What is Power?

So this woman calls herself a “power woman.” Claims she’s highly successful. Been married four times. Her latest marriage has lasted for 17 years because the man she’s married to submits to her absolute control. According to her brother, she’s been a control freak since they were small children. Her daughter moved out of the house at 16.

"Power woman"?

What do you think?
What is power? What is influence?

Stupid

I have this to say after watching the news:

If you are stupid enough to kite surf when the hurricane is coming, after the authorities told you not to, and the wind carries you over the water... over the beach... across the street... and slams you into a building - you better cough up some cash to pay for the paramedics that had to go peel your sorry self off a wall and take you to the hospital!

Sorry to be so cranky. I'd better get more cafecito - and ban myself from the computer!!

[PS - that picture is just a random kite surfer on a nice day... not the brilliant one that got blown into a wall today.]

Here is the video.

Training on Lake Nottely

God is wonderful in how he balances our training! Books and seminars are great…
Real flesh and blood humans that have survived overwhelming odds as leaders are even better!

We were not able to attend the second day of the Leadership Summit, as we had long ago scheduled a visit to friends in Georgia. A Ukrainian pastor and his family were also visiting… we spent rich time with them as our children splashed and explored on the lake.

Nic was a pastor of the underground church in the former Soviet Union. He has since founded several churches, including some in the States. He is replete with the Holy Spirit and immense joy. He has known immense suffering. He unfolded more of God’s character for us as he told us about his experiences walking with Jesus.

Stories of persecution under the KGB were not new to us – Peter in fact spent some time at a mission station in Finland, where our teams helped prepare packages of Bibles to smuggle into the Soviet Union.

Yet how intensely in the “now” we sensed the presence of the Lord as we soaked in His ways… sitting on a boat in a lake in Georgia (the very day another Georgia – across the globe – is engulfed in conflict), our children fellowshipping over muddy, glittery rocks!

He told us of miracle after miracle of healing and deliverance. Of having to ask God specifically at what hour to meet and where, so as to avoid arrest. Experiences of believers at diverse starting points, walking miles in the woods and asking God where to go, unexpectedly meeting up with other groups in the same remote area of the forest – miraculously brought together by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And more.

Stories new generations of believers need to know about. God has not changed.

Nic and Svetlana are simple humans, as are we all. And as humans, they reminded me that being massively overwhelmingly in love with God, and diving headfirst into His work, regardless of opposition, are the truly indispensable qualities of great leaders.

The Greatest Lie Ever Told

Another leader I admire is Wendy Kopp, who was interviewed at the Summit. She founded Teach for America when she was 21 years old. She is proof positive of what I call The Greatest Lie Ever Told.

What is this Lie? It's a two-fold deception:

First part – that young people are supposed to party hardy and be self-absorbed. This presupposes that they are children with grown-up bodies who can’t think beyond next weekend.
Second part – that if you challenge them to serve a purpose greater than themselves, an urgent cause which requires self-sacrifice, they won’t rise to the occasion.

I strongly disagree with the entire premise. History is replete with examples of young people discovering courage and possibilities they did not know lay dormant within them, often leading people much older than themselves, and rising to greatness.

Here is a brief excerpt from the history of Teach for America:

As a 21 year-old, Kopp raised $2.5 million of start-up funding, hired a skeleton staff, and launched a grass-roots recruitment campaign. During Teach For America's first year in 1990, 500 men and women began teaching in six low-income communities across the country. Since then, Teach For America's network has grown to 20,000 individuals.

Think About It!

Fierce Competition

The Olympics are nothing compared to what goes on in our family. Peter just finished a fierce foosball tournament with Ben, Faith, and Adam (10, 8, 6; Adam isn’t ours, btw). Team BenFaith beat Team PeterAdam. Their reward? “To watch you and Daddy play ping pong against each other!”

Our ping pong spectacular was supposed to be two out of three. Being the truly stinky player that I am, and a sore loser, after I lost the first two I begged for it to be three out of five. Peter graciously gave me some tips. After resisting, I finally listened to him. I got a little better. In the end he did win, but it was three games to two.

Then it was on to foosball. Control vs. Chaos! Our styles couldn’t be any more different! He carefully handled the ball, even getting his little guys to pass laterally. My poor guys kept on ending up upside down, or whirling frantically and committing own goals. It was maddening. Again he patiently schooled me. That was maddening too. The kids kept offering to help me. (?!) Eventually I (while still arguing) started doing what he said. I got a bit better. He still won.

We are so similar in values and intensity, so absolutely opposite in style!! But it is a match made in heaven. He’s the hyper to my active. He’s the spontaneous to my combustion. He’s the aloe vera to my sunburn. He’s the counterpoint to my point. He’s the “let grace work” to my “but I gotta fix it!”

Rematch is tonight.

Hopeless Scary Hard

Certain people float my boat… I listened to a couple of them at the Leadership Summit.
Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission, is one such individual. The IJM deals with horrible issues of modern day slavery around the globe. He spoke of how we can feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems that afflict our world. He said, and I with imperfection repeat, (all credit to him):

· Hopeless – when you feel hopeless, re-center the basis of your hope. It is God Who is responsible for outcomes. Our job – give him all we are.
· Scary – the tasks He assigns us can be genuinely scary. But Jesus did not come to make us safe, He came to make us brave. We lead by reminding the people around us of this. We are to be liberated from the mediocrity of safe bets.
· Hard – effective leadership presses on no matter how hard the assignment. And He went into detail on choices leaders must make: choose not to be safe, choose to seek deep spiritual health, choose to seek excellence, and choose to seize joy.

His book is called Just Courage.

Friends and Visionaries

Do you have any friends from your past that you think of every now and then? People that shared special seasons in your life, yet you slowly lost contact?

I have some of those people. There are people I shared some of the most formational times in my life with... my friend in Chile that I met in modeling school (she's now an academic, I'm a - whatever I am!)... my best friend on the ship, who was always so peaceful in my torment... my friend from youth group in Chile, who could sing beautifully and was so patient with my lack of singing ability! Or my friends I walked the streets of Belfast with, both sides of the line, doing outreach... or my other friend who gave me a favorite devotional (Daily Light) over twenty years ago, which I still read... or my first pastors, two of them, so different from each other yet forever shaping my faith... or friends from California, with whom I used to homeschool, or swap kids, or puzzle and/or despair over church politics...

So many are making such a difference in the world today! They run NGO's focused on bettering the lives of the poorest of the poor. Some in India, Brazil, Cambodia, North Africa...

I'm not surprised - they made such a difference in my life. I am thrilled because I have recently renewed contact with many of them! Reconnecting has breathed fresh strength into my dreams today.

My advice to you? Dream your visions, and make sure you surround yourself with dreaming visionaries! Don't have any in your life right now? Ask and you shall receive!

All at once, or one at a time?

Thanks for visiting with me at my desk yesterday!

I forgot to mention another book I am reading now, which is And Their Dogs Came With Them, by Helena Maria Viramontes. She's the author of "The Moths" and many other short stories. Her stories are authentic - I feel they transfer me to the barrios about which she so touchingly writes. When I am reading her I can practically smell the food her characters are cooking... and I agonize with them over their struggles.

Here is a question for you!! The world is divided into two types of people: those that read several books at a time, and those that like to finish one before starting the next.

Which one are you? I am seriously curious as to other people's reading habits...

Bookaholic

So here is a confession. I am a bookaholic. I can't enter a bookstore with any kind of currency, because of the temptation. Seriously. I have such a deep affection for books, I read several at a time.

I have a "reader's journal" where I am supposed to jot down mini-reviews of the books I read. It has been my intention for years to keep brief summaries/notes about each book, for reference as well as to use when I "prescribe" a book to a friend for whatever may ail him or her.

But I have recently finished a succession of books... and written about none of them! No sooner did I finish one that I compulsively started devouring another. Then another. Why? I don't know. Such impatience. It gives you indigestion - to keep intaking the thoughts of others without adequately digesting them. You cannot savour them, and they don't nourish you as much as they could. What am I missing, when I press ahead like that? I don't know, do I?!

Here in a nutshell are the recently finished books: Yann Martel's Life of Pi - an odd and completely engrossing book about a boy from India who is cast adrift for months in a lifeboat with several animals from a zoo. This book sprained my brain slightly, and I love that. Hannah Hurnard's Hind's Feet on High Places - a classic which I had never read, about Miss Much Afraid (how I relate to her!) and her journey from the valley (where she is tormented by her relatives, the Fearings) to the High Places with the Shepherd. I think every woman on the planet should read it. A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser - a story of catastrophic loss, the words of a man who lost his mother, wife and daughter all in one tragic accident, and was left to raise his surviving children on his own. This non-depressing book has helped thousands deal with sudden, unexplained heartache and tragedy.

I'm working on Dear Church, by Sarah Cunningham - a letter from a young woman to the Church, explaining why so many of her generation have grown disillusioned. Every pastor should read this one... Also, the Confessions of Saint Augustine, which might take me a lifetime to read - it's slow going. Did you know he was a type of prodigal son for ten very long years? He had a lot to confess! Am re-reading The Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer. Also a classic, and should be re-read regularly to maintain perspective on just Who is God.

Yup. Books are awesome.

on Pursuing...

I just heard a message that had as one of its points the importance of perseverance. Pastor Troy used as an example that, sometimes, the thought of running for many miles can seem daunting. But, when you focus on finishing only the lap you happen to be on, suddenly you find you can accomplish far more than you thought.

Which made me think of many times in my life when I absolutely did not have any strength left... I remember when I was 19, working with an NGO and living on a ship - collapsing on the very small bathroom floor and crying from exhaustion, thinking I simply couldn't go on... then having to get up and go on. Times in ballet class with my legs drained and trembling, ready to betray me - and somehow my brain forcing them just a little higher, just a little longer... Emotional challenges our family has had to face, where it seemed one day more - even one hour more - was too long to endure.

Philippians 3:6,10 & 14 have one particular Greek word in common: in vs. 6 it's translated "persecute," vs. 10 "follow after," and vs. 14 "press" toward. The word in essence means "to pursue." Paul says (my paraphrase), "forgetting what lies behind, I am reaching toward the future... I aggressively pursue... my greater vocation..."

Don't stop pursuing your greater vocation... your higher calling. Sometimes that pursuit is painful - a young person I was talking to commented on the need for people to know how to make tough decisions despite the personal pain they may cause. She inspired me. Sometimes that pursuit is scary - as with little crippled Much Afraid, in Hind's Feet on High Places, the family of Fearings will attack and try to make us turn back with whispers and lies. Like Much Afraid, we will find that the Shepherd gives us the strength we need if only we ask.

I once heard Luis Palau ask, "How do you eat an elephant?" His answer - "One bite at a time." If you are tempted to give up, just make it this one hour longer, and then the next, and the next... You will find your hours turn into days, then weeks... and before you know it, you will not only have endured, you will have overcome! You will be stronger, and you will be able to turn and extend your arms, to help fellow pilgrims pursue their greater vocations.

Strictly Fearless

"Vivir con miedo es vivir a medias." That quote from Strictly Ballroom reminds me why it is one of my all time favorite movies! It means, "a life lived in fear is a life half-lived."

It is a satirical look a the world of ballroom dancing in Australia... A world where you must only dance Federation approved steps - you MUST do everything "strictly ballroom" - decorum and tradition demand it.

[Not really; a wickedly corrupt President of the Ballroom Dance Federation demands it, so he can keep his power and control; tradition has nothing to do with it!]

It is a world where individual creativity and expression are squashed. What are you to do, when the rhythm of your life and the music in your veins dictate otherwise? Should you give in to fear, or should you leap and spin and dance your own steps?

The score God has written for my life differs from the one He has composed for yours... May we dance our own steps. May we be free and encourage others to also be free.

Red Dye Speaks

Saw an amusing reminder the other day of what can happen when you do something you shouldn't, don't have any immediate consequences... and go about your life convinced that maybe it wasn't so bad. After all, you didn't get hit by lightning! Hehe... yet.

Turns out this guy robbed a bank, and stuck the bag of cash in his pants. In an awkward place. Then he nonchalantly went shopping. Half an hour later, the packet exploded in his pants, causing a big cloud of red dye to emanate from that region of his body, for all the world (and security cameras) to see.

Aren't we as foolish sometimes? We start acting against the desires of our heavenly Father for us. We hear His voice, quietly warning us. We ignore it and lean further and further (like a kid straining for a cookie jar), telling ourselves it's really okay... and when no thunder roars from heaven, we think we are safe. This can be any area big or small - truthtelling or withholding truth, cheating, gossiping, sexual immorality, stealing...

Loving reminder: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Gal 6:7)

For the amusing details, click here: AP Video

Desires

I had seen this quote ages ago... and just ran across it again. So well put!! It exactly expresses what I could not put into words. Ponder their meaning:

"Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures fooling around with drink, sex, and ambition when infinite joy is offered us; like an ignorant child content to play with mud pies in a slum, when he doesn't know what it means to have a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory

Eeeeewww

She leaned into him, her hand on the back of his head, and pulled him toward her for a kiss. They were in the back seat of a car. A car that was in front of us. As we drove. Too slowly. 15 miles below the limit. On the long series of ramps heading into MIA. One lane only. We had a flight to catch. She was creepy crawly all over him. We were horrified and transfixed. “Eeeeewww!!” we yelled (not squealed) with disgust. Because after the kiss, was the grooming. Like a monkey. She pulled his shaven head down and apparently was popping a zit on his head. A stubborn one at that. (“Eeeeewww!” says my reader at this point). Then another. Then fixing his shirt. Grooming. Like monkeys. More kisses. The people in their front seat oblivious. We should not have seen it. But we had a flight to catch. We were behind them. Too close.

Which left me with curious thoughts. Was he leaving on a trip, and she couldn’t bear to let him go? Did he feel suffocated by her mothering? Were they married and he had affairs because she treated him like a child? (I know, I know, my mind goes way off the path when it comes to observing human behaviour). Did he enjoy it? Was it comforting for him?

Which left me with spiritual thoughts. How controlling are we in life? Do we face situations where we feel the need to kiss, groom, squeeze, adjust, and generally overwhelm and overcompensate – because we’re scared and can’t trust God? What do you think? Are there circumstances and challenges you face, or even people you love, that you figuratively can’t stop messing with?

Wonderment

Ben ran down the driveway toward the neighbor's house. Time for school, gotta get the carpool buddies. He jolted to a halt halfway, eyes fixed on a forty foot palm tree, stopped his sister in her tracks, shushed me with a gesture, then froze.

An extravagant woodpecker was making his way up the trunk. I don't know anything about birds, but by his impressive plummage I assumed he was mature. He was dressed like an African king, with a regal zebra pattern on his back and bright red headdress.

Several minutes passed, he pecked his way to the top of the tree, then in took off in a flurry. We pushed the play button on life again, gathered the human wildlife, and off to school in a noisy car... I live for these moments.