Tense Truth: There are no solutions to problems that do not require some kind of change. And there is no change that doesn’t create problems of its own. The solution is not to avoid change or eliminate problems. Rather, it is to anticipate future challenges with a solution-based mindset, even while we attack the problems of today.
John Miller, in his book, QBQ, The Question Behind the Question, tells the following story:
When Stacey was 12 years old, she and her father, a pilot, took off on a Sunday afternoon joyride in their single engine Cessna. Not long into the flight, and about a mile up over Lake Michigan, the joy of their father-daughter adventure came to an abrupt halt. Stacey’s father turned to her and in a calm, reassuring tone he said, “Honey, the engine has quit. I’m going to need to fly the plane differently.”
Like Miller, I love the phrase, “fly the plane differently.” It speaks of how problem solvers (read “leaders” here) approach changing conditions and frame crisis situations. He didn’t look for somebody to blame, bail out of the plane, or give up on the laws of aerodynamics. He also didn’t magnify the fear of the situation. He didn’t try to fix the engine! And most importantly, he didn’t stop flying.
He simply changed in response to a new set of information and a new horizon of challenges.
Tony Robbins on Problems
On a recent video blog, Tony Robbins said: [click to continue…]
(A spiritual leadership fable.)
Hi, I’m Josh. Pleased to meet you.
Hi, Josh. I’m Andy. So tell me about yourself.
I’m a poker.
A what?
A poker.
You mean, like a poker player?
No. I mean, like a poker in your fireplace.
You’re a poker?
Yep. Poker.
Okay, I’m steppin’ out a little here, Josh. What does a poker do?
Pokes.
(Should’ve seen that coming.) Okaaay. Pokes what?
I poke people.
Seriously?
Yep.
You just walk up to them and poke them with your finger?
Naw, not like that. That’s creepy.
Ya think?
I do for people what a poker does for your fireplace. [click to continue…]
Tense Truth: I must learn to accept the world and its circumstances as it is, not as I would have it. I must also learn to take courageous action to be an agent of change. The wisdom to know the difference is found in the discipline of hearing God’s voice.
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Contentment and Change decided to play table tennis one day. I was the ball. Can you relate?
Serve: Be grateful for all you have.
Return: Do something to change the world!
Rest in the Lord. Wait quietly for Him.
Press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ.
Be still.
Get off your butt.
Surrender.
Seize every opportunity.
Be content!
Don’t be complacent!
Don’t be covetous.
Be courageous.
Wow. I’m tired, and I’m not ever keeping score. I’ve never bothered to even count the number of times I’ve zigged (tried to change something) when I should have zagged (been content with the situation). Or vice-versa – when the call was to hit the ground running, I hit the hay. [click to continue…]
Not once did the thought occur to me. Not once.
We knew at 10 weeks we were having twins, courtesy of those dandy new ultrasound machines. And we were excited. Fresh out of school, still using wedding dishes, living in our own home, and picking out not one, but two sets of names.
Two boys? Joel Andrew and Jeremy Adam.
Boy and a girl? Joel Andrew and Jessica Leigh.
I was pretty quiet as we headed home from that latest ultrasound. The images were beginning to form in my mind for the first time.
Two girls?
Cosmic shifts started taking place in my little brain. And they all culminated in a wedding.
Since I was old enough to understand what fathers were, I wanted to be one. I was blessed to have a dad who loves being a dad, to this day. In whatever ways I have failed to live up to his example, I caught the whole load on that one. And in doing so, three deep convictions emerged:
- I would be the first representation of the nature and character of God to my children.
- We were called to raise adults, not children.
- Mommies build nests, but for daddies, children are arrows in their hands, and my job was to launch them.
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This Saturday will be the next step in a season of some pretty intense generational shifts for us. More on that tomorrow. I wrote the following article ten years ago, during another such season. It only seems like yesterday…
The voice on the phone was tired and quiet – not unusual for a hospital room at 9:20 pm. They’d just gotten Lou (my grandmother) settled down for the night when I’d made my untimely call. The occasion, other than to check on Lou, was to wish Mamma a happy 60th birthday. A little ironic that I had to track her down at Providence Hospital where she was watching her mother edge closer to death.
Life is filled with choices and changes, and my mom has seen her share of them. But perhaps never with the magnitude and frequency of change she faces now. Her mother has cancer, and is losing the battle. Her son lives many hours away. And up the highway a couple of hours, her daughter prepares for the Big One. She’s preparing to leave the country for the mission field.
On this night, I enjoy a feminine family reunion by telephone. I speak briefly to Lou, to tell her I am thinking of her, loving her, praying for her. I hear the pain, the despair, the fear in her voice. That growing sense of hopelessness that says, “I don’t feel good and I probably never will again.”
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The people in Pisa needed professional help. Seems their most famous landmark was, well, leaning.
Well, duh!
Actually, a few years ago someone discovered that the Tower was very slowly beginning to lean too much. So the city fathers had an emergency meeting and decided there was only one thing to do. They would bring in architects and professional builders who would make sure the tower didn’t topple over. One mandate, however: keep the tower from falling over, but don’t correct the tilt! In other words, make sure it stays like it is. After all, who would travel to see the standing Tower of Pisa?
It’s amazing the time and effort – sometimes even large amounts of money – we will invest in order to remain the same. And that in a world where the constant is change.
If you’re reading this, regardless of who you are, change is the one thing that is required of you, as well. It’s the one thing you and I have in common. It’s also the one thing we have a tendency to resist. Leo Tolstoy once said, “Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one wants to change himself.”
Jesus once told a story about a farmer, some seed, and four types of ground. The seed, He said was the “word of the Kingdom.” Only one kind of ground (a type of heart) received the seed to the degree that it made lasting change. Something would have to change about the ground to experience the maximum effect (change) of the seed.
There are four types of life change, based on the Parable of the Sower. You are somewhere on this list right now:
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