your vocation, the service gauge explores your “doing” through external activity and competencies related to serving through your occupation, church, home and community. Some reflection questions for this gauge follow:
•How do you sense you are serving God through your vocation?
•How is Christ’s example of servanthood, sacrifice, surrender and submission expressed through your service?
•Are you being a good steward of your time, gifts and talent through your vocation and volunteer roles?
•How are you equipping and mobilizing others for service?
These four gauges are key dimensions in the Christian life. We see these dimensions not only in the life of Christ but also throughout Scripture. For instance, take a look at Exodus 19:5–6. These verses come just ahead of the ten commandments, and they highlight the same four dimensions. The verses read, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
As God’s “treasured possession” we see a special intimacy between God and his people. As a “holy nation” we see God’s people as a community set apart. They are set apart for their role or service as a “kingdom of priests.” As commentator Frank Gaebelein notes, “The whole nation was to act as mediators of God’s grace to the nations of the earth.”9 This role requires the community to be holy, which necessitates godly character.
If you take one more step back to Genesis, pre-fall, you will again see these four dimensions. In the garden, the spiritual intimacy dimension is unhindered, and there is rich intimacy between God and his creation. The character dimension is fully free from the corruption of sin. The relational dimension is completely harmonious. There is no discord between Adam, Eve, God and creation. There is also a service dimension of purposeful contribution. Adam and Eve have a role and purpose in taking care of the garden.
Once sin is unleashed at the fall we see all four dimensions corrupted. Spiritual intimacy with God is broken, character is tainted and corrupted, relationships now have division, and service becomes toil. From this point on, God’s desire is to redeem all his creation and all four of these core dimensions. The ten commandments point the way, and the life of Christ provides the way.
These four dimensions offer a blueprint to seeking the life of Christ in our own lives. All four of these dimensions are interrelated. As the following illustration shows, each dimension connects to and impacts each of the others. The wellspring of spiritual intimacy with God should permeate our character and draw us toward obedience, provide the standard and motivation for our relationships and overflow into action through service.
If we remove any one of the dimensions, we get into trouble. We no longer have the full picture of God’s desire for us. For example, if character isn’t important or is neglected, then our relationships will suffer due to our lack of character. At the same time, character needs the love, grace and power of God from spiritual intimacy and the sharpening from community. Otherwise, character can be driven by legalism.
Similarly, our relationships need to be in the context of holiness, obedience and health, represented by the character gauge. Our service needs to be fuelled by intimacy with God, undertaken with integrity and trust of character and supported through relationships in the body of Christ. All four of these dimensions are critical.
These four gauges provide a simple dashboard for your health as a follower of Christ and a leader. This diagnostic is critical as you seek to lead yourself and to live in the fullness of the life God has designed for you. Your health (or lack of health) in each of these four dimensions will also directly impact your leadership of others.
As you reread about each gauge, take a few moments to prayerfully reflect on your own life and leadership. Process the reflection questions. They aren’t exhaustive, but they can give you a sense of health in each dimension. Give each gauge one of three overall readings: green for generally healthy and growing (but not perfect), yellow as so-so or an early warning sign of concern, and red for problematic and needing more immediate attention.
I try to set aside time regularly to review my dashboard. You can incorporate this exercise into your regular Sabbath routine each week or a scheduled personal retreat or simply take a trip to the coffee shop for some reflection time. Using a journal will help you focus your reflection. It will also help you to identify recurring themes and patterns. You can celebrate the positive trends and address the negative.
It’s also important to recognize that though God’s desire for us is to be “green” on all four gauges, there may be temporary seasons when we need to give added priority to one or more gauges. For instance, God may desire that you grow deeper in character through a time of trial. This trial may temporarily impede your service. In fact, you may need to step back from doing in order to navigate the trial. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just know that there may be moments where one or more gauges may be reading a little lower than ideal. Be sure to pay careful attention to ensure that this is a short-term situation and doesn’t become permanent.
The discipline of regularly taking a few moments to reflect on these four gauges will help you to lead yourself by bringing you perspective, providing corrective feedback, highlighting cause for celebration and being an early warning system for potential problems.
Reflection Questions
1.This chapter seeks to provide a big picture of God’s design for the Christian life in an easy-to-use dashboard format. Take a few minutes to return to each of the four gauges and review the reflection questions. What color (green for generally healthy and growing but not perfect, yellow as so-so or an early warning sign of concern or red for problematic with need for more immediate attention) would you give yourself for each gauge?
2.Reflect on your dashboard gauges. What is your dashboard telling you?
3.What are three to four key next steps that you can take to move toward or stay in green?
4.How could you use these dashboard gauges as an ongoing tool to check in on your health?
Section Two—8 Key Practices for Leading Me
Chapter 3—Key Practice #1: Growing Your Vision
It seemed like a strange assignment. I had just met with my spiritual director. His name is also Steve. A spiritual director is a Christian who is trained to help others cultivate their spiritual life and grow in intimacy with God. We’ve been meeting every four to six weeks over the last two years. I’ve really enjoyed Steve’s prayerful approach. I’ve been profoundly challenged by his questions. But this assignment seemed…well…strange.
My spiritual director read a short passage from John 1. John’s disciples had caught sight of Jesus. In their excitement, they rushed up to him. Then Jesus asked them, “What do you want?” (John 1:38). He may have asked because he saw them running toward him and was just eager to know what they wanted. Or, being Jesus, he may have been aiming toward starting a much deeper and more profound conversation.
I think John’s disciples got tongue-tied. It makes sense. I’m not sure how I would respond either. After all, Jesus has the power to give anything. John’s disciples didn’t seem to capture this amazing opportunity. Instead of asking for the moon and the stars,
