Death and resurrection

I'm not somebody that likes big changes.

I've been in the Bay Area for two-thirds of my life. I have yet to voluntarily change jobs (got laid off once). I only had one girlfriend, who is now my wife. Even traveling tends to stress me out at the beginning due to the preparation required and the tying up of loose ends needed.

Lately, God has been impressing upon me this principle: Something has to die before it can be resurrected.

Put another way by a friend: God doesn't pour new wine into old wineskins (Matthew 9:17).

Meditating on these verses lately:

John 12:24 - I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Luke 13:6-9 - Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Tomorrow, Shally and I will be on our way to the land down under, the largest natural structure that can be seen from space, and Middle-Earth (aka Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, and the South Island of New Zealand) for three weeks - by my memory, the second longest time I'll have been away from home.

We'll be spending one of the weeks surrounded by scenery like this:



I'm hoping for a good time of rest, reflection, and renewal. When we get back, there are likely more changes in store in our lives, more dying that needs to be done, perhaps some working of the soil, before life can come again.

Will write again upon our return.

Quotes of the Day

Chuck Swindoll 10 Lifetime Leadership Lessons

"2) It’s dangerous to succeed. I’m most concerned for those who aren’t even 30 and are very gifted and successful. Sometimes God uses someone right out of youth, but usually he uses leaders who have been crushed.
6) Brokenness and failure are necessary."

I get the sense that I should be trying and failing more...

Interesting that 20-somethings and early 30-somethings (young, innovative entrepreneurs not tied down to tradition or family) have often been the ones succeeding in different ventures over the last ten years, even in Christendom.

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on men and women

“The key to life is to surround yourself with lots of women,” Oliver said. “Men would just lie to me. Girls say, ‘Give me half an hour and I’ll find out.’ They’re intelligent, more loyal and they make things happen. Everything I do is about team, really. So 90 percent of my team are women.”

Perhaps because men have a tendency to protect their fragile egos by pretending to know things rather than admitting they don't know and then getting things done?

Matt Moore on the Charlotte Bobcats and organizational makeovers

“The Bobcats are a playoff contender, and have been since Larry Brown decided to dump his best player (Jason Richardson) to Phoenix for jack-of-all-trades-master-of-awkward-spacing Boris Diaw and older than dirt Raja Bell. When that trade occurred, there was universal questioning of what in the carolina blue blazes Larry Brown was thinking. You don’t ditch your best player! But Brown understood a resounding principle of rebuilding/makeovers/reconfigurations. Whatever the core pillar is of the function that is not being successful, it is the first thing that must go."

Is this always true? Can a core pillar of one unsuccessful organization ever become a core pillar in a successful one?

Seth Godin on the Hierarchy of Success

"I think it looks like this:

Attitude
Approach
Goals
Strategy
Tactics
Execution

...

Tactics tell you what to execute. They're important, but dwarfed by strategy. Strategy determines which tactics might work.

But what's the point of a strategy if your goals aren't clear, or contradict?

Which leads the first two, the two we almost never hear about.

Approach determines how you look at the project (or your career). Do you read a lot of books? Ask a lot of questions? Use science and testing or go with your hunches? Are you imperious? A lifehacker? When was the last time you admitted an error and made a dramatic course correction? Most everyone has a style, and if you pick the wrong one, then all the strategy, tactics and execution in the world won't work nearly as well.

As far as I'm concerned, the most important of all, the top of the hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What's your bias in dealing with people and problems?"

When hiring, most organizations don't necessarily delve too much into the top two tiers of the hierarchy. I wonder if these can be measured in any way.

Shaun Groves on making celebrities of pastors

"I don’t want the Andies to love some speaker guy’s church so much that they stop loving their own. How many guys have developed ulcers and butchered community by trying to create the church they want to lead out of the church they have been given to lead?"

I guilty of the tendency to "celebritize" well-known leaders as well.

Stability in the storm

In the midst of turbulent times in the third and fourth general priorities in my life (work and church), I'm glad for stability that I can hold onto in trusting in God (#1) and my marriage and family.

Mortifying recent experience: I have often joked about the possibility of my running over the multitudes of toddlers that are just beginning to discover the worlds right in front of my feet. Well, on Sunday at church, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy as I ran smack into a little boy who maybe came up to my knees. Fortunately, I don't think he was able to recognize me (and thus mark me as a target for future vengeance) through the cloud of tears. His mom was very gracious.

Funny recent experience: in practicing worship songs for an upcoming wedding, Mike P commented that in the Hillsongs ballad "None But Jesus", a quiet song about whole-hearted devotion (Lyrics: There is no one else for me / None but Jesus / Crucified to set me free), it was easy to confuse the "for" and "but", leading to:

There is no one else but me
None for Jesus

That has the potential of being as hilariously memorable as the faux pax from a few years ago - "I'm forsaken, because You were forsaken."