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Your life is unique.
The last couple of weeks I have been reflecting on some challenges that we have faced. Nothing that any of you haven’t found yourselves in, but challenges nonetheless. Yet, I found myself reflexively thinking as I look at my oldest son cheerfully running around the house singing, knowing that he too will face challenges. Instead of meddling in the murky waters of pessimism because of an obstacle, I chose to smile, knowing that in the midst of obstacles, God is present - as I will be for my two boys. As I look at my boys, who I love more than life itself, I found myself seeing life through their lenses, as maybe God does.
As God is there for me, I will be there for my boys as they run through life’s maze…
to encourage them…
to help pick them up when they fall…
to walk them through painful moments…
to celebrate high moments in life…
to love them when they have made a mistake…
to embrace them when they have been hurt…
and to celebrate their uniqueness as God does.
3 Things to remember:
1.) We have a purpose in life
2.) We have been made with a distinctive touch
3.) In the vastness of God’s creation, your birth and your reach IS something unique
Celebrate life, in the midst of curve balls. Embrace God’s unwavering grace.
In the end, the very fabric of who you are and who you are becoming is wrapped up in the reality that YOU ARE UNIQUE.
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The subject of change is one of those topics that seems to always intrigue me. Particularly among teams. It’s interesting to note one’s orientation toward change and how it can create disequilibrium. Instead of peering through the lenses of “what could be,” rather, one becomes bogged down with: The past. My comfort. Fear of the future. The problem. (And the list goes on.)
Recently I picked up a new book by Chip and Dan Heath called, Switch. You can check out a recent article about their book in this months Fast Company magazine.
A little excerpt to wet your palette: “We need to switch from archaeological problem solving to bright-spot evangelizing.”
People need: Hope. Faith. Courage.
Change is possible.
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“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when the storm comes. You must look into the storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!” - Alexandre Dumas
A few weeks back I did a message at The Orchard entitled, Anchored. We grappled with this notion that each of us will engage the storms of life. That each of us, even those in God’s “perfect” will are challenged, tested and tried. In fact, one time Jesus tells his disciples after a intensive time of teaching, to get in a boat and travel to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. While they were in the boat a storm emerged.
What’s interesting about that story is that Jesus told them that his plan for them was to go to the “other side.” I believe I would be safe to say that they were following God’s plan. Yet, a BIG storm emerged.
The story depicts followers of Jesus captivated by the shifting and changing world around them, instead of an UNCHANGING God. A God of grace. A God of hope. A God who can be trusted.
For a majority of us we currently fall into three categories: entering a storm, engaging a storm, or emerging from a storm.
A question for you: How are you engaging the storms of life, today? Are you afraid? Are you allowing the changing world around you to govern your emotions, thoughts and beliefs?
What if Jesus that day was trying to help the disciples to see, after rebuking and calming the storm, that God is not: A myth. He is not a lovely idea. He is not an abstraction. He made everything that is. He stands above raging waters, time, space, and history. He is able to save us from the raging sea. Therefore, we do not have to live in fear Therefore, we do not have to live in defeat. Therefore, we do not have to cower. Therefore, we can dare to face the storms of life with a posture of TRUST! We have a heavenly Father who loves us!
How are YOU trusting God these days?
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The last couple years I have experienced an overwhelming feeling of responsibility to be a good model for my boys. Humbly, I have had the extraordinary honor of having a father who has lead and lived an integral life. Who, in gist, has been a great model for me.
Currently I have been re-reading several books on raising boys, specifically a book called, Raising a Modern-Day Knight.
Here are some hard hitting thoughts by the author:
“Many sons have a premonition that they were created for something significant, if only someone [father’s] would notice them. “
The most disturbing quote…
“The most urgent domestic challenge facing the United States at the close of the twentieth century is the re-creation of the fatherhood as a vital social role for men.”
I can’t etch into words the importance of a father’s role in their sons lives.
Dad’s, how are you doing with leading your boys these days? Make it count!
…school
…new born
…family
…misc. projects
I will be back shortly.
Change is inevitable in today’s economic landscape. Change is constant.
How are you adapting to change within your organization?
Change can be painful and uncomfortable. Mark Twain once said, “The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper.” Let’s be honest. Change can be downright hard.
As a leader within an organization, how are you a part of the process? Are you asking your direct leaders the right questions? Are you lock-step with the new direction, product launch, new strategies, approach, etc…? Or…or…are you the complainer? Are you the one who talks about how it can’t be done (although, it is good to question a process, but do it respectfully)?
(Remember leaders, those who you are leading are watching your response/reaction to change.)
I think it is imperative, especially those in leadership roles, to help facilitate change among your direct reports. The human side of change can be challenging, but crucial to effectively forge ahead.
The U.S. Department of Education project roled out a systematic approach to help deal with change. They suggested that individuals who are faced with change express six predictable and sequential concerns:
- Information concerns
- Personal concerns
- Implementation concerns
- Impact concerns
- Collaboration concerns
- Refinement concerns
At the various levels of organizations, whether for-profit or nonprofit, how are you addressing the above mentioned concerns? The question isn’t “will” change occur, but “when” change occurs are you ready? Furthermore, how are you addressing the questions and concerns echoed through the organization?
Your effectiveness as a change agent is to ensure you are educated on the “why’s, what’s and how’s.”
Change is your friend. 
Psalms 19: 1-3
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
Notice what the psalmist really does here. He speaks of Creation as a language. Notice what the text is asking us to do…it is enforcing God’s handiwork…it speaks to us in a language of its own!
I found the below description of God found “in” Creation. I believe a teenager wrote the paragraphs below.
Very Powerful!
“I have been asked by some how I can be so certain in the existence of a good God, and I have asked them in return if they have eyes to see. God has woven himself irretrievably into Nature; left his fingerprints behind to show us where he’s been. His signature is smeared into the curls of the Milky Way, forever circling above the rim of the world. God has scattered fragments of himself about the earth like a father hides eggs in the yard before his son’s very first Easter; hiding behind a tree with laughing eyes and waiting to see which of the treasures his child will uncover first.
God is crying out all around us. He is present in the breathless silence of the snow-smothered mountains; he is dancing with the sunlight that shatters on the ocean’s waves; he is hiding in the decaying moss and crumbling shale in the old forgotten places in the world. No jagged mountain throws its sharp weight against the sky that is not a testament to his goodness. The entire sum of Creation, each private and individual act of nature, is God waving hello.”
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