"Part 9: Read Carl Jeffrey Wright’s In Search of Heroes Interview and Become Inspired" by Ralph Zuranski
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Are you slow to revise or reverse an important decision?
Jeff Wright: Again, I would bring the same set of considerations in. Sometimes a decision has been made, you’ve committed to a path and information comes that suggests that you should go in a different direction.
Jeff Wright: When you get to a point of critical mass where it’s really clear that something has to happen, I think it can be very, very devastating to not make that decision timely. Money can be lost and maybe lives or other consequences if an important decision that requires a change of direction isn’t made promptly.
Jeff Wright: On the other hand, depending on the consequences and the number of people and resources that are involved, you do need to take your time in making the decision.
Jeff Wright: Timing is everything and execution, whether it’s done quickly or slowly, needs to happen with enough consideration, enough prayer, and enough information so that when you make the decision, whether you did it quickly or did it over a period of time, you can be comfortable that you moved with the hand of God in that.
Ralph Zuranski: How are you able to overcome your doubts and fears? I think that’s probably one of the greatest tools of Satan is to have us doubt what we are doing and just fear so many different things.
Jeff Wright: I believe that the closer you walk with God the more you can, from Scripture, from prayer, from the counsel of elders and friends who you know are leading lives that are God-directed, Spirit-led, Biblically worldview oriented, the easier it is to overcome doubts and fears.
Jeff Wright: Will they come? Yes, they will. Will you overcome them? If you operate from the perspective of faith and trust that God has your best at heart, which he does, you can overcome.
Jeff Wright: I’ve had many situations in my life where I’ve had to really, really rethink, “Did I make the right decision? Is something very negative going to happen?” Again, I think about coming here, at UMI, to Urban Ministries.
Jeff Wright: There were times when I thought this was a tremendous mistake because it came at great financial sacrifice, it came with sacrifice to my family and to many other things that I was doing that looked like they were solved problems suddenly became problems and I really began to doubt God.
Jeff Wright: But through prayer, through the continuing meditation on the Word of God, through the support and encouragement of others around me and when I think about the kind of feedback that we get from people and places, Africa, Nigeria, and in Southern Africa. We’ve given away literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of Christian education literature.
Jeff Wright: We’ll get a letter every now and then and someone will say, “This really changed our village or our life.” Or people in churches who have given us testimony about how drug addicted and substance abusing individuals have had their lives changed because of the work we are doing, that becomes a tremendous encouragement and a confirmation that what I was doubting, what I was concerned about in terms of the wisdom of the decision was totally, totally something that didn’t need to be thought about because God was with it.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Jeff Wright: I wish I could say I do that all the time but no, I don’t. Sometimes I get mad and I stay mad for a couple of days. But I’m working on it. I’m working on being angry and sinning not. But you know what; I think that when you are in any position of leadership there are going to be people who will offend you, people who are going to do things intentionally to upset you. And if you are involved in any kind of Christian leadership as I am, there’s going to be continuing opposition.
Jeff Wright: I have learned to forgive. I’ve learned the power of forgiveness is one of the most important lessons of life. Understanding that forgiveness is what allows us to continue in relationship and also to let loose the burdens that lack of forgiveness will put on you.
Jeff Wright: It takes a lot of energy to operate without a forgiving spirit. It really does. It is a very, very hard burden. It’s sort of a ghost in your head that you won’t let go.
Jeff Wright: So I believe that we should forgive and I try to forgive so as not to carry around the past.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Jeff Wright: One of my greatest sources of joy is to know that here at UMI we get to serve the church leadership, Christian educators, pastors, teachers and the community by providing products and resources that will help them to do what God has called them to do in changing lives and to do it more effectively. That’s probably my greatest sense of joy.
Jeff Wright: To be a part of something that really God is doing. I didn’t start Urban Ministries as I mentioned earlier. It was begun by Melvin Banks. But I get to be a part of something that God started through him and who knows, maybe generations before that, to get to a place where we would have the ability to reach and touch and teach.
Jeff Wright: I can’t think of any greater joy than to know that leadership as service, which is the kind of leadership that I exercise, is something that I get to be a part of in seeing God work in the world today.