Tag: perspective

Substance vs Surface

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Where I live in Texas we have mesquite trees. They are everywhere. I have a few around my house that have been alive undoubtedly for decades.

Years ago, I spent a a month or so trying to grub mesquite trees. The trick, however, was you had to get down into the root system to truly get rid of them. Generally about 1 foot under the surface, there would be a bulb in the root system, and that was our target. If we could get the bulb, we could get the tree.

Our words should be the same way. As leaders, the things we say need to have roots, need to have substance.

Too many people get by in life by saying things that sound good but really have no substance. Or they say things that stand up until you think about what they’re actually saying, then you realize there is no root in their words.

Some people specialize in surface statements. They want to be quotable and tweet-able, but upon further thought, their statements have no root in truth or reality.

We, as leaders, should be different. Let your statements have root, let them carry weight.

Surface flatters someone for the sake of flattery, but substance points out and highlights the positives in their life.

Just like the mesquite trees that cannot be pushed over, I want what I say to the people around me to be filled with truth, with encouragement, and with love.

The truth is that regardless of what we say, our words have a lasting impact. I’m challenging you, as a leader and as a person in general, to let what you say mean something.

Leaders Step Up

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Leadership in itself can be a stick situation. The temptation is to always think someone else is going to step up, but a strong leader is able to realize when the situation calls for someone to step up who wouldn’t normally be expected to do so.

Think of it like this: when i was a freshman in high school, i was one of the oldest kids in the ministry. As a result, my attitude toward how old a teenager has to be to lead has been altered.

The temptation in youth ministry is to wait until a student is a junior or a senior to give them leadership responsibilities, because they’re older and more mature by that time. And that makes sense.

For me, however, I want a kid who is willing to step up and make a difference, regardless of age. Sometimes this means we have 8th graders on our leadership team, other times it means we have mostly high school.

Part of my role, as a leader who seeks to develop other leaders, leads me to encourage younger students to step up to a role they may not think they fit.

The same idea applies to you: you are going to be presented with opportunities to step into a position for which you may not think you are ready. Too often, however, leadership opportunities arise because we are willing, not because we are ready.

Are you willing to step up? What situation are you facing that feels like you’re on the edge of a cliff trying to build the courage to jump? What’s holding you back? What fear do you need to give up? Why have you not given your fear up yet?

Remembering 9/11

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I was a senior in high school, dating my eventual wife. I remember getting to school and hearing how the first plane struck the tower. Then, as we walked into second period, I remember my English teacher talking with us about it and saying it had to have been an accident, there’s no way it could have been done on purpose.

As the day unfolded, we found out she was wrong.

I had no frame of reference to handle the information. Nothing like that had happened in my life before. It is still surreal to think about.

My generation has 9/11. My parents have JFK’s assassination. I have no wise reflections today, only a somber spirit.

So, let’s do this, if you’re reading this, comment and tell me what you remember about September 11, 2001. Where were you when you heard the news? What was your first reaction? What do you remember from the days that followed?

Also, for a fascinating read about Air Force One in the eight hours following the attacks, click here. But not until you comment below!

Learn to Audible

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I have a generally pessimistic attitude about rain. Please do not misunderstand me: I love rain, but I distrust forecasts. I have a nagging suspicion that if you ever look at a weather app, there is a perpetual chance of rain next week. Always next week. It rarely moves to the next day. Until this week.

Occasionally, my paranoia is wrong. (Feel free to tweet that.)

This week our kids ministry was planning to kickoff the semester with a night at the park. I invited myself (and the youth) to join them and to help with time together. Last week our children’s minister told me there were chances of rain all week, but I wrote it off as the perpetual rain chance. Then, I awoke yesterday to a steady rain.

The adjustment was pretty simple. Instead of meeting at the park, we were going to meet at the church and roll with it there, but there was still some work to make up.

In leadership, there is always a chance of rain. Something will usually go wrong, and the question is how will you respond?

Are you so tied to your schedule and plans that any alteration upsets the very core of your being?

Or maybe you’re so relaxed about plans that changing at the last minute does not worry you because you would not have done any planning before then anyway.

I would urge you to find the middle ground. Find the value in proper planning with a loose grip. Put forth the effort you need, but be willing to make adjustments at the last moment.

A similar situation happened at camp this summer. We were seeing remarkably hot temperatures, so we had a discussion before the final rec time. We had done the planning ahead of time, but felt it was time to call an audible, so we moved our rec time inside. All of the dominoes lined up, and our audible was a win all around.

Sometimes leadership requires flexibility. Scratch that. Leadership always requires flexibility. Learn to call an audible when the time comes. You’ll lead better because of it.

Accomplish a Little Today

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Earlier this month I ran across an Evernote file I made in January titled “2018 Goals”. In the note, I set out a few goals I wanted to accomplish this year. For example, I wanted to read 24 books this year.

The problem was that I had forgotten about the goals. I failed to keep them in front of me, so I made the goals in January and stumbled onto the file in August.

So, those 24 books I want to read? I have completed 4 (with 2 being finished on vacation, after finding the note). So, yeah, I still have a ways to go.

Then I started thinking: I don’t have to read 20 books in the next week. All I really need to do is to pick up one book and read a little bit today. If I can establish a routine and work reading into one of my habits, then the end result will be something entirely different than the first 7 months of the year.

Accomplishing my goal does not mean reading a bunch tomorrow, it starts with reading a little today.

The same is true for you and your leadership. Whatever goal you are staring in the face is not as large as it may seem.

Maybe you want to grow your organization (or ministry), but it seems like such a daunting task. Accomplishing your goal does not mean growing a bunch tomorrow, it means growing a little today. Start making relational investments now.

Maybe you want to make family a higher priority in your life. Accomplishing your goal doesn’t mean binging time with your family tomorrow, it means making the most of the time you have today.

Maybe you want to a leading voice in your field. Accomplishing your goal does not mean getting a bunch of recognition tomorrow, it means doing the little things right today.

Then, in all these things, as you make the commitment to accomplish little by little every day, the goal quickly shrinks.

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