The Telltale Sign of a Good Parent

by Andy Wood on May 27, 2011

in Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Leadership, Life Currency, Love, LV Cycle, Principle of Legacy, Time

(The Further Adventures of Eugene Davis, Sophomore Christian)

“I’ve found it!”

I looked up from my desk to see the beaming face of Eugene Davis, my favorite sophomore Christian.  Eugene had been following Christ less than two years, but had shown considerable growth during that period.

Trouble was, he knew it.

His zeal for new knowledge was refreshing.  But his impatience with others and the seriousness with which he took himself could be annoying.

“Must be another evangelism gimmick,” I thought to myself as I asked politely, “Found what?”

“I’ve found THE sign of a good parent.”

Now I had learned not to be surprised at anything that came from Eugene’s mind, and since I had recently started teaching a class in effective parenting, he succeeded in getting my attention.  I thought I had heard them all – unconditional love, “I messages,” eye contact, firm discipline, etc. – but no conference or seminary class had ever prepared me for this. [click to continue…]

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My Cake is Fallen and It Can’t Get Up!

by Andy Wood on May 24, 2011

in Half-baked Ideas

(Seven More Half-Baked Ideas I’m Working On)

 

“Bad news does not get better with age.”  -Eddie McBride

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What you don’t want to hear your discredited rapture-predicting biblical numerologist guru say:  “It has been a really tough weekend.”

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What you don’t want to hear your mechanic say:  “We’re fixing what we find as we go.  I’ll let you know…”

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What you don’t want to hear your husband/landlord/Ph.D.-in-anything-but-plumbing say:  “I can fix this.”

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What you don’t want to hear your plumber say:  ”Hmmm.  This isn’t good.” [click to continue…]

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A Heart Once Captured Will Never Let Go

by Andy Wood on May 23, 2011

in Five LV Laws, Hoarders, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, LV Stories, Principle of Freedom

You wouldn’t have known from meeting Martha the first time that her life had been a sinking ship.  Rewind from the near-poverty this single mother of two sons lived to the day she walked away from her “covering” – an abusive, controlling religious system.  Go back a bit further to the time her minister husband left her for another woman.  If you dare, rewind a bit more to the night she and her husband came home to find their third son, Matthew, dead in his crib from SIDS.

Life had not been kind.  But you wouldn’t know it from the courageous smile, the ox-like willingness to work, and the radiant joy she had in her relationship with Jesus Christ.  Sure, Martha had her moments, and could cry with the worst of ‘em.  But a heart so captured by the grace of God will cling to it, even when everything else seems lost.

I once asked her why she didn’t just walk away, since loving and serving God had been so costly.  I don’t remember any words – just the look on her face that let me know I had just asked the most absurd question possible.

A heart once captured will never let go. [click to continue…]

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Get Out of That Tomb!

by Andy Wood on May 19, 2011

in Ability, Allocating Your Resources, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Abundance

It’s time for a resurrection.

Namely, yours.

You have focused on death long enough.

It’s time for another kind of reckoning.

Christians worldwide seem to have a fascination with death.  Pass most any church and somewhere you’ll find a cross – a symbol of public execution and death.  Listen to us talk about spiritual growth and overcoming sinful habits and somebody will mention the Bible principle of being dead to sin.  Listen to our music or examine what there is of our art, and you hear descriptions of a life so surreal you have to, well, die to get there, or we celebrate the death that Jesus died to make it possible.

Lest I be misunderstood, all of that is true.  But it’s only half the truth.  [click to continue…]

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Side by Side Leadership

by Andy Wood on May 18, 2011

in Exploring the Possibilities, Leadership, Life Currency

If your paychecks came from Ford Motor Company in the 1970s, you lived in an ugly time.  Morale was low.  Sales were taking a beating.  Quality was “job none.”  And the company operated from an entrenched system of rules and regulations.  Into that demoralized environment, Donald Peterson became Ford’s CEO in 1980.

Peterson showed up tossing words around like “teamwork” and “upward communication.”  But words mean nothing to entrenched bureaucracies.  So Peterson tried something radical – he left his office.  He would walk into the offices of designers and ask simple questions like:

  • Do you like these cars?
  • Do you feel proud of them?
  • Would you park one in your driveway?

I think you can guess the answer he received.

Your job, Peterson said, is to come up with the cars you think will sell – cars you can be proud of.  The results were stunning and quick, by auto industry standards.  The first significant product was the 1983 Thunderbird, followed quickly by the wildly successful Taurus, which became the best-selling midsized car in America.

That was just for starters.  During the 1980s, Ford reversed its dismal previous performance to record then-record-breaking profits.  Peterson was chosen by his fellow CEOs as the nation’s most effective leader, surpassing even Lee Iacocca.

What made the difference?  Donald Peterson was a Side-by-Side Leader.   In the words of Robert Richardson and Katherine Thayer, “Peterson didn’t accomplish all this by sitting behind a desk and telling people what he wanted done.  He rolled up his shirt sleeves and jumped in.  He provided a direction and goal and then participated in making them reality.”

Your Worst Skydiving Fear

Imagine you are an inexperienced skydiver.  You’ve been on a few jumps, but still think of yourself as a rookie.  It’s a beautiful day for flying and jumping out of airplanes, so up you go.  You reach the point where it’s time to pull the ripcord, and it malfunctions.  To your horror, so does the backup chute.

Suddenly it’s not such a good day for jumping out of airplanes. [click to continue…]

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It’s Time for a Counterattack

by Andy Wood on May 14, 2011

in Ability, Five LV Laws, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase, Protecting Your Investment

Pssst.

Hey.

Yes, you.

We need to talk.  Really I need to talk and you need to just shut up and listen.  I don’t mean to be mean.  But the most elite fighting force in heaven or on earth is spread all around you.  Their shields are up, and nothing can penetrate them.  Their swords are drawn, and no force in hell or on earth can resist them.  And they’re on your side.

And they’re doing absolutely nothing.

Just watching you get your brains beat out by an enemy that is smarter, craftier, and more powerful than you are. [click to continue…]

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Help Wanted: Heroes

by Andy Wood on May 10, 2011

in Conversations, Spoofs

“Thank you for calling TOPO Services International.  This is Brenda.”

“Hi, Brenda, this is Andy.  Have we spoken before?”

“Quite possibly, sir. I do get around.  And I have only been at TOPO for a couple of weeks.  Now how may I direct your call?”

“Let me talk to Human Resources.”

“I am sorry, sir, but everyone in that department is out to lunch this week.  I am taking their calls for them.  How may I help you?”

“I hear you’re taking applications for heroes.  I thought I’d check it out.”

“That is correct, sir.  We have permanent and temporary positions available.  Are you currently employed?”

“Well, sort of.  Would I have to relocate?”

“Not at all, sir.  That is what’s so wonderful about working with TOPO.  You can continue to do whatever it is you were doing.  We initiate the hero program in the comfort of your own lifestyle.  By the way, what is it you do?”

“I’m a professor, coach and consultant, and manage a couple of Christian nonprofit organizations.  And I used to be a pastor.”

“Excellent!  That has some real possibilities, especially now that you are no longer a pastor.  There are some questions I will have to ask, however.”

“Fire away.  But when you’re finished asking questions, I’ll still be a pastor at heart.”

“Of course, sir.  First question:  Are you a victim?” [click to continue…]

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The Vapor and the Shadow

by Andy Wood on May 9, 2011

in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, Love, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Principle of Legacy

I believe that it is not dying that people are afraid of.  Something else, something more unsettling and more tragic than dying frightens us.  We are afraid of never having lived, of coming to the end of our days with the sense that we were never really alive, that we never figured out what life was for. – Harold Kushner

The great Presbyterian pastor Donald Grey Barnhouse was once riding in a funeral procession in Philadelphia when he noticed a large cargo truck running in front of the procession.  From the way the sun was positioned, he noticed that the truck was casting a large shadow on the sidewalk.  That shadow crossed light poles, road signs, and even people, and didn’t harm anything.  No one would want to be in front of the truck, mind you, but the shadow was harmless.

Every one of us was born on the other side of something called “labor.”  We enter the world completely helpless and fragile, totally dependent on the protection, care and kindness of others.  We borrow the oxygen and assorted things for a span of time the Bible calls a “vapor.”   Despite our claims to ownership, we take no possessions with us.  And we end our sojourn on earth passing through something called a “shadow.”

Birth is a labor soon forgotten…

Life is a vapor quickly fading…

Possessions are an illusion suddenly passing…

Death is shadow silently creeping…

Is there any wonder we struggle sometimes to know what’s real?  And what’s valuable? [click to continue…]

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Building and Leading a Steadfast Team

by Andy Wood on May 6, 2011

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Pleasers

Does your team have what it takes to go the distance?

Something happens when people get together to forge a team.  Unfortunately, that “something” isn’t always what you’re looking for.  See if you recognize any of these teams from your experience:

Team Fritter. Talk about potential.  It seems as though whenever they’re on the ropes, somehow the miraculous happens and they live to see another day. On the other hand, every time it seems they have the chance for that big breakthrough they flounder.  Never fully realizing their potential, they choke every time they get ahead.

Team Glitter. This bunch has success written all over it.  Smart, good-looking, and well-liked, things came fast and easy for Team Glitter.  Too fast.  And too easy.  Before you know it, what appears to shimmer is anything but gold.  And the team comes caving in under the load of its own scandal(s), greed, and dishonesty.

Team Bitter.  Another story of lost potential, this team doesn’t have an integrity problem.  It has an anger problem.  A big anger problem.  Sucked in by jealousy and dispirited by feelings of rejection or failure, this team sabotages its own enormous potential by holding onto the bitterness, anger, or mistrust. [click to continue…]

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Still Loving, Still Here

by Andy Wood on May 4, 2011

in Five LV Laws, Life Currency, Love, Principle of Eternity

When I’ve lost the fire of passion and power and feel reduced to ashes and embers, will You be the Fire that burns in my soul?

When you’ve lost the fire of passion and power and feel reduced to ashes and embers, I’ll be the Fire that burns in your soul.  I still love you.  And I’m still here.

When I’m standing alone in a crowded room and feel unnoticed… forgotten… alone… will You be the Truth that reminds me I’m not?

When you’re standing alone in a crowded room and feel unnoticed… forgotten… alone… I’ll be the Truth that reminds you you’re not.  I still love you.  And I’m still here. [click to continue…]

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