The Law of Engagement
There is a word that explains the need for human initiative. So many erroneously think that if it is supposed to be that it will just happen. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing just happens! This word that I am talking about blows that myth out of the water. The fact that someone could believe that things will just come together on their own is preposterous. You don’t expect that from your schedule. You don’t just expect that your schedule will make itself up. You don’t expect that from your car, that the oil will change itself. So why do we expect that from life? We expect a life full of results without the word that I am talking about and that word is ENGAGEMENT! Nothing happens without your engagement. There is a law called the law of engagement that states that just because you are a member of the gym doesn’t mean that you will automatically lose 20lbs. You have to ENGAGE! You must engage in that membership. Being there is not enough! Being present is not enough. Your child can have perfect attendance in school but if she doesn’t engage in the business of learning she will still fail. Stop expecting a trophy for just showing up. The rewards go to those who engage. I see too many people complaining to God about how their life and family are not working out all the while they refuse to engage with anyone. They simply hope that it will all work out and nothing just works out. You gotta work it! Proximity does not guarantee success. Just because I live near the gym doesn’t mean that I will automatically lose 20lbs. I have to engage. Just because I am close to greatness does not mean that I will be great. I must engage with greatness, learn from greatness and partner with greatness. Just because I go to Church does not guarantee that I will benefit from everything God did through the Cross. I must engage with God through my faith, praise and giving in order to experience the miracles that he promised. Proximity does not guarantee success only engagement guarantees success. I can take you back to the Garden of Eden where life on earth was paradise and Adam walked with God every day. Genesis 3:8 tells us, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you”. Now what is interesting about this passage is that it tells us that man would walk with God in the garden in the cool of the day. Meaning at the end of every day in the evening God would show up in the garden and he and Adam would go for a walk and Adam would report to God what he did that day with what God had given him. Just like in the book of Job where it tells us in Job 1:6. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and satan came also among them.” The angels that lost their place of authority had to present themselves before God to give account for what they were doing. Also in Psalms 81 it says, “1 God presides in the great assembly, he renders judgment among the “gods.” 2 How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked.” God is talking here to the “gods” or angels that fell and now rule earth in the spiritual realm. Everything God created meets with him to give account for what they have done. Even man! That is why at the end of every day you should come before God and tell him what you did with what he gave you. Let him know that you were honored that he used you like he did. So back to Adam! Adam had an appointment with God every day but he had disengaged from it. God had a meeting every day with Adam and that day Adam was not at his post. He had done something that made him disengage. God knew this so he asked Adam “where are you?” Not “where are you” as in “I can’t find you”, but “where are you” in the sense of “Adam where were you today?” You didn’t show up for our meeting. Adam, you weren’t at your post. How do I know God meant this? Well, because I can look at the excuses Adam made for not showing up. Adam says in verse 10 of Genesis 3, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” What Adam is saying here is I heard you show up for our meeting but I was afraid so I disengaged. Then God answers in verse 11, “Who told you that you were naked?” In other words, you didn’t show up for our meeting to get my instructions, but someone else told you something I never did. So you met with someone. Sin always causes us to disengage from God. Adam had eaten the fruit that God had instructed him not to eat and it caused him to disengage. There are reasons that we disengage from God and from life in general. We disengage because of these seven things…
Inferiority
Insecurity
Intimidation
Insufficiency
Ingratitude
Insult
Information
Adam felt all these things once he fell into disobedience. Before the fall of man these feelings weren’t something that man experienced. Notice I said a feeling. That’s right! Nothing will cause you to disengage faster than a feeling. Inferiority is a feeling. It is the feeling of being less than others or feeling inferior to them. When we feel less than, we feel we don’t deserve what others are getting. We feel that we should be satisfied with whatever we have. People who are inferior don’t know who they are or have forgotten who they are. People who are inferior have forgotten their own value. They have lost sight of their own self-worth and self-esteem. Adam felt inferior when he sinned and that is why he disengaged from his post and his meeting with God. We do the same thing. We disengage from life because we believe that we have nothing to offer that anyone would want or nothing to say that anyone would want to hear. We become overly concerned with the opinions of others and have a low opinion of ourselves. Next, our insecurities can cause us to disengage. Those areas in our life that cause us to doubt ourselves and hide in shame are our insecurities. Those things about our bodies or our personality that we just don’t like and we think no one else will like cause us to disengage from wonderful experiences and relationships. Then we have intimidation. Intimidated people always disengage. When you are intimidated you think that everyone else is bigger than you. You feel small and ineffective. Intimidation is a spirit and it shuts down the best parts of you. When you are intimidated your gift cannot operate at its highest function. Intimidated people always feel less than and it is a form of the spirit of fear. Adam was intimidated by God. The words, “I was afraid” was not referring to Adam’s reverence for God but his intimidation because now he lost his God nature. His intimidation caused him to disengage from God. Next we often find ourselves disengaging from insufficiency. We feel like we are not enough. We don’t love ourselves or we have some type of poverty in our lives that makes us feel like we are not enough…
Not good enough
Not pretty enough
Not smart enough
Not deserving enough
Not loved enough
Not wealthy enough
Not gifted enough
Insufficiency causes us to disengage from our future because we think this is how it’s always going to be. So we tolerate what we get and we allow others to tolerate us. Ingratitude is another reason that we disengage. We do not see anything in our lives that is worth pursuing with everything we have because we fail to see the value of it. When you see everything as a gift, gratitude becomes easy. Ungrateful people see life as a drag and nothing but drudgery. Ungrateful people disengage from their potential because they do not see anything more than what is right in front of them. The root of depression is ingratitude. The first sin in the Garden of Eden was ingratitude. Not grateful for every other tree in the garden so they had to touch the one God said stay away from. Ungrateful people are joyless people. They are always looking for the next thing not realizing how blessed they are in the first place. Ingratitude is deadly because it instantly keeps you out of the presence of God. The Bible says, in Psalms 100:4 “We enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” The only way into the presence of God is gratefully. Ingratitude is a joy assassin because it focuses you on what you don’t have instead of what you do have. Ungrateful people are always trying to fix themselves instead of realizing they are not broken but just needing to make good investments into their lives. Stop trying to fix yourself and start investing in yourself. You can’t fake gratitude. In other words you cannot just say “thank you” with your mouth and it not come from your heart. It doesn’t work. Ingratitude is the foundation for so many other things like jealousy and envy. Every sin starts with unthankfulness. The spouse that cheats is unthankful for the person that they are married to. The person who gossips about their neighbor is unthankful for that connection. The person who rebels against God is unthankful for his love and grace in their life. Lucifer was in heaven plotting how to become higher than God. His ingratitude for his position as the worship leader in heaven was not good enough for him. Instead of glorifying God he wanted to be God, but in order to be God you have to have created everything from nothing, and lucifer was a created being. I heard a story about some scientists who went to God and said, “we can make people too.” God said, “Ok go ahead and try.” The scientists said, “We can take dirt and make flesh just like you can,” and “God said OK.” They said, “We are going to take this dirt and form it into a human at our lab.” God said, “Wait a minute, get your own dirt.” You can think you’re God all you want but what makes God, God, is not just his ability to create. We can create as well, but God is able to create from nothing. We cannot do that. That is why he is God and we are not. So lucifer was a created being, not God. His ingratitude for the position and power that God had given him was evident and he deceived 1/3 of all the angels of heaven to follow him to the land of nowhere. Lucifer was the first ungrateful being in history. He became what we know today as satan. He crept into the garden and tempted Eve with his ungrateful ways and here we are today. He made Eve think that she was missing out on something. That is what ingratitude will do. Make you think that there is something better out there and that it is worth giving up all that you currently have. It’s like a gold ring in a pig’s snout. You go after the ring but didn’t see that the pig came along with it. Ingratitude always births desperation. Desperation is deadly because it deceives us into settling for something that is far below what we deserve. Those who are ungrateful for their singlehood rush to marry someone and realize that they now miss the singlehood that they gave up. Their ingratitude created a desperation that clouded their judgment. The ungrateful will always become the enemy of God. Take a lesson from lucifer. Ingratitude is the first step towards stepping out of the favor of God. It is the quickest way to steal your joy. Next insult will cause us to disengage. Whether you were offended by someone or insulted by them insult will cause us to disengage quickly. Instead of confronting your offender and setting things right you just withdraw into an introverted puddle of self-pity. Offense will cause the most amazing people to disengage from life and stop reaching for their future. What are you insulted by? Who offended you? Remember, whoever has made you most angry you have given the most power to. Forgive quickly and move past it. Let it go and don’t allow offense to turn into unforgiveness. It’s time to forgive and re-engage with your future and those you love. Many of us disengage because of bad information. We stopped pursuing our dream because we let someone talk us out of it. We disengaged from our marriage because our best friend told us that we deserved better. Bad information will cause us to disengage from the most precious things in our lives. In the next chapter we will discuss the areas that we often disengage from and how to re-engage with those around us. Enjoy!
Chapter Review and Key Points
• Nothing happens without your engagement. There is a law called the law of engagement that states that just because you are a member of the gym doesn’t mean that you will automatically lose 20lbs. You have to ENGAGE!
• When we feel less than we feel we don’t deserve what others are getting. We feel that we should be satisfied with whatever we have. People who are inferior don’t know who they are or have forgotten who they are. People who are inferior have forgotten their own value. They have lost sight of their own self-worth and self-esteem.
• The person who rebels against God is unthankful for His love and grace in their life. Lucifer was in heaven plotting how to become higher than God. his ingratitude for his position as the worship leader in heaven was not good enough for him. Instead of glorifying God he wanted to be God.
• Whether you were offended by someone or insulted by them insult will cause us to disengage quickly. Instead of confronting your offender and setting things right you just withdraw into an introverted puddle of self-pity. Offense will cause the most amazing people to disengage from life and stop reaching for their future.
• Many of us disengage because of bad information. We stopped pursuing our dream because we let someone talk us out of it. We disengaged from our marriage because our best friend told us that we deserved better. Bad information will cause us to disengage from the most precious things in our lives.