Last week I was doing a training with some students revolving around helping them to begin identifying their particular life purpose. Afterwards, one student approached me with some concerns about the mechanical feel of the material, and what she perceived as an overemphasis on self. She felt like all of our purposes were simply to love God and others, so why all this complicated self-analysis and self-focus?
Good questions. I paused, and then shared with her what I always go back to when I am wrestling with guilt for not being as immersed in serving because I'm focusing on myself. In the gospels, we see repeated examples of Christ leaving the crowds to be alone. Here's one example:
Matthew 14: 22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.
If God incarnate places a high value on being alone, praying, getting refreshed, shouldn't we puny humans place a much higher value on it?
So, this weekend I'm on my six-month postponed personal retreat. I'm spending my time praying, journaling, reflecting, and retooling my life purpose statement, 2009 goals, and weekly schedule. Every time I do this I get very excited, and at the same time feel significant regret. Excited because I see God's hand in continually moving me closer to what He wants me to do and opening the doors for me to do those things. Regret because I always do this excerise much less frequently than I should. It is of incalculable value.
Stephen Covey calls it "sharpening the saw." He points out that if you are a logger and you never take the time to sharpen your saw because "you don't have time", that you will eventually be completely ineffective in cutting down trees.
SO, here's the question. Can you succinctly state the purpose of your life, as you understand it today? Can you succinctly state how you are currently seeking to fulfill that purpose and what steps you need to take to be more effective? If not, it's crucial that schedule some saw sharpening time, or your tree cutting days are numbered. Now, If you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to my sharpening....
PS - If you have never gone through exercises to identify your life purpose, follow this link to a resource that would serve you very well. Let me know if I can answer any questions.
http://www.keepgrowinginc.com/resources/harnessingfaith.php
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tribes, by Seth Godin
This book elicited two equal and opposite emotions in me. On the one hand, this book has all the elements that make me frustrated at the modern publishing age and makes me wonder why I haven't cranked out a book yet. Every point is exaggerated, there are multiple contradictions, and the grammar makes my eye twitch. I'll site one example.
“This book says something new. Everyone is not just a marketer – everyone is now also a leader.” P. 8
“Not only aren’t leaders most people, but the members of the most important tribes aren’t most people either.” p. 68
If you can unscramble the Rubik's cube of syntax in these statements, you'll notice that they directly contradict each other. The new thing this book says is that everyone is now a leader. The book apparently says something even newer, as between pages 8 and 68 apparently some people represented in "everyone" decided that they no longer wanted to be a leader.
That being said, I am indebted to Mr. Godin, because this book did spark a significant revelation for me in my role at church.
One of my favorite leadership mantras is "Every problem is a leadership problem." This basically means that any problem within any group, team, or organization is at root a leadership problem, because it will only be solved by a leader (position or not).
The problem with this mantra is that it is still possible to reason away particular problems as not applying to the mantra. Most recently for me, I have been very frustrated with the fact that some people in our church have complained that we don't communicate enough, while readily admitting that they don't read our weekly email or pay attention to announcements during church. In other words, I completely ignore your communication, and I want more. I couldn't fathom how people's refusal to pay attention to communication could be my problem. Until now.
In the book, Seth Godin makes the point that it is easier to lead a "tribe" than ever before, because of the proliferation of tools that are now available (email, text, facebook, twitter, etc.). When I read this I instantly began arguing in my head that while this is true, it also makes the opposite true. Since everyone has access to everyone, we are all bombarded by so much that no one gets heard. While Godin didn't focus on that, he did point out the bottom line...
“If you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; it’s mine. If you see my new product but don’t buy it, that’s my failure, not yours. If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my fault too.” P. 117
“A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.” P. 52
The reality of information overload in our generation is not that we are all doomed to be ignored. The reality is that if your message is worth being heard, you have to do whatever it takes to ensure that your message is more likely to be heard than the other 26,000 that will be competing with it on any given day.
SO, I'm asking the right question: "Why aren't people listening?" But the answer to the question lies not with the listener, but with the message and it's medium. I've got some work to do. Thank you, Mr. Godin. And no offense, I'm just anal.
If you are interested, below are a couple more nuggets I gleaned....
On Followers
“People don’t engage merely to remind one another of the status quo. Instead, they eagerly engage when they want something to improve. This microleadership is essential to the health of your organization. Second, they’re not going to do a very good job of recruiting new members to your tribe. That’s because evangelism requires leadership.” P. 56
“The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no”. It’s a “not yet.” “Not yet” is the safest, easiest way to forestall change.” P. 119
“This book says something new. Everyone is not just a marketer – everyone is now also a leader.” P. 8
“Not only aren’t leaders most people, but the members of the most important tribes aren’t most people either.” p. 68
If you can unscramble the Rubik's cube of syntax in these statements, you'll notice that they directly contradict each other. The new thing this book says is that everyone is now a leader. The book apparently says something even newer, as between pages 8 and 68 apparently some people represented in "everyone" decided that they no longer wanted to be a leader.
That being said, I am indebted to Mr. Godin, because this book did spark a significant revelation for me in my role at church.
One of my favorite leadership mantras is "Every problem is a leadership problem." This basically means that any problem within any group, team, or organization is at root a leadership problem, because it will only be solved by a leader (position or not).
The problem with this mantra is that it is still possible to reason away particular problems as not applying to the mantra. Most recently for me, I have been very frustrated with the fact that some people in our church have complained that we don't communicate enough, while readily admitting that they don't read our weekly email or pay attention to announcements during church. In other words, I completely ignore your communication, and I want more. I couldn't fathom how people's refusal to pay attention to communication could be my problem. Until now.
In the book, Seth Godin makes the point that it is easier to lead a "tribe" than ever before, because of the proliferation of tools that are now available (email, text, facebook, twitter, etc.). When I read this I instantly began arguing in my head that while this is true, it also makes the opposite true. Since everyone has access to everyone, we are all bombarded by so much that no one gets heard. While Godin didn't focus on that, he did point out the bottom line...
“If you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; it’s mine. If you see my new product but don’t buy it, that’s my failure, not yours. If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my fault too.” P. 117
“A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.” P. 52
The reality of information overload in our generation is not that we are all doomed to be ignored. The reality is that if your message is worth being heard, you have to do whatever it takes to ensure that your message is more likely to be heard than the other 26,000 that will be competing with it on any given day.
SO, I'm asking the right question: "Why aren't people listening?" But the answer to the question lies not with the listener, but with the message and it's medium. I've got some work to do. Thank you, Mr. Godin. And no offense, I'm just anal.
If you are interested, below are a couple more nuggets I gleaned....
On Followers
“People don’t engage merely to remind one another of the status quo. Instead, they eagerly engage when they want something to improve. This microleadership is essential to the health of your organization. Second, they’re not going to do a very good job of recruiting new members to your tribe. That’s because evangelism requires leadership.” P. 56
“The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no”. It’s a “not yet.” “Not yet” is the safest, easiest way to forestall change.” P. 119
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Baby Bottles and Cattle Prod Massacres
I absolutely love new years. Not "New Year's". Years that are new. Because of my extreme personality, I do really well with fresh starts, even when they are arbitrary. SO, every January I have a new barrage of commitments and standards, and I typically do pretty well with them.
So, one of my myriad commitments for 2009 is reading through the Bible. Pretty standard. I've done this several times, but for whatever reason, I'm noticing some of the oddities of Scripture more often than usual. Some of the things that are in the Pentateuch (Gen-Deut) and following are bizarre at best, and often make me cringe. And sometimes it's just random.
Yesterday I started Judges, and this passage in chapter 3 really threw me for a loop.
31 Shamgar son of Anath came after Ehud. Using a cattle prod, he killed six hundred Philistines single-handed. He too saved Israel.
That's all we ever hear about Shamgar. He ran around beating the hell out of Philistines with a cattle prod. Perhaps I noticed this passage because I just finished a two year stint on a cattle farm and I have actually used a cattle prod. I got a visual. Of course, I'm thinking that Shamgar had a much more stout cattle prod than I did. If I tried to kill people with our cattle prod, I would just really piss them off and maybe leave a few welts.
But I digress. Why is that in Scripture? I don't have any clue. BUT, I do know that apparently God wanted Shamgar to do what he did. And he was so pleased with Shamgar that he was given a permanent shout-out in Scripture. He too saved Israel.
This is actually comforting to me. Sometimes when I am preparing a bottle for Addison or doing an expense report for my pastor or putting together a children's puzzle for an exercise with college students, I get the distinct impression that I am spending my precious minutes doing things that really have no significance, and that there are people all around me doing amazing things and I am NOT one of them. BUT, I do know that apparently God wants me to do these things, because the path that has brought me to where I am today is unmistakably one created by Him.
SO, if God was pleased with Shamgar the cattle prod Ninja, and if what he did was significant simply because it was exactly what God wanted him to do...
So, one of my myriad commitments for 2009 is reading through the Bible. Pretty standard. I've done this several times, but for whatever reason, I'm noticing some of the oddities of Scripture more often than usual. Some of the things that are in the Pentateuch (Gen-Deut) and following are bizarre at best, and often make me cringe. And sometimes it's just random.
Yesterday I started Judges, and this passage in chapter 3 really threw me for a loop.
31 Shamgar son of Anath came after Ehud. Using a cattle prod, he killed six hundred Philistines single-handed. He too saved Israel.
That's all we ever hear about Shamgar. He ran around beating the hell out of Philistines with a cattle prod. Perhaps I noticed this passage because I just finished a two year stint on a cattle farm and I have actually used a cattle prod. I got a visual. Of course, I'm thinking that Shamgar had a much more stout cattle prod than I did. If I tried to kill people with our cattle prod, I would just really piss them off and maybe leave a few welts.
But I digress. Why is that in Scripture? I don't have any clue. BUT, I do know that apparently God wanted Shamgar to do what he did. And he was so pleased with Shamgar that he was given a permanent shout-out in Scripture. He too saved Israel.
This is actually comforting to me. Sometimes when I am preparing a bottle for Addison or doing an expense report for my pastor or putting together a children's puzzle for an exercise with college students, I get the distinct impression that I am spending my precious minutes doing things that really have no significance, and that there are people all around me doing amazing things and I am NOT one of them. BUT, I do know that apparently God wants me to do these things, because the path that has brought me to where I am today is unmistakably one created by Him.
SO, if God was pleased with Shamgar the cattle prod Ninja, and if what he did was significant simply because it was exactly what God wanted him to do...
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