Last week I was privileged to attend the 10th annual Catalyst Conference. As usual it was an incredible experience. This week I want to share some of the great lessons I learned at Catalyst. Catalyst is always opened by Andy Stanley and Andy is always good but this year his message was the best I’ve ever heard from him. (Of course, that may just be because I needed to hear what he had to say). Andy’s message was “”Make Your Mark”, which was also the theme of Catalyst 09.
In the Ridley Scott movie, Kingdom of Heaven, the Orlando Bloom character (the blacksmith) has a phrase inscribed in his shop in Latin: “What man is a man who does not leave the world better?” Andy used that phrase to set up this tension: If you have the leadership gift, you want to make your mark, to leave the world better. But the truth is most of the time the defining moment, the mark you will leave, will happen when you don’t know it’s happening. So the problem for leaders who want to leave the world better is “What should I do since I don’t know the thing to do that will make the biggest difference?” Andy drew insights from the Book of Joshua to help us break that tension.
When Joshua entered the Promised Land, he was on the verge of making his mark. But instead God marked Joshua. He was a couple of days out from attacking the city of Jericho when Joshua 5:13 records that Joshua saw a man in front of him with a drawn sword. Joshua asked him, “Are you for us or against us?” The man (angel) answered, “Neither.” This angel, speaking for God continued: “I have not come to be a part of your story; I’ve come to see if you’re willing to play a part in my story.”
Joshua obviously was because much later, when he was 110 years old, he addresseed the nation and said in Joshua 23:8, “Cling to the Lord your God as you have done this day. … Take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord Your God…. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Like Joshua I would like to think that at the end of my life I will be able to look back and see that I have made my mark. I would liek to be known as one who loved the Lord God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength and to be able to say to the next generation, “There is no greater thrill and joy in the world than to play your part in God’s story.”
Andy told several touching stories about the marks his dad (Charles Stanley) had left on his life. He told us his dad’s motto: “God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him.” Andy related how even when his dad was literally punched in the face during a church conflict, even when he was verbally attacked while running for President of the SBC, he did not falter because his job was to devote his life wholly to God and then what happened in his life was God’s resposibility.
“God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him.”
Instead of being concerned with who is for us or who is against us we should be consumed with Who we are for! This brings freedom and is modeled for us by Jesus: “Not my will but yours be done.”
I was challenged when Andy said “Making your mark isn’t worth your life. Living to make your mark is too small a thing to give your life to. But to be positioned to be open to whatever mark God wants to make through you, that IS something worth giving your life to.”
I think this challenged me because in all honesty I’m not always sure that my energy is going into making my mark or devoting myself to God so that he can make His mark through me.
How about you? Are you energized more by making your mark, or by devoting yourself to God, thus allowing Him to make His mark through you?
The Shadowlander 
Amen
Amen
Amen
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