EQ with Lou™️

While you’re busy looking at your leader—observing their flaws—you’re wasting valuable time: time that is best used seeking the Lord.

True story: 

In my early days of being saved, I found myself earnestly seeking the Lord, or so I thought.

But because I was not aware that I was seeking validation, I jumped into service work.

I found myself volunteering, looking for ways to be validated and useful.

Why? Because my eyes were on me and my feelings.

Then as things progressed, the Lord convicted me.

I was confused because I was doing all the right things, but the work was not yet done in me. 

I soon found my gaze shifted, and the things that the Lord was showing me about myself were things I was soon observing in others.

I watched their works instead of my own…

Blissfully ignorant to my own pitfalls.

At first, I didn’t say anything, but inside I felt everything.

See, when you ignore a “need,” it doesn’t go away. 

You might stuff it, stick it, or try to suffocate it, but it doesn’t go away. It gains urgency because our needs communicate something very intrinsic to our lives.

I watched leaders, and what I was observing was something I was familiar with long before I knew it acknowledged God. This made it so much easier to focus on because as long as I’m focused on your footstool, I won’t see mine.

Besides, I’m wired to strategize and survive, so I sought the Lord in prayer for strategy that would give a solution.  I was too prideful to admit to anyone that I was full of shame. So I did what I had always done: I worked. I lost myself in it under the hat of being a “martyr.” 

I learned that I could no more accept ownership of your mistakes than you could mine, but I could be distracted by them. 

While the gospel of Jesus is widely talked about, criticized, taught, discussed, and shared—what’s rarely talked about is how this process of transformation is HIGHLY personal.

But I digress. 

Sadly, my service became my work.

Gracefully, the Lord taught me that it is by grace I am saved and not by my works.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that by ignoring my pain—I was actually creating bitterness and urgency. 

I was setting myself up for a letdown…and boy, was it a letdown. It was a fall that fortunately was private….but the downfall of many leaders, teachers, apostles, etc.—it is not?

Why does this matter? 

Because the word tells us that those who are teachers will be judged more strictly. 

This is where my clinical experience both as a nurse and a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner comes in.

How?

In that while I’m sitting with you, my own needs are temporarily on the back burner. 

The point: Many leaders are bleeding out and you’re too focused on the surface-level problem to see what it is that the Lord would have you to see: the real issue. 

Leaders are not meant to meet your needs.

They are there to help you through your journey with the Lord, but if you’re focused on their needs or works, you’re delaying your own change. 

Too many people are looking to humans for that which only God can give.

The word tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

I found myself quickly seeking God on behalf of others’ needs long before I was seeking Him for my own! Maybe it was a subconscious decision or maybe it wasn’t, idk, but what I do know is that:

when my seek changed from validation and belonging from men to the kingdom of God, my perspective changed.

I write today to encourage each of us to continually seek the Lord and His kingdom. If you find yourself focused on the issues, needs, or decisions of others—

please ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you. The VERY thing you’re needing—> it’s in Him, and He is one who knows the truth.

I know firsthand that I cannot rely on my mind or my revelation. I know that each of us is a part of the body—the kingdom, no matter where we stand, sit, or who we know. 

I know that at one time or another:

I have been the forever among us. 

I have been the woman at the well. 

I have been the one who is prideful. 

I have been the one who was vengeful.

I have been the stiff-necked one.

I have been the foolish one.

I have been the reckless one.

And the list goes on….

So now, 

Repentance reveals the heart of our Father to us, and in this, we find every area of darkness in our hearts made true. How so? Because we surrender ourselves, our ways, and experience a renewal in doing so. It’s truly an ongoing humbling experience that requires consistent application.

In closing: 

Don’t waste your time on the problems of man, please! 

Find yourself asking the Lord to teach you to number your days so that you might gain a heart of wisdom. 

(Psalm 90:2) and remember to guard your heart, for out of it springs the issues of life. 

Be careful what you spew out or speak out! The same way you judge others, you will find yourself judged. Know this: the fact that you are being able to see the “issue” in someone else isn’t for them. It’s for you because the gospel is between you and God alone, but collectively we are all living, needed, & here on purpose. 

It’s personal but it’s interpersonal. Meaning that we each need to see clearly so that we can continue in fighting the good fight!

Do not forsake the assembly! Why? Because it is part of where you and I are developed! It’s part of where our faith is built! It’s not a prison but an opportunity for each of us to strengthen, celebrate God, and as a way for us to be developed and matured in our faith!

Thank you for reading and may you and I find ourselves continually seeking the Lord in all things so that there will be complete unity in the body.