Hindsight Sample

1. Focus on the future. 

We’ve all heard it a million times: “Leading is a marathon, not a sprint.” We’ll be much more fruitful over a longer period we take the time to ask the big questions and spend plenty of time considering the answers. 

2. Create a healthy schedule that’s sustainable and productive. 

The cost of burnout is exceptionally high. Leaders who have little to no margin may look like godly, zealous warriors for God, but they often crash and burn. Many of the health problems suffered by church leaders are the direct result of exorbitant expectations, a demanding schedule, and the lack of a release valve. When we’re too busy, too burdened, and too tired, we don’t have the capacity to think clearly. 

3. Invite wise people to speak into your life—and listen to them. 

Over the years, other people tried to tell me the truth about my frantic lifestyle, but I wouldn’t listen. Finally, I started listening to Sam Chand. It was late in my career—in fact, it hardly could have been any later—but God gave me ears to hear and a heart to respond to his good and godly advice. 

Carving out time to think multiplies our creativity and provides fertile soil for fresh vision to take root and grow. When we introspect, God shows us areas that need our attention and reveals opportunities we didn’t see before. Instead of having tunnel vision, we read, we pray, and we begin to see things from different directions. We can reflect on past conversations and gain insights we didn’t have originally. When we’re too busy, we don’t take time to quiet our hearts to really listen to the Holy Spirit. A settled soul is responsive instead of reactive. Reactions are often defensive and destructive, but responses look for ways to understand, to connect on a deeper level, and to build bridges instead of destroying them.