Free

“It is for freedom that we have been set free.”

- Paul, the Apostle

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Some German college students decided to make their own Adidas long play advertisement.  Take a couple of minutes and watch what they created, I promise it will inspire your day.

It is a beautiful picture.  Someone imprisoned by their surroundings and the day to day expectations of that life, breaking free.  The producers of this add are addressing so many things:

• The fear of becoming old and losing our freedom or effectiveness

• The sense that we are a slave to our day to day life with no escape

• The hope that there is a life beyond the one we know

• The desire, despite everything our life tells us to the contrary, that freedom is available

In one of our family’s favorite movies, We Bought a Zoo, a father is giving his son advice.  The son loves a girl but believes he has lost his chance to win her heart.  From his own life and experience, he tells him what has brought him freedom and life…

“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane
courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. 
And I promise you, something great will come of it.”

I think the guy in Adidas commercial understands that.  I am assuming many of you understand that as well.  It is rare that I meet someone who has risen to any level of authority that didn’t have to risk, put things on the line, and muster the courage it took to breakthrough.

But, there is a truth far deeper than these German students are referencing.  It is something that they are likely completely unaware of.  The most profound concept being addressed in their commercial is restoration.  The older gentleman is reaching back into his former story.  There was a glory that once was part of his life related to strapping on a pair of running shoes.  Lining up, stretching out his stride, and breaking free of the pack was a part of his identity.

His twenty seconds of insane courage is awakening original glory.

The reason that the commercial stirs so deeply is that the desire for restoration to what was originally intended is the story of all time.  It is the story of our lives.   And whether or not we cognitively reference that idea as we watch a commercial, the intended restoration of our lives gets awakened.

There was a beautiful and perfect garden that we were meant to experience.  Scriptures tell us that it will be restored and so will we.  Jesus said “Behold I make all things new” not, behold I make all new things.   Restoration is the major theme of the gospel.  It is our heritage, our great hope, and our intended reality.  

We all have the right to strap on some Adidas, break free of everything that imprisons us, and find the restoration intended.  To reflect the intended glory we were placed here to offer in a way that no other creature can.  To show one aspect of the divine’s glory in a way that makes others want to know Him more.

When we break free and live into our intended glory, we permission others to do the same.

Consider

• Do you know much about your calling, your purpose? The reason that God put you here on this earth?

• Are you aware that there is an intended glory to your life? That restoration was written on your heart?

• Can you see how this ad is referencing the major theme of restoration?

• Where are you needing to risk twenty seconds of insane courage?

Imperfect

“...you have the skills and the power within you to help other imperfect people accomplish amazing things even when those people are led by an imperfect leader.”

- Rory Vaden

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I have been a little surprised by how many of the leaders I work with are perfectionists at heart.  As a person who struggles with perfectionism and control, I shouldn’t have been.  I think it has something to do with the spoils that seem to attach themselves to senior leadership.  

Most leaders got to their position of authority because they were more “right” in the things they thought and did than others.  If they weren’t the “smartest person in the room,” they were certainly the most confident, persuasive, or tenacious.  As we rise professionally, it is more and more challenging to see beyond our own opinions and ideas.

As we become more successful, the number of people who feel they have permission to disagree and challenge our opinions starts to shrink.  Increasingly, what we think and how we think things should be done, is the assumed right way.

The reality is, however, that the people immersed in the day-to-day of the things that we are merely overseeing know more about those things than we do.  And even though most of us would intuitively agree with that, actually weighing their opinions equitably and turning over decision making and leadership to them is extremely difficult.

Not feeling like others can do things as well as we can, or make as good of a decision, keeps us from delegating and producing the kind of margin we need for strategic thinking as senior leaders.

Rory Vaden, says that one of the key things in the way of leaders mentoring others is related to the..

Permission to be Imperfect.

He says that it is true; when you turn over a task to another, they likely won’t do it as good as you…the first time.  But like you, they will improve with each iteration.  And by the time they are doing it the dozenth time or the hundredth, like you are, they will not only be doing it as well, they will likely be doing it better in some ways that only they uniquely can.

He employs a 30x rule that says that you should be willing to spend 30 times the amount of time it takes you to do a task to teach another to do the same.  Most leaders will just choose to do the task themselves that only takes them 5 minutes.

“It will take me longer to teach them than just doing it myself.”

The 30x rule says that you should spend up to 150 minutes (2.5 hours) to teach the task.  Sounds crazy, but if you were to spend that 2.5 hours to teach that task, it will save you 1,250 minutes a year or almost 21 hours.  You likely won’t have to spend 150 minutes to teach a 5 minute task, but you get the point.

Giving others the permission to be imperfect; to learn to do a task or make simple decisions on their own, is the path to having the margin of time, strategic bandwidth, and freedom you really want (and need) as a leader. 

Interestingly enough, this works just the same at home:  How many Saturday hours of freedom will teaching one of my kids to mow the lawn buy me?

• What are some of the time wasters in your daily schedule?
• What tasks are you doing that you shouldn’t be?
• Which ones should you be employing the 30x to and getting off your plate?
• Who do you need to permission to be imperfect?

Offer

"I used to shake You like an 8-ball
I used to shoot You like a gun
I used to hold You like a hammer
Try to nail down everyone
I used to keep You in a steeple
Used to bind You in a Book
I used to take You like prescription
Without knowing what I took

But now I just don't buy it anymore
No, I've tried and I've tried to know everything for sure
But I find I know less as I come to know You more
You're not who I thought You were
Praise the Lord" 

David Crowder

I got to spend some time with some young men over the holiday.  Guys who are beginning new marriages and like all young marrieds, are still trying to figure it all out.  But the conversations we are having don’t look anything like the ones I had with my dad.  While he was one of the kindest people I ever knew and operated with extraordinary integrity, he came from a completely different planet in terms of worldview.

With these young guys, we talked…

less about bringing home the bacon and much more about bringing the culture of the Kingdom to their homes

Like Crowder talks about in his recent song, “Praise the Lord,” my initial attempts at leading my family from a faith perspective was clumsy at best and even wounding at worst.  Faith was a set of tips and techniques, rules and prohibitions.  I was self appointed…

• scorekeeper for everybody else
• the jury, judge, and executioner
• fruit inspector, carefully identifying what others weren’t and not so concerned about who I was

But I am finding that God isn’t who I thought he was.  He is way more.  Because the thing many of us think we’ve got figured out is no longer God.  We can understand a religion about him or a carefully crafted basket of some of his nature, but he is impossible to completely know or figure out.  He is more than I could ever know and the mystery of all that is what makes Him so compelling.

My hope is being renewed through these young men.  They are neither misusing their faith as I did or merging into the cultural stream like many of their contemporaries.  They are instead trying to paddle in the opposite direction.  And while they may not be examining their faith and exploring new understandings of the reality of God like I did through guys like David Crowder or Oswald Chambers, they’re finding the same in the words of Tim Keller and Chance the Rapper:

“I don't make songs for free, I make 'em for freedom
Don't believe in kings, believe in the Kingdom…

Said you the man of the house now, look out for your family
He has ordered my steps, gave me a sword with a crest”

Chance the Rapper

To sum up my conversations with them:

• It is really hard, but worth it
• Not completely knowable, but better than anything else you can know
• The culture is lying to us about what really matters
• There is so much more than any of us have hoped or dreamed

I am no longer trying to keep the young people around me from learning the hard way…it is often the only way.  But I have an increasing amount of energy to spend on those desiring to learn the right things.  There is a way things work in the Kingdom of God and understanding that is the key to everything.

When the student is truly ready, the teacher will appear.  (Or at least they should.)

• Have you been clumsy in the way you’ve led your family or your team at work?
• Have you grown and matured, learned a few things?
• What in your professional or personal life do you need to acknowledge and own up to?  
• Who is right in front of you that you need to more abundantly offer the things you’ve learned?

Buck

Mon Mothma: On your own from the age of fifteen; reckless, aggressive, and undisciplined.

Jyn Erso: This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel.

There is almost an almost irrefutable certainty that you will rebel in your youth.  I did,  I can’t recall a single person’s story that didn’t involve some measure of thumbing their nose at the expectations of others at some point in their life.  We’ve all bucked authority.

When I’ve desired to go to war with my own children during this essential stage of their development, the grace of my wife and the generously offered wisdom of a sage saved me.  When I was contemplating a scorched earth policy with one of my kids (at what now looks like a pretty insignificant issue in retrospect), this sage told me…

“You’re objective is to not to win on this issue, but cultivate a relationship that allows you to walk with them over the next 35 years.”

Lose the battle so that you can win the war.

The love, wisdom, grace, and mercy of others saved me.  We enjoy really healthy relationships with our adult children and I am honored and humbled by the men and women they are becoming.  Over the holidays, we were enjoying the journey of one of them.

• Rebellion - she didn’t want to do anything she was asked
• Capitulation - begrudgingly doing what was asked
• Compliant - going along with what she was asked
• Sacrificial - not needing to be asked much of anything because she willingly and independently serves, offers, and loves

The way she sacrificially serves and loves her siblings, friends, and the young people she ministers to while in college is truly humbling to watch.  I am incredibly proud of her.  She is so much more of who our Father intends her to be than I was at that age.

That journey reminded me of the Gallup study we’ve talked about in this post many times on engagement.  It is the one that says that 30% of employees are actively engaged, 52% are disengaged, and 18% are actively disengaged.  

In other words, 3/10 of the average organization’s team is rowing forward, 5/10 are along for the ride, and 2/10 are actually rowing in the opposite direction.  It was the same with my precious daughter.

• She was actively disengaged (rebellion)
• Disengaged (capitulation and compliant)
• And is now actively engaged (sacrificial)

While the rebellion of youth may be a natural and necessary phase…
The young buck needs to take on the old stag.
It is part of how they learn and grow.
…it isn’t very pleasant to work through.

The silent rebellion of the actively disengaged in our organizations, however, is completely intolerable.  The journey that some people will take from rebellion to sacrificial should have happened before you hired them.

You likely don’t have enough positively engaged momentum to offset the drag of the actively disengaged.  Now, if you wrap your team around a transcendent purpose, enlist their valuable thoughts and ideas on decisions and direction…actually cultivate an ownership mindset…you can get some of the disengaged to be actively engaged.  

But you need to eliminate the actively disengaged (those rebelling and rowing against your cultural tide and strategic direction), as soon as possible.  Ever hear you or others remarking that some of your team “don’t really get it” or “aren’t really on board”.  That is the red flag you are looking for.

Make this the year you either have an aggressive plan to get them engaged, or an aggressive plan to get them off your boat.

• Do you know what “actively disengaged”, “disengaged”, and “actively engaged”, looks like? (If you have a teenager or once were a teenager, you should!)
• Did team members quickly come to mind when you read about those categories?
• Do you have a clear plan that will breed engagement or a clear plan to move some of your team off the boat?
• What is it costing you to not deal with this?

Everything

Balian: What is Jerusalem worth to you?
Saladin: Nothing, Everything.

In “Kingdom of Heaven” the Kingdom of Jerusalem has changed hands repeatedly.  Balian, a young French country blacksmith is now leading the defense of the kingdom against the Muslim leader Saladin looking to reclaim the territory.  Saladin’s men are about to lay siege to the city and Balian meets him privately to test his resolve.

Clearly Saladin is letting Balian know, in no uncertain terms, that he would risk all, including his life and those of his men, to reclaim that kingdom.  As Bruce Cockburn says, 

“Nothing worth having comes without some kind of a fight.”

I’m having an increasing number of conversations with people being stirred to something grander with their lives.  It is sometimes around an awakened passion or desire to launch something new and different.  It is often about charting a more purposeful or inspired path for the their marriages, families, or businesses.

I’ve found myself inserting the following thought into nearly every conversation…

“It is going to cost you everything to receive everything.”

Essentially, you are going to have to risk everything you have found safety and security in (apart from God) if you are going to receive everything intended for you (with God).  Exchange the kingdom we have establish for the one He intends.  Reject comfort, certainty, and likely passivity, for the adventure of an exciting unknown.

Does something in your heart rise at the thought of that?

If it did, watch how quickly it was opposed.

One of the most terrifying things I ever witnessed was a young family selling everything they owned to move to Africa with their two small boys on a missionary journey.  The mostly affluent class my wife and I led was sending them off one Sunday from our local church.  I identified the fear I felt with the class and many of them acknowledged the same.

What would we have to give up if we wanted to seriously follow God?

Nothing.  Everything.

It is a bit paradoxical.  When I started to get clear on the intended purpose for my life, it felt like I was giving up everything to receive what appeared to be nothing.  At least in the way the world around me measured stuff.  (May old Saladin was onto something.)

In retrospect, however, I actually gave up nothing to receive everything.  Despite what my greatest fears might have hinted at, I am not stumbling around unemployed, wearing sackcloth and ashes, or subsisting on a diet of locusts and honey.  In fact, the casual observer may not see too much different about my life.

But boy is it different.

"If you do not cut the mooring, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out.  Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open." 
Oswald Chambers

God’s intention for your life was written there before you formed a cognitive thought.  There is a glory to your life that is merely the proclamation of His glory in a particular way that no other creature can represent.  Pursuing that treasure is going to feel like you are risking everything, but if you have the courage to take that journey, you will realize that you are really risking nothing to gain everything.

Not nothing for everything.
Or even everything for everything.
But actually, nothing for everything.

That discontent and unsettledness you feel is about something more than your work life not being quite what you would want.  It is about something bigger than not having enough saved for retirement, there not being as much passion in your marriage as you would like, or the kids not seeming to be headed in the right direction.

Is the beckoning of a loving and merciful God.  Not for you to abandon everything for nothing, but to be willing to risk nothing to receive his everything.  To live an intended and possibly unknown life, that you would likely risk everything for if you understood and believed.

Why not make 2017 the year where you quit treating the symptoms of you discontent and attack the root?  Where you chart new purpose for your life and organization.  I’ve committed my life to helping people find that treasure in the field.  It is my favorite thing to talk about.  Let me know if you are up to the conversation.

• Do you feel settled and content?  Like everything is as it should be?
• Do you often get that feeling that there has to be more to your life or the byproduct of your business that what you are realizing?
• The necessary recipe for change is: the acknowledgement of that discontent, the desire to do something about, and the openness to being coached or challenged by another.  Is that you?

Fired

“I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
Steve Jobs

There is a wacky author and speaker named Bob Goff that my wife and I have seen several times in person.  His joy and enthusiasm are a little hard to reconcile at first.  I kept reaching for the non-existent remote to turn him down a bit when he first started speaking.  

I mean, seriously, is it really possible to love life that much?  

That initial reaction turns to disruption and eventually results in an attraction to living the sort of life he lives.  He simply makes simple and deliberate choices that result in a very fulfilling and impactful life.  And he makes that sort of life seem approachable for all of us.

He tells lots of crazy stories, but one of the more interesting involves the staff he employs at his law firm.  Every December 31, he fires everyone on his staff and then immediately offers them their same job back for the coming year.  He tells them that he is thankful their contribution, but says that they are free to go if they like.  He then reviews the open position, requirements/expectations, and offers them their job back.

His thought is that no one should work in a job they don’t love and should be given the freedom to comfortably leave if they aren’t.  What first sounded like a ridiculous and crazy idea has really grown on me.  To actually end and restart employment with them in an annual rhythm and recalibrate that relationship and expectations on both sides is a really powerful idea.

Getting fired is one of those dreaded things that they say changes a person forever.

I heard a recent podcast where an executive says he fires himself every year.  If someone were to walk in his office at the end of the year and fire him, what are the reasons they would likely point to for his dismissal.  Someone who isn’t very self aware will really struggle with this, but most of us could likely come up with a list of a few things.  For the leader in the podcast, this list becomes the things he wants to work on in the coming year.

He then creates a plan to improve in each of those areas!

One of the tools we employ with our clients is called a “Position Agreement.”  It is part of our organizational design process and one of my partners calls it a “job description on steroids."  Even that audacious moniker might not fully capture the power of these incredible documents.

Each is designed to represent the cumulative expectation of every employee to precisely fulfill their portion of the company’s future vision.  They include:

• Results statement - what is the ultimate deliverable of each job.
• Work listing - what are the two lists of both strategic and tactical things expected of this person.
• Position Specific Standards - what is the list of ways we will measure the success of this position.
• Company Standards - what is the list of ways we universally measure all employees performance (against core values, purpose, etc.).
• Signature page - both employee and the person they report to sign and commit to these things.  This becomes the document they annually (but hopefully quarterly) reference.

Everyone deserves to know (with this level of specificity) what is expected of them.  I have had business owners tell me that everyone’s job description is “doing whatever it takes to get the job done”.  There is a part of me that loves that sentiment, but in our experience, the likely outcome of that is the same levels of low engagement we see from the majority of people in this country.  The results from employees knowing what is really expected of them can be staggering.

See my post on employee engagement, Drag.

• Do you need to fire yourself this year?  What are the reasons you would?
• Which of those reasons to you need to most go to work on improving?
• Do your direct reports really know what is expected of them?  Do you think this is the year do something about it?

Crowns

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
- Shakespeare from “Henry IV”

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ…”
- Paul to the church in Rome

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One of our adult children pointed out the Netflix series called The Crown.  It is focused on the 25-year old newlywed Elizabeth II, who is facing the daunting prospect of leading the world’s oldest monarchy and negotiating a relationship with the challenging and intimidating Sir Winston Churchill.

Her slightly more than passing interest in the affairs of her father as a child landed her on the throne at the time of his passing.  She is young, untrained, and inexperienced.  She is also uneducated and knows next to nothing about the affairs of her royal lineage.  She is facing a position that her birthright privileges her to, but with very little of the necessary experience or training required.

The crown is, indeed, heavy upon her head and altogether overwhelming.  There is some clever irony in one of the scenes where the royal photographer is having difficulty even balancing the crown on her head whose weight is almost too much for her to physically support.

Over a 10-part series, however, you get to see the woman rise to the occasion.  To gracefully find her own way to uniquely and powerfully fill the weight and responsibility of that crown.

“I am aware that I am surrounded by people who feel that they could do the job better.  Strong people with powerful characters.  But for better or for worse, the crown has landed on my head.”
- Elizabeth II (from “The Crown”)

One of the Youtube videos that went viral after the presidential election was of Ernie Johnson, NBA commentator, eloquently stating on the NBA Today telecast:

• "I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either."
• "I am hopeful and encouraged that there will be a difference between the president and the candidate."
• "It is more important that I determine my role to play in making the world a better place."
• "I don’t know from one election to another who is going to be in office, but I always know who is on the throne."

The weight of the eternal crown should supersede the office and every other mandate or motive prescribed to it.  

There is first a King and a Kingdom.
And you and I are co-heirs.

May the weight and privilege of those crowns call us all to greater nobility, stewardship, and generative governance of the giftings, people, and resources that define and occupy the realm we have been given to serve.  May no one regret that the crown has landed on our heads.

• Do you feel both the privilege and responsibility of your crown?
• How are you doing at managing the tension of those two things?
• Do you think others lament or celebrate you in the leadership roles you occupy?

Calendar

“Put aside the Ranger. Become who you were born to be.”
Elrond to Aragorn

Several years ago I had a mentor I deeply cherished.  He walked with me through the years approaching my father’s death and for a while after.  At some point, we sort of seemed to lose touch.  I knew he was busy, but he always seemed to have plenty of time for a friend of mine.

Some time after my father’s death, I was able to get on his calendar for lunch.  After doing a pretty deep check-in with me on how I was feeling about and processing my father’s death and some of the other big events surrounding my life, he sort of gave me the thumbs up on how I was doing.  While that was very affirming to me, I still had to ask him the biggest question on my mind.

“Why don’t you seem to have much time for me anymore?”

As a lifetime spiritual orphan, I have aggressively pursued father figures and mentors and he had been a significant one.  After I questioned his availability, he paused for a moment before he spoke.  He said, 

“You don’t need me.”

He explained that God had gifted him to help walk men through challenging seasons of their life and that he had only so much time in every week to carry out that calling.  Frankly, he continued, there were a lot of men who needed his time more than me.

I understood what he was saying, but I am only recently beginning to feel the weight and integrity of what he said.

I have learned that…

my empirical curiosity + discernment + fearless questioning =
conversations that unearth unknown and powerful places

One of the hallmarks of our coaching methodology is that we ask the questions no one else asks and say the things that no one else dares say.  Most people in senior leadership positions have reached places where few, if anyone, feels they have the right to question them.

We all need that, right?  I know I do.  

We have incredible tools and processes to bring about real change for our clients, but often the necessary and most important first step is with the senior leader (or leaders).  They are often the biggest challenge and the greatest opportunity for organizational success.  

Turns out, an increasing number of high integrity leaders in our area really want to grow and take ground on becoming more the person they could ultimately be.  That requires transparency and openness to coaching from an outside perspective.

Back to my mentor friend.  My calendar is starting to feel a little stretched as well.  The ranger in me wants to do what I want when I want, but a bigger part of me wants to become who I was born to be.  

As I process the people I am spending time with in the average week, I realized that I am beginning to apply a pretty aggressive filter with this kind of priority:

1. Called - those I feel specifically called to meet with
2. Contracted - those I have a contractual obligation to meet with
3. Need - those who really need and would benefit from my unique ability and gifting
4. Want - those that don’t necessarily fit the prior three categories that I just desire to meet with

It is all about getting really clear on my greatest Kingdom contribution and trying to steward that with as much integrity as possible.  Increasingly, as I walk more into my calling on a vocational level, all top three qualifiers above are present in many of the people I meet with.

I am privileged to have regular requests for meetings.  I can’t always comply.  I don’t ever purposely avoid anyone, but I am doing the best I can with the gifts and time I’ve been given.

• What is your unique contribution?
• Are you clear on what God has particularly wrought in you to offer as a manifestation of his love and glory?
• Are you allocating your time for the greatest contribution?  What filters are you employing consciously or sub-consciously?
• Does your calendar reflect the beautiful collision of the world’s great need and the unique nature of God’s divinity translated through you?

Rescuer

“So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence.”
Paul to the church in Rome

Is it any wonder why every great book, movie, or story involves a rescue?  It is the story line of every great one because it is evocative of our story.  And is there anything that tears at the heart more than a lost or separated child being reconciled to their parent?

The entire history of mankind can be summed up very simply as…

A father’s desperate desire to be reconciled to his children.

With all that Hollywood gets wrong, they really get one thing right:  Inexplicably, almost with no knowledge or foresight, they love to tell our story.  They rest, almost exclusively, in the meta-narrative of the gospel.  An author I love says, “God has commissioned the giants of our culture (movie directors) to tell our story.”

One of the things we speak about at the boot camps I help lead and that we aggressively excavate at the Lifeplan retreats we offer, is the idea of “calling” or a “new name”.  The momentum and clarity of understanding how you uniquely bear the image of the divine…

is simply staggering.

I was meeting with a man following one of those retreats.  He said he was wrestling with what his calling or new name was…then he told me about a dozen or stories about all these people and various ways he was attempting to rescue them.  It is written all over his story and clearly confirmed in the chapters of his life.   He was a little surprised by what was so completely obvious to me.

Further confirmation came when he walked in his house and saw this print hanging on his wall.  He was captivated by it and bought it years ago, but couldn’t have really told you what he liked about it…now he knows.  It is a cowboy rescuing a helpless animal in a storm.

Living into the powerful reality of “rescuer” in his story will change his life and the lives of many others.  When what you are simply gifted and inspired to do gets identified as the clear intention of the Father…the specific and unique way that you bear His image…you become formidable and dangerous, dangerous for good.

He is a very good man.  He is an ever more glorious man as he rises to his unique identity.  It is beautiful to behold.

• Did you know that your story was essentially a story of the Father desperately desiring to be reconciled to you?
• Are you able to interpret that story in almost every great story?
• Are you clear on the unique and powerful way that you bear the image of the Divine?

Cassandra

“The story of Cassandra originates in Greek mythology. She was a daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. Struck by her beauty, Apollo provided her with the gift of prophecy, but when Cassandra refused Apollo's romantic advances, he placed a curse ensuring that nobody would believe her warnings. Cassandra was left with the knowledge of future events, but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions.

The Cassandra syndrome is applied by some psychologists to individuals who experience physical and emotional suffering as a result of distressing personal perceptions, and who are disbelieved when they attempt to share the cause of their suffering with others.”    
- Wikipedia

Some folks literally believe that the sky will eventually fall.

It usually comes down to perspective.  Some are afraid of the damage that might result from the flood that will come if it keeps raining.  Others can’t wait to see what grows as a result of all this rain.  Some seem to watch/listen to the news to be informed.  Others seem to use it as a filter and justification for their fear and foreboding.

My former bond portfolio management life required that I be locked into world news and current events.  There was a breathing in and out that happened daily as the market digested closing markets abroad, economic indicators, world happenings, and the daily news domestically.  It all mattered and the markets breathing calmed or labored based on everyone’s reaction.  I was plugged in.

I found myself walking deeper into a cave of fear and disappointment.  Each hour of news from that channel, each radio show with that guy, and all those blog posts and daily news feeds from those people, were simply another datapoint that convinced me that the end was likely near.  

How could things turn out okay given all that I was seeing?

No doubt, the weight of my fear and trembling was felt by others.  Leading a family is about imagining a better future and nurturing them there.  Offering calm and hope despite what circumstance might otherwise dictate.  Business leadership is about bringing clarity, hope, a transcendent vision, and crafting a bridge to that inspired future.  Even my Christian faith requires that my ultimate hope rest in things unseen and later on.

Identifying and eliminating the instigators of this syndrome in my life has changed everything.  The things I watched, listened to, read, and even the people I spent time with had to change.  Eliminating all the Cassandra’s from my life made room for clarity, renewed faith, and much greater impact.  My posture with family, friends, and clients is more encouraging, inspired, and impactful.

The apostle Paul offered the most powerful perspective on all this.  We may never know which day will be our last, so live each one as if it might be.  That doesn’t mean that we should place our head between our knees, wait for further instructions, and brace for impact.  It means we should charge into life with all the gusto, hope, and expectation that more life is available. We are the ambassadors of the prospect of a life more abundant.  We should be living that life and inviting many others to join us.

Are you the proverbial “Debbie Downer” in your tribe?  Or are the purveyor of hope and an expectation of a better future?  What is value or cost to your family, business, or the organization you lead, of being so confident or fearful?  What does all that fear say about the reality of your faith?  One is the opposite of the other.

• Would you say that you tend to be more hopeful or fearful?
• What are the inputs (things, people, etc.) that are stoking the fire of all that fear?
• Who do you need to remove or spend less time with in your company or tribe?
• What is the fear or the complementary negativity costing your family or team as a result of your or another’s person’s fear?
• What do you need to do about it today to change the course of things?

Loved

“I realized a couple of years ago that I feel the love of the Father the most while holding a baby…a friend asked if I would like to come hold her baby…While holding him, the Father says to me, ‘the way you tenderly love and adore this baby is the same way I tenderly love and adore you.”
- Kate Schroller

I guess that is sort of a strange title for a business leadership blog, but it may be more appropriate than any other title I have chosen.  Because knowing how fully I am loved as a son has changed everything about how I lead.  Interestingly enough, it has made me stronger and more resolved…even formidable (as some people have identified) in my leadership.

You can’t offer what you don’t fully possess.

There is a correlation between the depth of love I offer to my children and the directness of my leadership of them.  It is the same with anyone that you lead.  There is an “earning the right” to say the direct, challenging, and difficult things.  The degree to which I show that I am “for” someone is related to the degree to which I can lead them in strength and integrity.

Interestingly enough, we are not only created uniquely and particularly, but our Father loves us uniquely and particularly as well.  The way I experience the love of the Father is unique among every other person in creation.  Similarly, the pet names and specific things I love about my children are completely unique to each one of them.  It is the same with Him and us.

For me it is when I am riding in my Jeep, hosting friends for a meal, in the mountains of Colorado, writing, encouraging people, listening to beautiful music, or sharing focus time with my wife and children.

My wife Kate told me recently that she most feels the love of the Father when she has a baby in her arms.  That picture is one she took while holding our friend’s new baby.  She added those comments when she posted it on her Instagram.  Because she is really clear on how she is loved and adored, she loves and adores others really well.

It is part of the way she uniquely bears the image of the divine and one of the ways she profoundly changes other people’s lives.  

She does this in a way that is particular to her, but there is an intended purpose for every one of us.

His plan for making himself known was for us to uniquely reflect His glory in a way that no other creature can.  It is in the unique offering of each one of us that He is most powerfully and collectively known.  It is the ultimate reason that we all exist.

Kate is really clear about this.  Are you?

• Do you know that you are loved?
• Do you know if fully enough that it is reflected in how you lead others?
• What is not knowing how you are loved costing your family and the teams you lead?

Reflection

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
Paul to the church in Corinth

I was meeting with one of my favorite clients the other day.  He is one of the more passionate and direct people I meet with on a regular basis.  That passion sometimes gets him in trouble, but it is one of the things I appreciate most about him.

He is a great guy who is becoming extraordinary.  His level of self reflection has risen to a level where he is regularly working on becoming a better person in his life and his leadership.  He wants to close the gap between the reflections of others and the way he sees himself.  We have very direct and engaging conversations whenever we meet.

After this last meeting, he sent me an e-mail asking why I was “holding back on him”.  He believes I operate with great instincts but thought I was not following through on some thoughts I was having concerning him.

I told him that I wasn’t sure about how strong my “instincts” were, but I have been told that I operate with a lot of spiritual discernment and I have a lot of experiential knowledge from meeting with hundreds of people one-on-one each year.  Maybe that is what he was identifying.

I also told him that I rarely offer anything I haven’t prayerfully discerned and that it is very important to me.  In fact, I take the integrity of our overall approach to coaching individuals very seriously.   

We have some very clear “hills we will die on” that I operate under:

• We ask the questions no one else will ask.
• We say the things that no one else dare say.
• We recommend what we believe is the right thing
  for the client regardless of the financial implications
  for us or them.

I almost always offer whatever I discern God has put on my heart to share.  For the most part (and increasingly) we have so much conviction about the tools, processes, roadmap, and experience we are offering that we rarely let anything stand in the way of our…

…asking, saying, and recommending.

All of us need someone who we trust that will speak the truth about what they see.  Someone interested enough in us to care more about saying the right thing than the way we might respond.

• Are you in a season of self-reflection?
• What are you working on changing in your life and leadership?
• Do you have anyone asking and saying the necessary things?
• Have you given anyone the permission to do that for you?

Destination

Everybody arrives somewhere, but very few people arrive somewhere on purpose.

We’re in the home stretch for 2016.  Whatever hopes and dreams we had for how things might change for us this year are running out of time.  A lot has happened in the world over the last year (new president, Brexit, Zika virus, North Korea’s H-Bomb, Middle East unrest), but for most of us, life doesn’t look that different.

“Most of us just kind of let life happen to us.  We’re born, go to school, and our parents send us off to college.  We’re supposed to get married so we look for a mate.  We want to buy a house, so we get a job and a mortgage.  But we’re not super intentional, right?” 
Donald Miller

If you are like most people, while “America has rolled on like an army of steamrollers” as James Earl Jones says in Field of Dreams, life really hasn’t changed that much for you.  And the simple recipe for things not changing again next year is to simply keep doing everything the way it is currently being done.

The worse part of that reality is that most of us had pretty low expectations to start with:

• Save a little money
• Lose a little weight
• Take a little ground in our marriage
• Show a little growth in our business or career
• Mature a little in our faith

The only thing more sad that having high expectations and not meeting them is having low expectations and not meeting them.  It is one thing to say you want to be able to run a marathon, it is another thing entirely to say that you want to be able to climb a flight of stairs without losing your breath.

I am not okay with that.

Reality is that we are the ambassadors of change.  We are the curators of transformation.  We have been given the privilege and honor of offering all the hope and glory of the Kingdom to a world desperate for change.  At the end of the day, the one great hope is not that we would become something new, but that we would become what we were ultimately intended to be…something far more glorious that we’ve believed.

There is life available for all of us, beyond our greatest expectations, waiting to be claimed.

There is a different reality for our businesses, waiting to be realized.

I didn’t leave a successful banking career to help bring about a little change in people’s lives and businesses.  And I certainly didn’t leave to spend time with people commiserating about how things aren’t changing.

Real transformation to something intended and far more glorious is available.  There is a growing tribe of people finding that life.

“We’ve accomplished more in the last six months than the last 25 years.”  

“This is the best season of my life.  I know where we are going, how we are going to get there, and the specific role I am supposed to play.”

They were…

• Discontent with the life or plight of their businesses
• They were highly motivated to change the course of things
• They were open to having someone come alongside and coach them

How about you?  Is 2017 going to be the year where you finally find what you have been hoping for?

• Are you really ready to change your life or your business?
• Are you motivated and willing to invest the time, energy, and resources to find that change?
• Are you really able to let someone else come alongside you and coach you and your team?
• Let’s meet, craft a plan, and find a different result at the same time next year.

Conscientious

“Please Lord, help me to get one more.”  
Army Medic Desmond T. Doss

Hollywood isn’t too kind to Christian ideology or characters who carry them.  The list of examples are too painful to list.  They are, however, very interested in making money.  While critics still line up to condemn anything within a whisper of Christian or conservative beliefs, the interests of the buying public is beginning to encourage the making of more of these films.

My wife and I recently saw the movie “Hacksaw Ridge” about the battle of Okinawa.  While it was likely the most violent film I have seen since the opening scenes of “Saving Private Ryan”, it was powerfully stirring and encouraging at the same time.  The fact that it was a true story backed by actual interviews with the film’s hero, army medic Desmond T. Doss, made the weight of the story that much greater.

Stunned by what we saw.  Everyone stayed in their seats even as the credits rolled.

First of all, it honored the very traditional Christian Science beliefs of Desmond.  Secondly, it not only showed that he would endure astounding opposition for his beliefs, but actually monetize those beliefs into life-changing practice for many others.  In particular, for the very people who opposed him and his beliefs.

What Desmond does on Hacksaw Ridge in the battle of
Okinawa is likely the most heroic single act in military history.  
It is almost impossible to believe.

To receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award given for bravery in battle, never having fired a weapon, is a once in a lifetime story.  To watch soldiers who hated him for his beliefs, celebrate and honor him, is the story of all time.  The redemptive perspective found in that story is woven into the fabric of every great story.

Redemption is our intellectual property.  It is the stuff of every great story because it is sourced to the one great story.  It is the foundation for our faith and ultimate deliverable for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Even those that don’t hold to our faith and values, are still deeply connected and affected by that idea.

The most interesting thing about Desmond was not that he was a conscientious objector unwilling to use violence, but that he conscientiously lived out his calling to rescue and save lives in a way no else ever has.  Whether or not we agree with the stance that he took against something, we should, out of the redemption and restoration accomplished for us, be for something in a way that changes the lives of others.

His life and leadership permission’d and invited others to do the same.

Most of us are clear about what we are against.  
Let’s get clear on what we are for…and be all about it.

• What do you stand in opposition to?
• More importantly, what do you stand in support of?
• Would the way you live make that obvious to others?
• Go watch Desmond T. Doss’ story in “Hacksaw Ridge” and see what the Father stirs in you.

Away

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew, the apostle

My wife and I stumbled upon a simple evening practice that is changing our lives.  After a particularly long day for both of us, I asked if she wanted to go for a drive before dinner.  The top happened to be off my Jeep and it was about 30 minutes before sunset.  We coined a couple of phrases (“sunset Jeep cruise” and “chasing the sunset”) that night and we’ve never looked back.  It is now 2-3 times a week that one of us prompts an evening cruise.  She’ll say something like…

“Sunset is at 6:37, we need to get moving or we’ll miss it.”

We are usually trying to get some elevation, move in a westward direction, and get off the main roads if at all possible.  

Sometimes we talk and decompress our respective days.
Sometimes we talk about the kids.
Sometimes we listen to music.
Sometimes we don’t say or listen to anything at all.

We arrive home more clear and ready to embrace the evening in a more calm and more reflective way.  I am more grounded in my identity and my Father’s great love for me.  My wife and I are more connected and operating from the same page.  It has been a huge win for us and regular part of our weekly rhythm.

As a result, I am a better father and husband.  I have a lot more clarity and energy for the leaders I serve in our coaching practice. 

We are supposed to “cease striving” and not “be conformed to this world”.  We are asked to take on His “easy burden and light yoke” and forsake our own.  We are told to “be still and quiet and know that he is God.”  So why does life feel so chaotic and overwhelming?

It is not that the offer of life, and life abundant, isn’t still available.

It is just that we are choosing another life.  The wrong life.  Whether it is a long walk, a bike ride, a sunset Jeep tour or just getting somewhere still and quiet, accept the offer of life:

“Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.”

Despite how it often feels, the kind of life we live is a choice.

• How do you start your day?  End it?
• How are you experiencing the unforced rhythms of His grace?
• How badly do you need to “get away with Him and recover your life”?
• What would taking one small step in this direction look like for you?

Possibilities

“There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening. And this leads people who run Major League Baseball teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their teams.  Baseball thinking is medieval. They are asking all the wrong questions. And if I say it to anybody, I'm-I'm ostracized. I'm-I'm-I'm a leper. So that's why I'm-I'm cagey about this with you. That's why I... I respect you, Mr. Beane, and if you want full disclosure, I think it's a good thing that you got Damon off your payroll. I think it opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities.”

Peter Brand to Billy Beane in “Moneyball”

Billy Beane, General Manager for the Oakland A’s, thinks his world is coming to an end.  His best player, Johnny Damon, has been purchased by a team with a bigger checkbook.  In a world where success is defined by the superstars you employ, he has just lost his biggest chip in the game.  There is no way to bridge where he is at to where he wants to be.

But Peter Brand, Yale educated economist and mathematician (but with very little baseball experience) seems to have figured out a solution.  Instead of the fear and overwhelm Billy Beane seams to be operating under, Peter sees “all kinds of interesting possibilities”.  Peter & Billy’s contrarian philosophy took the team with the second lowest payroll and helped them to the second best record in baseball.

It took an outsider to the game to see a different way and the clear solution that they were unable to see on their own.  

MONEYBALL

I think of that scene often when I am talking to business owners.  As the old saying goes, it is kind of hard to see the forest with all of those trees in the way.  The reality is, despite…

• how thick and impassible the forest may seem
• the fact that there are rivers and other obstacles that seem
• like they can’t be crossed

…there is a way through.  We can elevate above the thicket, find solutions to our problems, and define a simple path forward to get us to where we want to go.

First, you have to identify that you have a problem.  Things are not the way you would like them. 

Secondly, you have to be ready and willing to do something about it…honestly want to address the problem.  Many of us don’t like the way things are, but very few seem really interested in changing the situation.

Finally, you need to be open to someone else helping identify the problems and coach you toward the not so obvious solutions.  

Unfortunately, most of us are unable to understand what is really happening and are often asking the wrong questions.  As a result, we are trying to address the wrong problems.  The good news is that problems can be identified, solutions can be crafted, and newly inspired futures can be found.  There is a bridge from here to over there.

I promise.  I watch it happen all the time.

• Are you tired, frustrated, or overwhelmed?
• Are you clear on what your problems are?
• Are you really interested in solving the problems you are facing?
• How open to you are having someone else identify and solve your problems?

Artificial

“Nowhere does this tendency toward artificial harmony show itself more than in mission-driven nonprofit organizations, most notably churches. People who work in those organizations tend to have a misguided idea that they cannot be frustrated or disagreeable with one another. What they’re doing is confusing being nice with being kind."

- Patrick Lencioni

---

We work with a lot of high integrity and faith-based business leaders.  I would lump them in along with the missional nonprofit organizations in their tendency toward artificial harmony.  Lencioni says that there is a conflict continuum that extends from artificial harmony over to mean personal attacks. 

When we work with organizations, we ask their team members where they believe they are on that continuum.  More often than not, due to the nature of clients we work with, they land firmly on the side of artificial harmony.  That is way healthier than mean-spirited attacks, right?

Wrong.

Both are equally unhealthy and unproductive when it comes to solving problems and advancing an organization.  One is a little nicer and possibly less scary, but the stifling of change that each produces is very similar.

This is a learned cultural bias that obviously is dictated from the top of an organization, but is often rooted in family and faith systems.  It shouldn’t surprise you that if organizational health is the greatest determinant of long term success, this is one of the things we go after solving at the earliest phase of engagement with clients.

Turns out, it can show up in the culture of a country.  The conflict continuum tilted way toward the right in our last political election.  It was mean and nasty.  The equally divided country was so resolved and convicted about their dissenting opinions that the response to the polls and the final results were incredulity and shock.

Whether it is in a family, a company, or a country, artificial harmony and mean-spirited attacks result in the same things:  

Instability.

Fear.

Loss of hope.

And ultimately, these things result in an inability to solve issues and move forward.

We were created to be the ambassadors of the One Great Hope, the reflectors of the Light of the World.  Restoration is our intellectual property.  These may feel like desperate times and that the light might be flickering, but the truth is that this light hasn’t dimmed.  In fact, compared to the despair of the world, it appears even brighter than ever.

I haven’t completely thrown in the towel on the direction of things in our country changing, but I am increasingly clear on the role I am called to play.  I am spending all of my vocational bandwidth (heck, pretty much all my time) trying to restore the nobility of leadership, encourage organizational health, and heal this land… one family, organization, or business at a time.

• Is your organization healthy?  Your family?
• Are you overwhelmed or discouraged about the direction of things in our country?  Are you motivated to change things?
• Are you ready to go to work on the things that you have right in front of you…the things you have ability and responsibility to change?

Alignment

“Over time, people get distracted, bored, or they develop their own agendas.  It isn’t necessarily anybody’s fault when this happens; it is just a fact of team life.  You need a measure of alignment among your team members if you are going to deliver on your vision.”

- Andy Stanley “Visioneering”

Apollo 13 astronauts, recanting their perilous journey, talk about the incredibly small window they had to pass through to make it back to earth.  Virtually no margin of error existed.  Jim Lovell says that being just one degree off in their reentry calculations would have resulted in missing the earth by tens of thousands of miles.

Marriages are no different.  Over decades, couples on different courses personally, can end up miles apart.  With the principal work of raising their children accomplished, they often wake up laying next to someone they don’t have very much in common with and barely know.

We find the same with leadership teams.  Different motives, experiences, and interpretations result in different priorities.  Without a clear and inspired destination for everyone to shoot for that is… 

• Clarified
• Discussed
• Celebrated
• & Regularly course directed back toward

…misalignment is a likely conclusion

Cars naturally move toward misalignment as well.  As sophisticated as the balancing equipment is that we use to keep our tires rolling in the same direction, they drift apart.  The vehicle doesn’t roll as efficiently and the cost comes in mileage, wear-an-tear on the car, and portions of tires getting worn out faster than others.  

Misalignment is costly for tires and teams.

To assume that our teams or marriages would fall back into alignment on their own is as unlikely as thinking our car hitting a pothole that would somehow magically jolt it back into alignment.  It just doesn’t happen like that.

So, how do you know if a team member is out of alignment?

• They move toward control rather than serving one another.
• They manipulate to further their own agenda.
• They are unwilling to resolve differences face-to-face.
• They are unwilling to believe the best about their teammates.
• They focus on personal success rather than team success.

What do you do if you team is out of alignment?

• Assemble your leadership team & work on organizational health.
• Write or recast your values and purpose.
• Create a vision of those values and purpose lived into the future.
• Create goals/initiatives to help you realize that vision.
• Assign ownership to those initiatives.
• Develop a meeting rhythm with that team.
• Assist in their accomplishment, hold them accountable, celebrate their success.

Allow this roadmap and the process it creates to drive you toward increasing alignment and the realization of a greater future for you and your team.

• Has your team gotten out of alignment?
• Are you experiencing any of the signs listed above?
• What do you think it is costing you in terms of wear-and-tear, efficiency, and wearing some team members out?
• Are you really interested in changing things?

Buoyant

buoy·ant
ˈboiənt,ˈbo͞oyənt/
adjective
1.  able or apt to stay afloat or rise to the top of a liquid or gas.
2.  cheerful and optimistic.

When I got to Baylor, the kids there used to really annoy me.  They didn’t get most of my cynicism born humor.  They hadn’t had many of the life experiences I had and didn’t seem to use quite as colorful a vocabulary as I did to tell stories or conduct normal conversation.  I found them inexperienced and frankly, a little boring.

I graduated in five years, working almost full-time my last few years to make everything work.  I matriculated, crossed the stage, and got my diploma.  Beautifully framed, but never hung.  

The real journey of those five years had little to do with academia and everything to do with traveling from…

• death to life
• orphanhood to relationship
• darkness to light

By the time I graduated, I admired and was almost jealous of those other kids.  I would have given anything to have gone back and not experienced all the things I did before college.  To not have seen, done, and lived through all the things my younger self was not ready to handle or capable of processing.

I used to think those Baylor kids were lucky and had won the cultural life lottery.  They didn’t have to work, their parents all seemed to be married, and they didn’t know much about sex, drugs, or rock&roll.  They were unaffected by the things that I thought gave me the right to be sullen and negative.

But I realized it wasn’t primarily luck that defined their sunny disposition.  It wasn’t merely good rearing that made them so joyful.  Some of the most optimistic people I have encountered in the world (especially on missions) have none of the things I attributed to this positive outlook. 

They were operating with a different world view than mine.  They were choosing, hope, faith, and the understanding that they were created, chosen, and loved by one who they could never disappoint.  They were the child of a King and approached life with a completely different filter and set of expectations.

I am not a naturally positive person.  I am not sure than anyone is, but there are some people who predominantly choose to see the good.  They rest in the hope and promises they find in the pages of the book of life.  They root out the cancerous people and the toxic inputs into their life that rob them of hope and joy.  They choose to believe that despite everything in the culture that would encourage otherwise, that there is a King overseeing his Kingdom and the end of our story lands on him setting everything right again.

You can’t float in all water, but it is pretty easy if a few key conditions are present:

• The water you float in is relatively calm
• You get real calm and still
• The salinity or the conditions of the water you choose to soak in are just right
• You don’t panic

No one is naturally buoyant by either of the definitions above, but we can all learn to float.

The people we lead and love are taking cues for us.  When they look us in the eyes, do they see negative expectations and impending doom, or peace?  Do they see confidence and hope?

Believe it or not, it is a choice…
despite your circumstances.

Doing the work it takes to find joy and peace is simply “good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on the earth to offer others…” according to Parker J. Palmer.  

We are the purveyors of the hope of the world.

• Would others describe you as negative?
• What do you think the effect is of that on others?
• What are the things that bring you life?  Bring you down? (people, politics, situations)
• What do you need to add more of into your life and what do you need to eliminate?

Rhythm

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus of Nazareth

Everyone used to ask my how I stayed plugged into the market when I was away from the trading floor.  The reality was that I didn’t.  The Wall Street Journal was yesterday’s news and even trying to keep up with how the markets were moving in a given day through following market levels was still 1-2 standard deviations away from the rhythm of the daily market.

I used to race to the office to sit down any get dialed in before the market opened…EXHALE.

I would check where the markets were closing overseas and what had happened to rates as a result overnight…INHALE.

Domestic economic indicators would be released and the market would start to unwind its’ bets causing market adjustments…EXHALE.

Domestic markets would open and the reaction to and speculation about all of the above would begin to unfold…INHALE.

Throughout the day, there would be announcements, market news, and earnings reports that would disrupt and move the market which caused everyone to adjust their positions again…EXHALE, INHALE, etc…

How in the world was just checking in on a snapshot of market rates or opening up the Journal the next morning, supposed to provide any semblance of understanding on the market versus what I described above?  It couldn’t…not possible.

I listened to a young man on a podcast recently describing his investigation of a monastery on-line.  He was convicted as he read about their approach to prayer.

“We don’t find ways to fit prayer into our regular life.  We actually live a life of prayer and we find ways to fit our regular life into that.”

Before we dismiss that as opportunity that only monastics can enjoy, look at the life of Jesus and the rhythms of his life.  Clearly, Kingdom living looks a lot more like what the monks were describing than the life most of us live. 

Soon after that, the guy on the podcast heard another young man asking a mentor about how he should allocate his 15 minute quiet time to make it most effective.  The mentor replied,

“I don’t think God is rather concerned about your 15 minute quiet time.  He is far more concerned about what you do with the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of your day.”

Just like trying to stay connected to the breathing in and breathing out of a living financial market by reading a newspaper once a day, being in touch with the rhythms of grace and the intentions of the Father for our every step can’t happen with a daily short check-in or quiet time.

Regular, ongoing, conversational intimacy with the Father should result in an unmistakable life.  Like an instrument in the hands of a great musician, the proclamation of our Father’s heart expressed through our lives, should be heard and experienced by everyone within earshot. 

• How are you experiencing the Father?
• Do you have a regular rhythm of checking in every morning, every night, or under some discipline?
• How do you feel like your life might change if you lived more of a breathing in, breathing out rhythm, rather than a daily check-in?