I decided to title my Substack channel “Let Me Be Clear”. Let me be clear why.
Clarity has become my favorite word in the English language.
I first remember that word resonating with me in 2008 as I was being trained as a church planter at Harvest Bible Fellowship. "Clarity, simplicity, and urgency are the distinguishing marks of great leaders," my friend Kent Shaw often said.
During that same time I remember hearing James MacDonald saying this about his preaching, “People who hear me preach may leave not believing what I said, but I make it my aim that no one would ever leave saying, ‘I’m unclear what he was trying to say’”. His statement echoed what I had already found to be true of the best preachers. “The power is in the clarity, not the cleverness.”
Later I learned Alistair Begg’s third step of seven in his sermon preparation is, “Write yourself clear.” Alistair's assumption is that we preachers usually have no shortage of things to say. But we will likely not be able to say them clearly until we slow our minds down to the pace required to put pen to paper or text into a document.
Then, a couple of years ago, I participated in two days of leadership meetings with a consultant who used Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Advantage to help our team clarify why do we exist, how we behave, what we do, how we will succeed, what is most important right now, and who must do what.
His four disciplines of organizational health are pretty clear:
Build a cohesive leadership team.
Create clarity.
Overcommunicate clarity.
Reinforce clarity.
(Unfortunately, we never gained enough clarity to get past step one. Clearly, we lacked cohesion, evidenced by the fact that the team no longer exists.)
Recently, I rediscovered the principle that “writing clarifies thinking.” In the last couple of years, my thinking had become so cloudy I couldn’t bring myself to write anything. But since disciplining myself to write a Substack post each week, writing has become an antidote for my cloudy thinking. Writing forces me to choose the clearest words that form the straightest path out of the wilderness of ambiguity.
But there is a shadow side to clarity. Clarity is powerful, it is not omnipotent.
God has rarely answered my prayers for absolute clarity. Some of my most often repeated prayers have been for the Lord to provide clarity about which way I should go or what I should do next. When those prayers go unanswered, I have been tempted to turn clarity into an idol, a substitute for faith in Jesus. Apparently, God is so committed to my walking by faith he will withhold clarity and allow ambiguity. After all, if I had absolute clarity, why would I need faith?
I am an information gatherer. I have a degree in Technology (1980s technology) with an emphasis on data processing. The first rule of data processing is never to lose a bit (that’s a technical term) of information. Why? Data minimizes risk and removes ambiguity. Because I’ve been trained to supply data that provides clarity, I despise ambiguity.
But God uses ambiguity as much as he uses clarity. Ambiguity is a daily reminder of our dependence on God. Ambiguity humbles us. Ambiguity drives us to God in prayer. Ambiguity allows us to attempt things so impossible that if it succeeds, only God gets the credit. Data, education, experience, strategic plans, etc. all remove ambiguity but also tend to make us less dependent on the still, small voice of the Spirit of God.
“Let me be clear” is a desire, but not a demand.
“Let me be clear” is a simple prayer I pray before I attempt to take a step of faith following Jesus.
“Let me be clear” is what I pray before I attempt to explain and apply God’s Word to others.
“Let me be clear” is a future-facing declaration of faith that acknowledges “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
“Let me be clear” is a joyful resolve to spend my life proclaiming the gospel with theological precision, discernable simplicity, and actionable urgency for "if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?" (1 Corinthians 14:8-9)
Lord, let me be clear, “that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.” (Ephesians 6:19)
Lord, for Christ’s sake, let me be clear.
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