So many of you may or may not know, but I run a nonprofit called On Purpose Consulting Group. Our fantastic team of women has for the past two years, set up monthly at a local hotel and done a free event to help women internalize a leadership identity. We utilize Propel Women Curriculum, and our heart is to help women living on purpose, for purpose, and with purpose. I have this vision of seeing a culture of women that know who they are in Christ, are on fire of Jesus, and awake to their purpose. To do this, it requires more than just me, and I knew that if there was going to be a culture shift than it would require collaboration. I couldn’t do this alone, and I am so thankful I have amazing people to be a part of On Purpose. Can I tell you I started with just me sitting on a couch, leading a small group in my local church, to now leading a team of women and growing a nonprofit that began with my passion for helping women find who they are.
One thing I have had to learn in the last two years is the discipline of collaboration when it isn't convenient. It is easy to collaborate with people when I like them, it is easy to work well when we get along. It is easy to compliment when I enjoy your company, but it requires more from me to collaborate and compliment when someone is mean, critical, gossiping, and plain not nice. To choose by faith collaboration even when someone isn't extending the same is an investment in Gods way rather than mine. I work as a full-time nurse and can I tell you that I didn't get a choice on who I worked with and sometimes my coworkers were downright nasty. I cringed the days I had to work with them, I was frustrated, and would leave work angry. Now, in a job you don't get the option of choosing not to collaborate and in nursing you need all hands on deck when you are doing patient care. I think so many times in nonprofits it's more exclusive and you can choose people that you like to work with, but they don't help you as much as you think.
The first collaboration killer that I want to talk to you about is the killer called comfort. Yes, comfort, I have found working on teams and within leadership circles, comfort is the death of growth. On Purpose have positions because I have found that people will jump through hoops till they get a position then they get comfortable and fight to keep the position rather than continue to grow into their purpose, which may have nothing to do with their position. Comfort breeds the disease of comparison and competition because it becomes about protecting your title rather than God's Kingdom. Many of us trying to make excuses for why we don't need to collaborate or reach out. "Well God, they don't talk to me." or "God they don't make an effort to restore, why should I?" You see comfort tries to convince us to stay the same, to not move. I have seen people work hard to come up with excuses on why they can't move forward.
Many times comfort blinds our perspective because change is scary. Productivity and Activity have some of the same letters but one requires intentionality. Comfort tricks you into feeling justified in your lack of productivity. It is amazing when I hear women complain about their current circumstances yet they don't change their course because it is known. Predictability is secure but productivity produces fruit that can not only sustain you but also others in your community. In many cultures and communities, it is not a lack of talent but a surplus of comfort that stops us from ever fulfilling our purpose.
Many times comfort blinds our perspective because change is scary. Productivity and Activity have some of the same letters but one requires intentionality. Comfort tricks you into feeling justified in your lack of productivity. It is amazing when I hear women complain about their current circumstances yet they don't change their course because it is known. Predictability is secure but productivity produces fruit that can not only sustain you but also others in your community. In many cultures and communities, it is not a lack of talent but a surplus of comfort that stops us from ever fulfilling our purpose.
So my last thought is where you are standing today? Are you standing in comfort and not realizing it is robbing you of collaborating with others who need you and maybe you need them too? Are you refusing to move forward because you fear discomfort and don't want to grow again? Christine Caine says it this way "You grow where you need to go." If you truly want to walk out your purpose than can I encourage you with this. Matt 20:28 says that Even the son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. If we want to walk out our purpose under the banner of Jesus than maybe, we have to be willing to trade our comfort for calling and our predictability for a purpose, because bottom line our purpose in life is to be in a relationship with God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
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