Click here to return to Blog Post Intro
Titus: A Problem Solver
While Timothy had a shepherd’s heart and a tendency toward timidity, Titus was the man to call upon when a church had a problem. The apostle Paul sent Titus to both Corinth and Crete to organize the chaos and establish leaders.
Titus later returned to Corinth to organize the offering Paul wanted to collect for the church in Jerusalem. Still later, when conflict arose between the Corinthian church and Paul, Titus took the initiative and negotiated with the church until he achieved peace. Paul trusted him more than anyone else to solve problems and make peace among the people.
Consider the characteristics of good problem solvers modeled by Titus:
- They anticipate problems. Titus anticipated problems in Corinth and prevented a possible church split.
- They accept the truth. Titus was always honest with Paul and the troubled churches he led. He faced reality.
- They see the big picture. Titus knew how to deal with the church in Crete, due to his larger perspective.
- They handle one thing at a time. Titus took the initiative and dealt with one major conflict at a time.
- They don’t give up a major goal when they’re down. Titus tenaciously addressed the conflicts in Corinth until he solved them.
Sarah Has It Her Way
Let’s take a closer look at Sarah, Abraham’s wife. God told Abraham that his offspring would grow as numerous as the sands of the seashore and the stars in the sky. But there was a problem: Sarah was barren and past the age of childbearing. As the years passed, God’s promise didn’t appear any closer to fulfillment.
Sarah faced a problem and felt compelled to solve it. Lacking the patience to trust God to keep His promise, Sarah looked to her own methods. After waiting more than a decade for a son, she felt she had waited long enough and unwisely attempted to fulfill God’s will in her way, through an Egyptian servant named Hagar.
Sarah’s solution, however, gave her no peace. When Hagar became pregnant by Abraham and bore a son named Ishmael, Sarah despised both Hagar and her newborn son. Hagar had done what she was asked, but satisfaction eluded Sarah.
A Need for Control…
The true problem facing Sarah was not a need for offspring, but her own impatience. Sarah wanted control—something that has afflicted many leaders throughout history. Instead of trusting God, Sarah tried to make the promise come true through her own methods.
Sarah illustrates what happens when insecure leaders work independently of God. See if you identify with any of these characteristics. If you do, ask God to reveal how He would have you deal with your problems in a way that honors Him. Insecure leaders:
- Believe God is inattentive, absent, or even against them.
- Allow their circumstances to determine their understanding of God’s character.
- See life through a perspective of scarcity rather than abundance.
- Become self-seeking and manipulative.
- Feel intimidated and deal with others through intimidation.
- Resent the success of others and angrily turn on them.
- Think that if one person succeeds, someone else must lose.
- Blame others for their dilemmas.
- See themselves as martyrs.
- Conclude that attempts at control seem more logical than trusting God.
Want to Improve Your Problem Solving Skills?
When you face a problem, how do you react? Do you ignore it and hope it will go away? Do you feel paralyzed and powerless? Do you tend to give up after one attempt at a solution? The ability to solve problems comes from experience facing and overcoming obstacles. If you never try, fail, and try again, you’ll never master the difficulty.
To improve your problem solving skills, do the following:
- Look for trouble. Don’t avoid problems; attack them. Use caution, but find them and take them to someone with experience in that area. We learn to solve problems by pursuing them.
- Develop a method. Come up with a system. Take time to discover the real issue; find out what others have done; have your team study options; prioritize solutions and try one.
- Surround yourself with problem solvers. Find others who complement your weaknesses, especially if you aren’t good at problem solving. Diverse thinking allows you to solve a variety of problems.
May you improve your problem solving skills, as you shoot for the stars!