Going to College

What is the purpose of 'college'?  We took our son to college today.  Anticipating the event, I asked myself what the purpose of doing this is.  In part to remind myself; in part to admonish him -- at the end of the day, what is this whole thing for?

I got it down this far:  Going to college is an opportunity.

An opportunity to:

• become a professional in some skill-set 
• develop more awareness -- of one's self, of others, of the world
• fit the 3 together from a deeper awareness of God

How would you describe it?  What do you see as the purpose of 'going to college'? 

Going Back and Forward

Going back can sometimes be the quickest way forward.

-- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Until it is faced

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

-- James Baldwin

Strengths & Weaknesses

Every time you meet a person with great strengths, you are also meeting someone with great weaknesses.

-- Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive

Excuses

As you might have gathered, I'm exploring the concepts of leadership of late. Here's one to start off this week's continued thinking:

If you start making excuses to cut out the things that are important because of urgent circumstances, it will become a habit, and you'll start cutting them our regularly.

-- Tony Dungy, The Mentor Leader

When you think of leadership, what stands out as 'important' to you?

Far More Willing

Experience has taught me that the Shepherd is far more willing to show his sheep the path than the sheep are to follow. He is endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Do you ever catch yourself censoring your prayers? Why would you do that, you might say? Among other things, is something at work to cut our prayers short? It seems to me that a big part of following God is praying (breathing with God).

I was out today and found myself praying. Praying that God would free me from some things, but as I came closer to the specific words of my request I noticed myself start to censor my prayer. Do I really want to say that? If I do ask for something, He just may give it to me. Be a little careful how you phrase that, I thought. And, then, I realized why I was doing this; that I was really trying to avoid something. And, that something was the possibility of pain. You see, I know that if I ask God something like 'teach me to love like you do'...this may very well be granted and the granting may be very painful, like it was (is?) for Him. 'Help me not to...' ...and, He may just answer that by exposing something (painfully) in my life. So, without even realizing it, I was censoring my own prayers to God.

Acknowledging this, however, lead me somewhere I might otherwise have not gone. It lead me to consider the notion that it may actually be good for me to experience a helpful pain. Like having a needed surgery, the short-term pain may in fact become an integral part of a needed healing of something. Pain isn't always simply to be avoided. I have to remind myself of this. It can be a good thing that truly frees me toward the things I more genuinely want and ask God for. And, do I really want to be in the business of negotiating for goodness from God, particularly as I tend to define goodness in any given moment? Half the time, I don't really even know what is truly good for me, what I really need.

So my censoring effort, if successful, would have kept me from discovering this idea. I would have stopped by prayer short. In other words, if I had managed my prayer, I may not have realized what I was really doing and forfeited my deepening requests of God for His goodness - as He defines it - however He may choose to grant them.

And He is, afterall, endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving.

Bob Dylan - Fort Wayne 2012

 

Man, the old guy wasn't so old last night. He was 'feeling good' with new variations both jazzy and jammin'. What a beautiful evening to be outside listening to really quite fabulous music with both iconic and relevant message for even our times. My appreciation simply increased.

Click pic for set list....

Leadership

Most ideas today about leadership seem quite novel, but the more I review the topic, the more timeless the traits obviously are:

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.

-- John Quincy Adams

Well-Roundedness & Inspiration

Those individuals in our organization who are inspired tend to outperform. That's because the more well-rounded you are, the better you're able to perform.

-- John Robak

Well-roundedness is likely a product of many things - family, up-bringing, opportunity, exposure, reading, personality, etc.  Based on my personal experience, I think college can go a long way for someone as well.  But I am particularly intrigued, however one gets there, by the connection between it and inspiration.

College & Reading

Donald Miller seems to concur with yesterday's post:

I don't think there is any substitute for a college education, and I regret not attending myself, but a diligent commitment to reading will get you far. All leaders read, and there are almost no exceptions.

He went on to say this, which I like quite a bit:

I just think of the mind as a muscle, and by working it, we get more enjoyment out of life.

And, humor about an otherwise quite serious problem is quite...winsome, no?

The latest statistic is that the average American watches 1,456 hours of television a year but only reads three books. So if it's true that readers are leaders, and the more you read the further you advance, then there isn't a lot of competition.

-- Donald Miller, To Own a Dragon

For Those Who Want to Lead, Read

Even as global literacy rates are high (84%), people are reading less and less deeply. The National Endowment for the Arts has found that "reading has declined among every group of adult Americans," and for the first time in American history, "less than half of the U.S. adult American population is reading literature." Literacy has been improving in countries like India and China, but that literacy may not translate into more or deeper reading.

This is terrible for leadership, where my experience suggests those trends are even more pronounced. Business people seem to be reading less — particularly material unrelated to business. But deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness.

Continue Reading...

When You

...when you have a lot, it is easy to not want to lose it.
When you don't want to lose it, it is easy to invest effort into keeping it.
When you invest effort into keeping it, it is easy to think you deserve it.
When you think you deserve it, you have forgotten that it was really given to you.

When you forget that it was given to you, you forget who gave it to you.
When you forget who gives you...anything you have, you're in trouble.

Thankfulness and Living

“Gratefulness allows us to understand what matters most to us and translate that to a broader goal,” offered the researcher who presented his findings at the American Psychological Association annual meeting.

When we don’t think there’s much to give thanks for, we don’t think there’s much to live for — because giving thanks to God is the purpose of our lives.

When we don’t focus on what we can thank God for, we can’t focus on living....

-- Ann Voskamp

Tendency

The older we get, the greater the tendency to become convinced that our path of experience and knowledge is normative for others.

We must hold this lightly for their sakes, as well as for our own.

Wait (Pt 2)

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him

-- Psalm 37:7

We are encouraged to wait. We are challenged to wait.

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

-- Psalm 27:14

At times, it seems we have no choice but to wait.

Some times we wait so long, we forget what we are really waiting for...or who is doing the waiting.

So what is going here? What is making us believe that this effort, this activity is so against something in ourselves? ...when, in fact, it may be part of our purpose? What is the purpose of waiting in our lives?

Wait

Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens."

-- Ruth 3:18

I Will Wait -- Mumford & Sons

Click to listen while you read:

I Will Wait

Well I came home
Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of dust
Wish we've known
Will blow away with this new sun

But I'll kneel down wait for now
And I'll kneel down
Know my ground

And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you

So break my step
And relent
Well you forgave and I won't forget
Know what we've seen
And him with less
Now in some way shake the excess

And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you

Now I'll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
I tethered mind freed from the lies

And I'll kneel down
Wait for now
I'll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Feel my heart slow

Cause I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you

-- Mumford & Sons, Babel

Shields & Cages

...no one tells you that the shields you carry to keep you safe, they become the the steel cages that keep you alone.

-- Ann Voskamp

Am I OK?

We live regularly with the question of whether or not we are OK. And, most of our time is spent seeking the answer to this question from those around us. But, even with each validation, we are dropped off at the bus-stop asking it again. Am I still OK? What about the last thing I did, or didn't do? Where does that leave me now. And, in the end, we are exhausted by the endlessness of the affirmation we seek.

Exhausting this method, though, isn't bad. It leaves us looking for something else and moves us towards the understanding that ultimately we cannot be validated enough by others...because they were not designed to validate us. Our only real validation comes from God. He is the one who created (authored) us...made us to be what we are. And with God, we are not OK...on our own merits. We are not who we were made to be. We have simply screwed things up, over and over and over. And, we are not OK. Perhaps our deepest sense of this is what keeps us constantly looking for another opinion...from others.

A surprising (and relieving) truth is that we can be OK with God after all. Because He has offered us forgiveness, if we seek it. He is the one who constantly invites us back to what He made us to be. And, in seeking this forgiveness, we discover that He is the only one who can answer our deepest question. We are OK, because of what He has done for us, for our un-OK-ness. And, when we realize this, we are finally free to not get off at all the old bus-stops. We are free to live with a new answer, a freeing answer, to our human question.

Two Kinds

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners, and the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.

-- Blaise Pascal

Cubs vs Reds 2012

 

Continue viewing...

How vs Why

"We all live life asking questions, questions about how to get ahead, how to make life more meaningful, questions about how to survive or help people survive. The question how is an American question, and it rests on the presupposition that we know what life is really about."  

Just give us the manual.

The Bible is answering primarily another question. It taps into our un-habited questions of why.  If we feel it is out of sync with our concerns, perhaps it is because it and we are seeking answers to different questions.

The link below encourages us to think about the many why questions we are often unaccustomed to asking.  Continue reading....

Flourish

If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, within fifty years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within fifty years all forms of life would flourish.

-- Jonas Salk


Seems a bit dismal, but not in light of yesterday's post...read here.

Especially when we could be doing this.

Makes Me Mad

...just keep it out of sight?

'Just' makes me mad.  How much of this is going on?  ...probably way more than I want to know.

Indifference at work?  One of our crimes?

...somehow I am a part of this and I don't want to be.  But, how do I not support the cultural machinery all around me...that enables this kind of thing?  Seems like it has to come down to some personal choices that don't seem like they would matter anyway (not that that alone should make a difference).

Seven National Crimes

I don't think. I don't know.
I don't care. I am too busy.
I leave well enough alone.
I have no time to read and
find out. I am not interested.

-- William J. H. Boetcker

Indifference

The greatest tragedy
is indifference.

-- The Red Cross

Each Other

If we have no peace,
it is because we have
forgotten that we
belong to each other.

-- Mother Teresa

Wonder

As I wander off the porch of a space some dear friends are sharing with us, I realize I have forgotten that it is Saturday Morning. There are no digital clocks on these views, only the natural ones, whose rhythm is so easy to get accustomed to...like it was natural or something.

I have mentioned my deep affection for slant before, and this morning is full of it. Light miraculously invading the shadows of ridges and trees, but ever so gently as it does so. It seems transported this morning on breeze, creating a flutter of a million leaves all waving in a kind of praise. The light and the shadows dance together romantically, as the leaves of the conductor's wand direct them deeply into a kind indescribable beauty.

A fullness drowns out the sense of doom we so often carry around with us. It requires a trust, but oh so beckoningly. And the human spirit within me yields today to it.

Thank you, David and Julie, for a spot to remember, to wonder, to discover. Thank you for your humility, which so frees us to enjoy the fact that all goodness is from God.

A Watch

When I go running some place unfamiliar, I take my watch.  It helps me know how far I've gone.  Otherwise, the pain in my bones, the fatigue in my legs, or my gasping breath on a hill might deceive me into thinking I can't do (or can do) something I really can.  Pain or discomfort -- a deceiver.  I haven't really thought of it like that before.  I need something like a watch to help me properly interpret what I experience, to have a more true understanding of it, rather than just going with what it feels like where I am.

Both are realities, but one could overshadow the other.

Ann Voskamp puts it this way:

Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living.

and

this Daily discipline is the door to full freedeom.

A watch to keep me oriented to what is true...to make me free.

Be Still, and Know

 

...and (see post below), beauty opens us back up to the reality of God. What is it about the lack of our movement that enables this? Rush, rush, and rush and we may never notice Him or see Him...imagining that we are the source of provision, of goodness, of what we have.

But take a few...to step back, to wonder, to be grateful, to receive the truth that it is God who provides us with all things, that gives us everything...and we are both renewed and reminded about the real order of things in life. All things start and end with God. What a relief, what enjoyment, what peace is ours.

Continue viewing...

Beauty - Revisited

Beauty often comes in forms greater than we can take in all at once.

It soaks.  It opens.  It reveals.  Though it can take us by surprise, it is often slow.

Beauty leaks through our crust, opening and softening us to things within us, to the world outside us.  It is an unparallelled power.  A force undeniable, except when we ignore it.