he had "a different spirit". He wasn't a "go with the flow and expect the status quo" guy.

Richard Edler writes: "Safe living generally makes for regrets later on. We are all given talents and dreams. Sometimes the two don't seem to match. But usually we compromise both before ever finding out. Later on, we find ourselves looking back longingly to that time when we should have chased our true dreams and our true talents for all they were worth. Don't let yourself be pressured into thinking that your dreams or your talents aren't prudent. They were never meant to be prudent. They were meant to bring joy and fulfilment into your life." If a caterpillar refuses to get into its cocoon it'll never transform and will be forever relegated to crawling on the ground, even though it had the potential to fly.

What do you believe God's called you to do? Do it! God's not limited by your IQ, He's limited by your "I will".

The poet said: "If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win but you think you can't, it's almost certain you won't. Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who believes he can."

The spirit of Caleb is the "can do" spirit! Do you have it? Blessings!