I'm HURT...and it's my fault

Sunday after church my youngest daughter was headed out the door to go play. That's pretty normal because both my girls love to play outside. What was different Sunday was that when she closed the door she did not use the door knob and the door closed on her hand! It closed hard, she screamed loud, and her had was pretty banged up. She was hurt and it was her fault. We hugged her, got her an ice bag, and lovingly reminded why people invented door knobs. Hurt is something next generation leaders have to face often. We walk with teens and kids who have been hurt by life. We encourage parents who are hurt by the choices their kids make. And many times we are hurt because we feel we are not supported or people we are trying to help turn their back on us. Hurt happens. Truth is many times we experience hurt and we only have ourselves to blame. We often bring hurt into our own lives when...

• Our pace is out of control. // Busy does not equal productive. Being BUSY opens you up to hurt because you lose connection with people. Busy will ask you to sacrifice everything for one thing. An out of control pace will lead to hurt and it will be your fault. You control your calendar.
• Our focus is in the wrong place. // Hurt will sneak up on us when we lose focus. Are we trying to impress people with our leadership? Are we trying to push people to do what we want rather than what is best for the organization? Are we trying to be somebody we are not?
• We try to fix people. // You can't fix people. You can't make everything right. When you try to fix people you invite hurt into your life. We walk with people in the mess and lead them out of the mess; we don't own their hurt in a repair process.
• We ignore God. // Hurt is right around the corner when we have no time to be with God. When we stop hanging out with God daily we choose to see the world through our eyes and not God's.
• We choose happiness over trust. // Happiness leads us to make choices in the moment to make us feel better. Trust says wait on God to deliver us and bring peace. We bring hurt into our lives when we make excuses for sin in the name of happiness.