When you speak to people week after week, as their pastor, there is an expectation that you offer some “secret sauce” to wisdom, or success, or happiness. Some folks have the idea that I offer a “secret sauce” for marriages or kids gone wild or even business blessings. The truth is that there is no secret sauce to any of these or any other life challenge.
Anything worth achieving in this life will cost you something. But you already know that. What you may not know, is that there are a few spices that you can put in your sauce, that if discovered, matured and experienced will give you a quantum leap toward achieving amazing things.
Here are a few key ingredients to your sauce:
1. Gratitude. I know that I sound like a broken record on this, but I can tell you that without a genuine spirit of gratitude, you will never reach your true, God-given potential. Gratitude isn’t a statement of fact, it is an attitude that wells up from your heart as your heart says, “you get to do __________ today!” Or it might say, “thank you that I have a job, or I’m grateful that I will eat today.” It’s not rocket engineering, but it is required. Paul wrote that he had grown to be content with little or with much. Dude certainly could speak with great empathy to the little and the much! Do you remember what he said right after that? He said, “because I can do all things through Christ.” Want to be wildly successful? Learn to be grateful for what you have.
2. Service. Yep, that’s right. Learn the fine art of serving somebody other than yourself. I believe that it is physically impossible to serve anybody in need and remain focused on you and you alone. I believe Jesus was perfectly clear when He said that “if you want to be great, be a servant.” When we step out of our routines and comforts to intentionally serve others, God never leaves you where you are and will pour His best on you, according to His great love.
3. Humility and Confidence. See that paradox? That paradox is like adding wasabi sauce to your Blue Plate mayonnaise and it lights you up. Humility understands that the only thing we really offer this world is what the Divine created us for. Confidence charges up the hill with overwhelming faith in the Divine. Faith that screams in the faces of our enemies, “He is so able that I trust Him to not only deliver me, but to also deal with you.” Can I get an amen?
If you’ll commit to adding these ingredients to your homemade, one of a kind sauce, I know, that I know, that I know the Divine will carry you through life’s weird struggles, set you down victoriously and cheer you on like a proud dad watching his kid score the winning goal!
Go on. Build you a stockpile of secret sauce, and watch God do His thing in your life. One year from now, you’ll be so glad you started today.
In Gratitude, Service, Humility and Confidence,
Chuck
