Have you recently experienced poor customer service where the employee didn’t know how to perform their job successfully? Or maybe where you work, are there employees who “just don’t get it”? This is referring more toward lack of skill as opposed to lack of will.
Early in my career, I was a lot more judgmental about poor-performing employees, such as “They are no good, so they should be fired.” My mindset has since shifted to seek the deeper cause of poor performance, and usually, the root cause is more about bad leadership. People tend to thrive under good leadership and wither away under bad leadership. More deeply, we tend to become more like the leaders we follow.
Jesus said it best:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. (John 15:4)
This is about following and submitting to his leadership. His commands. His will. It is about true life, not a moment here and there, not just Sunday mornings where we are all so spiritual, but every waking moment, drawing nearer to him.
I love this thought by John Mark Comer from “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, referring to abiding in Jesus:
It’s a way to organize all of your life around the practice of the presence of God, to work and rest and play and eat and drink and hang out with your friends and run errands and catch up on the news, all about of a place of deep, loving enjoyment of the Father’s company.
What will we choose today and for the rest of our days? Will it be to follow our own instincts, the ways of the world, or the latest popular thought around success and happiness? Or will it be to live a fruitful and transformative life marked by obedience to Jesus and a love for others?
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:10-11)