Twenty-five years ago the Lord gave me
four questions to ask myself. At the
time, I Jan and I were between assignments and served for a short season on the
staff of a large church. One day, I introduced the four questions at a staff
meeting as a way to keep things simple and focused. The more complicated our
lives become the more important it is to keep the core of our activity simple
and focused in order to remain true to our original mission.

Here are the four questions I ask about my
life and mission:

1.      What
do I like?

2.      What
do I not like?

3.      What
do I want to keep?

4.      What
do I want to get rid?

The questions are important to ask because
this life can get complicated and side tracked if not monitored. I do not ask
these questions every day. I ask them every few months. This gives me the
ability to observe trends over time and make adjustments in a thoughtful
fashion based on real data, not just a bad day or few busy weeks when I simply
need an extra day off to get my act together.

There is something very spiritual about
this kind of exercise. It keeps us from living in assumption – an assumption
that the status quo is where God wants us to remain. The Kingdom is expanding
and so should our personal lives, careers and ministries. Our effectiveness
must be examined from time-to-time or we will find ourselves accumulating more
and more things to do and under the weight of an encumbered existence stop
moving forward. Walking in our destiny requires that we occasionally shed those
things we no longer have a passion or assignment to carry.

“For my burden is easy and my yoke is light.” Matthew 11:30