“Glamour isn’t greatness, applause isn’t fame, prominence isn’t eminence. The man of the hour isn’t apt to be the man of the ages. A stone may sparkle but that doesn’t make it a diamond. People may have money but that doesn’t make them a success. It’s the seemingly unimportant people who determine the course of history. The greatest forces in the universe are never spectacular. Summer showers do more good than hurricanes but they don’t get a lot of publicity. The world would soon die but for the fidelity, loyalty, creativity and commitment of those whose names are un-honored and unsung.” -James Sizoo
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The Race
It was a day of surprises. If you had told me the Friday before what I would experience on Saturday, I don’t know whether I would have stayed in bed all day or sat up sleepless the night before. That Saturday, those years ago, I had a taste of heaven. [click to continue…]
It was a year ago today.
In one sense, as my Dad said yesterday, it has flown by. In another, it felt like a thousand years.
But if one thing has emerged from the past 365 days, it’s that when people or Bible writers talk about the “God of All Comfort,” I can say “Amen” and turn the pages with credibility.
But it didn’t start – or end – with the events surrounding my mother’s sudden death. In fact, the biggest lesson of all was that healing of the heart is a journey through time.
Translation: Don’t tell me how much comfort or encouragement you’re feeling in the funeral home. You have no clue yet about comfort. You’re still being buoyed and insulated by kind people and the truths of your faith.
Comfort – the real kind – comes later.
In the last year, I have been blessed to live what I have preached for years – that the words we use about a Heavenly Father who is who is able to empathize with our weaknesses and invites us to boldly approach a throne of grace are all true. And believe me, other than the promise of eternal life, I can’t think of a promise that is more vital.
How does He do it? If you’re the one just leaving the cemetery or the courthouse or the hospital, what can you expect? How does the Lord put the pieces back together? While every experience of loss – whether it is through death, rejection, forced job termination, or the death of a dream – is unique, I think I have found some common elements in the way our Heavenly Father brings about His healing. [click to continue…]
(Time Leadership, Part 2)
What kept Jesus on the cross?
That’s been the subject of many a sermon or song. And the answer is always the same, ranging somewhere between the ugliness of our sin and the beauty of His love.
You know He could have come down, don’t you? When He was mocked and taunted, Jesus could have called a legion of angels and put an end to the whole shebang.
But He didn’t. So what kept Him there?
Hint: the answer to the question is not, “love.” [click to continue…]
You can accomplish every task set before you, live your life as a model of get-it-doneness, and die with a clean desk… and a completely unfulfilled life.
It’s possible to check off every box on your to-do list today, yet go to sleep tonight completely joyless… only to do it all over again tomorrow.
You may be the one everybody calls for help with prioritizing, streamlining, simplifying and ordering, only for your phone to grow cold when it’s hang-out time.
I think I may have found the problem… and the solution.
Get out of time management.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit too strong. Let me try again… Don’t just manage your time. Lead it.
There’s a huge difference between the two. [click to continue…]
Quick question: What would you do if you knew that you only had 30 days to live the life you now have? After that, your will life will be completely redefined.
You aren’t dead – just relocated.
Every relationship: history.
Every past accomplishment: strictly a thing of the past.
Every possession: soon to be somebody else’s.
Maybe, for the sake of playing out the fantasy side of the question, it’s a witness relocation effort or something. But regardless, the clock is ticking, and life as you know it is drawing to a close.
What would you do? Who would you do it with? How would you approach the growing, grim reality? [click to continue…]
Seagulls: Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.
Nigel: Oh would you just shut up? You’re rats with wings. (from “Finding Nemo”)
“Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night” (Philippians 2:15, The Message)
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Ever been haunted by words?
I have. Sometimes somebody expresses something so profoundly, so powerfully, that the power of their words lasts for years.
Randy Stonehill did that for me with a song he wrote 35 years ago, when I was a senior in high school. In a couple of lines in one song, he described the desperation of the human condition. The words and music still tear my heart out to this day: [click to continue…]
New Year’s Eve. We’d had a great dinner with friends, and were doing the potty wait in the restaurant foyer, when out walked a small group from another dining room. I recognized her immediately, though we hadn’t spoken in more than three years.
She was (and is) a part of my team. My Dream Team.
If this was baseball, she’d be the heavy hitter off the bench. If it was football, she’d be the Hail Mary quarterback who came in the game in the fourth quarter. If it was business, she’d be the turnaround specialist.
As it is, she’s my frontline intercessor.
As I explained to my friend, she is one of the godliest women I know, and a powerful intercessor. And she has occupied a very unique place in my life. “When my back is to the wall and I’m desperate,” I told him, “and I need somebody who knows how to pray with heavy artillery, she’s the one I call.”
I’m thinking of a few times since we last spoke when it may have been a good idea to make that call. Anyway… [click to continue…]
Dateline Barcelona, 1992. The Summer Olympics are hosting the first-ever competition of the truly-best in their respective nations, as professionals and amateurs are all invited to the party. The United States has assembled a collection of NBA-plus-one stars that may be the best roster to ever take a tip-off. And their nickname: “The Dream Team.”
This isn’t about basketball. It’s about teams, and how you need a “dream team” of your own. Not the kind the wins medals, but the kind that empowers lives. While our culture idolizes the individual, the truth is, you were designed by creation and redesigned by gifts and talents to need the contributions of others in order to maximize your potential. I’d like to show you how to go about doing it. [click to continue…]
This is awkward. But I want to tell you about an experience I had a long time ago, when I was young and stupid (as opposed to middle-aged and ill-advised).
I was in a season in my life when I had lost nearly everything. I don’t mean that poetically. I mean, everything.
Job… fired.
Career… lost.
Health… busted.
Friends… nearly all vacated.
Marriage… destroyed.
Kids… gone.
Integrity and credibility… a bad joke.
Finances… bankrupt.
Sanity… toast.
I was a shell of a man, crushed under the weight of stupid choices, addictive behavior, and shame. I would sit and, without realizing it, rock back and forth. (Braves fans, remember how Leo Mazzone, the former pitching coach would rock on the bench? Yeah, that was me and worse.)
On this particular day, I was sitting in a hospital day room when somebody stuck his head in the door. “Anybody here named Andy Wood?” he asked. [click to continue…]
Can we talk about The Elephant in the Room?
Most of the time we use the phrase to describe the unspoken but obvious thing between two or more people that no one is talking about. There’s a different elephant, however, that I want to explore.
It’s the one in your head.
I don’t know what yours is doing, but the elephant my head likes to dance. Badly.
The Elephant in Your Head is the one or two things that appear in every mental photo. The two or three things that interrupt – albeit silently – any patterns of forward thinking.
What do you do when you’re the elephant in the room? [click to continue…]
“Glamour isn’t greatness, applause isn’t fame, prominence isn’t eminence. The man of the hour isn’t apt to be the man of the ages. A stone may sparkle but that doesn’t make it a diamond. People may have money but that doesn’t make them a success. It’s the seemingly unimportant people who determine the course of history. The greatest forces in the universe are never spectacular. Summer showers do more good than hurricanes but they don’t get a lot of publicity. The world would soon die but for the fidelity, loyalty, creativity and commitment of those whose names are un-honored and unsung.” -James Sizoo
