by Dr. Richard Blackaby
In 2008 I sensed God relocating me from where I had been serving in Canada, to Greenville, South Carolina. I had held three different leadership roles over the nineteen years I had lived in Canada, but I sensed it was time to relocate to the Southeast. It was a hectic, demanding time, as I had to sell and buy a house and organize my life in an entirely different part of the continent.
One day I received a huge shock. It made the day my dentist told me I needed a root canal look like a walk in the park on a sunny day . . . It was from the IRS. According to their calculations, I owed them a lot of money. The interest was mounting. The fines were substantial, and only the beginning if I did not pay them immediately. I couldn’t believe it. I contacted the person who had done my accounting in Canada and who had filed my returns. They did an extensive review of all of my earnings and tax payments. The process was extensive. But, when it was done, it was clear I did not owe IRS the massive sum. You can imagine my trepidation the day I received a return letter from IRS. I had to pour myself a cup of coffee and sit in my most comfortable chair (so I was prepared in case I passed out!) before I opened it. To my great relief, IRS agreed with my accounting and informed me I now owed them nothing. Wheeew! There is enormous freedom that results from taking careful inventory of our lives.
One of the great concerns I have developed over the years in ministry is that so many people underperform their potential. God has so much He could do in their lives, but we often settle for far less. I believe one of the major reasons for this is that we fail to take regular inventory of our lives. Let me suggest four ways you take at least an annual audit of your life as a leader.
First, take an inventory of what God initiated in your life. Scripture indicates that what God begins in us, He completes (Philippians 1:6). Review your journal. Are there things God has said to you? As you listened to sermons this year, or read your Bible, or prayed, or met with your accountability group, did you sense God impressing upon you things He intended to do in you?
For example, perhaps you hurt a colleague’s feelings through your gruff comments. God later convicted you that you need to learn to be gentle when dealing with others. Or perhaps you boasted about an accomplishment or stole the credit from someone. The Spirit subsequently convicted you that you need to be more humble. When God initiates a new work in your life, He is determined to bring it to fruition. Your response will either be to embrace His work or to resist it. Reflect on whether God has completed what He began in you this year.
Second, God completes tasks He initiates (Isaiah 46:10-11; 55:11). God is a God of completion. He doesn’t leave loose ends. He doesn’t make idle promises or half-hearted commitments. When He commits to a task, it is as good as done. What tasks did God set before you to do this year? Perhaps He led you to pay off a debt. He may have led you to read certain books, or to conduct a study on a particular doctrine. Perhaps He impressed on you that you should organize your files, or catch up on your e-mails, or spend more time with family, or apply for a doctoral program, or commence writing a book. Did you do it? The problem for many Christians is that, in their heart they know what God wants them to do, but they have been making excuses and allowing other commitments to distract them from getting the job done.
My father can be more than a little absent minded. My mother is constantly finding checks in his suit jackets that he neglected to deposit at the bank. Or business cards of someone he meant to contact. He does manage to get a lot done, but at times his failure to follow through costs him!
Likewise, at times we pay a high price for not following through with what God asked us to do. Because we never organize our files, we fail to find that illustration that would have done so much to enhance our sermon. Or we can’t locate that contact that could have greatly benefitted us. Some people have known for years that God wanted them to enter a doctoral program. Because they have never gotten around to it, they have never moved on to the next assignment God would have led them to, had they completed what He asked. It costs us, and others, when we do not follow through with what God asks us to do.
Third, God wants to bring closure to our life. There are seasons of sowing and seasons of reaping. There is a time to be born and a time to die (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Loose ends severely hamper our life! I know people with so much unfinished business in their lives that they are totally immobilized from advancing any further. They have broken relationships that they have never reconciled. Or, they experienced failure previously in their life but never processed it, or cleaned up the mess. Or, they have accumulated crippling debt and now are in bondage to it. Some people never address their critical attitude and, over time, it closes opportunities they might otherwise have enjoyed. Life is too short and our calling by God too critical to squander it by not bringing God’s work in our lives to completion.
Finally, we need to audit those behaviors, attitudes, commitments, and behaviors that are preventing us from completing what we started. Perhaps it is an unwillingness to take the time to organize our lives. Perhaps it is laziness that prevents us from doing what it takes. Perhaps we have allowed numerous time wasters to creep into our lives until we have no time to do what is essential. We may have held on to roles and responsibilities long after we should have released them and now our calendar is far too cluttered to add important new activities to it. Each year we must ask ourselves the difficult question: What is it I have allowed into my life that is preventing me from doing and becoming all God intends for me?
Some leaders seem to be constantly accomplishing important achievements. Others, however, continually complain about how busy they are even though they accomplish little of significance. Take time to take an audit of your life. Is it ordered, uncluttered, and prepared for the next new work God initiates in your life? Or, are you burdened with unfinished business that is robbing you from going to new levels in your service of God?