Captivated

The most important thing a Christian leader can do is be captivated by Christ.

There so many things crowding our vision. It is easy to let our lens get fogged up by the things we are doing and leading and loving and serving and completely lose sight of Christ.

Sometimes we do so much for Him that we forget Him.

We must be captivated by Christ.

It is out of Christ that we will find rest, restoration, identity, calling, energy, motivation, and the ability to give wholeheartedly to the things we are most passionate about.

That means being willing to stop looking at what we feel like we need to do and simply be overcome by our Lord again.

I need to be captivated by Christ yet again.

"One thing I ask from the Lord,

    this only do I seek:that I may dwell in the house of the Lord    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord    and to seek him in his temple." -Psalm 27:4

Enough

I constantly find myself in internal conflict. 

I find myself conflicted because I know in my head and my heart the never ending grace of Christ, but I still find myself trying to carry my own burdens. 

And they are heavy.

Sometimes it's as if I think I can be good enough if I try hard enough.

Sometimes it's like I think that God needs me to be better.

Sometimes it's as if I forget the cross. 

Sometimes I see the overwhelming reality that I can never be good enough for Christ, I can never remove my sin, I can never overcome my brokenness. 

It is then that I see that Christ is always good enough to make up for me, always strong enough to cover my sin, always great enough to overcome my brokenness. Christ is always and forever enough to save me. I never have to be enough, because He is.

People don't need to see perfection in me, they need to see growth. They need to see grace. 

They need to see that even though I never will be, Christ is enough.

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1-4