The problem with problems

We’ve fallen into a great trap. I see it in myself most days. You see I’ve begun to have a problem with problems.

Like anyone else I love it when my day or a few days pass by problem free. I enjoy the ease of life of work in those periods of carefree schedules.

Unfortunately, like to many others I cherish and covet those days. It’s too easy to see problems as set-backs, stumbling blocks, energy traps so when problems spring up I feel like I’m encountering a bad day.

But is it true? Where would we be without problems? Leaders understand problems cause us to think and rethink situations mulling our possible choices. Problems force us to wrestle with issues we would otherwise avoid.

Problems are the catalyst of change in a leader’s life. Problems motivate us to work hard, to study, to learn, to grow, to analyze, to plan, and to execute. Without problems it would be too easy to coast- to go with the flow – to simply maintain rather than advance.

James understood this when he wrote, “Consider it all joy when you encounter various types of trials.”

A Leader’s Heart on Valentine’s Day

Two worlds are merged. The singleness of the past evolved into a future duet. A dance of love and excitement unfolded. Two hearts, two dreams mingled into one. Through the days of me-ness we learned to seek we-ness. The Forgiver’s bond on our hearts lit a light of hope in the dark days; a season of brilliance yet discovered set before us. When resentment and disappointment was sewn by the hand of the deceiver, patience and long-suffering won the day.

When others have run from the vows, when others have settled for less, we will endure, we will persevere, and we will press on because of the secret we have learned. One-ness is not discovered in an arrival but chased as a present future.

Complete in Him yet not complete in each other, knowing more lies ahead, the gate is open, the chase continues together we run toward all it means – “AND THE TWO SHALL BE ONE.”

May every leader graced with a mate, chase the oneness destined for them. May there be joy in the running.

Forgetting Names

Okay I admit it. Forgetfulness is frustrating. I work hard at remembering names. I repeat them when I hear them. I use them again right away. I even make notes on my PDA or on scrap paper. But even with all this effort names can still escape me. They slip away.

For my dad it is much worse. Since his stroke, the aphasia makes recalling names even more difficult. He’s called me Tim, Gregg (my nephews) and Chris (my son). The aphasia gets in the way of recalling the correct name. He knows he has used the wrong name, but he cannot recall the true name.

That is just like God. Okay bear with me in this.

David Teems wrote, “God has written a law of forgetfulness against his omniscience.”

Wow. Did you catch that. God has written a law that won’t let him remember our birth names. The names that reflected our birth character he can’t recall.

So when he looks at us instead of calling out “liar”, or “cheater” or “thief”. . .

Instead of calling out “disgrace” or “loser” . . .

Instead of remembering our true birth name, “sinner,” . . .

He calls out to our souls a new name, “beloved,” “son,” “daughter,” “co-heir,” “precious.”

Every time my dad stumbles over a name I’m reminding myself that my other Father forgets names also. My God cannot recall my “birth” name. He calls me by another.

Saint.

Wading past the jargon

I have friends who are much more abreast of certain technical issues than I am. They can explain the significance of an RSS feed. They can walk me through the process of portioning a hard drive. They can explain “VPN” connections. They know about smtp-outgoing mail servers and a myriad of other technical things I just take for granted. I trust that their answers are right and sound.

Leaders, spiritual leaders are in a similar position. Everyday people around us expect us to know the answers and to be able to demonstrate and explain spiritual truths. They may never understand the answers as well as we do, but they trust us for the answers.

Therefore it’s important for us to stay up to date! Just as I.T. Techs and Technology Directors keep studying and keep learning so should every leader keep on the grow. People will always expect us to have greater understanding, greater knowledge.

It comes with the mantel.

There is no such thing as a leader who does not keep growing.

Are you ready for the next question?

The nature of the crowd

I had one of those major thought threads today. You know what they are like. You read one thing, hear one thing and begin to muse on it and you follow the thread in your mind as it unwinds, not quite sure where it is going. Then all of a sudden a major truth hits you between the eyes.

I had one today. Follow this with me.

I was thinking about the crowd in Mark. It’s a major player in the book. The crowd is everywhere. That led me to start thinking about the crowd, how it had one time raced around a lake to beat Jesus to the shore so they could hear more, experience more. Then I was thinking about how this crowd could so easily betray him later. How?

Then I was thinking about the nature of a crowd, any crowd. People in a crowd are different. They act differently then when they are alone.

 Together in a crowd you can hide, acting alone you can be seen.
 In a crowd you can embrace evil, alone you know accountability. Everyone is doing it; you can get away with it. Why not throw the stone?
 In a crowd you can excuse apathy, after all someone else can always respond. But when we are alone we feel compelled to respond.
 Together it is easy to blame others, alone we face responsibility.

In essence, I was being reminded that in a crowd it’s easy to hide from my individual responsibility.

Then I got to thinking about our passion for church growth. We want to see healthy thriving churches, but as the church grows does it just turn into a Christian crowd? One where it’s easy to be apathetic, easy to blame others, easy to shirk responsibility.

Then it hit me hard. We “live this call together”, but we are held individually responsible. The reckoning is not faced in the crowd. The judgment seat of Christ is not a corporate lawsuit. It’s the ultimate day of individual accounting. No hiding in the crowd that day. Standing unclothed from the trappings of the church, the crowd we so often hide in, we will individually be held accountable.

Have I (not we) lived the call? Have I known Him AND made Him known?

Beware the crowd!

Lessons from My Father’s Feet, Part 3

The Return of Joy

I’ve been learning another lesson these days. It’s an interesting one. You see my dad and I were often like oil and water. We didn’t mix well. By the time I was a teen, the fond memories of baseballs hit in the yard, footballs kicked, sun fish caught had all but been forgotten. Replaced instead with arguments over chores, privileges, failures, and my own laziness. Add to those the strife of a home in conflict, a man struggling with the death of his own parents, his own demons of alcohol, l and any joy in our relationship was lost. Gone were the days when at five or six I would wait on the porch for the first glimpse of my dad walking up the street and run just to walk the rest of the way home with him.

Here is my lesson. The enemy steals so much from us. He multiplies the hurts of the past and infects them until they taint every moment of the present But when we allow God to heal the hurt, He changes the inside of our lives and a marvelous thing occurs. Joy returns.

A lot of healing has taken place. Years ago mine began as I embraced the
transforming Savior. Slowly the hurts were healed, the pain released and the whole man emerged. Dad began his transformation years ago. He did what he could. Soberness was embraced. He fathered a grandson with an absent father. He never missed a game, an event. And when he could transform nothing else, last year he open himself to the Forgiver. Two men both carrying great hurts, both who once hurt each other, so easily are healed. Joy returned.

My dad and I fished with a friend yesterday. He sat in a golf cart and rode around as we cast our flies on the water. He held a pole, he landed fish. And he and I glowed with joy. No anger about the past, no regrets, just joy moments in the present.

The lesson being reinforced in me is this: our God is a God of the present. And when He does His transforming work, He can restore joy even where the past was often dark with sorrow.

Lessons from my Father’s Feet, part 2

My dad was a steel worker for most of my life. I remember the heavy boots he wore everyday. Big heavy boots with steel safety plates across the front. As soon as he would get home, those boots would come off and most of the year his gardening boots went on. Late in the evening when he finally settled into a chair in front of the TV, those boots and his socks would come off.

There they were-his calloused, sweaty, gnarly feet. I thought they were the most disgusting things I had ever seen. I hated it when he would ask me to carry his socks to the hamper. I’d pick them up by the top edge, hold them at arms distance, and hold my nose and carry them to the hallway hamper. I can still remember my revulsion.

Now most mornings between my quiet time and the start of my office hours, I help my father get around for the day. He’s slow, but most of his morning routine he accomplishes on his own. Except that he can no longer reach his feet. So every morning I find myself, cloth in hand, washing my father’s feet. After breakfast I’m on my knees and I help him into his socks and shoes. If you told me growing up I would one day be doing this, I would have laughed.

I have come to cherish the routine: honoring my father by washing his feet, even though he was not always the most honorable man. It is a joy to hear him sigh with contentment that it feels good when we’re done. It’s a unique thing that is going on. We talk about the day. He asks about my schedule, about my ministry, about what’s ahead. We talk about people he has met, sports, fishing, life. The most amazing thing is taking place in the mornings. My father’s feet are drawing us closer together.

Here is the lesson. Sometimes we focus on what repulses us in a relationship and it pushes us away. Or we choose to avoid the ugly, the repulsive, the uncomfortable in our relationships with each other, and push each other away. Perhaps we should look for ways in which our brokenness, our imperfections can draw us together.