The Transition from Work to Home

by Kenny Luck on Tuesday, May 07, 2013

The mantle of greatness

Airline pilots know that the approach to landing can be flown more slowly and landed in a shorter distance if the plane's flaps are lowered during final descent. If you've ever been a passenger on a commercial airliner, you've likely heard the noise as the flaps are lowered when the pilot slows the aircraft for landing. If a pilot doesn't go through this flaps-down process, you don't land safely — you crash.

Flaps down

We husbands could learn from such a calamity-avoidance process as we turn around familiar streets and corners before we pull into our driveways. Before you go home, practice flaps down. Mentally take a deep breath at a turn near your home and pray. That moment and that action are designed to slow you down emotionally and refocus you spiritually for the next phase of your day — at home with your family.
Pray a prayer like: "Lord, my family needs a dad and a husband when I walk through that door, but to give them what they need, I need to be like You. I'm leaving the pressures of my day in Your hands so I can focus on my family. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit, and help me to serve in Jesus' name."
Prayers like this one let you check in with your family and assess how you can lead them through serving them.

Landing like Jesus

You may wonder why transition from work to home is important. Many women have written to me to share about how their husbands are helpful to others at work and church but not in their own homes. Wise men know to give their best energy at home first. Then they're able to lead at work or minister at church with functional integrity.
The disciples had some trouble understanding that. They confused their greatness with what made Jesus great. Though they watched Him heal the sick, serve the outcast, and preach the Kingdom for the sake of others, they weren't getting it. Position and power replaced service and sacrifice in their hearts. It was time for a literal "come to Jesus meeting."

"But Jesus called them over and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and the men of high position exercise power over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life — a ransom for many'" (Matthew 20:25-28).

That's landing it like Jesus. He wants us to see the same powerful truth He made sure the disciples saw: You're never greater than when you act in the favor of others where nobody else sees you — at home.
This article is courtesy of HomeLife Magazine.
Kenny Luck is the men's pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and the founder of Every Man Ministries, which helps churches and organizations develop healthy men's communities. His 20th book Sleeping Giant (B&H Books) is the proven blueprint for men's ministries. Sign up for weekly devotionals and read more of Kenny's teaching at EveryManMinistries.com. Follow Kenny on Twitter at @everymm.