Living Strategically

What does living strategically mean? So often we just drift through life doing what we must. Go to work. Pay the bills. Put out the fires. Fix the car. Clean the house. Don’t get me wrong, those are good things that all have to get done. And we shouldn’t complain about them. We should do them cheerfully with a good attitude, serving our families as godly servants.

But our calling is bigger than that. So if that’s all we do, we’re missing it. We’ve let winning the battle keep us from winning the war. The military gets this, and uses two special words to describe it.

“Tactical” has to do with winning the immediate battle we find ourselves engaged in today.

“Strategic” has to do with winning the war – the big, long-term picture.

While tactical is important, the military understands that strategic is more important. Winning a battle does you no good if you lose the war. In fact, sometimes because of limited time, money, and energy, you have to decide which battles to let go and lose so that you have enough resources left to win the war.

So how do we go from living tactically (aimlessly drifting day-to-day) to living strategically (focused on God’s calling)? Do what the military does – have a plan. Make a life plan. Your life plan helps you say “no” to the good so you can say “yes” to the best.

There’s an excellent book I highly recommend called Living Forward, by Micheal Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy (both obviously Christians). It’s a quick and easy read. Although it’s secular per se, it’s got Kingdom of God principles woven all through it. (BTW, I’m not an affiliate. I get no commission or compensation or any other benefit if you click the above link or buy their book. This is an objective recommendation.)

Janet and I went through it last year. We had an “offsite” at a local bed & breakfast in December 2015 for a few days. We each have an individual plan, and we have one together. Having a life plan has helped us make strategic decisions toward the calling on our life we otherwise would’ve missed.

For example, I recently took a new assignment with my company that doubled my commute. At first, this seemed like a obvious no-brainer “no”. But I’d been having trouble finding time to work on our website (this blog). I’d get home at 5:30 or 6:00 with a couple hours of website work to do. But with engaging with family, church, and our crisis-pregnancy center volunteer activities, it just wasn’t getting done. I was winning the daily battles but losing the long-term war over my calling. I was living tactically.

However, God provided a vanpool to the new job location, and I could inexpensively tether my laptop to my iPhone. That gives me 2+ hours a day in the commuter van to work on the website. I still get home at the same 5:30 or 6:00, but the website work is done. So I doubled my commute and got more margin in my life! We could not have made this very positive, but counter-intuitive, decision without our life plan clarifying the direction in which we feel God’s calling leading our life. That’s living strategically.

Going through this exercise is a few of the most productive hours you’ll spend this year, because it focuses all the other hours on what God’s calling you do to in your life. I highly recommend it.

So how about you? Are you living tactically or living strategically? What has your journey been from one to the other? Your story can help a lot of us. Please share it with us in the comments. And share this post on Facebook (or your favorite social outlet) if you think it would bless others.