Creating Leaders

To successfully create more leaders you must have an open mind, a small ego, a humble heart....

-- John Eades

Maintenance

​A lot of life is maintenance. There is wisdom in recognizing that life shouldn't primarily be about the reduction of work. Taking care of, caring for things, is a kind of goodness.

Not Only

​The truth of the one God—as opposed to all the divinities invented by men—is seen in Jesus Christ in the fact that he is free not only to be exalted but also to be lowly, not only to be remote but also to be near, not only to be God in himself in his majesty but also to be God outside himself as this One who is infinitely less than God....

The error of man concerning God is that the God he wants to be like is obviously only a self-sufficient, self-affirming, self-desiring supreme being, self-centered and rotating about himself. Such a being is not God.

-- Karl Barth,  Church Dogmatics IV I, pp. 417 and 422

SM Brunch 15: Punished, Racial Bias, Show, Spiritual Dimensions, and 21

Another Saturday Mornings Brunch:

In the end, we aren't punished as much for our sins as we are by our sins.

-- Nadia Bolz-Weber

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We are biased.  And, we can change.

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​We must show people how.

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Faith is resurgent, while dogma is dying. The spiritual, communal, and justice-seeking dimensions of Christianity are now its leading edge. . . A religion based on subscribing to mandatory beliefs is no longer viable.

-- Harvey Cox

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It was a joy this week to celebrate our youngest's (Makenzie) 21st birthday!  She has wonderful friends, who helped us throw her a party!

Winter Trees

Time has developed an affection in me for both the existence and idea of trees.  There are, perhaps, many 'roots' to this interest as it strikes me that they exhibit many characteristics that are among the best of things human beings can be as well.  Sometime soon, I will itemize those; among those being their resilience, pace, and brilliance.  But, for now, simply following the link to my posts on 'trees' over the years will suffice.

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Winter Trees":

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

-- William Carlos Williams

Foundational Key

​Action is the foundational key to all success.

-- Pablo Picasso

Completely Happy

I've noticed...there is a part of me that is not completely happy until everyone is. Or, putting it this way, I do not seem to fully enjoy, knowing that others are not able to enjoy what I get to enjoy.

It is almost like there is something about goodness we must all share.

Sacrifice

​The best leaders are those that understand the meaning of service, those who are willing to sacrifice for their own people.

-- Simon Sinek

Shaping

​We often presume that things are primarily about their affect on us, and then about what or who is doing that 'affecting'. I wonder if the reality is that things are more about how they shape us, than simply how they affect us.

When we enter or persist in times of discomfort, what if we could carry this likelihood with us?  Perhaps we can ask, who are we becoming through this?  It could very well be that most of the time, we cannot know the answer to this kind of thing until well down the road.  But, I do wonder what could be different if I lived with an awareness of it along the way.

Funerals

I told my wife yesterday that I love a good funeral; a bit of a strange thing to say, I'm sure. But, a healthy sense of my own mortality relieves something in me.

Some stand out to me, like such services for Harriet Decker, Elsie Eisenbraun, Kathy Abbitt, Clint Bolton.  I tend to enjoy summary reflections of things, especially lives.

The Lord is good,
  a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,

-- Nahum 1:7

​This verse was shared at a memorial service I attended yesterday.  It was presented, in part, as a summary of what the life of the deceased, Barbara Manahan, valued in her life.  It is interesting how death creates such opportunities to reflect on life.  I wonder if such things are the way the dead speak to the living, about what is important in life.

Funerals (honest ones anyway) can connect the realities of life and death, to life and death, in good ways.  They remind us that the two are not as fitted to either / or, and good / bad, as they are to both / and.  We need a deeper understanding that life and death are not competing with each other, they are working together, as parts of reality ((Jn 12:24)  They show us the connection between our humanity and the divine.  In other words, neither one of these cannot be fully experienced without the other.

Funerals are often like a 'reset' of these truths for me.  They whisper a kind of peace to me about the hope we have in the goodness of God that extends beyond our physical lives.

SM Brunch 14: Conspiracies, Unfamiliar Territory, Travel, Knowing, and U2

Another Saturday Mornings Brunch:

I am generally a skeptic when it comes to conspiracies, except when they apply to me (grin).

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​I must be willing to live, at times, in unfamiliar territory (perhaps even willing to choose it). Otherwise, I risk becoming unhealthy, even sick, from a diet of the familiar I can so naturally maintain.

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Perhaps 'the road less traveled' is not really the one others don't take. Perhaps it is really the one I don't take, the less familiar one...the one less traveled by me.

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​The first step to any goal is to know what you want.

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My son announced to me this week that he bought tickets for he and I to attend U2's concert, as part of their 'Joshua Tree Anniversary' tour, this June.  Though certainly grateful for the opportunity itself, I am even more overwhelmed by his heart towards me -- his generosity, his sensitivity, his expression of love.  Love is a humbling thing, isn't it?

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An Accounting

If you can't talk about something, you can't think about something.

-- Eula Biss

So, here's my 'Poem selection' for the week -- "An Accounting":

In this room, hours pass, a slight
corruption of each previous
allotted time block—and probably
confirm failure and humiliation,
which though not ideal, I accept
as historically accurate. I’m sick
of lifestyle music, the thing between
awe and detachment which Hazlitt
defines as adrift. I clear my throat
remind myself, doors are locked,
the ashtray half-full. Unless otherwise
noted, light falls from the television—
accompanies night, any available
other-worldly knowledge. What else?
I’m unhappy even at the edge of rivers,
conversations regarding weather,
any manner of appointment. All comfort
requires another voice. Ditto delusion.
For instance, these shadows imposed
from trees bent by wind and other forms
of predictive behavior, may or may
not contain consciousness. I’m still
working it out. A glass of water grows
warm. I have done terrible and middle
class things for money. This is not
necessarily an acceptable conversation.
Things are good. The serotonin
reuptake inhibitor fades another winter.
If there are things we need, there are
things we need less. I face the mirror
to say it again with feeling. Understand
this is me applying myself.

-- Brett Fletcher Lauer

Looking Back With Gratitude On Obama

Getty Images

This reflection on the the significance of Obama Presidency is worth listening to.  It reminds me of the importance of how what is going on around us makes us feel about life, especially for those whose starting-points in life are different than mine.  We need to see and hear others, from their point-of-view, because it helps us more accurately understand our own.

We All Deserve Styrofoam Cups

​Entitlement is so easy to spot...in others, and, not so much in ourselves. Perhaps it is a grace when our sense of it is 'forced' on us, often through circumstances that don't work for us as we would have hoped -- simple every-day circumstances like getting a certain kind of job, getting married, having a baby, etc.  When one of these is prevented, our sense of entitlement  -- whatever we believe we deserve -- is not too slowly revealed.

This may not be as much a criticism, as just a simple reality.  And, the beauty is that we can learn to let it go -- a good reminder, from Smon Sinek:

Why

​Being an effective leader starts with knowing how to inspire people — to transform individual self-interest to shared collective interest. This happens most often by clearly defining the “why” of the organization – it's the common purpose.

...people are motivated when they are contributing to something bigger than themselves — something with purpose and meaning. They derive more satisfaction when they know they belong, that they matter.

-- Gary Burnison

MLK Day: Towards Justice

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

By What We Are

How we receive him must be determined not by what he is but by what we are.

-- Father John, The Hardest Thing To Do

SM Brunch 13: Wonder, Separation, Inaccurate, Real?

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

We often wonder, in whatever context we're in, whether what we are doing is making any real difference.  And, if what we are doing is hard, we wonder even more.  Besides, what if I am just making things worse?  This leads to another question, is it worth it? I think of the story of a friend this week, or of what it was like for the ladies in the story Hidden Figures (a movie really worth seeing, by the way), or of work I am doing with one of my employees.

One thing seems true, we should learn to not only use the current time as a means of evaluating these things.  Time has a way of deceiving us.

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As social psychologists Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson argued now almost 40 years ago in a widely cited paper, people have limited and often inaccurate introspective access to their own (let alone others’) mental processes. This means that people are often unaware of the existence of the stimulus that caused a response and frequently even unaware of the response. Instead, people use widely available and plausible causal theories to infer the causes of their own behavior. The implication: when stimuli are either not salient or are not plausible causes of the response those stimuli produce, people will be quite inaccurate in their reporting about why they behaved as they did.  Continue here....

-- Jeffrey Pfeffer

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There is something about separation that can enlighten and clarify.

What we get connected to shapes our identity, particularly our sense of ourselves. This can certainly be good. But, it also can become something else...something along the lines of my identity being distorted or lost, without that connection.

Separation can, often painfully, clarify this for us.

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Photo by Tiina Tormanen

This doesn't even seem real until you see other images from this artist.

Good Taste

When you appeal to the better nature of a specific group, you're doing something with good taste. Just barely ahead of the status quo, in sync but leaning forward.

The key understandings are:

• It is never universal. Good taste is tribal, not widespread.

• It's momentary. The definition changes over time.

• And it's aspirational. When we encounter good taste, it makes us feel as though we can and will be better.

Because it's not universal, being seen as having good taste is not up to you. It's up to the recipient. You can't insist you're right.

Good taste is an incredibly valuable skill, and you can acquire it with practice.

-- Seth Godin

Growing vs Surviving

​He who is not busy growing is merely surviving.

-- Cameron Sepah

Someone else we know, put it this way:

He who is not busy living is busy dying.

-- Bob Dylan

From the Side

I've noticed...​that it seems more and more like I have to come at things from the side.  That is, when I try to grab something straight-on...some kind of flow in me slows down or freezes up. I am wondering about what all is at work here.

Team Sport

Good leadership is a team-sport.

Divine Overdose

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Divine Overdose":

We are even more modern
we are free
not to know
pining pining
til the trees are in
their autumn beauty
who knows why
we are free
an LP of poetry
left on in the apartment
while I walk my love
to the subway
she turns to gold
in the light banking off
the ball-fields
and to have to think
of that small
pale body asleep
I return I take the stairs
3 at a time
and now my heart is sore

-- Matthew Rohrer

Speaks To God

Who one believes God to be is the most accurately revealed not in any credo but in the way one speaks to God when no one else is listening.

-- Nancy Mairs

SM Brunch 12: Bitter, From Cage Fighting to a Hut, Complacency, and Growth

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

The sweetest things become the most bitter by excess.

-- Democritus

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Growing up, I faced pretty severe bullying. Maybe it’s because I was chubbier and had pimples on my face. Maybe I was too nice and let other kids walk over me. At 13, I was diagnosed with clinical depression, and I battled suicidal thoughts.

Luckily, I had a loving home and my parents did everything they could to help me improve my self-esteem. They encouraged me to get involved in athletics. And that’s what started me on the trajectory to professional cage fighting.  I’ve loved the sport of wrestling since the moment I stepped onto the mat. It took my focus off my struggles. I didn’t start off as a great wrestler. In fact, I was terrible. But a coach saw something in me and he never gave up. Eventually I became one of the best and won multiple state and national championships.

After graduation, I moved to the Olympic Training Center to pursue my dream of wrestling in the Olympics. In a match with a world champion, I ended up in a bad position. Rather than give him the point, I let him gut-wrench me against the mat, twisting my arm the wrong way. In a freak accident, my arm snapped like a twig...continue here.

-- Justin Wren

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It’s biologically and psychologically proven. I remember learning about it in animal behavior in college: we scan and surround ourselves with what we grew up with and know. We all do it.

You can’t change anything unless you become aware of it, accept it, and then you can take action. One of the biggest gifts of this film for me is that it made me so aware of my own unconscious biases. It was really uncomfortable, but things that make you grow tend not to happen in cozy complacency.

-- Alysia Reiner

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​Discomfort is growth. To constantly improve, and to be more resilient and adaptable, whenever there is a fork in the road, choose discomfort over comfort and you will grow.

We're used to choosing comfort. We're used to choosing the easy way. Yet all our success and growth comes from choosing the hardest and least comfortable way.

Choose the hard path. Choose something that makes you uncomfortable. If you do that every single day, you will grow every single day.

We never grow when we're comfortable.  Continue here...

-- Tyler Grey

For or Against

It seems to me that, before it's all said and done, you have to decide what you are for, rather than simply what you're against.

Inferiors

If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

-- J.K. Rowling

Never Know

You never know who your boss may be...or whose boss you will be.

What You Become

​What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. 
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-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Absence

It’s in absence, most especially, I find poems.

-- Layli Long Soldier

New Year or Another Year?

I've been thinking about a new year and the significance of such mile-markers.  I wonder about periods of time when, presumably, people did not have the benefit of a sense of time, at least the way we do now.  How was their life different because of it?  How is mine different because of my sense of time?  Last year, at this time, I had a sense of something coming.  I didn't know what it was, but I felt mindful of it.  Looking back, things did come.  Some were expected; some weren't -- but, 2016 was fulfilling...and a year of letting go.

So what about this year? How will it be marked -- as a new year or just another year?  What will it bring?

For some reason, my mind has gone to the story of David and Goliath.  There are many facets to it, to be sure.  But, one that has been sitting with me has to do with the notion of what faithfulness with the many small things of life, the things that take up a lot of time, has to do with what happens when the big things come.  I think it is likely that David moved in his big moment with Goliath the way he did because of what he learned through the much longer periods of time in his life.  The times where much smaller things were going on, where he learned to believe what he did, probably significantly shaped who he was and what he did in the big one.

When we were in Colorado over Christmas, I was struck by the passion of Tami's Dad for some of the people in the family who are really struggling with life.  He prayed for them, in a deep and groaning way.  It seemed like he thought it mattered that he did so.

What about me?  Why do I pray when I do?  Truth be told, it is often over similar things.  I wonder about the significance of being willing to pray for some of these people this year.  Would it be like the many small things that David learned to do over a long period of time?  Would it matter for who I am praying for?  Would it matter for me?  Would it matter at the moment of an unforeseen big event...because I had been choosing to regularly pray for them?

Perhaps, this year, the significance of 2017 is not because it is new.  Perhaps, the significance of it is that it is just another year...where it really matters how I do the smallest of things of life faithfully.  I think it does matter, somehow.  And, if it does, I want to do it.