Author and Pastor Max Lucado recently reflected on his experience of losing the joy of the Lord to a spirit of gadgets and gauges. Lucado said:

For years I was an avid cyclist. I loved it. I was one of those guys with the tight shorts and helmet. I eventually got to the point where I competed in events. A guy in my church offered to teach me a lot more about cycling.

So I bought a bike and some clip-in shoes, and spandex, and went out and loved it. But then he started saying that I needed to get some gadgets. You know … everything from a speedometer, to a monitor for my pulse rate, to a device to read the incline of a hill. I had gauges on gauges. Then there was the music. My cycling expert friend told me, "You'll bike better if you listen to some hard rock." So I did—and all of a sudden I was a serious biker.

One day, lo and behold, I wrecked the bike. And I had to borrow a friend's bike—one with no gadgets on it at all. And for whatever reason, I didn't take any music with me on my ride. And I was surprised how much I enjoyed that ride. It was delightful, just delightful. I was riding for the pure joy of riding.

I've found in church work, that I can do that too. I can become so budget conscious, so numbers conscious, so growth conscious … So here I am 62 years old … I think I'm enjoying ministry more because I'm focusing on the "gauges" less. I'm more at peace.

Possible Preaching Angles: Performance; Grace—Of course this doesn't just apply to ministry. Sometimes in life we focus so much on the gauges of success (money, achievement, promotions, the approval of others, social media presence, etc.) that we lose sight of the joy of the Lord.