Hoping for Problem-Free

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What are the decisions you know you need to make but you just can't bring yourself to do it? Do you know the list by heart? Is it a long list?

What's keeping you from pulling the trigger?

Still searching for a problem-free solution?

I've made the case for a long time now that the pursuit of problem-free delays more ministry than anything else. That the belief that there might be a problem-free solution--just around the corner--causes more boards, more teams, and more leaders to push the pause button that anything else. See also, The Pursuit of Problem-Free.

The pursuit of problem-free delays more ministry than anything else. Click To Tweet

I'm coming to believe there might be another explanation. What is it? There is certainly a temptation to hope that the issue will just resolve itself some other way. That's not what I'm thinking about.

I'm actually more and more convinced that we don't make the decisions that we need to make because we lack the courage we need to make them. At times we try to disguise our lack of courage with the garb of caring for people and not wanting to disappoint. Other times we attempt to disguise our lack of courage by asking for a pause in decisions as we "seek wisdom."

We don't make the decisions that we need to make because we lack the courage we need to make them. Click To Tweet

I believe that hoping for problem-free is an emotional state that must be overcome in order to truly build anything significant.

Sometimes we finally overcome it when we learn to say the last 10 percent (Several years ago Bill Hybels shared the idea that we often say only 90 percent of what needs to be said and withhold the final 10 percent because that's where the tough stuff and the true gold resides).

And sometimes we finally overcome this emotional state when we acknowledge the reality that the pursuit of problem-free is putting off a solution that will eliminate obstacles for unreached or unconnected people.

Are you free? Or are you still hoping for problem-free?

Image by Trina Alexander

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