Maximizing Gifts and Influence

Had a great coffee meeting with someone yesterday.

When someone in the church contacts me to do coffee or lunch, it’s usually because they want to talk about something that they’re going through and how I can advise them or help them through it. That was my expectation when I got a call in the afternoon from someone about meeting at Starbucks in 30 mins.  Oh, was I wrong.

This guy just started asking me tons of questions about me.  Questions like, “What’s your passion?”, “What gets you going and lights you up?”, “What’s something that people look to you for and you enjoy it?”, “What’s that one thing that comes naturally to you, when for others, it’s work?” Wow. At first, I was taken back, because I had to adjust my expectations of the meeting, but then realized, this is a pretty special meeting.

I was reminded of a story that Andy Stanley shares, that there’s a guy that he meets with monthly or quarterly, and the one question that this guys asks Andy every time they meet is,

“What you working on right now that’s big?”

That’s huge, because all of us can just get stuck in the day-to-day things of our lives, where the only thing that we are working on is what’s on our desk right now. But what if we were to have people like this that met with us occasionally and challenged us?

We proceeded to talk about how then to maximize the gifts and influence that God has given me.  Some practical take-a-ways on things that I could do to leverage it. He followed up with an immediate email with some of the things we talked about and ended the email with:

“Get on it!” 

I have no idea what will come of it … at worst, just a reminder for me that I can’t just settle for what’s right in front of me … I’ve got to dream big because this is for God’s kingdom, not mine.

Lord, thanks for Mike M. and for his infectious passion to challenge me to dream big and have a vision. May YOU bring fruit to that conversation this year in 2013.

When’s the last time someone challenged you to dream big and reminded you that you’re created for something much bigger? 

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