Dear Archer,
You entered our world today, December 18, 2014, and may I just say, you didn’t disappoint! We fretted a little that we wouldn’t get here in time from Alabama, but like the gentleman you already are, you politely waited for us arrive, then for good measure took a few more hours for everybody to get their bearings. Then in the fullness of time, you let it be known that you were large (our largest grandbaby yet), loud (probably the loudest, too), and in charge!
Other babies have been born on this day, but only you can claim to have a sister who’s the Sasster. In a world of brothers and all-boy cousins, she’s the only girl, and I think she sorta likes it that way. I know she loves being your big sister. “He’s just adorable,” she said when she saw you for the first time. And no, I don’t know how a first grader knows the word “adorable,” but she can probably also spell it, parse it, and say it in German, Spanish and Swahili.
You’ll learn the ropes from your brothers Shepherd and Fischer soon enough. And yes, that frightens me just a bit. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
[click to continue…]
It’s one of the highlights of the season – going to the mailbox and seeing who may have sent a card or annual Christmas letter and spending a little time catching up or reflecting on special people in our lives. I especially like the ones that have family photos, to see how the kids have grown and changed.
It’s also interesting to see how lives have evolved and changed, too. Ours certainly have in the last year. And it was in that frame of mind that I read a different kind of greeting recently. It had nothing to do with Christmas, yet it had everything to do with an updated snapshot into somebody’s life and how that life had evolved. Check this out:
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother… (Colossians 1:1).
Seems like pretty basic stuff. Season’s greetings from the mission field.
Would it change your perspective to know this was written from a Roman prison?
True that.
[click to continue…]
What stockings there are in this house are hung, and most all of the Christmas decorations are out and up for this most unusual of Christmases – one in which we are anticipating the birth of a grandson.
In the kitchen alone, the candles and stuffed carolers next to the miniature street lamp sing in inaudible celebration that it’s Christmas. Five trees of some size or shape adorn the china hutch and island. Candles and ribbons grace the table, and the Santa hat makes a nice addition to the ceramic pig that keeps watch over all things kitchen. A stuffed snowman (that lights up, of course) perches on a chair in the corner. And a healthy collection of Santa-and-the-Missus salt and pepper shakers give new meaning to that cliché of all Christmas clichés – ‘Tis the season.
But what most catches my eye is a little string of letters hanging down from the upper cabinet, next to the stuffed snowman. Those four letters spell the word, H-O-P-E.
Isn’t that the renewable resource that is Christmas – the celebration of the birth of the Hope of the Ages? That however sorry or desperate the world looks (have you read the news lately?), there still is hope?
We live in an age where linkin’ stinkin’ thinkin’ together has become an art form, and the cynics seem to be winning. But this Christmas can be a reminder to me and to you that we’re not done hoping. [click to continue…]
I once heard someone say that every Christ follower is a missionary or a mission field. And when you cease to become a missionary – that is, a functioning ambassador for Christ – you become someone else’s mission field. Whether that’s true or not, one thing is certain: every believer has been given the mandate to impact other lives positively for a living Christ and His gospel.
Yes, that means you, even though you most likely don’t consider yourself a missionary in the classic sense of the word. But I want to remind you that you quite likely stand on the spiritual shoulders of a first-century Apostle who had this to say:
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
This man dedicated his life to sharing a message of hope, grace and forgiveness for one purpose: winning. But not winning in the sense of producing a gaggle of losers in his wake. No, he said winning meant that those who heard his message became fellow partakers of the good news. That meant an ongoing relationship. And when you read the letters Paul wrote, you see that he did that very thing… he kept “partaking” in the gospel with them… showing them its implications, giving and receiving its encouragements.
So what about you? Who are the potential “fellow partakers” in your world? Who are the people you are uniquely positioned to influence?
Before you give me that “aw shucks” kick in the dirt or your eyes glass over, let me show you three ways to answer that question. Answer these three questions and you’ll find three fields of influence in your life: [click to continue…]
I could duplicate stories like these all day…
The Job Site
I was working construction (pausing here for those who know me to gasp or laugh or something). It was a high-pressure day and I was off with a coworker on an assignment with a deadline that just wasn’t getting done. It was Friday afternoon, I was leaving out of town, and the pressure just kept building. I was a failure at this, and knew it. I figured at that point the whole world knew it.
I had to swing by the other job site where my boss and Ricky were, to give the boss the bad news. Ricky and I usually worked together, but we’d been separated for a few days on different projects. I’ll never forget the way Ricky made me feel – it was as though we hadn’t seen each other in years. After hours and hours of devaluing myself in my head, his infectious smile and greeting made me feel like the king of the world.
It was a foretaste of heaven… where grace has the final word.
The Classroom
In a transparent moment in an online classroom filled with future and present church leaders I wrote this:
“If I could go back and do one thing over again in my 32 years of pastoring… I would be more ruthlessly intentional about leadership development. I would allow myself to be criticized more for neglecting some things in order to focus more on developing discipling leaders. As passionate as I am and was about preaching, and as passionate as some of you are, may I just say, preaching alone won’t come close to accomplishing this. Leadership development isn’t about lessons, outlines, or proclamation. It’s about duplication of your passion, knowledge, skillsets, and passion in the lives of others.”
In reply to that, I got a simple, but profoundly encouraging reply from a student in that class:
I hope you know that by teaching guys like me you ARE accomplishing leadership development. I doubt I will meet you here on earth, but someday I look forward to seeing you in glory! Thanks for everything, and may God richly bless you as you follow Him.
It was a foretaste of heaven… where grace has the final word. [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on October 1, 2014
in Allocating Your Resources, Enlarging Your Capacity, Executing Your Plan, Exploring the Possibilities, Following Your Passion, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Money, Protecting Your Investment, Time, Waiting
It’s hard for Alex to force himself to go to work these days. The honeymoon there is way past over, and the only reason he shows up now is a paycheck. He compares himself to others who have gone way too long without any job, and feels guilty for complaining. But this work situation is starting to affect his health, his relationships, and his confidence. He’s been looking, but no other possibilities have presented themselves.
What does Alex do? Does he endure or does he walk away? Does he press on, or does he “step out in faith” in search of new opportunities?
Tyler and Jennifer have reached a similar decision, not about work, but about the church they attend. The congregation has been hit hard with splits, neighborhood transition, and pastoral changes. They have been a part of this fellowship since they married, and have faithfully served. But they have moved to another neighborhood themselves, and it feels harder and harder to go back to what feels like a sinking ship.
What do they do? Is this a time to be “steadfast, immovable,” and all that? Or is it a time to “mount up with wings as eagles” and fly away?
(Yeah, you can make the Bible say just about anything you want it to in cases like this.)
These kinds of questions are common for any believer… [click to continue…]
The original premise of LifeVesting is, what would happen if we applied principles of financial investing to all the areas of our lives? Some of the things we have explored in the process are:
- There are four – and only four – things you can spend your time and money on.
- It is possible, like the Bible’s “Proverbs 31 woman,” to position yourself so that you laugh at the future rather than worry about it.
- God has an economy and you can be rich in it.
Nearly ten years after my son proposed the idea, it still intrigues me. Lately I’ve been thinking about some wisdom I got from my friend Kirk the Builder. Kirk works for a major contractor who has built multi-million-dollar facilities all over the country. One day we were having lunch and talking about the biz, and Kirk shared some profound wisdom.
In construction, he said, people can pick any two of three options: good, fast, and cheap. We want all three, but we can’t have all three.
We can have good and fast, but it won’t be cheap.
We can have good and cheap, but it won’t be fast.
We can have fast and cheap, but it won’t be good.
What intrigues me about that is that the principle isn’t limited to bricks-and-sticks construction. [click to continue…]
I never laid eyes on you before.
Never had dreams come true before.
But there’s always a time for a new beginning.
Our multiplied sorrow now is through.
And all of the waiting’s over, too.
And it’s been worth it all, for this new beginning.
And who is like the Lord, who turns my mourning into dancing,
And holds all things together, in His hands?
He whispered, “Let there be…” and He began the world all over.
But this time He laid its future in my hands.
(Unfinished song I started 30 years ago today, when my baby girls were born)
Your life is an adventure in starting over.
You may prefer maintenance mode. You may want to pretend that you’re in perpetual motion. You may claim to be too old, too successful, too far along, or too [insert excuse here], but the fact is, your entire life is a collage of cycles and rhythms.
And that involves starting over. [click to continue…]
Years ago, when corporate giants Shearson-Lehman and American Express merged, they ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with the headline, “Vision.” Then they gave my favorite definition of all time:
Vision is having an acute sense of the possible. It is seeing what others cannot see. And when those with similar vision are drawn together, something extraordinary occurs.
Something in my soul still comes alive when I read those words, written about 30 years ago. Nothing in leadership is more vital to the energy creation of an organization or its leaders than vision – that “acute sense of the possible.”
Over the years, of course, as with anything vital, I have also seen plenty of posers – people who used the allure and “sexiness” of the idea of vision as tools of manipulation, ego promotion, or cotton candy management (all flavor and no substance).
Having just had a great consulting experience with a wonderful church congregation in South Carolina, where we did some serious vision creation and casting (still a work in progress there), I have some ideas flowing about vision in leadership. Take a look, and consider how these may apply to your leader or leadership and your organizations. [click to continue…]
In his classic book, The Friendship Factor, Alan Loy McGinnis gives the following characteristics of a good listener:
1. Good listeners listen with their eyes.
2. Good listeners dispense advice sparingly.
3. Good listeners never break a confidence.
4. Good listeners “complete the loop” of communication.
5. Good listeners show gratitude when someone confides.
That certainly works in your relationships with people. But it’s also an opportunity to remind you that the God of Heaven invites us into a friendship with Him. In some ways, the things Dr. McGinnis has to say about listening well to other people can translate into listening to the Lord. Based on his wise advice, let me offer a few suggestions for being a good listener in the spiritual realm: [click to continue…]