Read Time: 10 Minutes
More than likely you have heard the phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
While credited to the popular Management expert Peter Drucker, the phrase took hold with several CEOs including former Ford CEO Mark Fields and former GE CEO Jack Welch. The point here is that the importance of a good organizational culture far outweighs any long-term plans or strategies.
I can’t help but think of the famous phrase – “When Man plans, God laughs…”
There’s a couple more cliches I could layer in here, but let’s just cut to the chase.
When we really get granular, culture is simply the result or outcome of a collection of systems and processes within a business. It makes up the operating system of a business or the recipe of how problems get solved and things get done.
In personal terms, you can also employ your own operating system and culture. But when you dig deep here, the conversation of personal culture becomes more of a spiritual operating system…
It is our core values. It is what we treasure which drives our priorities each day. Whether we are aware of our priorities or not, what we prioritized gets accomplished. What we say no to today, gets pushed to tomorrow, or the day after that, and so on into never-ever land.
When we focus on the day and our daily bread, we are not abandoning planning altogether, but we are reordering or restructuring our operating system. Core values and long-term planning are critical aspects of our spiritual journey, but our daily planner is how we work out our salvation through fear and trembling…you get the point.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.””
Matthew 6:33-34 TLV
This methodology is counterintuitive to what the world and most consultants and mega corporations teach us. They focus on the long-term goals of the organization, break those down into pillars of strategy and cascaded metrics.
It is true that it is good to have hope and dreams. But our hopes and dreams are not of this world, but the next, The Kingdom of God. It is precisely this – bringing His Kingdom and His will into our lives, our daily missions – which should ultimately drive us.
God wants to give us hope, but in order to do so, we have to trust Him and let Him provide the direction and manna. Then we can act accordingly…
“For I know the plans that I have in mind for you,” declares Adonai, “plans for shalom and not calamity—to give you a future and a hope. “Then you will call on Me, and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you will search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 TLV
“From Your precepts I get discernment, therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Psalms 119:104-105 TLV
“The heart of man plans his course, but Adonai directs his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9 TLV
Execution > Expectation
I’ve quoted Mark Batterson’s book entitled _Win the Day_in several posts, because it has stuck with me as a godly book that will change the way you look at and think about productivity.
One excerpt near and dear to my heart is the following:
“you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting the rest of your life. You’ll never find perfect conditions, and you’ll never be ready. My mantra? If you get a green light from God—go, set, ready!”
― Mark Batterson, Win the Day
This couldn’t be more true. And while prayer is an absolute necessary predecessor to anything that we do, we sometimes use planning as an excuse to wait. I even find myself using it as a procrastination tool – go figure.
A quote a read this weekend and that is somewhat related to this was from an email newsletter called 3-2-1 that James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits pens and sends (virtually of course). The section that stuck with me is as follows:
Technology entrepreneur Brian Armstrong on learning quickly:"Action produces information. If you're unsure of what to do, just do anything, even if it's the wrong thing. This will give you information about what you should actually be doing.Sounds simple on the surface - the hard part is making it part of your every day working process."Source: Twitter
Both of these serve as witnesses (see what I did there), to the fact that many times we wait or make excuses rather than act. I am preaching to myself here as well.
We sit around and wait for God to do something for us. We preach against hand outs, then hold our hands out. God bless us…
And God loves to bless us, but He wants co-creators and co-tenders if you will in the garden. Getting back to that garden state requires us to plant the seed, and then He can and will supply the rain.
Our actions today create results. Planning does nothing other than establish the roadmap for our actions. But one thing is true: Planning without action is fruitless.
We must be ultimately focused on acting, spending 80% of our time in the action phase. That is where we will find our flow, and that is how we will glorify God. God loves a cheerful giver, and giving is an action word for our time, resources, and skills. He wants us to be doers of the word!!
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror— for once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he was.”
Jacob (James) 1:22-24 TLV
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your strength, for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.”
Ecclesiastes 9:10 TLV
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in shalom, keep warm and well fed, ” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is that? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder! But do you want to know, you empty person, that faith without works is dead?”
Jacob (James) 2:14-20 TLV
Alignment > Control
We all plan at some level because it gives us control, albeit a false sense of control to a certain degree. Nevertheless, we plan our days, months and years. Some of us even have fun with it (yours truly included)!
But haven’t we all also experienced those days that the minute we write down our plan, or the minute we look at our calendar, 10-20 other things start vying for our attention. Despite our best attempts to carve out a distraction-free, chaos-free, fully controlled life plan, things do not go according to plan 100% of the time. #factsoflife
But if this is the case, we have to ask ourselves, why even plan in the first place? As I mentioned above, planning in and of itself is not bad, and can in fact be very godly. Take Nehemiah as an example when he was rebuilding the wall, or Joshua, when he sent the spies into Jericho. A good godly plan that is aligned with God’s will, will succeed 100% of the time. God guarantees it.
“Plans of the diligent surely lead to gain, but all who are hasty come only to loss.”
Proverbs 21:5 TLV
“But I—I will watch for Adonai. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.”
Micah 7:7 TLV
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10 TLV
Now we may not understand His will at all points in time and in every case, but that is for another post…
So if alignment is key, how do we align? Glad you asked.
It all starts with prayer. And I don’t mean just talking to God, telling Him your plans. It is a conversation, and given that God is far more powerful and knowledgeable than us, I would recommend to listen a majority of the time. Then dive into scripture. Let the spirit guide you to the particular passages, and meditate on these passages. Don’t just cherry-pick verses though – read entire sections and try to understand the levels on which God is speaking to you.
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword—piercing right through to a separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 TLV
“All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 TLV
This cycle should go on and on. It should be part of your daily rhythm, but also part of your morning, afternoon and evening routines. Remember, Daniel prayed three times a day. And this was not a few sentences here and there either, I can assure you.
Make the time for God and He will literally MAKE time for you. You will be amazed at what is possible when you are aligned with God.
A few other tips to avoid the expectation pitfall common among us humans are as follows:
-Build buffers into your plan and calendar; this will help address and handle “surprises” or “hey you” things that come up throughout the day or week.
-Embrace “emerging strategies” where new pathways and ideas emerge after you have started to execute or act on your plan. It is the glory of God to reveal things.
-Use the prayer parachute whenever you get frustrated or down about not achieving what you set out for; God will not only comfort you, He will always save you.
I pray that this section and these tips help you to more calmly navigate the stormy waters of planning and promotion of God’s will!
Tracking + Training > Trivial Pursuits
Perhaps the one of the most forgotten elements of all cycles of actions and routine is measurement. If you do not track what you are doing, you run the risk of getting lost. It is like walking without a compass or a map, driving without a GPS (or knowing where you are), or God forbid flying without radar! A fraction of a degree off course will have compounded effects on your destination. This step is all about course correction on our daily trek called life.
“One who heeds discipline is on the path of life, but whoever ignores correction goes astray.”
Proverbs 10:17 TLV
Of course the measurement and tracking is only as good as the tool which you are using to measure, and only means anything if you actually do something about the outcome i.e. course correct. If you just get the weather forecast, but fail to pack your raincoat (or singing shoes), what’s the point of getting the forecast?
With information you have power, but with action based on that information you have leverage. And it is all about leverage here.
To get proper leverage, you have to understand where you are missing the mark first. And thus even before this you need to measure your progress or leading indicators. That is a fancy way of saying if you want to lose weight, as an example, you first need to start tracking how many calories you are consuming. With a proper caloric target, you can then measure whether or not you are “on track” to reach your target. The same can apply to godly activities such as prayer or scripture study. Imagine if I wanted to get through the Book of Joshua in one month. I would then break that down into daily morsels to read and soak up the scripture. The tracking begins once the trek begins, and will tell you whether or not you need to play catch-up, or whether you are on pace to meet your target.
I think you get the point…
But the godly aspect in this is how we can use this leverage to transform who we are spiritually and grow in our relationship with God. By focusing ourselves on daily action and improvements, we can complete the cycle and further reflect on where we missed and where we realized our targets for improvement.
If we focus further on godly actions and improvements specifically, this becomes the definition of working out our salvation through fear and trembling. For we will undoubtedly encounter trials and tribulations but it is how we course correct that matters!
“Therefore, my loved ones, just as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For the One working in you is God—both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12-13 TLV
We must rely on our daily bread. We must take joy in it. Embracing the moments He gives us ensures we do not take any for granted, while building a life in which glorifies Him.
Takeaways to make a way (Practical Advice)
- God and His Word are our sole source of truth.
- The Word of God is a living, breathing instrument which speaks to us and is able to critique our lives.
- God gives us daily bread both in the physical and spiritual sense.
- Our daily processes and systems convert that daily bread into positive energy and fruit.
- It is up to us to plant and for God to grow the seed. This is the beautiful process of co-creation and co-management of the garden.
- Acting without alignment with God is folly. But not acting at all is fruitless.
- Measure your progress and direction to course correct as needed.
- It is this cycle of Execution-Alignment-Tracking (not necessarily always in that order) which can be implemented daily!
Further Study with your Buddy
For further knowledge and understanding of godly habits, read The Chukat Concept: Engraving wisdom to form godly habits that change your life
To go deeper on spiritual alignment, read: Aligning our Life to God’s Will: Five Key Practices for Winning at Life Planning & Productivity (the godly way)
To find more ways for putting God first in your daily cycles, read: SEEK FIRST the Kingdom of God (Developing a Mindset & a Time Unexpected)
Questions for Reflection…
- When is the last time you listened to God? When is the last time you aligned with God?
- When you pray, how much time do you spend talking?
- What are your life goals? Are they aligned with God?
- What have you been waiting on God to do? What if you got started?
- What are you saying no to in order to say yes to something else?
- Do you tend to act or plan first?
- What tools do you use to measure or track your results?
- What course correction do you need today?
Feel free to drop a comment below!
godlyyy 