The Monday Morning Debrief: Death of Potential

On Saturday, singer Amy Winehouse died at the young age of 27. Amy became an international star in 2006 with her song “Rehab”. She went on to win 5 grammy awards that year and the sky seemed to be the limit for her.

However, eventually drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders and destructive relationships, soon took over her life and music career. Despite her enormous talent and the critical praise she received, she was never able to shake the demons in her. Even though a cause of death is unknown at this time, she more than likely died of unnatural causes. After showing the world all the talent she possessed, when it was all said and done with, she was only able to record 2 albums. Such a sad end to a person with so much talent. To read the full AP report on Amy’s death, click here.

So what does this have to do with ministry?

Talent alone is not enough to be effective in ministry. You have to be successful in life as well. You may possess all the ministry knowledge and knack for relating to the people you are ministering to unlike any other, but unless you have your life in order, you will get no where fast. Unfortunately, Amy Winehouse is the perfect example of that.

Now I’m not saying that you have to have a perfect life where everything is in complete order, but your life is a model and an example to others. Once you accept the role of a believer and a minister, you and your life represents more than just what people see from you on Sunday mornings or nights. Your life is a living example everyday of your life.

So how do you do that? How do you live your life as an example both on and off the ministry spotlight?

1. Live your life following Christ’s example (Philippians 2:1-12). As I said above, it is not always easy to live your life worthy of Christ all the time, but He is the perfect model, someone we can strive to be. I love what Paul writes here in verse 12, continue to work out your salvation. It is a work in progress, a daily work in progress. That means that we stay grounded and in the scripture daily so that we can be inspired to grow closer to Him. We can’t be perfect but we can strive for Christ and continue to learn each and every day how to follow Him better.
2. Surround yourself with other believers. Hebrews 10:24-25 points to it clearly that we need to be meeting together with others, encouraging each other and spurring one another on towards love and good deeds. It is when we surround ourselves with others who are following Christ, we can stay focused on living for Him and being a positive example.
3. Remember who you are serving. We are called to serve the Lord and to minister to His people. When we lose sight of our focus, we open ourselves up to getting sidetracked AND could possibly fall into temptation. Furthermore it also increases the potential for us to lose focus and begin to rely solely on us and our “potential” instead of the Lord.

The question is where do you stand? Are you running a race like Amy Winehouse or like the apostle Paul? So right now TAKE A MINUTE and examine where you are at currently. Are you living on & getting by on just your talent/potential? Or are you firmly grounded in Christ & focused on living for Him and being an example to Him. I believe that the more we can have our life centered around Christ & his teachings the more balanced our life can be and an example for others.

Thoughts? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this (esp other ideas you have for how to be an example of Christ to others). Post a comment.