December 31. Hearts or Grapes in the Press?
Pressure in the right place is positively powerful.
As a leader, one is subject to many pressures. But pressure is not good or bad, it just is. It is our perception that gives it meaning. If pressure is one step of the value delivery system of your team, then it is valuable.
Imagine that your team produces fish aquarium pebbles for the bottom of the tank. If your team applies pressure to large rocks to create the pebbles, it is valuable. But if that same pressure used to break the rocks was used against the glass, the tank would be destroyed.
Where on your team does it seem that there is inappropriate pressure? Inappropriate pressure can be pressure that is lacking, or it can be pressure put in the wrong place. Imagine the pressure of the wine press used to crush coconuts. The equipment is wrong for the project.
There is no means by which to separate the husk of the coconut from the meat of the nut. The coconut juice is going to escape like the grape juice. That is until the coconut meat begins to clog the drainage system. This is an example of pressure in the wrong place.
What can you do as leader to capture and redirect it? What is the first thing you can do about it in the next seven days?
As brothers and sisters in Christ, we might look back over the last year with reverence or maybe fear. But we also look forward and, in this world, there is pressure all around it seems. Our culture promotes and puts pressures on us to bend to its way of behaving.
We read, “So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath.” Revelation 14:19 NLT. When grapes get harvested and turned into wine, they are pressed and trampled.
The fruit, glorious and plump, even beautiful to look at, is destroyed, and the juice extracted. Sometimes it can feel that way for us. Our God knows our name regardless of how society wants to judge and separate us. God knows each of us and there is nothing that can be done to become unrecognizable to him.
So let the grapes be picked. Let the skin be split, the fruit be exposed and the juice to run. Whatever happens this year, know that our Savior is ready to forgive if we have done the splitting and exposing. Just because we know that some juice will run does not mean that we will be kept from enjoying its refreshing capabilities.
Are you ready for the new year? Many are likely to make some New Year’s resolutions tonight. Not many people will carry them through. What challenges are you willing to be inspired to put before you today in your faith?
Will you read through the Bible or maybe just one of the books? Can you commit to praying hourly or perhaps it would be daily or weekly? Whatever you want to achieve is up to you to establish. Setting our mind to draw closer to God does not have to be done when we get put in that wine press by others.
Are you willing to change where the pressure will be put this year in your faith? What is the first thing that you can do to redirect the pressure in the next seven days?
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, we come to you in such a lowly state. We know there are those among us who feel crushed and beyond repair. Nothing, not one thing is beyond your sight. May we be the hands and feet of your Spirit this coming year.
Empower us as we start a new calendar year. May our fruit be whole as we start and make known how you might use us to glorify your Son and our Savior. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,
