Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a Senior Strategist for Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership, where he focuses on the spiritual development and thriving of leaders. He is the principal writer of the daily devotional, Life for Leaders, and the founder of the De Pree Center’s Flourishing in the Third Third of Life Initiative. Previously, Mark was the Executive Director of the De Pree Center, the lead pastor of a church in Southern California, and the Senior Director of Laity Lodge in Texas. He has written eight books, dozens of articles, and over 2,500 devotions that help people discover the difference God makes in their daily life and leadership. With a Ph.D. in New Testament from Harvard, Mark teaches at Fuller Seminary, most recently in his D.Min. cohort on “Faith, Work, Economics, and Vocation.” Mark is married to Linda, a marriage and family counselor, spiritual director, and executive coach. Their two grown children are educators on the high school and college level.
Manage Your Hungers, Part 4
Galatians 5 shows us that the Spirit of God helps us when it comes to managing our hungers. On the one hand, the Spirit sets us free from “fleshly desires” that reflect the sin within us. On the other hand, the Spirit forms us and guides us so that our lives might be characterized by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Inner work isn’t something we do by ourselves. Rather, the Spirit of God shares in this work with us, showing us where we need to grow and helping us to grow in these very ways.
Read Post Manage Your Hungers, Part 3
The management of our sinful hungers is a matter, not mainly of trying _not_ to do certain things, but rather of focusing on _doing_ something positive and life-giving. We will be enabled to manage our fleshly desires when we live in an intimate, intentional, continual, and growing relationship with the Spirit of God.
Read Post Manage Your Hungers, Part 2
Psalm 139 doesn’t mention our hungers explicitly, but it does point to the role God plays when it comes to managing our hungers. God sees all of our desires: the good, the bad, and everything in between. God knows what’s on the surface and what lies deep within us. The same Spirit of God who sees everything about us will help us see ourselves more fully and truly.
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Manage Your Hungers, Part 1
It seems clear that one of the first steps toward managing our hungers is knowing them, and this requires intentional inner work. Physical hunger makes itself plainly and easily known. Emotional hungers, however, may be less obvious. They may be more layered and elusive.
Read Post Whom Are You Holding?
If we are going to be “holders” of others, then yes, we need to be available to them. But we also need to do the inner work that will motivate and set us free to “hold” them in their time of need. In particular, we can ask the Lord to release us from the grip of our fears so that we might care for others with genuine compassion.
Read Post Who’s Holding You? Part 3
As adaptive leaders who create safe “holding environments” for others, we need a place where we can be held. Trusted friends and colleagues can provide such a place. And so can God, who comforts us as a mother comforts her child (Isa 40:11). Jesus’s Parable of the Prodigal Son reminds us that God does not hold us only when we are tidied up. Rather, God’s arms of love embrace us, not because we are deserving, but because God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod 34:6). Safe in God’s love, we are free to do the inner work of knowing our childlike hearts.
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Ageism Unmasked
What’s happening in the current presidential election in the United States could be good news for those of us in the third third of life.
Read Post Who’s Holding You? Part 2
There are many different ways to be “held” by people. Sometimes we need someone like Joe to tell us encouraging things about ourselves. Sometimes we need someone who just listens. Sometimes we need lots of empathy. Sometimes we need to get out and do something fun. Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky remind us that leaders of change need places to be “held” by others. The relationship of Paul and Timothy in the New Testament offers a fitting biblical example of “holding.” If we’re going to do wise inner work, we need people in our lives to support us in that effort by offering their listening, kindness, wisdom, and love. And, of course, we need to offer the same to others.
Read Post Who’s Holding You? Part 1
Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky remind us that leaders of change need to create “holding environments.” But we also need places to be “held” by others. The relationship of Paul and Timothy in the New Testament offers a stirring biblical example of such “holding.” If we’re going to do wise inner work, we need people in our lives to support us in that effort by offering their kindness, wisdom, and love. And, of course, we need to offer the same to others.
Read Post Inner Work and Acknowledging Your Limits
A crucial part of the inner work of leadership is being realistic about the limits of our abilities, competencies, and gifts. Sometimes leaders seem to think they need to be omni-competent, able to do everything required of leaders. Plus, to be fair, sometimes the people they lead expect the same of them. But wise and effective leaders will have done the inner work of leadership, honestly evaluating what they do well and what they don’t do well. When we do this, sometimes this evaluation will lead to additional training and/or coaching so that we can grow in our competencies. But sometimes it’s right for us to say to ourselves and others, “I don’t do that very well. I need some help with this.”
Read Post Inner Work and the Exercise of Power
No matter where you are when it comes to exercising power, I believe the Lord wants you to do the inner work associated with power. Pay attention to your hungers and fears, your temptations and hesitations. Ask the Lord for the grace to be humble, not by never exercising power, but rather by learning how use your power with genuine humility as you serve others. Above, all, may God grant you the grace to “humble [yourself] under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).
Read Post Unmasking Your Desire to be the Solo Hero
We who lead might be tempted to seek our own glory as the solo hero who solves the big problems of our organization. But, though individuals can make a difference through their efforts, that difference is most effective when it involves equipping, encouraging, and supporting others. For this to happen, we who lead need to examine our hearts, to identify and work on any tendencies we might have to want to be the exalted hero. We must learn to empower others and rejoice in their accomplishments.
Read Post The Inner Work of Knowing What You’re Really Seeking
It feels good when people praise us. But sometimes we can be so eager for the approval of people that we neglect the approval of God. The example of the Apostle Paul encourages us to make pleasing God our chief motivation. In order to do this, we need to do the inner work of searching our souls for what we’re really seeking in life and leadership.
Read Post When Ash Wednesday Falls On Valentine’s Day
In Psalm 103 there’s a profound relationship between our dustiness and our belovedness. Because God loves us, God sees us in all of our sinful, mortal dustiness, yet has compassion for us. Therefore, when we think of love as an attribute of God, we can make a connection between Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day. When we receive the imposition of ashes and hear it said, “You are dust, and to dust you will return,” yes, we’re reminded of our mortality. But we can also remember that God has compassion for us because we are dust. God’s love for us, the powerful, deep, abiding love revealed through the cross of Christ, is right there with us in all of our dustiness.
Read Post Make Your Way to the Balcony
If you want to do the inner work of leadership, if you want to see yourself with new clarity and perspective, then you need to make your way to the balcony, so to speak. Do whatever helps you to see your life and leadership from a perspective that promotes your growth in wisdom.
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