Don’t Expect God to Do Your Grunt Work

I was privy to a conversation involving a mentor and his coaching subject, a mid-level manager. They had been discussing the manager’s future – moving up the ladder, making the next career move, and the like.

When asked about his plan of attack for pursuing the opportunities before him, the manager, an earnest and devout Christian, boldly replied, “I am leaving it up to the Lord. If I am meant to be promoted, then I’m sure God will step in and make a way.”

The mentor, who happened to be a former pastor-turned leadership coach, responded with a vehement expression of disagreement – a word which I will refrain from saying here, but which refers to bovine excrement.

“You are completely deluded if you think you can just sit here passively and expect God to do all the grunt work for you,” he said.

God has this funny way of using us as co-conspirators in His plans.

If you have been gifted with leadership skills, blessed with a dream or desire to do or become more than what you are right now, then you’ve got to do your part. And that usually involves some heavy lifting.

Anything that’s grand, or beautiful, or world-changing is going to require action and intentionality, some sweat and perserverance, some getting knocked down and bloody lips. God doesn’t deserve to be short-shrifted by our passive theology.

It only works if we participate.

And sometimes a good swift kick in the ass from a pastor friend was just what the good Lord had in mind.