“It is not enough to start with why, you have to stay with why.”
Jeff Henderson
I have often quoted my friend and mentor, William Lamb, when he looked at much younger version of me and said: “if you want to know you are called, go do anything else. When you find there is nothing else you can do, then you know you are called.”
I feel like in seasons of life I have tested that theory often. Sometimes doing so unintentionally. Other times out a rebellious heart. No matter where or how far I have ran, I always seem to marathon my way back to this one truth: God has called me.
It was that piece of wisdom that pierced my heart as I was in conversation with another leader whom I quoted above. Simon Sinek, author and thought leader, famously coined the concept and expression that you have to start with why. The “why” always dictates the purpose behind a behavior. Jeff Henderson took it once step further: you have to stay with why.
Which begs the question: why did I start? Why did I leave behind a state university and a possible future in tv and radio and trade them for a pulpit? The because is simple: there was nothing else I could do. Not that there was nothing else I was capable of. NO. There is nothing else that filled my soul, gave me peace, and made me feel like preaching was the one space God had called me alone to fill.
In honest reflection, I have had to look back on this as a guiding light, as the platform space feels crowded for a middle age preacher. I have had to like David encourage myself in the Lord, when the very thing he was fighting for comes up missing.
The “why” can never be more clout. The “why” can never be a paycheck. The “why” can never be greater exposure. The “why” has to remain that this is what the God of all creation has created me to do.
So to the disheartened, discouraged, down and out called kids of God, remember why you started and stay with that why.
Paul wrote these words to the faithful at Philippi that we can hold on to:
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6 NIV
The God who has stayed with me challenges me to stay with him. He is why I started. He is why I stay. He is the “why”.
