Permission to Obsess

What do you obsess about? Is it your grades, your performance review, your kids, the cleanliness of your car, or your favorite sports team?

For years, the holy grail of self-help has been balance. “Avoid the extremes. Don’t overdo anything,” was the mantra.

Good News

Well, for those of you who can’t stop obsessing over certain things, I have good news. At the recent Global Leadership Summit, the senior pastor of Life Church, Craig Groeschel, gave everyone permission to obsess.

In his words, “If you don’t obsess about something, you’ll never be great at anything. If you are a little bit extreme, that’s OK. Greatness is born in the extremes.”

“Extra”

Of course, we can’t obsess about everything. That would drive the people around us crazy, including us. But perhaps God gave you a little bit “extra” in a certain area for a reason. You have a little more drive, a little more passion, and it’s not in you by accident. God wants to use that do something great in and through you.

I found Craig’s message so encouraging, because all too often people have said I am a bit too obsessed about helping people find a real relationship with God. To be honest, I can’t help it.

Unlike most people these days, I grew up in the church. Sadly, the church of my youth was going through a pretty dry season. Although God has turned that around now, years ago most people would have said our church was boring, passionless, and spiritually dead. Even still, there was a remnant of life. God used people there, primarily my Sunday school teachers, to lead me to faith in Jesus.

Seeking Truth

But many of my friends who also had spiritual questions and were also seeking the truth couldn’t relate to the church of my youth. They hadn’t grown up in the system and had no connection with the rich traditions of the past or the jargon of church people. They didn’t know how to break into the social circles and didn’t have the patience to wait five or ten years before they could say or do something. It just didn’t work for them.

Instead, they wrote the church off and unknowingly cut themselves adrift spiritually. Over the years, I have watched these people try to navigate life with no moral compass, no reliable scale to weigh right from wrong, no sound guidance on how to raise their kids, love their spouse, thrive at work, or find God.

Time and again, I have seen these bright, promising people shipwreck their lives through painful divorces, addictive behaviors, dysfunctional relationships, and financial mismanagement – all because they were trying to live their lives apart from the Author of life.

My Why

When I see people dash their lives against the rocks because no one has ever cared enough to come alongside them and show them a better way, it breaks my heart. I know it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a God whose love is so high, so deep, so wide, and so pure, it transforms human hearts and changes human destinies.

That’s my why. God has placed it in my heart to go to people like this, my friends who are far from God and may not even know it. God has given me a special responsibility for people like this. Their spiritual state weighs on me. Back in the day, it was called a “burden.” No matter what I do, I can’t break free from it. The truth is, I don’t want to.

God Ordained

I don’t know what your obsession is, but perhaps it is God ordained.

Could it be that you have been created for this moment in time? Perhaps you are uniquely called to do the very thing that people around you consider “extra.”

It’s OK. Be weird. Our society is designed to mold us into conformity. But as Craig said, “Conformity is the quickest path to mediocrity.

Average never changed the world. Good requires motivation. Great requires obsession.”

Relentless Focus

No one ever won an Olympic gold medal by being balanced. People don’t grow deep in God, minister to those in need, or lead hundreds or thousands to Christ because their life was so well-adjusted in every area.

I am not advocating workaholism. It’s about relentless focus in certain areas over time. In a word, it’s about obsession. These are the people who change the world.

World Changers

That’s why I’m encouraging you to ditch conformity. It’s way overrated. We need world changers – a lot of them, and now is your time.

Go ahead. Obsess in that space where God has given you “extra.”

You have permission.

A portion of this post comes from Meet The GoodPeople: Wesley’s 7 Ways to Share Faith, Roger Ross. Abingdon Press, 2015.

ROGER’S UPCOMING SPEAKING SCHEDULE:

August 11, 2024 – Stone Creek Church, 2502 S Race St, Urbana, IL

In Person at 9:00 and 11:00 am
Online at 10:30 am. www.sccwired.com

August 24-25, 2024 – First United Methodist Church, 1315 Court St, Pekin, IL

Saturday 8/17 – In Person at 5:00 pm
Sunday 8/18 – In Person at 8:00 and 10:00 am
Sunday 8/18 – Live Stream at 10:00 am www.pekinfirst.org

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Roger Ross

A native of Cambridge, Illinois, Roger has served as a pastor in Texas, the British Channel Island of Guernsey, and Illinois. While in Illinois, he led teams that planted two new churches and served for 10 years as the lead pastor of one of the largest United Methodist Churches in the Midwest. It was his privilege to serve as the Director of Congregational Excellence in the Missouri Conference before coming into his current role with Spiritual Leadership, Inc (SLI).

Roger now comes alongside pastors, non-profit leaders and their leadership teams as an executive coach, specializing in leadership that inspires change. As a side gig, he loves teaching evangelism and church planting as an adjunct professor at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas.

Other passions of his include SCUBA diving in warm blue water, Krispy Kremes, and board games with family and friends. He also has a weakness for golf.

Roger is the author of three books, Meet The Goodpeople: Wesley’s 7 Ways to Share Faith, Come Back: Returning to the Life You Were Made For, and Come Back Participant Guide, all through Abingdon Press.

Now for the best part. Roger is married to Leanne Klein Ross, and they live Bloomington, Illinois. God has blessed them with two adult children, a son-in-law, several tropical fish, and one adorable granddog.