Perspectives...of rooftops and driveways

Perspective: being able to see the forest in spite of the trees; understanding the truth in spite of the facts; grasping the context of your situation; understanding the bigger picture. We all need to gain a little perspective from time to time.

Standing in my driveway I see several houses that are a lot like mine. I see the landscaping, the front doors, and the cars in the other driveways. When I make my semi-annual pilgrimage up on my roof to check things out I gain a different perspective. I see uncharted corners of my neighborhood. I see front doors and back doors, patios and enclosed porches, rooftops and chimneys. Same neighborhood--different perspective.

I have a friend that has been a good friend for 14 years. Through those years he's been one of the people who brings perspective into my life. Just talking things through with him helps me gain perspectives. We all need people to help us see things in new ways.

Yesterday I probably needed a little perspective. I was a little miffed with how things were going and the view from the "driveway" was getting me down a little. I called my friend more to see how he was doing than to gain perspective.

When I called him I asked him what he was doing. He said that he was at the cemetery. He'd stopped by to visit his wife's grave and have a word of prayer. You see, my friend lost his wife about a year ago in a tragic car accident. Perspective. That was about all of the perspective that I needed for a long time.

When you reach into the cheese barrel and pull your hand out with a mousetrap clamped to it just be thankful it wasn't a bear trap.

Perspective: (I Corinthians 4:16ff NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are bing renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Perspective: every once in a while you've got to get off the driveway and climb up on the rooftop.

One Thing...What's Important

If you had to give everything you owned away and could only keep one thing what would it be? Let's take it a little further...it can't be your house or car. What would it be?

If you could take out a magic wand, wave it, and have any one thing you wanted...it can't be money...what would it be?

What if you could make some event happen or a situation occur, what one thing would it be?

In leadership or ministry, what if you had to strip away every activity, every function, every role away...except for one thing... what would that one thing be? No, no, no...come on now, answer the question.

Most leaders run pretty hard. All too often are the times that we feel like a stage performer trying to simultaneously spin a world record number of plates on sticks. A little bit of carnival music in the background, a little drama with the comfortably seated spectators loudly pointing out dangerously wobbly plates, and then that vision of you, the performer in the white jump suit stepping forward and with a broad sweeping hand motion calling attention to the fact that all of the plates are spinning while the spectators wildly applaud. Problem is, every record setting plate spinning feat I've ever seen included plates breaking on the floor after a brief few seconds of triumphant jubilation.

We have to remember that we are leaders and not performers. How many plates can be spun on sticks if one person is assigned to each plate? Which plate am I called to spin...one plate...one thing.

Psalm 27:4 -- One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. (NIV)

Luke 10:42 -- ... but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (NIV)

John 9:25 -- One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see! (NIV)

Mark 10:21 -- "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (NIV)

Philipians 3:13 -- Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (NIV)

2 Peter 3:8 -- But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (NIV)

The Challenge: Take a little time to really ask yourself these questions. Above everything else...

• What one thing would I keep?
• What one thing would I give away?
• What one thing do I know for sure?
• What one thing will I do?
  
• What one thing will I be?
  

Press Through

I'm only two papers and a few posts away from completing my first period (three weeks) of my first semester of my Masters in Organizational Leadership. When I got an email from the accounting department of Regent University reminding me that the last day to drop classes for a 100% refund was January 22 I had to really do some soul searching. When I ruled out dropping both of the classes then I thought about dropping just one of the classes.

Nope, can't do it. I've got to press through this.

There have been many times in my life when I wanted to quit. There have been more times than I can count. I wanted to quit school in first grade...just didn't mesh well with my agenda. I wanted to quit every church that I pastored more times than I can count. I wanted to walk away from challenges at Lakeview Church and challenges at the district office...but I didn't walk away because of challenges.

Yeah, I've quit a lot of things in my life. I quit Pee-Wee football because the coach (one of the Seaver boys) was a jerk... (feels good to say that on the www, wish I could remember his first name!!! I quit the band in 5th grade because what the kids who were not in band were doing seemed more interesting to me...I wish I hadn't quit though I really have no desire to know how to play the trumpet.

I've left some churches and ministry posts in my life but I can say that I've never quit a ministry post because I couldn't bear the challenge...its always because I truly felt in my heart that God was transitioning our lives.

When I was a teenager who professed a call into the ministry my pastor (Billy Cotton) gave me a little bit of advice that has stuck with me for many years. He said, "don't ever leave a place when things are going bad, always leave when they are going good." My friend Mickey Davis used to say when it's time to go the focus has to be on going and not leaving. Its about walking into the future...not walking away from challenges.

I don't like to walk away from a good fight. That's the only thing that bothered me about leaving Lakeview Church a few weeks ago. I really wanted to see all of the challenges through--but I knew it was time to pass them off to someone else so I could pursue what was really in my heart. It was about the future that I could see in my spirit.

Nothing of greatness or significance can be gained by quitting. It is always by pressing through.

This Masters thing is tough and I'm just wading in...I'm going to press through because when I press through in something I'm supposed to do I always find that there's something grand on the other side.

Keep pressing through!

Time Keeps on Slippin' Into the Future

Time...just 24 hours in one day and only 7 days in a week. No matter how you chart it, graph it, or dissect it that is an unchangeable truth.

I don't think much about retirement. Yes, I am trying to financially prepare for its eventuality but other than that I don't think much about it. No strategies (yet!) for a motor home or a golf community or a fishing boat.

What I do think about, probably more than I should, is how much TIME I have to complete my life's mission before my body and mind will force me to back off. There's only so much time and our callings are so deep.

I was sweeping the snow off of everyone's cars this morning (If I lived in Florida this would not be a problem) and I broke the antennae off of Kelly's car (now I know she will find out about it on Facebook before I have a chance to tell her...sorry Kel, I will fix it). It was below freezing and the metal in the base just snapped.

When it broke off it was one of those oh c#@p moments. Not because of what it would cost to replace it, that's pretty much a non-issue, but because of the time it will take. That's the only thing that started rushing through my mind was how much time it was going to take to order one and then the time it would take to figure out how to replace it. That's how insane I am and how precious time has become.

Our days are like a vapor. They come and go pretty fast. The thing I keep trying to remind myself of is that life is made up of antennaes (or is it antenni) and hubcaps (did I mention that Joyce lost a hubcap off of the van?). Could it be that these things are not distractions that keep us from all the important things that we do? Could it be that these things are just the fabric of life and they provide a very needed distraction from the press and grind and intensity.

I've never watched LOST (the television series) before a few weeks ago when some friends brought season one to our house...three weeks later and we're in the middle of season 3...how's that for wasting TIME. Here's the thing, the episodes are so intense I find myself wishing there were commercials at the segues to give my mind time to wrap itself around the intensity.

So, as it relates to life, I'm going to try to learn to enjoy the breaks from the intensity, even if it is looking for a hubcap or replacing an antennae. Somehow I think those things will help me fulfill the MISSION rather than wreck my time management plan.

The Perfect Storm

My blogging has temporarily slowed a bit. I'm working to find my life rhythm again, and I will find it.

I just started a Masters Degree Program with Regent University. I'm working toward a Masters in Organizational Leadership (MOL). It is challenging, to say the least, and it is stretching me in places that I did not know could stretch.

I think I've created the perfect storm...job transition...starting a major academic pursuit...and everything else that is floating around in my head that I want and need to do. I'm very, very good at creating perfect storms. Sometimes I ask myself why I don't just find a lawn chair and sit on the sidelines for a while...you know, just watch the game for a quarter or two.

I just can't -- don't want to.

Reminds me of the story that you've probably heard of the guy named Larry who was sitting around his yard without much to do (this story is true, check out the details at snopes) and he got this wild idea to tie a bunch of weather balloons to his lawn chair, strap himself in, and see if he could get airborne.

Larry anchored the chair to the ground, attached way too many helium filled weather balloons, and armed himself with a BB gun so that when he wanted to come back to the ground he would shoot the balloons out one at a time until he drifted back to earth.

When he was ready he strapped in, pulled the cord on his anchors, and to his surprise he shot up like a bullet to more than 10,000 feet. He was so startled that he did not have the presence of mind to take any action and once he was so high up he was afraid to shoot any of the balloons. He was even spotted and reported by a commercial airliner when he drifted into the flight path of L.A. International Airport. (I'm sure that was an interesting radio conversation!)

Eventually he gained the courage to shoot out some of the balloons and he made it back to earth unharmed.

Of all of the things that a guy could do, why would you do something so stupid. When asked that question his reply was simply:

Hey, a guy can't just sit around.

I hope that I've thought things out a little better than Larry did but I've got to echo his insight...a guy can't just sit around.

If you stop learning you stop leading.

For God's Sake, Play with Passion

I found this story about Ben Zander in Masterful Coaching, by Robert Hargrove, p. 29-30.

Ben Zander was the conductor for the Boston Philharmonic. He was a relentless coach that pulled the best from his students. He once interrupted a Cello player named Carl who was playing Bach in front of the class.

Zander said, "Carl, I am now going to make a comment to you.... You could get a job with a symphony orchestra making $50,000 a year, and have a nice little wife and a nice little house, and 2.7 kids. The only thing is that Bach didn't write this music for someone who wanted to make $50,000 a year and have a nice little wife, and a nice little house, and 2.7 kids. He wrote it for the glory of God. Play with more passion, Carl!"

I've known a few too many leaders who were called by God to a marvelous task but reduced it to a means to temporal survival. Actually, I think most of us sometimes forget the grand and glorious things that we've been called to and start to see them as a way to gain security for ourselves.

May God help us to remember that when we "play" with passion the score that God has written for us to perform, bringing glory to God and fulfilling his most profound desires, that all of the "other things" (Matthew 6:33) will be added to our lives as well.

Its time to play with passion for the sake of God and His Kingdom. Its time to play with passion or risk falling into the mundane, day in and day out, existance that we loathed when we started our journeys.

If your object of leadership is to simply grasp security and safety then forget about it...please... it's time to let someone else play the instrument. If the object of your leadership is to fulfill a passion that God placed in your heart then passionately pursue it.

God didn't write the score of your life and your calling just so it would be nice and tidy. It was given as a gift to you and to those you are called to lead...for the sake of His glory.

Play passionately!