Save Yourself

August 3, 2015

My dad used to have a phrase, “It’s like the blind leading the blind.”

Did you ever follow a leader who had no clue?

OK, you can quit laughing–or cringing.

Did you ever seek help from someone only to discover that they needed more help than you? It’s worse when they offer advice. Then you realize they need to live the advice first.

I often listen to “Coffee House” on Sirius XM when I’m driving. The channel features acoustic music. Since I play folk guitar (when I get it out), the channel is appealing.

There’s a song that keeps repeating in my head:

You’ve got to save yourself…so you can find a way to save…someone else.

This wisdom is ancient. Yet, we still need to discover it daily. When I’m tempted to open my mouth and interject in a conversation, there is a pause. In that pause, I reflect on how much I resemble just what I’m about to contribute.

Sure, you can learn a lot by reflecting upon failures. But I wouldn’t listen very long to business advice from someone who has taken multiple businesses into bankruptcy.

Similarly, I respect people who may not have it all together, but they have been living out the struggle for years. They know how hard life change is. Yet, you can see the change in their lives. I listen to them. And meditate on their words. And reflect on their lives. And contemplate how that change would look in my life.

These may be Celtic saints from my current reading in the Celtic Daily Prayer book. They may be people I’ve met over the past few years, months, days.

Don’t go theological on me. Just consider the practice: If you are seeking, seek those who have “saved themselves”. If you are “saved yourself”, then you need to “find a way to save someone else.”

Jesus put it, “Go into all the world making disciples….”

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Leadership Tip-Team Building

July 31, 2015

What made Phil Jackson such a great coach in the National Basketball Association. Arguably it was his ability to take a group of super-talented individuals and convince them that their role in the team was important but that all of them working together blending their roles would bring championships.

Building teams is the best way to move an organization or even committee forward.

Here are some elements of team building for leaders:

  • Define why you are building a team (winning NBA championship, leading a new building campaign, selling a product, leading a church)
  • Define the roles you need to be successful (not just filling spots, but recruiting talented people to fill roles)
  • Carefully recruiting people who can fill a role or be trained for that role
  • Continually work with each person and the group to build trust and communication
  • Leaders must constantly hold out the vision and purpose to the team to avoid splintering into factions going different ways

If you are leading a team of leaders, it’s the same thing. But each team member will go off to lead their teams. It is important that the team building be passed down the organization. A good team at the top builds teams all the way throughout the organization.

The enemy of teams–silos. When leaders appear to communicate together, but the conversations are superficial, that is a warning sign of silos. When each leader goes off and does their own thing without regard to the work of other teams, then the organization grows dysfunctional. That reflects lack of top leadership. It also reflects lack of vision.

When Jesus said people would know his followers by their love, he didn’t exactly mean that they were always sitting in a circle holding hands and singing Cum Ba Yah. Love demands respect.

A team-building leader respects people as a first priority. And respect for people filters througout the entire organization.

A great team consists of people who fulfill their roles in pursuit of the common visions where everyone has respect for the others.

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Fear Keeps Us From Ourselves

July 30, 2015

The story of David and Goliath. We know it. Thanks to Malcolm Gladwell’s interesting but somewhat inaccurate book, many more know it.

Little boy (probably not that little) kills giant warrior while the entire army of Israel cowers in fear.

Out alone watching the family flock of sheep, David learned to deal with his fear while protecting the flock from wild animals.

Is fear holding you back?

Sometimes we are not as successful at what we wish to do as we could be due to an underlying sense of fear that prevents us from going all out for achievement.

I was that way. There were people who encouraged me. They actually thought I was intelligent and could do the work. But I held back–for years. Insecurity, fear. Then one day it was gone.

There is someone now in my life who has all the trappings of success–spiritual background, faith, degrees (plural), position. Yet, something holds this person back from being everything God has laid out in the path of life.

Self-help gurus latched on to a little psychology research and preached this message since the beginning of self-help guru movements. Even so, it’s true.

How did David overcome the fear? Every day making the little acts that added up to larger acts that led to killing the mighty warrior of his enemy.

It’s not that he didn’t know fear. Read the rest of his story. But he could overcome his fears and become a great leader.

Is fear holding you back?

Take those little steps in faith to live out your spiritual gifts. Start today. Do one thing that moves you forward. One practice. One conversation. One gift given.

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Emotions are contagious

July 29, 2015

Yawns are contagious.

There–did you just either yawn or stifle a yawn?

One of my classmates many years ago in middle school read that truism. She would go around yawning (fake) just to see if other people would also yawn.

Emotions are also contagious. 

When you are around upbeat people don’t you usually feel better? Or, when you’re around someone with a dark cloud over their head, doesn’t it bring you down?

There are some people so over-the-top “up” that you get suspicious of them. But you can tell people who are just genuinely joyful. And you just love to be around them.

Love is the same way. People smile at a young couple romantically in love. But when there are groups of people who genuinely love each other–they care about each other, share concern, help out–outsiders can sense that group love. And they’d love to share in it.

I’ve seen people who found that emotion over the campfire at the end of the day during a Christian camp in the summer. They wanted every day of their lives to be like that.

Jesus taught that “outsiders” would know his followers, his disciples, by the love they showed each other. 

In fact, that is why the early church grew. People said, like the scene in Harry Met Sally, “I want what she’s having.”

I felt that once in my life. We had a group that was fantastic. Then we scattered around the country. I don’t think I ever felt it agains, except maybe during a short weekend during an Emmaus Walk.

It is great. Attreactive.

It is so good when people, especially Jesus-followers, work together in love. Why do we lose that?

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Live In Unity

July 28, 2015

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! Psalm 133

Of course, that was originally written for physical descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

However, many of us look at our congregations of believers and sigh that same refrain. If only…

Dallas Willard writes in The Spirit of the Disciplines, “Personalities united can contain mor of God and sustain the force of his greater persence much better than scattered individuals.”

I’ve been devoting several hours of service working with other members of my congregations, and I have to leave in 10 minutes for another four hours this morning.

Just reflecting for a few minutes that serving together on a common project is so much better than just sitting around and criticizing one another, or making up untruths about others, or gossiping about others.

How pleasant indeed it is when we can get together and serve in unity.

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Perseverence Is A Key Leadership Trait

July 24, 2015

A couple of guys meeting regularly felt a call to start a coffee shop. Not just a coffee shop, but one with a mission. 

The mission was brought to them through a conference in Thailand where the plight of coffee farmers was brought to awareness. As is often the case with commodities, large corporations buy up all the coffee paying the lowest possible price.

Farmers cannot make a living, often being forced to sell daughters into the sex trade. Evidently men have such great physical need along with a lot of money to make selling sex a lucrative business.

Smaller roasters buying directly from the farmer can pay a fair price for the product and still bring the coffee back to sell at a reasonable price to the retail customer. In the case of a farmer in Thailand, he was able to make a profit and at the same time pay his laborers a fair wage such that 50 young women were brought back home rescued from their horrible life.

The thought of the coffee shop based on Direct Trade coffee grew. Plans were laid. Investors sought. Contractors interviewed until one came forward with a workable plan within budget.

Just when they thought they could go no further, a new investor or donor came forward. Work could proceed. Even at the last minute when a sign needed to be purchased and installed and working capital obtained, new investors came forward.

Two years is a long time to work on a dream. Today, the High Grounds Cafe opens. I changed my “office” from the local Starbucks which is at a grocery store and Tim Hortons this week. I’m an investor and I’ve witnessed the perseverence that led the investors, contractors, employees to this stage.

I’ll never forget a poster I saw about 30 years ago showing a heron swallowing a frog. But the frogs front legs (“arms”) were free and it was strangling the heron. The caption–Never Give Up.

Certainly perseverance is a necessary leadership trait. Now–what can I learn from that. Congratulations Chuck and Chris.

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Trafficking And The Mistreatment of Women

July 23, 2015

Jimmy Carter recently gave a TED Talk on why he thinks mistreatment of women is the number one human rights abuse.

About the same time there were other TED Talks on trafficking for international sex trade.

Yesterday morning I attended an inaugural meeting of an organization that hopes to rescue people caught in various types of trafficking including women caught in the sex trade.

I have visited the “red light” district in Tijuana. In all my travels, I have never seen so many prostitutes per square foot. None of those women chose this life. Many times the family was so poor that not all could be fed. It was easy to sell off a younger daughter or two at about age 14.

These all feed off the insatiable demand of many men for sexual intercourse. Of course, I’m not opposed to the act. Just that there is an appropriate time, place, and partner. Many people just cannot contain themselves.

And that is not the only type of trafficking. Both men and women are caught up in what amounts to slavery–promised jobs, given loans, only to discover that the jobs don’t pay a living wage let alone enough to pay off debts.

Back to my group. They are talking about education. Intervention. Helping those who escape start over. Worthy ideals, all.

But it will take a change in the human heart to really affect change.

One of the biggest obstacles? Jimmy Carter stated, “Men just don’t give a damn.”

Help will come when hearts change. That is our main work.

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How Close To God Do We Wish To Be

July 22, 2015

Recently during a small group discussion one man in the midst of a discussion said, “You know, we can be as close to Jesus as we want to be.”

That was a profound statement that just passed over the group.

I brought it back up at the end of the time. It is worth careful consideration.

The doctrine of prevenient grace states that God is always pursuing us and ready to accept us.

But…

The question for us to think and then act on is whether we are pursuing God.

Another man said that he had started a practice of praying at the office before work. The other day he forgot to in the busyness of getting ready for the day.

Guess what, he had a bad day.

Spiritual practices exist for a reason. Thousands of years of experience by seekers after God have shown that setting up a routine of study and prayer especially early in the day is a perfect way of reminding us to pursue God and his ways in our daily life.

We can get as close as we want. How close to God do we want to be?

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Whom Are We To Judge?

July 21, 2015

1 Cor 5:12, “For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not for those inside that you are to judge?” 

We are to judge Jesus followers, not outsiders 

We should attract outsiders by how we show love within our fellowship. Hmm, how is that working for us? 

Don’t know about you, but sometimes my local fellowship strays far from this ideal. Rumors, lies, character assassinations. On the other hand, it can be a place of support, fellowship, concern, worship and prayer. 

As I wrote last week, sometimes it’s really hard to know what a “Christian” is by observing and listening.

We’ve had so many “prophets’ who build careers around exaggerated pronouncements about the society around us. Well, duh, Paul would tell us. Of course. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (OK, Paul wouldn’t know about rocket science, but give me a break) to figure out that people who are not following Jesus are also not following all of his commandments.

How to we get them to (for the most part) follow Jesus command? Well, by bringing them into discipleship with Jesus. I say “for the most part” because I wish that I could follow all of Jesus’ commands. But, he set the bar so high. OK, no excuse. Anyway, back to the argument. 

And how do we do that? Well, by showing them the good life that they could have as a disciple. 

Oh, we’re not modeling that love?

Maybe we need to look honestly into a mirror (me, too) and see where we fall short. Where did we say something to someone that was less than uplifting? Where did we not show mercy? When did we ignore a fellow human hurting?  

I’m willing to say that I’m guilty. How about you? 

That’s the first step. 

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Call Me When I Care

July 20, 2015

In Memory Of

When I Cared

He needed to pass German to complete his BA and officially get the job waiting for him. The professor recommended he get me to tutor him. Why? I’ll never know.

He passed German. But that’s not the story. This was the beginning years of defining the Baby Boomers as the “Me Generation.” I remarked about having some empathy for the German professor who left Vienna and wound up in Ada, Ohio.

“I don’t care. I don’t have time to think about others,” he replied.

That conversation returns to me at times.

It does seem to mark the majority of Boomers (fortunately not all).

But the remark popped back into my consciousness when I saw a middle-aged woman entering Tim Horton’s the other day with a T-shirt with the phrase printed above.

I’m affected deeply by such lost people who don’t care—and are proud of it. How can you go through life so self-centered that caring is hard work? I have trouble understanding. When I care about spiritual formation and see such void, I’m sad.

But Jesus understood.

He told the story of four men. One man was robbed and beaten and left bleeding by the side of the road. Two religious men walked by (even worse than driving by protected by the steel shell of a car). And they kept on walking.

The fourth man walked the road. He stopped. We know nothing about his spiritual life. We do know that he was not part of the “official” religion of the area. Regardless, he stopped and helped. In a word, he cared.

I am saddened by seeing so many people who do not care. But then I meet or read about people who do and see the difference that they make in the world around them—and I still hope.

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