It’s amazing how time and experience can completely change your perspective on different things in life. I am writing this article as a 38-year-old business executive. I started managing at age 18. If you had asked an 18-year-old me what I thought I could accomplish, I would have immediately told you “everything.” After all, I was very proud to be the youngest manager at a Wal-Mart store, making $10 per hour (which back in 2001 was a lot to me).
I didn’t know it at the time, but I had some MAJOR failures ahead of me. You see, the information that you don’t know is the most dangerous. It’s dangerous because this type of information is the essence of a blind spot: something you are missing but don’t know you are missing. The other problem with blind spots is that you generally don’t find out you have the blind spot until AFTER you have received the consequence. Those consequences can be very far reaching, to say the least.
Time and space won’t permit me to tell you of the many mistakes I’ve made in business. I have even had a few fairly EPIC failures where I didn’t think I, or rather my career, would recover. But ultimately God used my failures to produce a healthy respect in me for what I didn’t yet know, and he gave me an even greater desire to learn from those who did. This is the blessing of learning from the experience of others, or, as we might call it, gaining wisdom.
I’ve had a similar experience in my walk with the Lord in that it has taken me quite a few years to learn things that I now wish I would have known at 18. Sometimes I wonder where I would be today if I had learned several key spiritual and practical principles back when I was 18. But rather than spend all my time focused on what I can’t change (my past), I decided to create a study to help young men learn early what I would have very much wanted to learn. The study is called Fully Equipped, and I’m sorry in advance if this blog feels a bit like a commercial.
One of the major concepts covered in the Fully Equipped study is the concept of the crucified life. I didn’t really understand it or even know what it was when I was 18. I thought the key to victorious living was bound up in my will and determination to obey. It took many years for me to learn that something about my will was broken. I couldn’t seem to find the will to do the right things in the crucial moments. There were points where I found my will to sin to be greater than my will to obey (Rom 7:14-21). There are a few key truths that every Christian must come to terms with:
For as long as you are alive, your flesh will ALWAYS want to sin. This never changes and your attempts to change it only make it worse (Rom 7:1-13).
God makes no attempt to redeem or improve your flesh. Therefore, you must stop doing the same (Gal 4:29-31).
The biblical solution for your flesh is not suppression or self improvement; it is mortification. Your flesh must die (Rom 8:13).
You might say: “Yeah Eric, that’s all fine and good, I know that already.” But do you? Most Christians get hung up on # 2 and never get around to # 3. This is where I’d say the crucified life comes in. The greatest obstacle to living the crucified life is: unbelief. Living the way God intended for you to live is wholly based on what you BELIEVE. Consider the evidence:
Rom 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Rom 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
What I didn’t understand when I was 18 is that so much of what was holding me back was what I didn’t believe about my new nature (Romans 6:1-14). My prayer needed to be “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). One of the things the Fully Equipped study does is deal thoroughly with the concepts of the crucified life and how that should look in our lives today. Space won’t permit me to cover the other major spiritual concepts in the study — so you’ll just have to read it.
On the practical side, the Fully Equipped study lays out day-to-day wisdom for how the man of God should manage his schedule. Believe it or not, if you don’t have a plan for managing your schedule, your schedule will manage you. It took me three decades to learn one simple truth: your tomorrow starts today. I know, you probably already knew that. But that principle was life changing for me. Realizing that getting up early is not a contest to see who can function on the least amount of sleep. Rather, how I end my evening has a direct effect on how I start the next day.
Therefore, anyone who is serious about getting up early to get in the Word actually needs to get serious about ending their day well and going to bed on time. I started setting a bedtime alarm. Yes, you read that correctly. There is an alarm in my phone that goes off at the time I’m supposed to be in bed. The alarm holds me accountable to going to bed on time, and it also holds the long-winded talkers in my Bible study accountable to know when to wrap it up (just kidding...but maybe it’s a little true).
All in all, my heart for the study is very simple: to help young men get established and fully equipped to do all that God has called them to do. To do this, men need to be grounded in all the spiritual disciplines (prayer, fasting, time in the Word, etc.) and also have full command of their schedule, finances, and free time. Fully Equipped seeks to lay out the devotional and practical wisdom I wish someone would have given me when I was 18.
Whether in business or in spiritual matters, I’ve learned the best posture to maintain is one of humility. I still have much to learn, and by God’s grace, I’ll share what God has taught me with others while continuing to learn and grow myself.
Check out this episode of The Postscript Show dealing with the believer’s daily walk with the Lord
Eric Phillips is the worship director and a teaching elder at Midtown Baptist Temple in Kansas City, MO.
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Look for Fully Equipped from Living Faith Books in Spring of 2021.