Mirrors and dashboard lights
August 7-8, 2025 was the Global Leadership Summit (GLS), and I’m guessing several of our readers around the country were there. (If so… what was your biggest takeaway?) Humility is a core value of the GLS: if you’ve attended often, you can complete the sentence, “Armed with enough humility… pastors can learn from business leaders and vice versa.” One of the highlights we were able to enjoy here in Tucson was during the local session, by Pastor Trevor DeVage of Pantano Christian Church.
The mirror doesn’t lie
That was Trevor’s title, and self-awareness was the major theme. Here are three of his main points:
Self-aware leaders lead from identity, not insecurity (Psalm 139:1-4).
Self-aware leaders don’t confuse pace with purpose (Luke 5:16).
Self-aware leaders invite feedback instead of avoid it (Proverbs 27:6).
A major usually-missing component to answering Jesus’ John 17 prayer is that we would grow in trust with one another where we welcomed “speaking the truth in love” both on the giving and receiving side. Praise God for more of that gift becoming a reality!
Dashboard lights
We sometimes call them “dummy lights,” but we probably ought to call them “smarty lights.” When your check engine light comes on, it’s letting you know something that you probably didn’t know simply from driving your car. The only way that’s a dummy light is if we’re dumb enough to ignore it! We probably aren’t thrilled initially when the dashboard light turns red. But oh, the pain it can spare us!
I’m so thankful that God loves me enough to have installed a couple dashboard lights for me as a human! Both of those lights are connected to my abiding engine.
Dry eyes
Two years ago, I developed some kind of mysterious eye condition in both eyes. You name a symptom, and I had it. Seven eye doctors later -- the last one being at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale -- I believe my wife provided the primary answer! All of it was triggered by the steroids I needed to take to recover from pneumonia; and once I got off those steroids, my eyes improved... somewhat. But every time I was in a stressful situation, they’d get worse. Whatever else might have been going on, cortisol is a primary culprit.
My eye irritation is letting me know that my abiding engine is out of whack, and I’m stressed over something. Sometimes it’s obvious, but other times I need to go looking for the source of the stress. Often I simply need to employ another primary takeaway from the GLS, the “keystone habit” that Craig Groeschel talked about. The keystone habit I’ve recommitted to is simply a strategic pause throughout the day, where I slow down the RPMs.
Distraction
In the last few weeks I’ve become more aware of one more dashboard light. If I find myself driven toward distraction and avoidance, it could simply be another procrastination flareup. But more likely, I’m discovering that there’s some kind of buried pain or discomfort that I’m not wanting to face. The abiding engine is all about receiving love: God who IS love abiding in us before we abide in Him. When something that really isn’t all that interesting suddenly seems irresistible, I’ve started looking under the hood to see if that knocking sound isn’t our Precious Savior saying, “Hey, that pain over there? Would you let Me look at it? I can take care of that for you.”
John 17 is simply Jesus’ prayer that the Father would help us carry out His new command, that we love others the way we’ve been loved. What are your dashboard lights, your areas where the mirror doesn’t lie? In what ways is God trying to get your attention so you can receive more of His love, and thus have something divine to offer?
