{"id":1835,"date":"2012-01-20T12:06:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T10:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2012-01-19T16:06:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T14:06:32","slug":"burn-the-boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/burn-the-boats\/","title":{"rendered":"Burn. The. Boats."},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus sometimes said some wacky stuff. <\/p>\n

At the end of Luke chapter 9, it’s a bit shocking when he tells his followers not to say goodbye to their parents or to ‘let the dead bury the dead.’<\/p>\n

When Jesus talked about hating your parents and picking up your cross, he wasn’t trying to tell his followers that they shouldn’t honor their family or that they should live a beaten-down life–he was trying to make a point. He meant that to truly be a disciple, to truly be “sent”, you have to “not love your life to the death.” — be truly willing to give your life to the Message and the Call.<\/p>\n

In 1519, when Spanish explorer & conquistador Hernando Cortez arrived on the shores of Mexico, once his troops had disembarked from their ships, he ordered the ships to be burnt. <\/p>\n

In effect, there were two options: victory<\/strong> or death<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

As leaders, we need to learn to burn the boats behind us.<\/h3>\n

\"Burn<\/p>\n

There’s No Plan B. <\/h2>\n

The Aztecs had a horde of gold and wealth, an advanced culture, and strong borders. For hundreds of years no one had been able to match them in battle. Cortes’ men knew this, and in the back of their minds they were probably already planning their way home or onto the next (and hopefully easier) conquest. <\/p>\n

So Cortes manufactured some commitment for his men. <\/p>\n

Commitment. Commitment. Commitment. <\/h2>\n

What if there is no escape hatch, no backup plan?<\/p>\n

There is one way, one message, one solution for the challenges that the world offers: We must give our life 100% for our calling<\/strong>, whether that’s the foreign mission field or your office building. We must be sold-out, no matter what we choose to do.<\/p>\n

Want people to follow you? Why would they commit to you if you aren’t committed to yourself? If you’ve got an escape plan just in case times get tough, people aren’t going to follow you. That would be asking for failure.<\/p>\n

We live in a world of options. And that’s created people that can barely choose what cereal to eat in the morning, let along choose a path in life that could cost them time, money, or hard work.<\/p>\n

So commitment is the only way to truly make a difference in this world.<\/p>\n

What Are Our “Boats”?<\/h2>\n

What are the things in our lives that we are holding onto that we need to let go of? Is it a past romantic relationship we haven’t gotten past? Or is it our family dysfunction that we use as a crutch? <\/p>\n

For me, it was the military. For years, I kept “my options open” to return to the military, whether in the reserves or as a contractor. I’ve had to let that go to truly devote my full efforts to my calling. No looking back. Burn the boats.<\/p>\n

What is it that you are holding on to that needs to be let go? Or are you sold out and committed to see your dream happen?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus sometimes said some wacky stuff. At the end of Luke chapter 9, it’s a bit shocking when he tells his followers not to say goodbye to their parents or to ‘let the dead bury the dead.’ When Jesus talked about hating your parents and picking up your cross, he wasn’t trying to tell his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,42],"tags":[304,51,303,100,66,69],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1835"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1844,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions\/1844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}