Are you jealous?

Several years ago I learned a valuable lesson from God at a conference in Indiana that John Maxwell was leading. We – me and several hundred fellow pastors – had been listening to Maxwell teach on leadership for several hours. We’d laughed a lot at his stories of life as a pastor of a small town church in Indiana. Laughed because we could relate to the problems he spoke about, the people issues he described. We’d listened intently as he talked about how he was led by God to deal with situations very similar to our own. John is a very wise man and we were learning lots of good stuff from him about leadership and life.

I don’t remember whether break time was approaching or what, but our teacher for the day opened the floor up for questions. One pastor stood quickly and began describing to Mr. Maxwell some really great things that were happening at his church.

After a minute or so, John interrupted the pastor and said something that stopped me in my tracks. He first commended the man’s success: “What you’re telling us is great news!” His support and encouragement was passionate. He was genuinely happy about what he was hearing. Then he gently reprimanded everyone in the room. “These guys around you should be applauding your success, but they’re not. They’re not because they think you’re the competition. They’re jealous.”

The room was silent. My heart was filled with conviction and sorrow as God exposed my sin. That sorrow quickly led to repentance. I decided then and there to celebrate the successes of other pastors and other churches whenever I could. I’m sure others made the same decision.

We were immediately given the opportunity to put that decision to the test as Maxwell broke the silence with an invitation to applaud the good things God was doing at this pastor’s church. The response was immediate and thunderous. We cheered and clapped like an arena full of rowdy college students at a home basketball game. It was crazy!

Every bit of good news shared by a pastor or leader from that point on in the conference was met with enthusiastic praise. The lesson stuck. It’s still with me today. I hope you will take it to heart and praise God for his work in all the churches around you.

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