Yesterday I encouraged you to read through Luke 10:1-23. It may be a familiar story, or perhaps not. Jesus empowered His followers by sending them into the villages ahead of where He was going, giving them the task to go and bring God's peace to the people they would encounter. Yes, I know the word "empowerment" is not used by Luke, nor is it found anywhere in the Bible. Yet, the idea of empowerment is a thread that runs throughout. God routinely empowers people of His with His work, and that is a good and gracious thing.
Rather than make this a post only about empowerment, though, I want to focus a little bit on what all Jesus does here early on in this Bible reading. I think it's very noteworthy with where He begins. In the second verse, He tells them that there is an abundant harvest, but the workers are few. Then we get to the meat of where He would have His followers begin. "Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
When you think of it, the first thing Jesus does is have His followers approach God in prayer. Yes, I'm sure you've probably heard something like this before. Before you begin, take it to God in prayer. That's the beginning point, and while we could spend time talking about what would constitute a good prayer or prayer life, let's just say that we shouldn't take this one for granted. God wants to give to us, and He wants us to ask. Maybe we should take that starting point quite a bit more seriously.
Then, Jesus sends the followers out. Now, as you read through what He tells them in the sentences following His call to prayer, He gives them some fairly explicit instructions in how they are to conduct themselves. While He gives them instructions, He also is trusting them to go and do the things He is sending them to do. That sounds small, but in reality, this is a really huge matter. Jesus trusts them to do what He is sending them to do.
You've likely had the experience at some point of being given a task by someone. They said that they wanted you to do it, but the whole time, you found them looking over your shoulder. Or, when you finished it, it wasn't exactly the way that they wanted it to be, and their reaction nullified the trust that had been shown in permitting you to take on the task. In cases like these, you may have been empowered, but that empowerment was quickly cut off by the reaction of the person who empowered you. In the first case, their actions demonstrate that they don't really trust you. In the second, they let you do the task, but then declared that your effort was inadequate to their expectations. Talk about killing any sense of empowerment. In both of these situations, you are much less likely to think that you are being empowered or trusted the next time you are given a task.
That's the question we need to ask, either as the person empowering others, or as the one who is being empowered. Is trust present? If you look critically at the situation and discover that trust isn't present, then you need to address the situation. Yes, that can be very challenging to do when you are not the one in authority. In fact, I would dare say that most people find it easier to leave for another position rather than remain in an untrusting environment. Trust is crucial to empowerment, and the lack of it will quickly kill the hopes of those being empowered. That only adds to the burden of the leader, if he/she is not trusting those whom they should be empowering. On the part of the leader, it does assume a risk. The person may let you down, or may do it in a manner differently than what you were expecting. If they let you down, you now have a teachable moment. If they do it differently than what you were expecting, now you have learned something.
An environment of trust is vital to a good workplace. Without it, the leader will always find himself doing more, which is unnecessary if he isn't doing the work of preparing them properly.
Rather than make this a post only about empowerment, though, I want to focus a little bit on what all Jesus does here early on in this Bible reading. I think it's very noteworthy with where He begins. In the second verse, He tells them that there is an abundant harvest, but the workers are few. Then we get to the meat of where He would have His followers begin. "Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
When you think of it, the first thing Jesus does is have His followers approach God in prayer. Yes, I'm sure you've probably heard something like this before. Before you begin, take it to God in prayer. That's the beginning point, and while we could spend time talking about what would constitute a good prayer or prayer life, let's just say that we shouldn't take this one for granted. God wants to give to us, and He wants us to ask. Maybe we should take that starting point quite a bit more seriously.
Then, Jesus sends the followers out. Now, as you read through what He tells them in the sentences following His call to prayer, He gives them some fairly explicit instructions in how they are to conduct themselves. While He gives them instructions, He also is trusting them to go and do the things He is sending them to do. That sounds small, but in reality, this is a really huge matter. Jesus trusts them to do what He is sending them to do.
You've likely had the experience at some point of being given a task by someone. They said that they wanted you to do it, but the whole time, you found them looking over your shoulder. Or, when you finished it, it wasn't exactly the way that they wanted it to be, and their reaction nullified the trust that had been shown in permitting you to take on the task. In cases like these, you may have been empowered, but that empowerment was quickly cut off by the reaction of the person who empowered you. In the first case, their actions demonstrate that they don't really trust you. In the second, they let you do the task, but then declared that your effort was inadequate to their expectations. Talk about killing any sense of empowerment. In both of these situations, you are much less likely to think that you are being empowered or trusted the next time you are given a task.
That's the question we need to ask, either as the person empowering others, or as the one who is being empowered. Is trust present? If you look critically at the situation and discover that trust isn't present, then you need to address the situation. Yes, that can be very challenging to do when you are not the one in authority. In fact, I would dare say that most people find it easier to leave for another position rather than remain in an untrusting environment. Trust is crucial to empowerment, and the lack of it will quickly kill the hopes of those being empowered. That only adds to the burden of the leader, if he/she is not trusting those whom they should be empowering. On the part of the leader, it does assume a risk. The person may let you down, or may do it in a manner differently than what you were expecting. If they let you down, you now have a teachable moment. If they do it differently than what you were expecting, now you have learned something.
An environment of trust is vital to a good workplace. Without it, the leader will always find himself doing more, which is unnecessary if he isn't doing the work of preparing them properly.
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