Taking Time

Weekly Thought – March 28, 2017

Fred approached every element of his life from a philosophical and theological position. He constructed a system of thought which served as the underpinning. His study of time is a good example.

Taking Time

As Donald Bloesch puts it, “Busyness is the new holiness.” Lack of time is a status symbol, and to me, that is backwards. If you really are somebody, you are in control of your time.

Personally, I think optimizing opportunities and talents is in a sense bringing redemption to everything around me – that is the valid reason to use time well.

These are my philosophical cornerstones:

1) I am a created being and therefore responsible to the Creator for my life.

2) Time is simply life’s clock. Time is a tool – a means in life – never an end. Time is not something to be pursued for its own sake, but for what can be done with it.

3) Since my life is measured by time, I have a responsibility to control it. Most of us don’t let other people spend our money; likewise, we should limit their power to spend our money.

4) I have been given the same amount of time each day as everybody else. The great achievers of the world don’t have any more hours than I do. It is simply untrue to say, “I don’t have enough time.” What is not the same for everybody is energy. Unless I recognize my level of energy and realize that it comes in ebbs and surges, I won’t use my time well. I won’t accomplish all that I could.

5) I also believe that anything I cannot accomplish in the time I have is apparently not my God-given responsibility to achieve. God is not going to hold me accountable for what I cannot do because of genuine lack of time.

6) When I know the ultimate purpose of my life, I can know whether I’m using my time properly. If I do not know that ultimate purpose, I have no way of judging my efficiency. Only God and I can know for sure whether I’m wasting or using.

I decided a long time ago that my ultimate goal in life was to stretch other people. I wanted them to live better, fuller, bigger, more noble than if they hadn’t met me. This is my redeeming call.

This week think about: 1) What is my purpose? 2) How do I assess the use of my time? 3) Where is God using me to stretch others?

Words of Wisdom: “Personally, I think optimizing opportunities and talents is in a sense bringing redemption to everything around me – that is the valid reason to use time well.”

Wisdom from the Word: “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding was as infinite as the sand on the seashore.” (1 Kings 4:29 NET Bible)

Hide and Seek

Brenda’s Blog – March 28, 2017

“How much is under your bed?”

In my childhood and teen years I loved to read. I cherished my library card and used it readily.

Only one problem: I had great difficulty returning the books. And when I knew they were overdue, I would hide them under my bed until my Mom demanded they surface and return to their rightful owner – the public library.

This became a metaphor as I grew older. Some people talk about sticking their head in the sand. Not me, I stick it “under the bed.” I put unresolved issues, undone chores, and unattended to duties in a safe, dark place from which they cannot arise and haunt me.

But they eventually do. Like the kind library police who came to the door with a list of books and a demand for their return. In those days they didn’t have those “freebie forgiveness days” when all fines were erased. No, my avoidance technique meant I paid the fines out of babysitting money and puny allowance allotments.

What are the things that are secreted away just because they are either too difficult to handle, too troublesome to manage, or just too overwhelming to attack? Every once in a while I actually face up to them and give them an airing in the light of day. When I do they are usually dealt with in such a short time I wonder (time and time again) why I pushed them away and didn’t just get them done.

In life coaching there is a great term for these items – “tolerations.” We put something on a to-do list, then move it to an even longer one… and so forth until it becomes a perpetual undone. If something is on the to-do list for a day – great. If it is still there after a week it has become a toleration – something we put up with but don’t deal with. They weigh us down as surely as if we were adding layers of weights to our clothing. Tolerations are only removed when they become intolerable.

Let’s climb under the bed and clear out that tattered to do list which grew into moldy tolerations.

Want To, Not Just Have To

Weekly Thought – March 21, 2017

Fred was trusted. His ability to listen accompanied by his discernment created an atmosphere of safety. While in dialysis he developed friendships with the nurses and technicians. One young woman reached her twelve month sober mark and prepared for her ceremony at AA. “Would you be the speaker for me?” Fred traveled in his wheelchair to her meeting and delivered a powerful, personal address.

Want To, Not Just Have To

A man I know – a very successful professional – paid fifty thousand dollars, cash on the barrel head, to go to an alcoholism clinic. One of the most discerning things I’ve ever heard came from a staff psychiatrist at the facility: “For a long time people couldn’t understand how a man could be an alcoholic, sober up, stay sober for ten years, and then go back to drinking. People would say, ‘Surely he knew all the problems he had as a drunk, why would he go back?’”

The doctor went on to say: “We studied it and found out. People who give up alcohol, but only remain abstainers can be drawn back to drinking at any time. Those who go from abstinence to the joy of sobriety seldom return to drinking. But until they make that transition, they are vulnerable.”

There is a theological truth here. If all I have in life is work and more work trying to make myself good, then I may cave in the spiritual war at any time. If I understand the sovereignty of God and the power of grace, my life will be changed forever. Like the Apostle Paul, a grace filled life sees the struggles as challenges but ones filled with the presence of God, and not dependent on my own efforts or goodness. Once Paul tasted of grace nothing could woo him back to “the law” again. He moved to the joy of grace.

Many executives and other leaders battle in the same way. They struggle and suffer with their efforts to overcome disabling habits. They fight, win a bit, fight again, and continue this pattern. The Myth of Sisyphus tells the story of an ill-fated young man whose life work is to push a large rock up a hill, only to have it roll back on him just as he reaches the peak. Over and over he repeats this effort, never to get the rock up and over the hill.

Leaders need to identify their constructive strengths and their destructive weaknesses. Once defined, they should focus on the strengths and bolster the weaknesses. Once we create an environment and a lifestyle that allows this, we can run the race with joy, not just with gritted jaws.

This week think about: 1) Where have I moved from abstaining to joy? 2) What is the rock I need to abandon? 3) Who can help me identify my strengths and weaknesses?

Words of Wisdom: “If I understand the sovereignty of God and the power of grace, my life will be changed forever.”

Wisdom from the Word: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8: 10 (b) NET Bible)

Low Tire Pressure

Brenda’s Blog – March 14, 2017

“Low tire pressure – attend at once.”

I turned on the ignition, heading out for a busy day. The warning system certainly got my attention. Avoiding the message was not an option. Actually, it might have been in years past, but a modicum of maturity has actually developed in my “old age.”

So, I considered my options, enlisted the aid of my brother-in-law, and made it to Discount Tire.

Why is this blog worthy? Because it makes me think about life’s flat tires and emergencies. And more importantly – how to deal with them.
What are the first two considerations? Time and money. “How am I going to reorder my day to allow for this inconvenience?” “How much money is this going to cost?”
Too often in life I have allowed money to delay action – and of course, require an ultimate fix and even more money. Why do I think waiting will alleviate the necessity of action?

And equally important is the decision to take time for the fix. Rough patches and flat tires in life are never on the to-do list, are they? They are never convenient, or a welcome surprise. But they are always opportunities to learn about our reaction times. An essential element in the maturing process is the ability to react wisely and well. These “pop quizzes” come at inopportune moments letting us see where we are on the maturity chart.

When was your last flat tire? When did you get a sudden change in your plans? How did you process it? What did it tell you about your growth?

Discount Tire has customer service posters on their store walls. They are true to their word – they repaired, rotated, and sent me on my way with no charge – and a friendly smile. What another good lesson in ways to treat others as they face their potholes and flat tires. We should be the compressors who “air them up,” with lack of drama and abundance of good will.

Flat tires come, but they don’t need to flatten us. They are “teachable moments.”

Time Protection

Weekly Thought – March 14, 2017

Fred understood protecting his time. He said, “Just as I don’t let other people spend my money, I don’t let others spend my time.” He was extremely generous with his time, even when his physical condition deteriorated to the point of incapacitation. But he also knew how to avoid time wasters and people with no clear purpose for meeting with him.

Time Protection

Most people spend time like they do money. They spend until suddenly they run short; then they try to find ways to compensate.

The best approach, of course, is a disciplined lifestyle that prevents time (or any other resource like energy, money, opportunities) from slipping away in the first place. Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Most time management books teach: Adopt a philosophy, implement it, and then maintain it as a way of life.

But in my experience, most people are not that disciplined. What they need is an emergency checklist to gain a few hours in the week – something to ease the frantic pace and get through the crunch. A number of alternatives exist: specific down periods during the week for catching up on administrative work; organized, scheduled retreats to plan future activities; an active, up-to-date calendar. One of the areas of focus most needed and most disregarded is the “eye on the goal.” Saying “is this expenditure of time advancing my mission, my plan?”

Occasionally an exhausted executive or ministry leader comes to me and I say, “You are under the gun, aren’t you? How much time would it take for you to catch up?”
More often than not the answer is, “If I just had five more hours a week!” If he or she is already working 50 hours a week that means a 10% increase to loosen up the load.

Here is a way to pick up five hours from any week you choose. It provides immediate and effective relief for those who are swamped. BUT IT IS FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY. As in dieting or spending money, the long-range answer is a better lifestyle that doesn’t require temporary bail-outs. So, mine is a battle plan, not a war strategy. You shouldn’t continue this emergency plan for longer than four to six weeks.

For example, if the leader is a pastor he can walk into the pulpit and say, “Folks, you’re not going to see as much of me for the next month. I’ve gotten behind in some very important things I need to do. What I have been doing is important and needful, but a catching up is required. I want your understanding the next four weeks while I get some of our pressing needs in good working order.”

Everyone in leadership can do this – and must as an emergency plan. People (from board members to staff) will understand a brief on-the-job refocus. But they will feel dismayed and annoyed if they find you excusing goof-off time and declaring it an emergency – it has to be legitimate.

This week think carefully about: 1) How am I handling the time/task pressures right now? 2) Do I have social media fasts to reduce the distractions? 3) What is my emergency plan for capturing some extra time?

Words of Wisdom: “Most people spend time like they do money. They spend until suddenly they run short; then they try to find ways to compensate.”

Wisdom from the Word: “And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8 NET Bible)

Effective Leadership

Weekly Thought – March 7, 2017

Fred encouraged maturity. He believed in the goal of growing to the end. This is why he was a life-long learner and lived with a burning desire to “finish well.” Foundational to maturity is character. He consulted with many organizations, both corporate and ministry. Character is the first element he studied.

Effective Leadership

Leadership, as we know, is both something you are and something you do. But effective leadership starts with character. When leaders fail, more often it is a result of a character flaw than the lack of competence, training, or even opportunity.

In the case of Christian organizations, the aim of the leader is to conform more and more to the image of Christ. And, it is their responsibility to build up the congregation, training them in righteousness with a goal of maturity. It is a process. It is critical to understand this. There is no “getting there” and settling down to rest. Leaders who last don’t stop growing; they continue stretching themselves. And in the same manner corporate officers refuse to let down. They strive to get better, stronger, and more adept.

Those who understand this process have intangible personal qualities. Some find these hard to define, but I think we can look at it as a growth process.
Growth must be seen as a whole. I wonder sometimes what we would look like if our mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects were as visible as our physical bodies. I expect each of us would have deformities representing our lack of development. When we are seriously out of balance we would be misshapen, distorted, even grotesque. An example of this idea would be the person who develops their mind to the exclusion of social skills or emotional health.

My good friend Zig Ziglar looks at our lives as a wheel. He teaches others to measure where each section of their life is by marking it on the wheel. Then when the dots are connected the seminar participant can see how rocky the ride would be if areas of their lives are much stronger (or weaker) than others.

Maturity is balanced growth. It’s obviously difficult to keep the inside and outside in total symmetry – or Zig’s wheel rolling smoothly, but it is a worthwhile endeavor. I look at life through the prism of discipline, so I suggest a balanced growth pattern contains plans for the disciplines of: freedom, emotions, things, recognition, accomplishment, experiences, ideas, and relationships.

This week think about: 1) What is my personal definition of mature growth? 2) How symmetrical are my internal and external appearances? 3) What is my biggest challenge to maturity?

Words of Wisdom: “Leadership, as we know, is both something we are and something we do.”

Wisdom from the Word: “Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” (1 Corinthians 14:20 NET Bible)