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Last fall, I had the immense privilege of taking a four week Sabbatical. Before the Sabbatical I might not have used the words “immense privilege” to describe it, because the work that it took to prepare for it was beyond exhausting. By the time the Sabbatical started, I definitely felt like I had earned it and needed it. To say that I was exhausted would have been an understatement.
Besides the preparation of making sure that all of my job responsibilities would be covered for the the month that I was gone, I also was making preparations to make sure that the Sabbatical time itself was intentional and productive in helping me rest, renew and refocus. One of the things that I did in preparation for the Sabbatical time was read the book that I reviewed yesterday, Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity by Saundra Dalton-Smith, M.D. I was so glad that I had stumbled across her book in a podcast shortly before my Sabbatical. It really helped me understand the different aspects of rest and how those might be best incorporated. I already knew that just sitting at home, watching tv or reading wouldn’t be the rest that I’d need during my Sabbatical time. Reading Dr. Dalton-Smith’s book helped me incorporate many different types of rest into that time. I discovered that many things including trying new things which for me included kayaking, taking a drive to view fall colors, enjoying quiet time and times with music, spending time with friends and time alone, and so many other things all helped contribute to my restfulness and feeling renewed. All of these things helped me feel more rested, but I also took more time to just spend with God, to enjoy my relationship with Him just for the sake of our relationship not to study or prepare or anything else. The rest and peace that I felt from that truly enabled me to enjoy the other types of rest as well. During that time with God, I was really challenged by the idea of dwelling or abiding with Him. I know the verses well like: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5. Yet during this time, God really challenged me that I was putting other things like my to-do list and productivity ahead of actually dwelling with Him. As I explored this more, I realized just how much more restful dwelling with Him is. If you’ve made it this far in this article, you might be thinking “That’s great and I’m glad you had this great Sabbatical, but I’ll never be able to do that.” And yes, I was fortunate enough to have that opportunity, but many of these things that I learned about rest can be implemented into life outside of Sabbaticals. I know this because more that six months after my Sabbatical, these lessons are still shaping and helping my daily life. The reminder of the importance of dwelling with God and depending on Him instead of my obsessive to-do lists is still a valued part of my life. Am I doing it perfectly? No. Are there still days that I neglect my relationship with Him? Yes. Do I come back to dwell with Him much more quickly? Yes. Do I value that relationship and dependence on Him more? Absolutely. The understanding of the variety of ways that I can and need to rest is also still very crucial in my day to day life. Again, I don’t do it perfectly and some days or weeks are better than others. There will always be more demanding seasons in our lives or times when it is more of a struggle to find the time for rest, but as we realize the importance of dwelling with God and resting it becomes more of a priority to seek to consistently make them part of our daily lives. I think of the verse, Psalm 34:8, which says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” As we get a taste of the rest found in Him and that He desires for us, we will find ourselves craving it more and more. So even if you are busy, like we all are, and think you have no time to truly dwell with God or experience rest, I challenge you today to start where you are and carve out a few minutes or more to spend time with God, learn more about what rest you need, and start to experience His rest. If you think you have no time to carve out, then I challenge you to really take a close look at your time to see if that’s true. Can you give up some time on social media, or watching tv, or playing games? Do you have a few minutes in the carpool line, in a waiting room, or could you wake up just a few minutes earlier? I have to remind myself of this at times, but trust me, whatever the sacrifice it will be well worth it.
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I first heard of the book, Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, in a podcast featuring the author Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith. I was intrigued by what I heard from her and about the book because like so many people I had been struggling with feeling tired all the time. When someone would casually ask how I was doing, so often the first thing that would come to mind was “tired.” I felt like I tried to rest, but never felt rested. For one of the first times as I listened to this author speak, I heard someone explaining why my “resting” didn’t always leave me feeling rested.
In her book, Dr. Dalton-Smith explains that: “Much of what we consider rest fails to work because it is not restful.” She also takes time to explain the difference between sleep and rest, saying that sleep itself is not rest, but rest makes our sleep better. The book explains that many things that we think are restful, like escapism, are actually not helping us rest in a way that helps us recover and renew our energy. She approaches this extensive look at rest from both her medical and faith backgrounds giving a well-rounded, well-researched point of view. Thankfully, the author doesn’t just explain what we are doing wrong when it comes to rest, but the majority of the book explains what is needed for true rest. She says that “The most effective rest occurs when we are purposefully reviving the parts of our life we regularly deplete.” Dr. Dalton-Smith goes on to explain that there are seven different areas where we need rest: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, sensory, and creative. As we deplete ourselves in each of these areas, we need to rest in ways that help us recover and replete those specific areas. If our senses are exhausted from the noise and other inputs of life, then sitting down to watch tv or a movie for a few hours isn’t going to help us rest and feel renewed. The same idea is true for each of the seven areas. Different types of exhaustion, need different types of rest. Dr. Dalton-Smith not only shares about these seven areas of needed rest, but she gives very practical ideas on how to rest in ways that can renew us in each of those areas. In case we weren’t already convinced, she goes on to share a dozen different gifts that rest gives us: from freedom and acceptance to permission, productivity, and choice. All of these ideas were like a breath of fresh air to me, and might be to you as well. Dr. Dalton-Smith asks a question with a powerful suggestion , “What steals your rest? Answering this question helps reveal the benefits of having boundaries and the gift we have in setting boundaries within our lives.” Recognizing the specific things that steal our rest and even more importantly the areas where our rest has been depleted, helps us determine the kind of rest we really need. This book includes a Personal Rest Deficit Assessment and also a link to her free 7 Types of Rest Quiz. In this online quiz, you can determine the areas where you are most in need of rest. When I took this quiz it was simultaneously eye-opening and also very affirming of what I was feeling. After taking the quiz I spent about a month trying to implement some the types of rest that were suggested in the book. After that month, I retook the quiz and saw improvement in most of the areas. If you are struggling with constantly feeling tired and exhausted, and feeling like nothing you do makes it better, then I’d highly encourage you to take some time to check out this book. For me, it is definitely going to be a periodic re-read to remind myself of areas where I need to proactively rest and replenish. I hope it might be as helpful to you as it was to me. Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. It began as a national observance after the Civil War as a time to remember and honor those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, dying in battle.
While we still know that is the reason for this holiday, for many of us it’s become more about a long weekend to kick off summer. It’s not a bad a thing to enjoy barbecues, camping, time with family and friends, and other activities during this holiday weekend, but I do think it is still appropriate for us to take some time to remember as we enjoy our early summer activities. After all, it is because of their sacrifices, that we have the freedom to enjoy the activities of our choosing this weekend. According to the website military.com, over 1.3 million military members have died while fighting for our country. That doesn’t even include those who have lost their lives in training accidents or other duties. What a staggering number! Not only did those 1.3 million plus military members give the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of our nation and our freedoms, but most if not all of them left behind loved ones, friends, and family who paid the sacrifice of grief and loss. What we can so easily take for granted, has come a such a great cost. If we stop and think about, many of us have people somewhere in our family trees that have paid this ultimate sacrifice. For some of us it may have been someone close to us who we still love and miss. For others of us it may be a more distant relative who we never really knew, but if we take time to consider it some of the realities of these sacrifices become clear. I grew up knowing that one of my Grandpa’s brother’s had died in World War II. As a kid growing up and honestly as a young adult, I never really thought about what that meant. As I’ve gotten older and learned a few more things about him, I’ve finally realized how tough that must have been for my Grandpa and his family. Jimmy was the youngest of four brothers and was killed in action in Japan less than five months before the war was over. From the stories I heard he was a vibrant young man who enjoyed life, riding on roller coasters with my Grandma when my Grandpa refused to join her. The grief must have been so difficult for all of them, but especially my great-grandparents. To add to the grief experienced by them all, it took months before his body could be returned for burial, and they were the lucky ones because some families of service members didn’t ever get that opportunity. This is a story that in one way, shape or form can be repeated over 1.3 million times by families in our country during the last 250 years. It is devastating and yet encouraging. It is dreadful and yet deserving of honor. In the Bible, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) While not all of those who have given up their lives for this country were followers of Christ, many were and they followed the example of His sacrifice for us. All of these military members exemplify what Jesus said. They each sacrificed their lives for their friends and countrymen, to protect us, to protect our nation, and to protect our freedoms. The least we can do is sacrifice a few moments today remembering and honoring them and wondering about the magnitude of their sacrifice. This is last of our Thursday series on the encounters with the Risen Savior that are shared in the four gospels. Today’s encounter is the last one that the disciples shared with Jesus on the earth. It is when they saw him ascend to heaven. This encounter is shared with us by Luke. It starts in his gospel and is continued in the book of Acts. Luke ends his gospel in chapter 24 verses 50-52 saying: And He led them out as far Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God. While this encounter is very different that the other encounters with the Risen Savior that we have taken a look at in recent weeks, one similarity strikes me: worship. Consistently throughout each of these encounters we have seen that the response to seeing Jesus is to worship. We must never lose sight of that principle. When we really see Jesus for who He is, worship, and praising Him, should be our natural response. When Luke began the book of Acts, he started with a bit of an introduction shedding a little more light on this final encounter before the ascension. In Acts chapter 1, verses 1-11, it says: The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’ And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. The also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.’ Okay, I’ve just got to say it. The question of the two men in white clothing always makes me laugh a little. “Why do you stand looking into the sky?” Ummm…they just saw Jesus “lifted up” and “received” by cloud. That’s not a sight you see everyday, or EVER. I’m pretty sure I’d be doing exactly what the disciples were doing: staring into the sky to see what’s going to happen next. They’d seen Jesus heal people. They’d seen Him resurrect people. They’d seen Him die and rise again. They’d been seeing Him, the Risen Savior, off and on for 40 days at this point. They might have thought that nothing could surprise them anymore, but then He ascends to Heaven. Again, I’m pretty sure if I were them I’d definitely be wondering “Now what? What’s He going to do now?” But they were essentially told to stop staring in the sky because He’d be back. Fortunately for them, and us, He’d already answered the “now what” question before it ever even crossed their minds. The “now what” was given to them in the encounter on the mountain in Galilee when Jesus gave them the Great Commission. He even reinforced those instructions in His parting words to the disciples when he said: “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will received power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” And like the Great Commission, these instructions weren’t just for those disciples standing there that day. They are for each of us who call ourselves followers or disciples of Jesus. We are called to be His witnesses throughout the earth through the power of the Holy Spirit. So when you find yourself taken by surprise, in a good way or from a loss or unexpected situation, and you’re asking “Now what?” remember that He answered before we even asked. “Now what” starts with worship and continues with following His instructions to be a witness for Him and make disciples. Last week, I shared some ways that understanding the Working Genius model can help us as individuals. This week, I want to share a little about how the Working Genius model can help teams. Those teams can be at work, at home, in churches, non-profits, and other volunteer groups as well.
In last week’s article, we talked about how understanding the Working Genius model and your own Working Geniuses helps you understand yourself better, including helping you show a little more grace towards yourself and others. Understanding that what is easy for us might not be so easy for our teammates and what we struggle with might be areas that they are gifted in can help us appreciate the teams we find ourselves in so much more. Understanding your own working geniuses is a great starting place, but understanding the geniuses, competencies, and frustrations of those you work with takes the helpfulness and value of the Working Genius model to a whole other level. Whether it’s with your co-workers, your family, teams at church or other organizations you are involved in, knowing how each of you are wired for work will help you see where you might be able to maximize the potential of individuals, recognize gaps that exist in your work process, and identify areas in which certain team members may be at risk of burning out. Last week I posted a quote from Patrick Lencioni that said: “People who utilize their natural, God-given talents are much more fulfilled and successful than those who don’t.” Can you imagine what it would be like if those you work with in any environment, yourself included, had the opportunity to to better utilize their “natural, God-given talents”? Exploring the Working Genius model as a team or in the family, gives your team not just a common understanding, but it gives you a common language to communicate the ideas and feelings around different types of work that you may never have been able to clearly put words around before. Being able to say to someone, “I know that taking the time to make sure all the details are taken care of is draining for you because Tenacity is one of your areas of frustration, but thank you for pushing through to get that done” can go a long way in truly seeing, knowing, and expressing appreciation for your teammates. All of that helps to build a stronger team. Knowing the working geniuses, competencies, and frustrations of those on your team also help you see aspects of work where your team might be struggling. If your team is great at coming up with ideas but doesn’t always do so great at following through, it might be that no one on your team has the genius of Enablement or Tenacity. This can be an ongoing issue and source of frustration for your entire team, but if you realize what is going on then you can begin to address it and look for people who do have those gifts to help your team out. In contrast, if no one on the team has the genius of Wonder or Invention, your team can easily find themselves stuck in a rut and losing momentum. All six of the geniuses are needed for work to be accomplished. If your team is missing certain geniuses, then a couple of things might be happening. Your team’s work is probably suffering on some level, or you may have teammates who are very frustrated and on the verge of burnout because they are being expected to “take one for the team” and spend most of their time functioning in an area that is not their area of genius. Learning about the Working Genius model together helps you see both the individuals on your team better and the big picture of how your team is functioning. The insights that you can learn from diving into this together, can help individuals become more fulfilled and successful and can help your team as a whole become more effective at accomplishing your mission. Again, like I’ve said before, please understand that I am just barely scratching the surface of the Working Genius model in these articles and there is so much more to it and so many more benefits that you can experience as you understand it better. As always, if you want to learn more about it you can check out the book, The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni or the Working Genius podcast. I would also love to help walk you through the process of taking the assessment and understanding more about the model and what it means for you specifically or your team. If you would like to know more about the Working Genius model or have me work with you or your team as a Working Genius Facilitator, please reach out to me on the Contact page of this website. This is part of our Thursday series on the encounters with the Risen Savior that are shared in the four gospels. Today’s encounter is shared with us by Matthew. In Matthew 28:16-20 it says: But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus had asked the disciples to meet Him on a mountain in Galilee. Church tradition and most scholars believe that the mountain they met on was Mount Arbel which is on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Not only was this mountain right in the middle of where Jesus spent so much of his ministry, but they could also see many of the surrounding nations which would be important to what Jesus was about to ask of them. Jesus chose this spot, and the disciples listened and obeyed. I love that verse 17 tells us that “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him.” Worship is the natural response to seeing the Risen Savior. When we truly see Him and grasp who He is and what He has done, it’s hard to do anything other than worship. So the question becomes, are we truly seeing Him? Are we too distracted by life’s demands, pressures, pleasures, or difficulties that we’ve stopped really looking at Him? Has our thinking about Him become skewed so that we’re seeing a distorted image of who He is? If worship seems challenging, it’s probably because we aren’t truly seeing Him. So how do we fix that? We go back to really looking for Him to truly see Him. He doesn’t make it difficult for us. We can start off in the gospel books reading them not for what we can get out of it, but reading them asking Him to show us who He is so we can see Him clearly. We don’t have to stop with just the four books of the gospel either, we can see Him clearly all throughout Scripture. The disciples had seen Jesus. They worshipped Jesus. Then they listened to Him. The challenge that Jesus gave them in verses 19-20 is frequently referred to as the Great Commission because He was authorizing them to fulfill a specific task. We see that authorization in verse 18 when Jesus explains that He has all authority. Because the authority belongs to Him, He can authorize His disciples to carry out what He is about to ask. Jesus asked the disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations. Standing on that mountain seeing land and nations as far as the eye could see probably just drove this point home. They were to go into all of these areas, and beyond, and make disciples. They had spent the last three years learning to be His disciples, and now they were to go and help others do the same. Jesus even gave them some specifics in how to accomplish this. They were to baptize them and teach them not just to know but to follow all that Jesus had taught them. And then Jesus ended with this very important statement: “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This Great Commission that He had just given them probably seemed daunting in the moment. It would seem even more so in many ways in the days to come as they faced persecution and the daily pressures of leading this new movement that would come to be known as the Church. Knowing that Jesus was with them and would be with them always would be so necessary for them to be able to stay focused on the mission He gave. The same is true for us. This Great Commission wasn’t given just for the disciples on that mountain that day. It is something that all of us as disciples of Jesus have been called to do. If it was just for those disciples, then there would have been no more disciples within a generation or two of their deaths, but we know that was not the case because we are here today. We are followers of Christ, His disciples, because someone was faithful to listen and obey His command to go and make disciples and they taught us. If we say that we are following Him, then that means we are listening to Him and doing what He asks. He has asked us to make disciples. We have a purpose and calling. We each do this in different ways and reach different people, but it is a mission that we have all been given. Just like the disciples on the mountain though, Jesus promises that He will always be with us. When we are struggling, when the challenge seems too daunting, remember to take time to truly see Him as you go and make disciples. Last week, I shared a little about what I learned about my Working Geniuses and some of the insights that I got from learning about this model and taking the assessment. This week, I want to talk a little more about how the Working Genius model can be helpful personally.
Understanding the Working Genius model and in particular understanding your own Working Geniuses helps you understand yourself better. While we never want to become self-focused, being self-aware is very important. When we are aware of what makes us tick and tendencies that we have, it equips us to interact better with others, be better friends, family members, co-workers, leaders and Christ followers. While there are many ways that understanding the 6 Types of Working Genius can help you, there are two in particular that I want to mention today. First, it can help you better understand what fuels or energizes you when it comes to work and what aspects of work make you feel burnt out. Often we think burn out comes from working too much and the response to avoid it is to just cut back on work. Sometimes that helps, but sometimes it doesn’t if you’ve ever found yourself wondering why that is, the Working Genius model can help. It isn’t so much about how much work you are doing, but what kind of work you are doing. The more work you are able to do in your areas of genius the more energized you will feel and less likely to burn out. If you are having to spend a lot of time in your areas of frustration, then you are much more likely to begin experiencing burn out. Even if you are having to spend a great deal of time in your areas of competency, you can begin to experience burn out and frustration. Understanding your Working Geniuses and exploring ways to minimize your frustrations and maximize your geniuses can be immensely helpful in the energy you have not just for work, but life. With that said, let me give a bit of a disclaimer: all of us have to do things in our areas of competency and frustration at times. Whether it is at work, in our families, or just day to day life, there will be things that we need to accomplish that don’t fall into our geniuses, but understanding this model helps us understand why certain things are more draining and difficult for us than others. Just understanding this can give us some relief and compassion for ourselves and others. It is so easy for us to feel guilty or be harsh with ourselves because what seems so easy for others around us just isn’t easy for us. Maybe you see others coming up with great ideas and you just don’t understand why you can’t. Maybe you feel like you should be better at follow through and finishing tasks and have felt at times that something must be wrong with you because you just can’t seem to pull it together. This is the second helpful aspect of understanding the Working Genius model that I wanted to mention today. Understanding ourselves in this way helps to eliminate some unnecessary guilt over things we just aren’t great about and understand that we have geniuses in other areas. It can even help us to be less judgmental and more compassionate with others as well. Some of this comes from the fact that the Working Genius model gives you a language to be able to communicate these ideas and feelings that you may never have been able to clearly put words around. While knowing that something is a working frustration doesn’t give you an excuse to just stop doing those types of things, it does give you the understanding and words to begin to talk with family members, co-workers, and leaders to help them understand why you struggle in those areas and what areas in which you are likely to be more successful. Having conversations about these things opens the door to begin to explore ways to spend more time in your areas of genius and less in frustrations and competencies which can be beneficial for you and those around you. Please understand that I am just barely scratching the surface of the Working Genius model in these articles and there is so much more to it and so many more benefits that you can experience as you understand it better. As always, if you want to learn more about it you can check out the book, The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni or the Working Genius podcast. I would also love to help walk you through the process of taking the assessment and understanding more about the model and what it means for you specifically. If you would like to know more about the Working Genius model or have me work with you as a Working Genius Facilitator, please reach out to me on the Contact page of this website. This is part of our Thursday series on the encounters with the Risen Savior that are shared in the four gospels. Today’s encounter is shared with us by John. At this point, Jesus had already appeared to all of the disciples, and in chapter 21 John goes on to tell about a day when seven of the disciples had decided to go fishing. They had been unsuccessfully fishing all night, and at daybreak heard someone on the shore tell them to cast their nets on the right-hand side of the boat. And just like it happened when they first met Jesus, their nets were overwhelmingly full of fish. At this point John realized that the man on the shore must be Jesus. Peter, as impulsive as always jumped off the boat and swam to the shore while the others stayed in the boat and drug the net full of fish to shore. In verse 9, John describes the scene they found on shore like this: So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread. Jesus invited them to have breakfast and in verse 13 John describes part of that breakfast meal: Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise. There had to have been so many memories flooding through these men during this encounter. The memory of their early meeting with Jesus and the huge catch of fish had to come back to them all. The fish and bread may have brought up reminders of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus breaking the bread and giving it to them likely flooded them with memories from the Passover meal they had celebrated a short time before and everything that had happened since. For Peter, there may have been something else that brought up a not so great memory. In the cool of that morning, the fish were being cooked over a charcoal fire, and while we don’t know that it’s the case, that fire and all the other memories that were flooding back may have brought up another fire that he stood at a short time before. Then the slave-girl who kept the door said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself … Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, ‘You are not also one of His disciples, are you?’ He denied it, and said, “I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with Him?’ Peter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed. John 18:17-18, 25-27
While we don’t know if these memories had come back to mind over the fire that morning, but it was likely that Peter was still struggling with what he had done. He had been so confident that he would never betray Jesus, but he did three times just like Jesus said. But after breakfast, Jesus had an incredible conversation with Peter there on the shore. Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. All three times Peter said that he did and Jesus asked him to tend and shepherd His sheep. After this beautiful moment of healing and restoration, Jesus went on to predict the kind of death Peter would be faced with and once again spoke the words that He had in the very beginning, “Follow Me!” Memories can be powerful things and our senses are often great at bringing memories back to us. Sometimes those memories are wonderful, sometimes they are challenging, and at times they are painful. Some memories pop up and help us see and appreciate things in a new light. Some memories challenge us to reclaim a passion or live up to something that was spoken into us. But some memories, especially painful memories, can so easily suck us into patterns and lies that prevent us from being who God wants us to be and doing what He has called us to do. When we find ourselves getting drug down by painful parts of our past or present, we need to bring that pain to Jesus and let Him heal and restore us. If you are struggling with memories that are holding you back from the abundant life that God has for you, and you just don’t know how to bring it to Jesus, I would encourage you to find a trusted friend, advisor, or counselor to help you walk through that process so that you can live the abundant life that God has for you. Last week, I reviewed the book, The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team, by Patrick Lencioni. During the next three Mondays, I want to talk a little more about the significance of this great model for understanding ourselves, the teams we work on, and how we accomplish work.
In the book review, I mentioned that when I took the assessment I discovered that my Working Geniuses were Discernment and Wonder and I briefly mentioned that this was part of the reason for the name of this website. On the home page of the website, you can see an article that explains the main reason for the name and I encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already, but I also want to explain a little about how The 6 Types of Working Genius Model shaped this as well. When I learned about the Working Genius model, I had a pretty good idea of what my geniuses would be and taking the assessment confirmed it. Just in case you didn’t read the Book Review and aren’t familiar with the Working Genius model, the six types of Work include: wonder, invention, discernment, galvanizing, enablement, and tenacity. The Discernment aspect was not really a big surprise for me. I love brainstorming and working with others or even at times by myself to think about various ideas and make them better. Sometimes I do this even when it’s not really helpful or asked for. I’ve been known to be in grocery lines or hospitals with family and friends and start going off on how I think they could be doing things better. At times I’ve been told by whoever I happen to be talking to that I should “Go ahead and go tell someone who works there and not them.” The emphasis definitely being on “not them.” I’m rarely bold enough to take that suggestion and offer the unsolicited advise to someone other than the person I happen to be with. That’s probably due to a number things. One might be because Discernment is a responsive genius and not a disruptive genius. A bigger reason is probably because Galvanizing is one of my Working Frustrations and going up to someone in a business or organization out of nowhere with a suggestion does not give me joy. If I’m asked for my input, however, it does generally energize me. My other Working Genius was Wonder. Like many people with this genius, I knew this sounded a lot like me, but I’d certainly never really thought of it as a strength, let alone a genius. In fact, my wonder seemed more like something that just annoyed people and even got me in trouble at times. The Genius of Wonder involves asking a lot of questions. Why are we doing this? Why don’t we do that? Would it be better if we tried this? Why couldn’t we…? What do you think is causing this? You get the idea. I’d never really considered that Wonder is the first part of the process of work. There wouldn’t be ideas or processes or products to discern and implement if someone doesn’t first wonder about why something is the way it is and what might be done about it. Like every Working Genius there are appropriate and not-so-appropriate times for this genius and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that. So when I started brainstorming different names for this website, and was thinking about the importance of us recapturing wonder it reminded me of the Working Genius model. The wonder that we talk about recapturing throughout this website isn’t exactly the same as the Working Genius of wonder. We’re talking more about being open to seeing the amazing things that God is doing and has placed around you. You don’t have to have the Working Genius of wonder to be able to remember how to recapture the wonder that children so naturally have. For me, understanding my Working Geniuses helped me take some steps to recapturing that wonder because I understood myself better and had more grace for myself and others. So while Discerning Wonder has some deeper meanings, it’s also a bit of a play on words from my Working Geniuses. Understanding this model has helped me. If you would like to learn more or would like to see if it can help you or your team identify your sweet spots in the process of work and possibly have more understanding and grace for yourselves and each other, please use the contact page to reach out to me. I’d love to talk with you more about this great model. |
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August 2026
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