June 3, 2013
“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” (Oscar Wilde)
We’re living in a functional paradox: we’ve never had more books available – hardcover, paperback, e-book – than today… and, there is an alarming level of illiteracy (“the condition of being unable – for whatever reason – to read and write; the condition of being unknowledgeable or ignorant in a particular subject or field”).
Books contain the wisdom of the ages, accessible to all. The problem: too often, the good stuff is buried in piles of toxin and trivia that strains the reader into abandoning the search.
Nineteen years ago, Bob Buford wrote Halftime to challenge Christians whose career success had come into view to see the next summit – Kingdom significance – as the next pursuit. Within a year, the right people were reading Bob’s challenge… and contacting him for more help in the journey.
He asked me to consider creating a response to their request; The Master’s Program was launched 17 years ago to mentor leaders whose Kingdom Calling was their compelling future.
No one had to read Halftime (Wilde); the haunting suggestion that there was more to life than professional goals, realized was enough to shift the course of accomplished people toward a heavenly horizon.
It’s time for another treatment of that subject. Before year-end, Full Time will be in print. Bob Buford used his personal journey to offer his counsel on the theme; in Full Time, I’ll offer my own story – and, the coaching that comes from it – to add momentum to the movement.
I need your help.
On August 1, I’ll deliver the manuscript for Full Time to the publisher. For the next eight weeks, the goal is to make the content of that book rich with relevance for people just like you. People who know that there is more to this life than winning the rat race (success): they are devoting attention to the things that will still matter when they arrive in heaven (significance). They are leaders whose attention to detail in the refinement of their career has yet to be matched in calibrating their Calling. They know they aren’t finished yet… but they do not yet have the blueprint for building that part of their life from which retirement is not the ultimate objective.
Here’s where you come in: I’d like to ask you to hit “reply,” and give me your input on what you think needs to be addressed in Full Time to make it meaningful for people like you. It may be a question that is currently on your mind… or, it may be the breakthrough discovery you made on the way to finding a clearer path for your own Kingdom service.
Most books are like a menu, created by the author/master chef in hopes of meeting the tastes of their patron. The diner scans the offerings… and what follows is either a magnificent meal, or a missed opportunity. If Full Time had a Table of Contents that would draw you in, what would it include?
Shoot me a bullet point, or write me a paragraph. Tell me what you wish someone had said in your earlier readings, or give me the nugget of wisdom that was the game-changer for you.
Here’s the offer: if you’ll send me something of substance, I’ll promise to send you a copy of Full Time when it becomes available – in time for Christmas!
The last thing I want to give up my summer to produce: a vegan menu for a barbecue crowd. I want to explore the questions that real people are posing, and offer input that will make the time spent reading an investment with eternal value.
It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.
Could you help? Thanks!
Bob Shank
Document a program that helps me through the year, recall and implement the lessons and disciplines taught in The Master’s Program. It is one thing to hear it for 7 hours 4 times a year. Even to read it in books. But there are touch points that could help recall principles, scripture memory, journaling, recall about not volunteering (when others can do it as well or better), 80/20 principle when planning weeks and executing on days, relationship, giving, 100x, dreaming God sized dreams, & money perspective (making it and giving it). I keep hearing men say that don’t have the follow up they need after a class session. Maybe an app, maybe a model for a daily life planner/journal that could help men navigate their daily, weekly and yearly/stage of life so to bring 100 x glory to God versus being average, or much less. Lots of “dots to connect” are a continual basis. Tune ups, adjustments, current reading, base line exercises to do, spiritual, physical, mental, marital, family, business “fitness”. An “enabler” tool to use day in/day out capturing the Master’s Program lessons over a year, to be repeated year after year.
First of all, BRILLIANT book title, concept and asking for input. As I reflect on what you asked for, I would add this.
The degree to which a person is full time sold out to being in and obedient to God and His word is directly related to the value they put on both the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for the redemption on their sins, as well as the value they attribute to spending eternal life in heaven. If salvation is an individual’s most precious possession, a free gift no less, then they are most likely full time all in when it comes to showing God and Jesus their gratitude. These are the people who use their time, talents, treasure and touch to consistently love God, friends, family and strangers. They are seriously about building God’s kingdom, and helping to fulfill the great commission.
Conversely, those individuals who are not full time either unconsciously or consciously have not ascribed a high value their sinfulness, God’s penalty for sin, Jesus’ sacrifice for the redemption of that sin, and the unspeakable future that awaits a Christian in heaven.
Think of the difference in gratitude there would be if a friend gave you a free stick of chewing gum versus if that same friend gave you $1,000,000 with no strings attached. With the former, chances are at best you would just say thanks, both of you soon forgetting the gift in very short order. Contrast that to your friend giving you $1,000,000 cash. Chances are your friend would become a BFF. You would have them over for dinner, maybe even vacation with them. You might even donate 10% back to their favorite charity if asked.
Our life here on earth is truly an internship with the God of the universe giving each of us unique time, talents, and treasures, letting life happen to us and then sitting back to see who does what with their gifts, overcoming life’s trials along the way, and through it all, watching to see who remains faithful and grateful to the one who game them life.
Full Time: A Bigger Picture.
Our Prayer: All credit is due to God whose radiance shines forth as Creation and who, by the Holy Spirit, inspires and illuminates all understanding and realization of Divine Truth. Amen.
True learning is where knowledge fades away (2 Corth 13:8 – “…where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”) and Christ Consciousness or God Awareness is present. It is the transcendence from linear thinking (Newtonian, knowledge, science, duality, cause and effect, logic, reason, objective, contentual) to nonlinear thinking (contextual, spiritual, subjective).
Content vs. Context: Our totality of self is held within a larger underlying nonlinear field of awareness that is always present. It represents context rather than content. By analogy, it would be like looking at the planet Earth from outer space where space is the context and Earth is the content. Yet, by analogy, space is not dependent on the presence of planets or universes, yet it includes all of them.
Big Self (spiritual) is ever present and unconditional, and not subject to thought, opinion, or attitude. The Self (spiritual) can only love because that is its essence. The love of the Self (spiritual) in not earned, deserved, or subject to limitation. The Self (spiritual) is the source of life and the subjective awareness of existence. Consciousness may include content or it may not.
It took me a long time to realize that the love of God is what ultimately sustains me. For so long I would rejoice over the fact that I got the job that I thought I wanted, that my relationship with whoever was working, that my body looked good, etc., etc. The Master’s Program brings about this awareness.
I now realize that there are no guarantees in any of those things and it was only by the grace of God that I was able to obtain those things in the first place. Today I realize that it is faith in my faith of God’s love which ultimately sustains any peace that I may experience in my life; it is the only guarantee I have. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for reminding me of this fact. With faith, love, and hope God’s grace reveals I am abundant and I lack nothing.