Executing Your Plan

All Things, Jesus, and You

by Andy Wood on February 22, 2012

in Ability, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Abundance, Tense Truths

I

Someone once told Matt he was like the man with the five talents in Jesus’ parable.  He was not limited to just one ability, but was blessed with multiple skills.  It was a bad interpretation of the word “talent,” but Matt appreciated the sincerity of the compliment.  And truth be told, Matt is that kind of guy.  Smart.  Articulate.  Funny if you catch him on the right day.

But lately Matt hasn’t felt like a man with one “talent,” much less five.  The tough economy has him working three different jobs to make ends meet.  And while Matt is good at shooting from the hip, lately he’s been handed a fist full of criticism in just about every area of his life.

“God,” he says, “You’ve picked the wrong guy.  I need you to find somebody else to do this.  Or You fix this.”

“No,” comes the reply from heaven.  “It’s not my job – it’s yours.  It’s not somebody else’s job.  It’s yours.  Now stop trusting yourself.  Stop looking at the problem.  Watch Me. Trust Me.  And do it.”

Can

Teri always referred to John as her rock.  But little did she know how much she really depended on him until the weeks after his sudden death.  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Who’s On Your SWOT Team?

by Andy Wood on January 30, 2012

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

They called their hangout at Chip’s place the Land of O.Z. Not because there were witches, wizards, or munchkins there, but because whenever Chip, Blake and Tony got together, the ideas would start flying. And they were living in the Opportunity Zone.

The three friends met in the dorm at their university, and were all business majors.  And they were dreamers.  Entrepreneurial types, always looking for the next big idea or opportunity.

In the Land of O.Z., no idea was considered taboo.  These friends would dream and scheme, design and research, test and toss away ideas before breakfast was done.  They even tried one or two, mostly for fun.  Not much happened.

Their big opportunity came when they anticipated the emergence of smart phones and the apps that drove them.  This would be their surefire thing – what the Internet boom (and bust) had meant to the 1990s.  They would establish a software design company that specialized in apps for iPhones.

A year later, Wizard of Apps was more or less history, and the friends-for-life had moved on.

Why? [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Courage-Giving Leader

by Andy Wood on January 18, 2012

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Hoarders, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Pleasers, Principle of Abundance

Quick Question:  What do the people you lead (and you do lead somebody) do when trouble shows up?

Quick Answer:  They do what you lead them to do.

More Thoughtful Question:  Do the people you lead (and you do lead somebody) run for the hills or cower in fear at the first sign of trouble, or do they courageously rise up to the challenge?

More Thoughtful Answer:  They do what you lead them to do.  Not necessarily what tell them to do or manipulate them to do.  What you lead them to do.

That reminds me of a story.  True story.  About a guy named Eli.  Now Eli was a soldier, and being a soldier, he had a Commander-in-Chief.  And the reason Eli’s Commander-in-Chief was the Commander-in-Chief was because he was the biggest dude in all the land.

You know what the problem is with making the biggest dude in all the land the Commander-in-Chief?  Sooner or later he’s gonna run into a bigger dude.  And that’s what happened.  Eli’s boss went quaking in his boots to the rear of the line because he was staring down the barrel of an overwhelming challenge.

So you know what Eli did?  He quaked in his boots too.  I’m talking, Give up now.  Better fled than dead.

One day later – one day! – that’s Eli with his shield up, his sword drawn, charging headlong into the enemy’s camp and taking no prisoners.  What made the difference? [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Last Baptism

by Andy Wood on September 30, 2011

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, LV Cycle, Principle of Legacy

“I have something I’d like to discuss with you.”

Given my history with that kind of meeting request, I’m embarrassed to admit that my first instinct was to brace for bad news.  And given the fact that it came from my father-in-law, of all people, made me think I must really be in trouble.

What in the world could he possibly want?  What was so serious?  I started collecting a mental inventory of possibilities.  And in my head, started apologizing before I ever knew what the “something” was.

Turns out, apologies weren’t on the agenda.

Harlan Willis is one of the most tenderhearted, godliest men I know.  He has followed Christ since the age of 10, and committed himself to the Lord to become a medical missionary at the age of 15.  Both were profound experiences, and as a result, he invested a huge portion of his life to serving Christ and advancing the gospel in Thailand – and now for years in West Texas, where, at age 82 he is still practicing medicine and sharing Jesus.

But for years something has nagged him.  Bothered him since his teenage years.  That something has been the impression that he should be baptized.  Again.

And that’s what he wanted to talk to me about.  And he wanted me to do it.

Didn’t make sense.

For years he wondered if it was just the devil.

That didn’t make sense, either

But he couldn’t do it in Thailand!  What would the people there think?  What would the other missionaries think?

He couldn’t do it back in Texas.  What would the people in the church think?

This wasn’t a case of getting his baptism out of order, as often happens when people are baptized who really don’t understand what it is they are responding to in the gospel.

He knew.  Age 10.  And baptism came later.

But yet… here was this feeling.  This call. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Hold Fast, Draw Near

by Andy Wood on August 31, 2011

in Ability, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Freedom

Imagine a giant stadium, and you’re in it.

As in, on the field.

You’re engaged in a contest that will test every fiber of your strength, will, endurance, and confidence.  Sometimes you’re on defense, and the task is to stand your ground against an opponent that has considerable resources.  Sometimes you’re on offense, and the task is to recapture lost ground or gain new ground as you outwit, outmaneuver, or overpower your enemy.

Let’s just go ahead and dispense with the obvious.  I like you and everything.  But left to your own game plan or abilities, you’re cosmic road kill. Dead meat with all the trimmings.

You.  Can’t.  Win.  This.

Heck, you won’t even make the uniforms look pretty.

Oh, and did I mention… this is no game.  This is your life.  The visible and the invisible.  The temporal and the eternal.  The private and the very public.  The “spiritual” and the “secular” (as if there is any distinction).

Fortunately, you do have some weapons at your disposal that are mighty through God. And there is a pathway – a strategy that leads to prevailing strength and power.  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Tastes of Heaven

by Andy Wood on February 11, 2011

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Eternity, Turning Points

“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

+++++++

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…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Conversation: The Leader’s Secret Weapon of Influence

by Andy Wood on December 1, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Executing Your Plan, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Words

Make a list of the most important qualities needed for effective leadership, and let me hazard a guess as to what won’t be on it:  Conversation. 

Oh, I’m sure you’ll mention communication, but in most people’s imagination, this refers to the ability to move a crowd with speeches, lead a meeting with clarity, and/or write powerfully.  And let me hasten to say, I’m for all three of those.

In each of these, a position holder is talking to people in other positions.  And that has its place.  But the best leaders have a secret weapon that “primes the pump” of their influence:  they know how to engage their constituents in ongoing, life-shaping, direction-setting conversations. 

They disarm by listening differently. 

They empower by asking questions out of sincere curiosity. 

They enflame the imagination by telling stories – theirs or somebody else’s. 

They forge “joint ventures of the heart” by demonstrating understanding and an ability to be influenced themselves. 

And they mobilize by sharing their vision interpersonally, with passion.

And all of this can be done in a few minutes at a time, standing at the water cooler, waiting for the “real” meeting to start, or riding on a bus to the company picnic. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

God Doesn’t Give Snakes When You Ask for Fish

by Andy Wood on October 22, 2010

in Ability, Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

“He who is powerless before God is powerless before men” (Watchman Nee). 

On September 16, 2001, an amazing phenomenon took place in churches across the United States.  Civilians came out of their foxholes in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11.

And they were talking about God.

On that day, in churches everywhere, they came looking for answers.

Within a matter of weeks, however, things had settled down to business as usual.  Not long after, The Washington Times had a story that predicted that within a decade Americans would “invent” a religion of their own that met their needs.  The article said that when they revisited the places that had once nourished them, they didn’t find what they were looking for.

Ouch.

To be fair, maybe they were looking for a place that let them have a god of their own making.  And the fact that people may try to invent a religion of their own doesn’t bother me – we’ve been doing that since Adam and Eve were escorted out of the Garden.

What bothers me was that when they came to our house – the church – looking for answers, evidently something was missing.

What if they came to our house looking for answers, and we were just as confused as they were?

What if they came looking for life, and we were just as dead?

What if they came looking for supernatural power – some evidence that God is still on the throne, still works miracles, and still has the power to change lives – and all they found was platitudes, programs, and politics? [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Sissies and Wimps Need Not Apply

by Andy Wood on April 12, 2010

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, Principle of Freedom

“It’s going to be fun to watch and see how long the meek can keep the earth once they inherit it”  -Kin Hubbard.

“The meek shall inherit the earth – if that’s okay with everybody” (Motto of the Dependent Organization of Really Meek and Timid Souls, or D.O.O.R.M.A.T).  -J. Upton Dickson

“He leads the humble in what is right, teaching them his way. The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all those who keep his covenant and obey his decrees.”  -Psalm 25:9-10, NLT

It’s quiet on this Monday morning, except for the sound of a rooster and a fiddle, an infant’s grunts from his swing, and a toddler’s delighted dancing as she watches – again – the Baby Einstein “Life on the Farm” video.  Watching the two of them – especially with scenes from an abundant earth passing by – reminds me from the last post how we were wired from creation and birth. 

We were created to inherit the earth.  It’s in our DNA.  But in the wisdom of God, He knew we would need help.  His help.  Without it, we have the capacity to do – well, what we’ve pretty much done with the planet.

That’s why Jesus – quoting Psalm 37 – said that the delighted happiness that comes from inheriting the earth is reserved for a specific kind of person.  Yep – the meek.

So He Reserves It for Sissies?

Not exactly.  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Law of the Nail

by Andy Wood on March 19, 2010

in Executing Your Plan, Five LV Laws, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase

Ever hear of the Law of the Hammer?  Also called The Law of the Instrument, it has been attributed to both Abraham Maslow and Abraham Kaplan (neither of whom were carpenters, I don’t think).

The Law of the Hammer is based on the idea that people tend to look for cure-alls or over-use familiar tools, especially in dealing with people.  It says, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

Wise.  In other words, diversify your toolbox.

I’m not a carpenter either, and six months of bending nails in 1979-80 can attest to that.  But I’ve spent a lot of my life building, working with, leading, and being an instrument of healing to people.  And I have observed a corollary to the Law of the Hammer that is important to remember in dealing with people.  I call it The Law of the Nail:

If you are a nail, and especially if you’ve been pounded a time or two, everything (and everybody) looks like a hammer.

I’ve been on all sides of that.  I’ve been the nail.  Banged the nail.  Straightened out bent nails.  Sat in on more than my share of Nails Anonymous meetings (including pastors’ prayer meetings).  I’ve hired nails to go to work for me without realizing how pounded they had been.  And I have learned, sometimes the hard way, that living in a broken world means working with and leading broken or bruised people.  So at the risk of pounding the metaphor too much (sorry), here are some ideas for finding healing if you are the nail, or in the next post, working with and leading the nails in your organization or workplace. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →