Some Random Leadership Thoughts

This makes 2 days in a row. I may be on a roll....but don't hold your breath.

So, leadership...is a fun word...and can be even more fun (or rather interesting) to live out. I guess most people would say that there are only two kinds of people when it comes to leadership - those that lead and those that follow. If only it were that simple. If you've paid attention to any job or task-centered scenario, you should be able to see that not all leaders are equal. Some are great at leading, and well, some are just not so great.

I think there is more to leading than just not being designated as a "follower". Sometimes the best way to lead in a given situation is to do the best job at following. There are times when we should lead by position, and there are times when we should lead by example or influence. The truth is: the better you are at leading as a follower, the better you will be at leading as a leader. Just think about that for a few minutes.

Another thing that occurred to me earlier today, is that I sometimes (probably more often than not) tend to wait for a "cue" from someone else to let me know when I should do something or what I should do in a certain situation. I'm not just "following" when I do this, I'm also "not leading". That doesn't mean that I should take charge in every situation, but it does mean that I should stop waiting for someone else to set the pace or dictate my actions in a given scenario.

God has given me certain abilities and skills, not just as a leader, but as a person. If I want to be the best Mark that I can be, then I can't always wait for someone else to "set the pace". I wonder how much of the world (or even history) would be different if just one person had not waited to see what someone else was going to do, and instead just stepped out to do what they were going to do.

Just some food for thought.

I'm such a slacker!

I believe it's time to start updating this thing again. Instead of feeling like I have to post this enormously long blog, maybe I should just share those random, short thoughts that I get every now and then. At least it would be more often then it has been. :)

A Date With Destiny

Destiny is tested through challenges. The moment that defines you is never planned or scheduled, and you can't recognize it until after it has passed. All you can do is make the most of every opportunity & do what you know is right.

Believe it or not, this thought occurred to me during the latest episode of 24 (and what an amazing episode it was). Sometimes we can get so caught up in "life as usual" that we can miss the real opportunities for greatness. We fall into the rut of thinking that where we are in life is where we're always going to be. We may be fulfilled in what we're doing, but we can also still feel like there's something more - like we are content, but not fully alive. The danger lies in one of two extremes: we either become convinced that things will never change, or we are constantly looking for the next big thing - never being satisfied or focused in where we are at the time. Most of us either believe that we somehow missed the one & only chance to fulfill our destiny, or we are still sitting around waiting for it.

Regarding job positions, a wise man once said that we have to work like we'll be there forever, but realize that we probably won't be. There is a delicate balance to living by those words. It seems that the greatest opportunities are not the ones that we try to create, but the ones that happen to us when we least expect it. The point that I want to make, is that we more than likely will not know the day or time that destiny will come knocking at our door; we can't schedule it on our PDA. It may come out of tragedy, success, confusion, clarity, or out of left field. All we can really do is be ready when it does knock, and be willing to face the challenges that may seem insurmountable. For the characters that experienced this in last night's "24", they didn't know that their moments of greatness were going to come between 8:00 & 9:00am near the end of season 8. But when the moments came, they were willing to rise to the challenge. I believe because of that willingness, we will see them shine like never before.

When your moment comes, will you hide behind your situation and make excuses, or will you face the mountain before you, and show the world who you were truly meant to be?

Emotional Spirituality

Have you ever thought about how often people use the line, "I didn't participate in that activity (altar time, etc) because I didn't want my response to God to be just emotions."? Translation: "I was afraid of what God might say to me, or try to do in my life, so I let my insecurities keep me in my chair." I used to buy that line (I mean excuse) from people until I realized just how ridiculous it is. We say that we don't want our emotions to be the only reason (or one of the reasons) that we respond to God, but do we realize that God gave us our emotions and even made us to be emotional beings?

Seriously though, think about it. We don't want our emotions to interfere with our relationship with God, because we say that we don't want to make a decision based on just feelings. Yet, at the same time, we will let our emotions and feelings "invade" or even drive other relationships - ie: who we date, who our friends are, & how we treat people. If we let our emotions permeate other areas of our lives (with both good and sometimes bad consequences), then why do we single God out of those emotions? Are we afraid that we will over-commit to His love? Are we afraid that we will surrender too much of our lives to Him? Are we afraid that it will change our lives more than we really want?

Don't get me wrong, I believe that there needs to be balance in our emotions. We need to learn how to be emotionally mature and not give in to follow every single feeling that comes out of our hearts. We also can't exclude our relationship with our Savior when it comes to being "emotionally involved", when we let feelings be a part of every other area of life.

Our Faithful Father

I was reading in my devotional this morning (always a good thing) and it talked about the words that Jesus spoke in Luke 13:34, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." This is the kind of openhearted love that God continued to have for His people, regardless of how many times they turned away from Him. When you think about the word picture that Jesus is giving us, it really is quite profound.

He is always longing for us to live under the "shadow (and safety) of His wings"; we are the ones who keep wanting to wander off and explore the wide world around us. We are looking for something to fulfill us, something to give us meaning and purpose, something to satisfy the void in our hearts. What we are missing, is that all of those things can only be found in the Creator of the Universe - the very One who longs for us to come running under His wings.

As I think about that kind of love, that kind of faithfulness, that kind of commitment & patience - I see Someone who is so far different than myself. I see qualities that I can't ever measure up to; a perfection that I could never obtain. The gap between who He is and who I am is so wide that it's almost overwhelming. Even though those characteristics are the kind of things that we are looking for in our Heavenly Father - the kind of things that we want Him to be - it can also be somewhat intimidating. Here's what I mean: when I see into His character (which is His holiness), and then I see how sinful and imperfect that I am, the difference creates a hesitancy in my heart. I want to go and draw close to Him and become familiar with that love & faithfulness, but at the same time I don't know how to respond to it. He is so much different (or transcendent for the theologically inclined) from me, that it's practically safer to just stay where I am. If I draw closer, perhaps more of my imperfections will be brought to light. If I get to know Him better, I may only end up seeing just how horrible I really am. If I can't compete with the degree of those characteristics, being near the One who is the very definition of them, will only make me feel worse. Or will it?

It is our natural tendency to shy away from something that we don't understand or can't comprehend. We think we are safer and better off if we just stick with what we know. The truth is, when we tear down the walls around our hearts & open ourselves up to the perfect-ness that is God, we definitely get the better deal. We get the security of being in a relationship with One who knows us inside and out. We get the assurance that His faithfulness and love will always be new every morning. We receive the kind of forgiveness and restoration that can only be given by Him. We receive a wholeness that is given by grace instead of worked for by our own strength. Although it may seem scary at first, the benefits & rewards of having that kind of relationship are well worth it.

I Hate Sin

This was something that I actually wrote out several years ago, but came across it earlier today. Since I haven't posted anything for a looong time, I thought I would throw this back out there. I wrote it after a friend of mine shared a struggle that he had been having.

i hate sin. i hate what it does to people. i hate that it pulls you in ever so "innocently" and then sucks the life out of you and leaves you cold and alone lying in a gutter feeling absolutely miserable about yourself. i hate that it brings out the worst. i hate that it makes you do things that you would've never thought you'd do. i hate that it destroys lives and shows no remorse. i hate that it shows no partiality and attacks whoever it can. i hate that we're so naive to fall for it.

i do however love that God's grace is more than sufficent and His love is relentless. i'm glad that He stepped in when we were weak and did what we could not do. i'm glad that He loves us more than we deserve. i'm glad that the deepest and darkest of our sin is but a pebble in the ocean of His mercy. i'm glad that love never fails.

"Crazy" Thoughts

I have decided to share a few of my thoughts from the book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Here is my favorite piece of the first chapter entitled, "Stop Praying"

"Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can't contain Him. Isn't it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?"

How amazing is it to realize that God is so huge, that we cannot possibly exaggerate Him?! Think about all the things in life that we try to make seem bigger than they really are: the line at walmart, the length of time we sat in traffic, the amount of work that we have to do, anything. We naturally tend to over-express something with words when we are trying to make people understand a certain situation.

But we can never over-express God; it's impossible!! Our words can barely even contain Him, let alone exaggerate Him. How amazing is it that we serve a God that is so great?

Take some time today and think about that.