by Clarence E. Stowers | Dec 12, 2018 | Empowerment, Decisions, Encouragement, Leadership, Self-Leadership, Success
Have you ever said things like this to yourself:
- “Does everything happen for reason”?
- “Every season has a reason”
- “Trust the process”
- “It just wasn’t meant to be”.
- “Even though I don’t understand everything now, everything happens for reason”.
Isn’t it amazing, but as we age in life, we have this insatiable desire to make sense out of the random things that happen in life?
We want our lives to be like the perfect jigsaw puzzle. A place where everything fits neatly and we can step back and understand how it all works together.
Everyone wants life to make sense.
Every time we experience an event, like a puzzle piece, we know exactly where it goes. Wouldn’t that be great? All of this is fine and dandy until we hit the big bumps in life and the only question we can ask is why? We want to know where do these pieces fit in life’s puzzle… random puzzle pieces like divorce, financial struggles, medical challenges, and friends stabbing you in the back.
We want to believe this wasn’t in the plan and say to ourselves, “I don’t know where this piece of the puzzle fits… It’s random. As a matter fact God, I don’t even like this piece, it’s the wrong color, and it doesn’t go or fit my puzzle.”
When people are going through a difficult season, let’s stop saying: “Well, that’s just how life goes. That’s life. Stuff happens”. It’s in all of us to want to help people make sense out of life’s random puzzle pieces. It’s in us… It’s human nature.
[Tweet “When people are going through a difficult season, let’s stop saying: well, that’s just how life goes. That’s life. Stuff happens.”]
Randomness Draws Us To Jesus
For most of us, this is how we came to know Jesus. We looked at the picture on the box of the puzzle of how our life is supposed to be, and it looks nothing like the picture on the box. We found the edges color matched each piece, and when we received a random piece that didn’t look like a puzzle, it didn’t make sense. It eventually drew us to God.
That’s the beauty of following God. We don’t know with everything fits. We don’t know what he’s up to, so we exercise our faith. That’s what the Christmas story is all about. Got dipping down into humanity and making sense of all of the random puzzle pieces in the life of Mary and Joseph.
The Christmas Story Seems Random
The events of the Christmas story seem kind of random: a decree from Caesar, an engaged virgin, an angelic announcement, wise men giving gifts, and no room at the inn, This doesn’t sound like the story we’d write if we were God. Like Mary and Joseph, some of the circumstances we may be dealing with this year isn’t exactly what we’d write for our own stories either.
Something to Remember
“In the face of life’s seeming randomness, we can take comfort in the fact that God is active in the world. The Christmas story confirms that he is at work in the midst of darkness. As Christmas approaches, remind yourself that nothing just happens and life’s random puzzle pieces are a part of a bigger story”, according to Andy Stanley.
[Tweet “In the face of life’s seeming randomness, we can take comfort in the fact that God is active in the world. “]
by Clarence E. Stowers | Dec 10, 2018 | Empowerment
A few weeks ago while relaxing in our church's café, I decided to shoot a short video.
I believe I have something that I prayerfully can help leaders and aspiring leaders to become better leaders. A few months ago, I did a Facebook Live video where I talked about the necessity of having allies and advocates.
The Necessity of Allies and Advocates
Any time that you're going to do anything significant, anything great, anything worth doing, you're going to need allies and advocates. Allow me set this up as the foundation of what I want to build upon.
People who know me, they know I like to put things in a frame to give it context. I'm beginning to understand that most people are only out for themselves won't help you. Did you catch that?
People who are only out for themselves won't help you. Now, that's the frame I'd like to put around this discussion, because you're going to need allies and advocates.
What's An Ally?
An ally is someone who believes in what you're doing and then comes alongside of you and aligns themselves with you in order to help you reach your goals, or to reach destiny. That's an ally. You're going to need allies.
Now, on top of having an ally ... They see what you see, believe in what you're doing, and then they come alongside and align themselves ... you're going to also need advocates.
What's An Advocate?
Advocates are usually people who are influential. Not only do they align themselves with you, there's the difference. An ally aligns themselves with you, because one is too small of a number to do anything great. But an advocate is usually influential, give voice to your goals, your vision, your destiny and begin to speak publicly to other influencers to open up doors that you couldn't imagine.
So go back and evaluate your friend list. Ask yourself, "Are they allies or are they advocates?" You'll soon discover why you're not where you need to be.
Don't forget to check out my short video below and let me know what you think? Do you have allies and advocates in your life? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
by Clarence E. Stowers | Dec 5, 2018 | Empowerment
The Power of Evaluated Experience
Hey, what's up, everyone?
I want to take the opportunity to share from my experiences in leading people.
I've been in the game a long time. 20+ years pastoring, 30+ years in various leadership positions, so I know enough, I believe, to kind of help someone because I've made a few mistakes.
We hear the word wisdom tossed around a lot because people think just because I have experience means that I have wisdom, and that's not necessarily true because the only way you get experience is by making a lot of bad decisions. Experience is not necessarily the end goal to wisdom. It's evaluated experience that makes you wise.
Think about that. "Evaluated experience is what makes you wise", according to Andy Stanley. Why? If you never take time to evaluate the bad decision, then how can you take that knowledge into tomorrow?
So by me being able to evaluate the bad decision sets me up to make even greater decisions, and my prayer is that we find or rather help people look at the bad decision, evaluate it in its entirety, and then use that evaluation to springboard them into making better decisions.
Now, here's the thing. Why am I sharing this? I'm sharing this because any time you endeavor to become a leader, any time you make a decision to own your own business, a decision to lead others down the path of greatness, think about this.
You're going to have to make some tough calls, and if you haven't had enough evaluated experience, then you're going to continue to repeat the history. Think about it. If you don't have enough evaluated experience, you'll continue to repeat history. And that's why yesterday looks the same as today.
So go out there, make some decisions. Make evaluations, and then come back and evaluate that decision so that you can set yourself up for a better tomorrow.
"Evaluated experience is what makes you wise", according to Andy Stanley.
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by Clarence E. Stowers | Jan 10, 2018 | Christian, Christianity, Empowerment, Mars Hill Baptist Church, Self-Leadership, Spiritual Growth
When someone decides to detox, they are intentionally removing toxic substances from their bodies.
Our blood tells everything. When we visit the doctor’s office, they draw blood to see if there are any contaminants. We are triune beings (spirit, soul, & body) and like our bodies, toxins get in and contaminate our spirit and soul.
During this message series, we are focusing on detoxing the three different parts of our being: our spirit, our soul, and our body.
[Tweet “We are triune beings (spirit, soul, & body) and like our bodies, toxins get in and contaminate our spirit and soul.”]
We need the detox because all of us allow toxic substances into our lives, whether knowingly or unknowingly. This week we’re detoxing our spirit, which technically doesn’t “need” detox because it is the part of us that is like God.
Our spirit is already clean and righteous. But the enemy still attacks our spirit, especially in our mind – and our mind feeds our spirit. Three things we must starve so that our spirit can thrive are doubt, negativity, and sin.
Today’s Reading: 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-20
Today’s Question: What are some of the causes of toxic thoughts in your life?
2 Corinthians 10 tells us, the battle against our toxic thoughts is like none other. It is not a physical battle, but rather it is a spiritual battle that requires God’s help in fighting.
by Clarence E. Stowers | Jan 9, 2018 | Empowerment
Sometimes, we need to hit the spiritual reset button.
In a world where we are bombarded every day by messages of doubt, negativity, and sin, it is important for us to cleanse ourselves from things that contaminate our bodies and spirits so that we can grow in our relationship with God. Why?
Our thoughts matter so much.
Our thoughts matter because what you think determines what you become.
Unfortunately, most of us tend to be held captive by toxic thoughts, rather than focusing our thoughts on God’s truth. For the next six days, I’m encouraging you to read from God’s Word about the dangers of toxic thoughts and how you can replace them with God’s truth.
[Tweet “Our thoughts matter because what you think determines what you become.”]
Today’s Reading: Proverbs 4:1-27
Today’s Question: How have your toxic thoughts negatively affected your life and relationships?
