The Patio Epiphany

(This post goes along with Leadership Level 1 - Personal Success.)

What's an epiphany? It's a moment of revelation or clarity. Some call it an "Aha!" moment while others say it's a very personal and spiritual moment. However you define an epiphany, I had one, and it was on my patio. That Winter day was very cold. I had just gotten home from work and our two empty trash cans were sitting by the street. As I stepped inside the house to drop off my bag, I took off the nice coat I was wearing and left it inside, so I wouldn't risk getting it dirty. Stepping back outside with no coat on, I could now really feel the cold breeze, and it was almost painful. As I hurried from the front yard to the back, I was almost running to get those cans onto the patio. It was on the second trip that the moment happened.

You see, as I had moved the first can to the patio, I had gone around the large, freestanding hammock that was sitting there at the corner of the patio. This meant several more steps in each direction, which meant me being out in the cold wind even longer. But after putting the second can in place, I realized how ridiculous I had been acting. There had been no need to go around the hammock, because I had brought the hanging part of it indoors a few weeks earlier. All that was left was the large, empty metal frame of the hammock. I had been stepping around that thing when I could've been just stepping through it!

And that's when it hit me. How often do we as leaders continue to step around something that isn't even there anymore? How often are we still walking out patterns in our leadership that now don't fit the terrain? Are you in a new season, but you're finding yourself still stepping around something that's no longer there? It's ok to find ourselves in patterns that were more relevant in seasons past. But here's the hard part: Are you willing to part with some old paths and some old ways if it means being more effective for God in the here and now? I'm not talking about getting away from biblical wisdom or timeless truths. I'm talking about personal habits and attitudes, because those can and do change for the better. I encourage you today to allow God to show you some new things for this new season. And whatever you do, don't allow outdated obstacles to hold you back from the wonderful new thing God is doing right now in your life and in your leadership.

Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.
–Isaiah 43:19 (GNT)