View from the 24th Floor

Ahh the pressure! How to come up with witty and profound items for a blog every couple of days! How about some free flowing stream of consciousness?

As I sit here in the hotel in Las Vegas and stare out the window from the 24^th floor, my mind whirs. This is really an interesting down/city/locale. The architecture is amazing. The beauty of the mountains surrounding the city is breathtaking. I love the look of the sun coming up over the mountains (what mountains are they? I haven’t even done my research!) at 6 a.m. By the same token, I love the look of the shadows on the mountains as the sun sets at about 7:30- 8:00 p.m. Wow! God does some great stuff! These are completely different than the mountains in Alaska – and I love those! I wonder what it is like in Denver to see the Rockies up close.

Did I mention architecture? These buildings are colossal! And so detailed (we went through Caesars Palace Forum – amazing!) I still can’t get over the spire with the rides on top and guys bungee jumping off the top (about 800 feet up). That is amazing, but definitely not for me! (Stratosphere, just watched another guy go down! Wow!)

The heat is intense this week. We have been over 100 every day we’ve been here and it isn’t supposed to go under 100 for another 4-5 days when it drops to 99, and then takes off again over 100. “But it is a dry heat!” Yeah right, it is still hot, and you don’t want to put your hands on the hand rails outside because they have been cooking all day in the sun!

And under all this are the people. I know I haven’t met everyone, but remember, I have been influenced by many things – growing up a preacher’s kid, living in small town in the MidWest, went to a conservative Christian University (not ashamed of ONU! www.olivet.edu) – and this town is not like the area I grew up. Suffice it to say there are some differences in attitudes or morals out here. In my mind’s eye, this seems to be like a cross of Cedar Point and Key West Florida. Not bad places, but different than small town Michigan! We have also seen so many homeless people begging by the street side and sidewalks. There are an estimated 10,000 homeless in Las Vegas.  They are right outside multi-million dollar hotels and casinos. Some were right close to a large building advertising as an employment agency for the many businesses in town. Yet they are unemployed and homeless. The city has a population of almost 600,000 and the metropolitan area has a population of almost 2 million people.  This is not a small area! What can be done to help out here? What can we do to help make a difference? (I joked about the Church of the Nazarene having a General Assembly here, it has the hotels, space, everything, but the culture is sooo different than our “church” culture. So we go to safe and secure Indianapolis in the Midwest…)

And as I think about this and the need to help, I wonder about the many people in our own communities that are hurting, homeless and needy, and because we are right there we don’t notice them. If we go someplace outside our comfort zone, we notice all the “different things” than back home. But once we get back home, our blinders go back on. Pastor talked in his sermon this last week, about getting the plank out of our eye before we attempt to remove a speck from someone else’s eye. Do you think this may relate? We are eager, anxious, and very willing to go “somewhere else” to help folks while ignoring the needs in our own community? I am not faultless in this, I love the ideas of work and witness trips to other world areas to help out, but sometimes I think we look so much for the big “home run” swing, while we miss the opportunity for a good single, or bunt in our own neighborhood. (Nice baseball metaphor from a non-baseball player, eh?) I don’t think I can ever forget the one young man with a sign that said “I am not invisible”. What a reminder!

How can we open our eyes to the needs around us, and not dismiss them because they are not big, bold and splashy? How do we balance the needs nearby, with the needs far away? Christ said to go into all the world. And in Acts chapter 1, He describes the very places “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8b NIV). He describes near and far. Help me out here, I need some suggestions on this balancing act because this happens to me too!

Politics a reflection of kids or Vice Versa?

I was just reading this article online and I was struck by how this sounds so much like kids, teens, some co-workers. And we wonder about why there is such a general distrust of people and a sense of dishonesty (can I say that without seeming politically incorrect?)?

This is a quote from a politician in Michigan when asked about his direct involvement and knowledge of a very ethically questionable situation. “I did not lie. I'm saying I didn't answer the question, I was evasive." *

Wow.  And he goes on to say (in essence) not to judge him on this one issue, but look at his entire body of work.  Don’t we hear that from co-workers or young people when they are caught in questionable situations? “Don’t judge me just on this; look at the overall body of work.” But if a structure is inherently weak in one area, doesn’t that weaken the entire structure? Doesn’t that call into question the entire building’s integrity? If you knew that a builder was using substandard material in one area (to save you money and allow you spend more on other areas of your home, for instance) wouldn’t you begin to question their overall integrity, and what were they compromising on and NOT telling you? 

And when people see elected leaders doing this, and getting away with it, and trying to rationalize and justify these types of actions, they say “Why can’t I do that too?”

Seems like we need to get back to some basic parameters for morals and ethics. “Right!” you say, “but who’s ethics? What if I don’t agree with the standards you set?”  Seems like we have a possibility of being like the people of Israel from Scripture where everyone “did what was right in his own sight” (Judges 21:25).  How about if we use the standards that God set for us? Then we don’t have to waffle and try and hedge and twist things to meet the situation. The Ten Commandments are a good start. (Exodus 20). Or Christ’s command to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as our self. (Matthew 22:36-40)  These seem to be pretty basic, and universal. They apply to basic ethics for living our lives. How is it that people can move so far away from these?

As we stray from these precepts (old word, but it fits) we begin to twist and bend things to meet our needs (sometimes very selfishly and to the harm of others).  Others begin to mimic this behavior and soon many are doing this. And then we wonder why the little 5 years says “I didn’t lie, you didn’t ask the right question!”

What are ways we can get back to these basics? Think concrete and definitive ways that we can positively/proactively move this process. Yes it takes prayer, yes it takes God being very much involved in the process. But don’t we have to actively listen and obey?  We need to be a part of this too, don’t we? How can we get life to reflect our Creator instead of selfish little kids?

• for the full article, you can see: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/07/house_speaker_jase_bolger_i_di.html

Musings about God and free will

Wow.

Ever notice how once your kids are born you spend all their early years trying to teach them to be independent, to think for themselves, to make decisions, and be responsible. Yet as they get into their later teen years or young 20’s, you  want them to check with you more often before making those decisions, and to listen more carefully to your advise.  At this point, we aren’t too sure we really meant all those things about being independent. “Think for yourself but only as far as I agree with your decisions” Interesting twist. And as they get older (and us), they slowly start giving us advise and get agitated when we don’t take their recommendations.

This seems to be difficult for me as my kids get older and more independent. I want them to be independent, but I am nervous as they step out for themselves. Will they make the right decisions (from my perspective of course)? And what makes them think they are experienced enough or knowledgeable enough to make suggestions to me as they get older?

I think in the same way, God is concerned about the choices we make as we get older and more independent. He gave us free will and the ability to make decisions and choices; but do you think He still is anxious about the choices we make? I don’t want to mess up my theology too much, because I know that that He is all-knowing, but in working with the analogy of a loving Father, I think God still feels anxious (that may not be the right word for God’s emotions) for our decisions. He knows the results of our choices, and I believe He cares so much for us, that He is concerned for the ramifications of our decisions. Just like we are concerned about the choices our kids make. And as we grow older, we find ourselves praying to God about circumstances, and we seem to chip in our own ideas about how those prayers should be answered. We say “Your will be done, but if you taking requests (and you say we have not because we ask not, so I’m asking) here is how I think it should be answered in order to make ME happy.” What amazing hubris! To think we can tell God how to answer our prayers and then get steamed if He doesn’t do it our way! Do you think God gets annoyed with us, when we ask His opinion and don’t listen or respond to His answers? Do you, when your kids do this?

Yet God gave Adam and Eve that free will and the right to make their own choices; He knew how that would shake out and what the results would be like today. And yet He still loved us enough to give that choice to us, anyway. Pretty amazing. Just like what we wind up doing with our own kids.

Does this make sense? Do you see any of this?

Whirlwind leadership

Thunderstorms recently. Big ones. Many tree limbs were tore down and hail (in some areas) and power outages all over the area. I heard over 200,000 people in the Detroit area were without power and it would be several days before service could be restored. As I thought about this storm, my mind wandered to ideas of leadership and change management (I know kind of an odd juxtaposition, but then that is my mind!)

Ever notice that some leaders are like the big storms? They come into a leadership position (workplace, church, community group, a teen group, whatever) and they immediately begin to whirl around and make changes and toss ideas around, make changes, exert their authority.

They have read the old leadership books that talk about the fact that leaders are on a “honeymoon” for the first six months and people are more willing to accept the ideas of change early on in their position, and so you must strike while opportunity is hot. So these new leaders whirl in and change this, change that, reorg this area, throw out that procedure, and make sure they put their stamp on everything in the area. Then like that storm last night, they exhaust themselves and move on to a new position and start all over again.

There is some truth in being able to make changes early in a tenure. But with the idea that real leadership is based on relationships and trust, then that means it takes longer for you to develop credibility with the people you are working with. This means (to me) that you go slower at first. You establish yourself as a leader, let people learn to trust you, get some “wins” under your belt and leverage that increased confidence into being able to do more with the folks you are working with.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not manipulation, this is truly developing trusting relationships with those you are working with, in order to create a sense of “buy in” and camaraderie in order to pull together to make lasting and significant changes and improvements in the workplace. As you develop this sense of trust and find out the strengths and weaknesses of your team members, you can “pitch” projects to them that play to their talents. This lets them know that you are trusting them and they will enjoy themselves more, and work harder for you to accomplish the agreed upon goals. What a concept! It helps to spur innovation and creativity. Staff morale will go up. And you aren’t seen as a whirlwind that rushes in, makes wholesale changes without regard to others or without understanding WHY things are done as they are, and then rushes out again. Staff will trust you, and share more with you (not just about themselves, but about the work processes). You will become one of the team and not just a BOSS.

What a concept.

What do you think? Have you ever experienced the “whirlwind” boss?

Shifting sands of culture

Ever thought about the classic rock that we listen to now was so evil back in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s when it came out? Now folks are reminiscing about how they wish all the “good” music would come back and not this drivel that is being passed around today.

And the TV’s shows from back then….I wasn’t allowed to watch The Smothers Brothers or Laugh In or Sonny and Cher because they were to racy or controversial. They would be pretty tame today.

Interesting how society’s values have changed. We have spent so much time pushing the envelope that it seems like the envelope has been stretched so far it cannot return to its original shape. Like a rubber band stretched too far, it becomes unable to serve as it was formed. Has our society pushed things so far that we have a hard time setting boundaries and knowing right and wrong and everything is relative?

I think that there are moral absolutes, but boy is it hard having that conversation with others. I remember listening to teens in our church youth group several years ago talk about how it was ok to cheat (creatively respond) on homework and exams in order to get better grades to get the scholarships to let them get a better education to allow them to serve God better. Really? That’s how that works? And these were kids raised in the church with parents in positions of leadership, who should know better. You try to discuss the odd juxtaposition of thoughts and they didn’t get it.  But it isn’t just teens. Remember a few years back when a school district in the south was caught tampering with standardized tests to raise their scores to allow the schools to qualify for more federal aid?  They justified doing what was wrong in order to better serve the community at doing something good for the students. These were educated people, people in places of responsibility and authority in the schools. How do you have a rationale discussion with people that these things are really crossing the line and are not to be accepted?

It’s interesting how far people will go to justify that what they know is wrong, is actually ok in that it helps them. Isn’t that kind of like “the ends justify the means”? And I have heard churches say that they must change to meet the changing needs of the community and the changing expectations of those who are unsaved. I understand that. Paul said that he would be all things to able to save some (loose translation of I Cor. 9:22). But I think that means finding ways to fit into the culture to make Christ relevant without compromising the integrity of the Gospel. He did not mean intentionally sinning in order to save some. Just as Jesus used parables that the people could understand, Paul is saying we must be as relevant with our testimony to those who don’t understand all the buzzwords and coded acronyms that we toss around so freely in the church.

 Just thinking that while other standards may change, our standards and convictions related to Christ and the church should not, cannot change.

What do you think? Am I too “old school”?

Middle age crazy or New opportunities?

I have been doing a lot of thinking about trying my hand at writing “something.” I have purchased books on how to write, how to get yourself published, and how to make money doing this. But at the root of everything is a thought that I have no idea what to write about. It doesn’t seem like I would have anything to add to the tomes on leadership, or customer relationships, or developing strong teams. It has been written by folks with more credibility than I.

So what to write about? Maybe I am in the middle age crazy part. I want to branch out to new things, I feel like God is calling me to stretch myself, yet I am afraid to take that step out of my comfort zone. My Sunday school class and small group have really been pushing me in this area. “Get out of your comfort zone!”  But it is so comfortable! That’s way it is a zone! It’s bigger than just a room or a closet. It’s an entire zone! And how do you step out to do these new things with any level of credibility? I guess that is part of the trusting God part. People tell me I should write and share from experiences, but what do I know that would add to this body of knowledge on the Internet?

I really think this would be an interesting side trail in my life. Who knows? It might open other opportunities, or maybe It is just about sharing thoughts that others might be able to use to help them in their career, or their ministry, or just in their journey of life. Not saying I know it all (we know that isn’t true!), but I think I’ve been knocked around and been involved in enough things that maybe someone could learn from my mistakes.

What do you think?