Evaluation: He Set The Example

God, in all of His greatness has that ability to slow us down.  I have learned in my short time as a Christian that when something is constantly being placed on your heart it is for one of 2 reasons:

1.  You need to process something and then let it go.

2.  God is trying to teach you something so that you can grow.

At my church this past Monday I started taking a leadership course.  It is an eight month intense course being taught by my Pastor.  We kicked it off Monday night.  There is so much that I could elaborate on; however, there is one point my pastor made that I have NOT been able to get off my heart.
He said, “It is okay from a Godly perspective to identify our strengths.  We are talking about an eternal matter!  We also need to be able to identify when certain things we did just weren’t our best.”

In summation my Pastor drew the conclusion that one of the key elements to being an effective leader is ultimately that we follow in the footsteps of God the Father.  Our creator, God himself, not only had the ability to evaluate His own performance, but he acted on that ability.

Go with me on a short journey if you will ….

Romans 12:3 – Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning:  Don’t think you are better than you really are.  Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. (NLT)

In the above verse this is Paul speaking to us.  I have read this verse many times, but never with the focus that I did this evening.  My pastor started here in Romans 12 a few verses down from the above. 

I had been praying and trying to settle this issue so that I can understand, learn, and grow deeper with God.  He took me here, to the above verse.

In order to lead, we must have the ability to critique who we are, how we are performing in life, our wins, our losses and ultimately allow God to mold us into the person He desires for us to be.  This is no easy task.  It’s not easy to step back and evaluate the person we have become.  Yet at the same time we are told to be like God.  We were created in His very image to do a magnificent work for Him on this earth.

Now, I must admit, that never before tonight had I read in its entirety Genesis 1 – 4.  The other evening I felt so inadequate, but that was the devil.  I was allowing myself in my mind to feel less than because I didn’t know what my Pastor was discussing.  As he drew the conclusion to how God sets the example of evaluation he asked us the question, “What did God say at the end of each day?” 

In my mind I’m saying, “Ummmmm ….. Ummmmm ….”

Then in unison several people state the response, “It was good.”  Lightbulb came on in my mind!!

Then he says, “What did he say after he created man?”

To which a few more said, “It was very good!”

I realize now that in those moments I was guilty of the very thing that we each struggle with, “Evaluation and comparison.”

You see, I was comparing myself to others in the room thinking I must not be good enough if I don’t even know what it says in Genesis 1.  That’s the very beginning!  It’s where it all started!!  I’m not less than.  I’m very knowledgeable.  I’m very in tune to what God is trying to show me and do in my life.  But I did realize that I’m guilty of this one thing:  insecurity.  We all have it, we must find a way to rise above it if we are to take the things of God and the things He desires to do in us seriously.

The fact is at that moment I didn’t know the answer.  That’s ok!  And we have to be able to admit those things so that true progression can happen.

The reason God has placed this very statement my Pastor made on my heart was so that I would now be able to understand the most amazing thing that He had to share with me:

1.  We have a very matter of fact God.  If he said He would do it, He did it.  In the NLT version of Genesis 1 as God is creating and putting into action what He says He is going to do; very often it says, And that is what happened.  God doesn’t joke.  He is serious. He is loving. He is kind. He is just.  What He says, He means.

2.  He did indeed teach us the proper way to evaluate and examine ourselves.  Even He himself evaluated all of His creation by the simple statements it was good and it was very good.

So I kept reading …. I needed to know this.  I wanted to look at these traits and understand how this relates to being an effective leader and potentially where we initially acquired this ability to not be able to adequately evaluate and judge ourselves as it says we should do in Romans 12:3.

Adam and Eve came.  In short, they were told they could eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The devil was able to convince Eve to partake of the fruit of the tree.  Eve then convinced Adam to eat from it also.  Shortly after eating from the tree they hear God walking through the area.

Sooooooo, they run and hide!  In that moment they became insecure.  God asked Adam.  Basically, He said, “Did you eat from the tree that you weren’t supposed to eat from?”  Adam said, “Eve gave it to me.  I got it from Eve.”

If you read the whole story in Genesis 3 (assuming you, like me, may not be familiar with it before this evening) to me it symbolizes the pass-down of insecurity.  Insecurity ultimately started with the devil.  The devil was able to convince Eve to partake of the fruit, who then convinced Adam.  When Adam was confronted he blame-shifted.  Instead of being able to say, “Yes, I did.”  He said, “It was Eve that gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

An effective leader has the ability to just step back and say, “Yes, I did it.”  We have to be able to evaluate where we are.  What we do well.  What we struggle with.  We must be able to admit when someone is better than us, it is then that God can grow us.

I personally find it quite significant that Adam and Eve when placed in the garden were naked.  They felt no shame. 

After they partook of the fruit they ran and hid.  They covered themselves with leaves because they were ashamed for God to now see them.

The story comes full circle however because we are told towards the end of Genesis 3 that God made clothing for them.

When we have the ability to evaluate ourselves in and through Christ with Christ-like eyes we can accomplish a mighty work.  When we allow insecurity to get in the way, we will never be productive.  It is the very moment that we realize our complete dependence must be on God that change begins to happen. 

Change is gradual.

Evaluation is continual.

Progress is ongoing.

But God, He is eternal.  And as we go to Him …. As we realize we are nothing and He is everything, we all the sudden, become something … we become more and more like Him!