Grace as an Organizational Paradigm

Every once in awhile you will have someone on your team that is just … amazing. They come to the table with all sorts of talents, strengths, skill sets and experience, and a good attitude. The problem is, even with great team members, great team dynamics, cohesion and engagement, sometimes there is miscommunication, misunderstandings, and misperceptions. Sometimes there’s just a miss.

The reason is that even the best people are broken. Even the greatest asset on your team is … incomplete. The reality is, working with people is often messy, fraught with difficulty, and even painful.

All of the difficulties stem from the fact that each of us has a limited perspective. We have limited perspectives because we are incomplete. We are not all-sufficient. We are not all-knowing. We are not all-powerful. We do not have inexhaustible brain capacity. We are …finite. Therefore, our ideas, our opinions, our perspective, our judgments, are partial and incomplete at best.

This is also why we need each other. We need the perspectives, the opinions of others in order to be informed and to have the fullest view. Leaders who assume they already have all the answers and do not need the input of others are short-sighted. But make no mistake, filtering through their personalities, their own limited views, and their one-sided opinions can be really difficult in order to get you there can be really difficult.

The only way to have a pain free, difficulty free, organization is to have one that does not include … people.

The scriptures make it clear from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the book that we are designed to need each other. For example, God created Adam by forming him out of the dust and breathing life into him. But, he created Eve by taking something out of the man. The moment God performed this supernatural surgery Adam became …incomplete. And what he was missing was only to be found in another … human. This is why when they came together the bible says, “for this reason a man shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one” (Genesis 2). They went from being separate to being a unit. They were incomplete, now complete. They went from two parts to one whole.

Each of us is designed to be incomplete without the strengths, the gifts, the abilities, and even the weaknesses, of others. And maybe this is why God, in His vastly superior wisdom, instituted the concepts and principles of forgiveness, of mercy, of Grace – because He knew we would need it to garner relationships.

The reality is I cannot fully appreciate or tap into the gifts of my fellow man if I do not simultaneously operate in grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Because, the strengths of my team members are encased in their own brokenness, their own respective incomplete nature, and their sin.

So, even superior teams can be difficult at times. Even the most loving families can be hard to love. Even the closest relationships often require grace. But, without them we are deficient, impaired, and limited.

“Put on tender mercy and kindness as if they were your clothes. Don’t be proud. Be gentle and patient. Put up with one another. Forgive one another if you are holding something against someone. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you. And over all these good things put on love. Love holds them all together perfectly as if they were one” (Col. 3:12-14)

 

I’ve Fallen – But I’m Getting Back Up!

Many times when we look at our history, the ups and downs, the ins and outs, the mistakes and successes, it can be easy to beat ourselves up. And truthfully, maybe we should beat ourselves up from time to time. But, the wisest man who ever lived once made this astounding statement, He said “The godly (good or righteous) may fall seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked” (Proverbs 24:16).

There are two things I want to say about this verse …and about you. First, it seems clear that the real issue is NOT about never falling. Never falling only makes one self-righteous, not godly-righteous. Never falling makes one arrogant and haughty, not humble and meek. Never falling can make a person self-centered, and prideful rather than others-centered. Never falling does not make one good, righteous, or godly.

Surprised?

No, the truth is, for the good man, stuff happens. Stuff knocks him down. Stuff knocks the wind out of him. Stuff catches him by surprise. Stuff causes him or her to get discouraged, depressed or at the very least, off-track.

(Click here for Practical Steps when “Life” catches you by surprise)

Yes, sometimes a good person gets knocked down. But sometimes, he just falls down of his own volition. Nobody pushed him there. Nothing caught him by surprise. No, sometimes decisions are made, intentional choices, mistakes, and as a result failure arrives. Sometimes, a good man just … falls down.

Here’s the interesting thing, Solomon never told us how or why the good man falls. He never discussed what caused it. He simply said, “a good or righteous or godly man falls down seven times.” It appears that the source of the falling is irrelevant to the author. Falling down because he was caught by surprise or falling down by bad choices. The issue simply isn’t the falling down.

Possibly the most important piece of this verse is …

“HE GETS BACK UP AGAIN!”

It seems clear that Solomon was saying the thing that makes a person godly, righteous or good is the fact that they get back up. This is the piece that separates the men from the boys, as they say. Getting back up. Knocked down, but getting back up. Falling down, getting back up. Good people – drop the ball … and get back up. Make bad decisions … and get back up. Don’t plan appropriately … and get back up. Get disappointed but … get back up. Question God … and get back up. Fail …and get back up.

knocked down2

Let’s be clear: this is Solomon’s description of a good person, a …Righteous person … a godly even. Seriously?

This roller coaster ride, this up and down, this battle, is not what I picture when I think of a righteous, godly man. No, not at all. I think of Moses, face glowing, holding the newly etched Ten Commandments. I picture David slaying the giant Goliath. I think of Elijah calling down fire from heaven. These are depictions of righteous men …right?

The truth is that when you study the scriptures you will find every single man or woman that was greatly used by God fits the description found in Proverbs. Every single one of them dropped the ball, made mistakes, reacted poorly, made bad decisions, questioned God, or even defied God. Every single one … Falling … and getting back up again.

This is what I know about you. I know there have been times you have declared, “I just don’t really get it, I don’t know the next step or where to go or what to do.” But, the key is …getting back up. Yeah, I know you’ve been down. I know you’ve made mistakes. I know you’ve even experienced failure. But, those things really aren’t the core issue. The issue is, figuring out how important it is to simply … get back up again.

Sometimes when stuff happens and a person is knocked down it can bring them to a point of questioning their purpose, their abilities, and their hope. And sometimes falling, whether by our own volition or by the surprises of life, can cause us to even question God. Can I trust God? Has God forgotten me? Have I blown it so bad that I am permanently derailed?

But listen, there is something deep within you telling you, “I’ve just got to get back up …again.” I can picture God standing by your side right now, whispering in your ear, “you’re gonna make, you’re gonna be alright. You’re gonna get through. I know because … I’ve seen this before. I have watched you before. I KNOW, yes I know, you will … pick yourself back up again!”

Here’s the second thing. I am convinced that Solomon came to the conclusion that a person can’t really be “good” in the sense he is talking about unless they have fallen down a few times. How can someone truly have compassion, understanding, forgiveness, grace, or mercy for others unless they have “been there?” How can a person truly understand someone’s pain unless they’ve experienced some of their own? How can someone empathize with another’s failure unless they have failed a few times themselves? A person who has fallen and has received the grace to get back up knows how to reach down and help others who have fallen.

This, my friend, is part of your great calling on this earth. Embrace people. Love people. Give them compassion. Feel their pain. Where ever they are at that moment in life. And help them … get back up. You know what it means to battle, to struggle, to fail. But, you also know what it means to get back up – sometimes out of your own strength, sometimes through a measure of faith, and sometimes by the sheer grace of God. So help them … help them get back up.

From my view, your gifts, your abilities, and your talents, though important and part of the call of God on your life, are not the most important thing. There is no denying those are real and significant gifts. You really are talented. But, my friend, in my humble opinion, they are not what make you who you are. What makes you a good person, a righteous person, a godly person is this: a good man falls down a few times, but he always gets back up.

The New Testament reiterates this concept. In my opinion, the great call of God on your life embraces this verse, “He comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor 1:4).

So, get back up, righteous man or woman. Get back up … and help others do the same. Amen.

Click here for Practical Steps when “Life” catches you by surprise