One of the questions I get often in leadership circles is, “How do you turn ‘it’ off? How do you go home and just not think about the church anymore? How can you sleep at night and not let your mind begin to obsess about the things you need to do?”
I think that is a GREAT question…because I’ve been asking it for years.
If you are a leader you know exactly what I’m talking about…
- You go home…but while you are at dinner you catch yourself thinking about the next day. (You’ve got to fight to stay focused on your family.)
- You try to lay down and go to sleep…but your mind starts churning about things that you have coming up.
- You get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom…and a sermon idea or a leadership solution hits you and you are up for the rest of the night thinking about it.
- You go on vacation…and while you are there (usually about three days in) ideas begin to hit you out of nowhere and you have to find a journal to write them down in.
I could go on and on…but I am sure if you are a leader then you get the point.
I used to think I was crazy…that I was cracking up…that there was a switch inside of me that I could flip and that by doing so I would be able to disconnect and not really care about the church, the Great Commission and/or the calling that God has placed on my life.
Until I had this thought one day…if you can turn “it” off…then you probably never had “it” to begin with.
If you can leave the church and completely disconnect…then you’re probably not that connected to begin with…what you do is a paycheck & not your passion.
Reality is this…if you are called by God…if He has placed HIS zeal and passion inside of you…THEN THERE ISN’T A SWITCH ANYWHERE that you can flip to make that go away.
When I read the Scriptures I don’t see people like Nehemiah “turning the switch off.” He cast vision, built a wall, dealt with critics and did a great work.
I don’t see JESUS “turning off the switch.” He met the needs of people everywhere He went…and when He did try to go on a “retreat” to catch His breath and crowds followed them He would heal and feed them.
I don’t see Paul “turning off the switch.” Everywhere he went He could not stop talking about Jesus and starting churches.
So…if you can’t “turn off the switch” you are NORMAL! It means that Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, lives in you and is PUSHING you to do something about the things He is bringing into your awareness.
I used to feel bad that I could not “turn it off,” now I feel blessed because it affirms His calling on my life and His leadership in my life.
NOW…saying all of that there are some things you can do to make sure that this calling doesn’t drive you insane and/or cause you to flame out/burn out/do something incredibly stupid. We’ll chat about that tomorrow.