Monday, September 29, 2008

leadership thoughts while sipping on some starbucks...

I’m sitting at starbucks trying to get some work done before going to my real job.

It’s nice coming in here, I enjoy the atmosphere and coffee and they enjoy my cash, It’s like we were meant for each other – true love…

Anyway, my thoughts this morning have been around leadership.

Particularly leaders who are able to create urgency and pick up the pace of productivity and accomplishment while not creating panic or stress.

So, how do we lead, inspire, and motivate, instead of stressing, demoralizing or panicking those around us?

Any thoughts?

I’ll share my thoughts on how to do this for others once I figure out how to do it for myself.

Hope you guys have a great morning!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

deep love...

This morning was a beautiful moment for me.

I opened my front to door to begin my daily miniature trek up Pearl st, over to college ave. and finally reached my resting place on Buchanan Ave. just outside of the North Museum for kids, where there’s usually a snake exhibit.

On my walk this morning I slipped on my earbuds, selected some tunes and enjoyed the cool crisp wake up call from Fall.

Kim Walker was the artist of the morning and as I boarded my bus, and was greeted by the nods of other travelers and the smile of our driver and Kim rolling into her recording of “How he loves” I was deeply reminded of how much we are loved by God and how much others need that love.

Reminded of how much he loves me:

To enjoy the beauty of a fall morning - signs of God’s deep love

To see the story of a life lived written in the wrinkles and twinkles of ones eyes and cheeks - signs of God’s deep love

To finally feel the warm embrace of my soul in God’s acceptance and love - signs of God’s deep love.

And then what makes my eyes start to tear up

I am given this, the realization of God’s deep love, not for my selfishness and containment but to extend to others.

So…

May those I cross paths with - feel and see the signs of God’s deep love for them

May the co-workers I clean shelves and floors with feel and see the signs of God’s deep love for them

May the costumers I interact with see and feel the signs of God’s deep love
for them

May those who world I live in, feel and see the signs of God’s deep love for them.

This morning was a reminder of God’s Deep love….

So may I continue to remember, embrace, and extend God’s deep love

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

LIfe Change = Calendar change

Was looking at my calendar this morning and realized it looks a lot different then just a few months ago.

Now don't let the images fool you, life still seems pretty full but it does feel nice not having so many places to be and things todo.

Major life questions now are:
1- what time do I need to be at work
2- what time do I need to be at the bus station so I don't miss work
3- what homework is due this week
4- what personal projects need attention (teachings, home improvement, etc)
5- how am I spending time with my amazing wife

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

walking

missed my bus today.... so I got a little extra walking in.
I did a total of 5.15 miles
it's good for ya, maybe I should miss buses more often

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Bible Belching


Welcome to a flood of thoughts:

I just had some amazingly honest conversations with a couple of co-workers as we drove back from a day of shadowing out in a Philly store. As we approached the 3rd hour of travel time the awkward social conversations had finally ran their course and we were talking more like friends and less like strangers.

The topic of religion seemed to come up, not by me but by them.

One of the guys who made it very clear through his comments that he was not into this “christian stuff” asked me what church I attended. Now I didn’t see this as my “golden opportunity” to share my faith but more of an opportunity to let my faith be more of a “it’s just who I am” part of conversation and less like an invasion into his personal space.

There was a lot of small talk about church. His experiences were shared and mixed with interjections from the girl in the back both sharing about their dislike of close minded Christian who claim to love people and the church in general.

Well, after a couple minutes of this type of conversation I felt strangely empowered to ask a very vulnerable and awkward question.

I asked their permission to ask something venerable, and as the car quickly filled with tension I reassured them that it was I who would be venerable and not them. They nonverbally sighed a sigh of relief and knobbed a yes to continue.

I started by stating that I never want to be seen as “that Christian Guy”, you know the one who’s always shoving his faith on others, talking way too much about God, and generally being the annoying personal of faith in the corner.

I then ask them to be honest. I said I had spent the past 3 years in the “vocational ministry bubble” and deeply desire to not be “that Christian Guy” and I wanted to know how I was doing. Was I annoying? Fake? Do I make people uncomfortable? Be honest.

Well I’ve got to give them credit, they were honest.

They shared how they had me labeled as “a Christian” before I ever spoke.

They shared how they where afraid of riding to Philly with me due to the fear of me being a “Bible Belcher”

But they then gave me a huge compliment and said they where wrong. That I was safe to talk to, that I talked a lot more about other things then my faith, that I never pushed my faith or made then fill imposed upon, and that in general I’m doing ok and being well received.

Wow, honest.

I appreciated their comments, as compliments and stingers all in one.

I was super glad to know that I was “getting it right” and not being “that Christian guy”, that they felt safe around me and that I could be accepted as a friend (which is huge because all other christians they talked about where far from being allowed into the friend club)

But I would be lying if I said was not surprised a little by their honesty.

fear of me being a Bible Belcher
Fear of me shoving my faith on them
Not wanting to ride with due to my faith expressions

And now remind you, I have tried VERY HARD over the past 3 years to debunk the drippings of Christian culture from my life.

But it was still there and still obvious .

So there’s a lot to take from this conversation for me
Like:
People need us to talk a lot less about God and a lot more about life
We need to learn about good music and movies cause that’s what they wanted to talk about
People feel like they “know about our faith” and they don’t need us to share about it more with them, let them ask if they care to know.
The young adult generation has a general distrust and dislike for those of use positioning ourselves as “Christians” so let’s relearn to just be humans and friends who happen to have a strong belief system.

So how would your co-workers label you?

Would they be afraid of riding in a car due to your Bible Belching?

Do you know what it means to be human and not just Christian?

So how do we live with deep faith and convictions, yet respect the culture around us and be able to engage in meaning relationships building trust for faith conversations?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

yet more tears...

more tears…

This morning as I have been working through emails, blogs and other things that I have been putting off over the past couple of days I found my self sitting here crying. Not just a little welling up of the eyes but the big drops, the drops that mark your shirt, the ones that make you gasp for air, the tears that come from somewhere deep inside.

Here way.

I subscribe to a blog called http://www.boston.com/bigpicture, it’s a photo blog of events from around the world. Some events I’ve heard of, others are new to me, but the events I observed from the comfort of my new ikea chair today pointed to something that moves me, something that seems to make life make sense while at the exact moment throwing it into chaos, it pointed to our heart.

To when our heart hurts and ask “why God why!”

To when our heart cheers and screams “you’re amazing and I’m so proud of you!”

To when our heart just wants to throw our arms around someone and hold them.

To when our hearts are reminded of something beautiful and triumphant.

My heart was moved today…

Here’s some of the pics that moved me, you can see more on the site mentioned above.














Friday, September 12, 2008

a tear in my soul...


So the last few weeks or so of my life have been consumed with house projects, yard projects and the wonderful adventure of starting a new job and grad school, we seem to do life transitions big!

Well, the combination of these items have just about pushed me to my personal breaking point but low and behold God is good and He has not let me reach my limit, or in other words I’ve not had a mental break downs yet.

But tonight as the thoughts and plans of projects and school work were pushed out of my mind so my attention could be given to more job training something happened that caused a tear to fall in my soul.

Now, I love my new job, I love my new co-workers and I’m honestly excited about the adventure of partnering with them to open a really exciting retail store in our area. But, as you probably guessed my new co-workers are much different then my old ones. I’d guess that most of the 80 or so people on the team are far from God (which to be honest excites me, cause I can’t wait to see how relationships that are already forming play out and how God gives opportunities to have a special “weight” in some of their lives)

Well back to tonight, my co-workers are far from God.

We have been doing training in a local conference center and tonight we had a special guess next door.

Let’s just say that about half way through the training a rocking sound systems turns on and we (although divided by a wall) where unwillingly invited to join in a sing-a-long of “Open the eyes of my heart Lord.”

As the music grew we realized that there was some sort of worship service next door.

They not only had one song but about 6 more to follow.

Let’s just say it was loud, it was not amazing quality, and it was a really big distraction for our facilitators and for most in the room.

Now, I’m not knockin the groups' faith or excellence of worship; I’m not critiquing that at all.

But what made my soul cry was when one of our managers politely went over and asked if we could reach a compromised and possibly have the volume turned down a little. He was directed to the man who calmed to be the pastor and was rudely told no, and refused to turn the music down.

Well that went over really well with my manager, who returned to our room to inform the 80+ people about how this group who’s singing about loving God and the world were so insensitive and rude, refusing to even talk about a possible shared solution.

This just grated on me.

This embarrassed me.

This made me mad.

This pastor did so much harm to so many people far form God and I don’t know if he even realized what he was doing.

But come to think about it, how often do I do that? How often do I get so caught up in my little world, my list of expectations and totally blow an opportunity to show love? To put God on display?

So tonight as I’m about to crawl into bed with my wonderful wife the thoughts that fill my mind are no longer the evil plans of how to “tell that pastor about his massive screw up” but the questions of

How do I do the same thing?

How do we do the same thing?

And then how do we live in such a way that truly puts God on display in such a way that is true, good, and right?

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Two conflicting stories…


"When we read the Bible as bits instead of a narrative we then force them into the only narrative we have, which is our cultural narrative and the so then the Bible becomes a means to achieve the American Dream, we use the Bible to support a competing narrative"
Dr. Zimmerman

Do we truly live our lives in the truth and reality of the “whole Biblical story”?

How often do I use bits of the Bible only to support a life style that I had already choose?

What would it look like to fully live in light of the full Biblical story in a world filled with the conflicting American dream story?

Sunday, September 07, 2008

prove it... please


I had someone recently tell me that their organization was about making people’s lives better, enriching the world and helping others find solutions to their problems.

Well, as I listened to this ideological “crap” (as I had determined it to be) filling my head, I had a deep sense of “prove it” in my gut, wondering about how "this is gotta be a front of some kind”, and that “this really can’t be for real”.

But as those thoughts rolled around my mind bumping into and wrestling with the sound waves I was retaining from the presentation I was hearing, God’s small voice spoke clear and true saying

“this is exactly what those far from me hear when you promise about my goodness, grace, peace, acceptance, love, etc.”

This struck deep, this struck real, I have to face it.

So I ask you.

As you shovel out loads of your “ideological crap” about your so called good, gracious, peaceful, accepting, loving god what will you do about the person sitting in the back of the room, legs folded across each other, elbow resting on their highest knee, with their chin buried in their palm wondering if you’re just a front, if you’re really for real or full of s#*$; yet secretly wanting to you prove it. Cause to be honest they would love to believe in something like that, but they can't risk getting hurt again until your life backs it up.

What will you do? What will I do?

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Things I’m realizing...


I’m sitting at a Starbucks in Hershey realizing that my life is changing and also some other random things.

I’m realizing that Tomorrow I will go to “work” but instead of driving to the building I have called work for the last 3 years, I will drive in the opposite direction and wonder around rt. 30 till I find some hotel designated as our training facility.

I’m realizing a lot of mom’s shop with their kids at the hershey outlets.

I’m realizing that my desire to see lives changed by Christ is still real and active, even if I’m not getting paid to work towards that.

I’m realizing my longing to lead, inspire, teach, and shape is still burning deep inside

I’m realizing my faith really has nothing to do with my paycheck.

I’m realizing the lady who works here likes to complain about life.

I’m realizing that I will soon have 60+ new coworkers to whom I can hopefully help, make smile, share jokes and stories with, and possibly influence their lives towards good.

I’m realizing that the little girl at starbucks sitting across from me is too cute. A backpack with her baby tucked inside, winter boots on a 90 degree day, and some kind of pink cotton dress - simply adorable

I’m realizing the older ladies talking to the cute little girl should not be wearing short biker shorts when not on their bikes - it’s just awkward

I’m also realizing that I love Starbucks “pumpkin spice latte” for a couple of reasons - mainly because it’s a great drink and it’s what I had the night Pearl and I got engaged.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

thoughts from life these days...

Here’s some thoughts from life these days, we just finished building a fence…

1 - When building someone a fence always ask if they just so happen to live next to a rock quarry? If yes, what are their feelings about dynamite?

2 - No matter how raw your nipples get from your cool Carhartt work bibs, never use “extreme Hold” Band-Aids to cover them up, unless you’re wanting a little wax job done.

3 - Never poke fun at your wife’s sawing job while she’s working on her 3rd 13 hour plus day to help you out.

4 - When screwing fence pickets up never do the math to see “just how much is left”. You just don’t need to know how many screws are needed for 500 pickets with 5 screws each

5 - you really can build a fence by flashlight if needed.

6 - a gas auger and Romanian friend can be worth their weight in Gold

7 - and last but not least my Wife is a freakin hoss! And it was amazing to get to work next to her on this project. I’m one lucky husband!