A New Year with A New Perspective

To survive in these tough times, innovators must be persistent. We angle, cajole, network, present and smile our way into opportunities to share our ideas. This determination and spunk is part of what makes an innovator who they are.

But many times that drive is overtaken by pride and self importance. It happens so easily. We start out simply pushing an idea forward and before we know it, we have convinced ourselves that we deserve the success and the rewards that will eventually come.

So in this new year, I would like to present the antidote to this prideful tendency among us innovative types. The cure is brokenness. BROKENNESS???? "What kind of cure is that?" you might ask.

I asked the same question till earlier this year. That was when I read a book called "The Tale of Three Kings" by Gene Edwards. I had heard about this book before, but God brought it to my attention through a sermon, a friend's recommendation over coffee and then through a vague memory of seeing this book in our storage closet. Well, my memory was accurate and I read the book quickly.

This book takes a unique look at Saul, David and Absalom. The first was an angry king who threw spears, the second was a broken king and the third was a rebellious king. The book shows David's brokenness and then challenges the reader to consider a broken life before God.

Up to that point, in many ways I had allowed the pride of innovation to rule the day in my life. But God used this book to show me what it meant to be broken. And what I have found in the process is that a broken person is an even stronger innovator. When you are broken before God, you accept that all ideas come from Him. You also accept that only the ones that God blesses should succeed.

A broken spirit does not push beyond God's direction and moves forward with courage under God's leading.

As each of you innovators begin your new year of work, what will be the driving force behind your work. Will it be your pride and self reliance? Or will you live a broken life before the Lord and ask Him to guide your efforts?

Blessings as each of you innovate in this new year!

Relentlessly Broken

Recently a friend of mine said something to me that really stuck. He has been going through some difficult times and having to trust God in some large ways. As God is working in his life, he realized that maybe this brokenness and trust isn't just for a season. Maybe it is for always.

You see, he shared with me that as life got harder and he trusted God with more, he secretly thought that some day God would back off and let him run things again. God was trying to teach him a lesson but didn't want to run things this way all the time.

But then my friend came to a realization that has hit me very hard. "Maybe God wants us to be broken and dependent all the time!" Wow, that is hard to even contemplate, let alone live up to. Where would I even start?

We have this strange game going on with God where we let Him run certain areas of our life for a while and then demand them back. As if we were doing God a favor by allowing Him to take part.

So what does this have to do with innovation? Plenty. What I find myself doing as I strive to come up with new ideas and concepts is best described in a simple list:
1. I have a problem/opportunity that I am trying to figure out.
2. I struggle with a solution and then remember to ask God.
3. God leads and I follow . . .
4. Then I thank God for the idea and say, "I'll run with it from here."

In Christian circles we can get caught in a trap of treating God as the solutions fairy. When we need a new idea, a solution, a fresh perspective, we go to God in prayer. However, as soon as we feel that we have an answer we remove it from the feet of Jesus and we place it at our own.

I can think of countless times that I have done this in my own life. I want God's help but not His leadership. I want His vision but not His direction.

We have to be willing to relentlessly submit to God . . . at every step of every idea/action/task. We have to be willing to live - like my friend shared - broken lives all the time and not just when we are learning something or going through a hard time.

God wants all of our ideas, our efforts our leadership to be bent to His vision, mission and will. Are we willing to live lives like that as we innovate?