Since things change over time, this is one of those test you re-take every couple years just to get a general idea where you stand.
So discernment, wisdom, speaking in tongues, administration, tongues interpretation, and faith are all 20+ point scores. Ironically half of these top gifts have been inactive or supressed as of late, which factor into my overall life frustrations. Funny thing is I thought helps, leadership, knowledge, and prophecy would have slightly higher scores than they did.
I’ll have to dig up past results to do a full analysis and comparison. One thing I know increased big time in recent years is the gift of “faith”.
One thing I love about Wordpress is that you can draft a post and work on it over time before publishing it. (Would be nice if I used that for better proof reading, since I’m lacking in that area.) Sometime in January I got inspired to write a post on the topic of the title of the post. Lots to cover and hard to make this a bit sized post full of flavor, but I’ll try.
On the topic of “God’s Will”, the theological argument of “Calvinism vs. Arminianism” is included. Many Calvinists will be glad to tell people about the misconceptions of Calvinism and of course will point out the flaws of Arminianism.
By my denominational affliation with the Assemblies of God, traditionally I would fall more under Arminian views of God’s Will and soteriological views. Thing is I don’t hold to either sets of beliefs, yet at the same time don’t oppose either. For those not to familiar with the major breaking points in these theological concepts, the 2 big differences is (1) salvation and (2) predestination.
Where do I stand?
Well, it really doesn’t matter where I stand… I believe in what I call “the eternal perspective of God”. Ok, not the right use of words, but those are the ones I have chosen. (Feel free to correct me or suggest better terminology.)
My believe is that human (made in the image of God) are these 3-4 dimensional “image of God” that work on that whole space-time continuum time-line. So our perception of existence is based on our experiences from our body + mind + soul-spirit in space forward through time. The “image of God” isn’t necessary wired and programmed to perceive space, time, and other dimensions like God and maybe some angelic beings can. Maybe the spirit and mind can some way somehow (dreams, visions, etc). I just dumped too much to explain and some things I really have zero grasp on and really has taken imagination to fill in these conceptual gaps.
God is beyond all existence, beyond all dimension. No being has the perception of all existence like God does. Psalm 139 is one of many scriptures that shows how God can see each person in every single detail, the beginning before the end and the end before the beginning. Like a DVR, God can see your life forwards and backward, slow motion, fast forward, fast rewind, zoom in, zoom out, in every aspect ratio, transposed, amplified, silenced, etc, etc, etc.
So in the ultimate organized chaos and causality, God see all of existence played out “in an instant”. It isn’t that God is controlling all of his creation and all people like we’re puppets. It isn’t that God has wrote a script and we’re predestined to play it out. Just that God created creation and knows how the dominoes fall.
Here is a video that might support some of the concepts in what I believe better:
All that aside, I personally believe in free will, while I believe in God’s will…
So God has his ultimate eternal perception of all things, where God sees all, knows all, is present in all space time simultaneously and omnipresent in all causality.
Even so, if I don’t have free will to do anything and even everything, then personally I rather not exist at all. Ok, that makes sense whether someone subscribes to that or not.
Funny how I also subscribe and live by God’s will, where “God orders my steps”. Totally conflicts with free will. But for me it doesn’t.
I’m finite, I’m limited, that’s why. For instance, I use technology like everyone else to overcome my limitations. I can’t travel 35-65 mph on the path that leads to where I work, so that’s why I have a vehicle that burns gasoline inefficiently to get me there fast. That’s why a blind man has brail, a walking stick, and their other senses tend to be enhanced. I’m sure a blind man trusts those who see to build the world around them so they can be a part of it without living a life of utter misery. I’m sure they appreciate traffic lights that have audible sounds to signal when it is safe to cross the street, so someone like me isn’t using my inefficient gas burning truck to accidentally collide into their fail human body.
God has ultimate perception of all existence. That’s why even in my very flawed humanity I trust in God. I’m sure the blind man is a bit shaky at times trusting in the audible signal at the traffic light. Heck us people who see the actual light have issues trusting it all the time, since you can’t always tell if someone is going through an intersection on a collision course.
God and causality
So we’re watching a movie and we know what’s coming next. Ever make an audible comment during the progression of a scene? Or how about travelling on a road where you see danger, whether it be an accident, ice, flooding, or something else. Do you communicate with others with some sort of warning of the on-coming danger? Have you flashed your lights, waved, or given some sort of signal?
God communicates with us all the time, especially the times we perceive that God is ignoring us and is giving us the silent treatment. Maybe our ears are clogged, eyes fogged up, or other senses messed up somehow. God is accurate and creative in how he gives us heads up about things.
Now God’s will for each person is nothing more than Psalm 139. God made each of us, out of the chaos of causality, the good, the bad, and the ugly. (I had to say that since some people are born “not normal” and struggle their whole lives like some freak. God made us anyways through that chaos of causality and when all things are said an done, he’ll make butterflies out of all us worms.) So if God know us, he knows our DNA, how we’re wired, our personality, what we’re built best suited for in life, what makes us joyous, what our issues and problems are. So like any engineer, architech, and designer, they God knows us full well and God is best at guiding each and every one of us.
As for free will, to me lit seems like God built me, programmed me, distributed me, and set me loose. Like “On-Star”, God keeps linked with me all the time. Heck, God can even remotely unlock my doors! I sure do use that GPS function so I know where I am at and where I am heading. I sure do use the emergency services when I crash, run out of gas, or have some sort of mechanical problem. I sure do use God when I need to go in for service and tune up. And I need God to tweak certain recurring problems I have.
It is tough to follow the lead of God
Each of us have free will to make any choice we want. If you’ve lived life long enough, you’ll know the causality from certain choices we make locks us into the effects of choices. God sure can press the divine reset button at any time, but God usually doesn’t unless God wants too. Don’t ask me how that works, since the Bible echoes time and time again that God does what God wants to do for God’s own reasoning.
Again it comes back to trusting in God, since God has ultimate perception of all things.
Sometimes God let’s pain continue, could be for a reason, could be that this is the only way he’ll get your attention, or it could be that pain is just part of life. With God, pain does end, without God, well figure that one out.
Maybe I’ll do a part 2 to this, talking about God’s creative side to God’s will. I never get old of the stories in the Bible were it talks about people like Abraham and Joseph that were guided by God through dreams, visions, and prophecies. They have some of the most bizarre and outrageous stories, yet because of those things that happen, the story continues on in that huge book called the Bible and continues on with Christ’s Church.
I’ll end with Joseph.
So Jacob, aka Israel, has 12 boys through 2 wives/sisters, which is a crazy story in and of itself. Jacob like the kids that came from the nice looking favorite wife of his, Rachel. Leah was of course was dumbed on him and of course Jacob was a male so he sure didn’t turn down having kids from that first wife while waiting to have kids from the wife he had to wait to get from his step dad. Oh yeah, there was Bilhah in the mix too, almost forgot.
So Rachel had problem having kids, yet eventually gave birth to Joseph. (Rachel had one more child, Ben, where she died giving birth to him.) Of course Jacob loved Joseph the most, Ben a close second. And of course Jacob spoiled Joseph most, being the first born of his beloved Rachel. If you have a large family and the parents play favorites, jealousy is in the mix. Add on top of that the fact that Joseph sure did share with his family the dreams he had, especially the one of his brothers all bowing down to him.
You’ll have to read Genesis to know about the rest of the dreams and dead on interpretations Joseph had, which was God’s gift to Joseph. So here is the favorite sun betting the beat down from his brothers, sold into slavery, got bounced around Egypt, in and out of prison under false pretext by a married woman claiming rape. Eventually Joseph’s character and giftings raise him out of such deep misfortune, where Pharaoh has his disturbing dream interpreted, where the kingdom stored up their silos from their harvest, making Egypt ready for a drought and famine. Joseph ends up being second to Pharaoh, in charge of all this extra harvest during tough times.
So in short God was creative with Joseph through all the pain from extremely unfair circumstances and situations where he was not at all to blame. God positioned Joesph and eventually Jacob’s entire family to be in Egypt during a time when their family might have died out due to lack of available food. I think many of the brothers and their tribe offspring are idiots and moron, since over time they let things happen that got them enslaved, which of course is another Torah story. I mean if it wasn’t for Joseph’s keenness, they wouldn’t have even made it through that mess.
So live up the free will, yet make use of prayer, the Bible, God’s people, and all that creative communication that God throws our way, because God sure does know what’s heading our way and we can use all the help we can get along the way.
My focus in life is pretty simple right now, which is just work and triathlon training. I’m not active in any sort of leadership or ministry role, such as Royal Rangers. Most of my 20’s I spent a good deal of my free time on the flip side, while of course still working. So here and there in my free time I try to develop stuff on side projects. This quick rant is all about that.
Project: dynamic websites for organizational groups (wpmu)
When I was webmaster of Penn-Del Royal Ranger’s website, I wanted to turn it into a dynamically functional site, where I could hand over content management to the staff. Also wanted to centralize communications and data, so the website serve as the center for all of that.
These days it isn’t too big a challenge with all the free and low cost resources available. It is just a matter of knowing what’s what and how to make it work effectively.
Solutions
At first I was all about using DotNetNuke, which does the job of an organizations CMS. By the way, “CMS” stands for content management system. I dropped that, since there were not really enough free stuff, like themes and plugins.
So I tried Wordpress, which I like a lot. Does the job. Lots of free themes and plugins. Also a larger open source community, since it the top blogging platform out there. Not exactly a CMS, yet can easily be turned into on.
Then there is the muli-user version of Wordpress called Wordpress mu. Pretty much it allows one install to host multiple blogs, which is ideal for the type of organization I’m looking for solutions for. On top of that is the whole Buddypress social networking plug-in.
Problems
Wordpress mu works as needed, with so many customizations. Thing is just as I get a demo all setup to show the district staff, I get lots of 500 errors. What’s the cause? Is it plug-ins? PHP processing? Database access? Something to do with the web server I’m on? I’m using up too many system resources?
Update: It was an issue with Wordpress mu 2.9.1 with IIS 7. When I reverted to an earlier version, everything was functioning normally. I’ll test in development future updates to ensure they work with IIS 7 before using in production.
If this was a business demo, I’d be fuming, since nothing ruins a technical lead like your technical product not working. I mean, that’s what I do for a living as a systems engineer, building, maintaining, and troubleshooting systems. Though the engines that drive each web app’s application are different, they all fundamentally work the same, where you install the code and there is a database backend.
Lessons in progress
I still think something like Wordpress mu is the solution for an organization like Penn-Del Royal Rangers. I just expect uptime and performance to be 99.99%. I’m use to controlling the entire server envrionment and when on a shared host like I am for these side projects, it much more rough to troubleshoot and resolve your own issues. Eventually I do want to jump over to a VPS, where I’ll have an environment like I’m use to, where I can control my own virtual server.
Anyhow, frustrating…
At some point things either have to start clicking and work, so things can progress or I’ll have to cut the cord on side projects. I feel bad that I have a good solution ready to deploy for this organization, just a question of being able to implement them. Gotta focus on my priorities, which again is work and tri training.
How aware are you of your default privacy? Not just privacy settings on websites and social networks, yet with everything, including stuff like your contact information, your identity, etc? Do you just give up your privacy?
How aware are you of keeping other people’s privacy? How respectful? Do you share without permission?
Do you bother reading the terms of service and disclaimers?
Do you fill out those welcome cards too openly when visiting a group, church, or organization? Do they bother telling you what they really do with that information and will they respect your privacy and ask your permission?
I can add a lot more, yet will stop with that.
It is a common notion these days that there is no privacy. Thing is privacy has become more and more technical, not exactly meaning as in technology, rather more in a legalistic sense. It is too easy to default to public and to give up our privacy. It is there, you just need to be aware of it and continuously work to preserve it. It isn’t that sharing openly and publicly is bad, just being ignorant of it is bad.
This blog deals a lot with leadership, ministry, and discipleship (developing people). I know that non-profit organizations are mostly frail and usually struggle with resources. So it is hard for a ministry, church, or group to get privacy issues down when it comes to communications and doing what they do with people.
Pretty much I’m reThinking all these privacy issues myself. I’ve learned some lesson in my own personal experience on both sides of the coin, where now I am trying to figure out how social dynamics and communication can more effectively work. I know they can work fine and help and organization excel, but not at all in ignorance and disrespect. When you are trying to win over people, whether a business, an organization, or just with friendship + family there needs to be healthy trust and respect in place. Otherwise it just ends up falling apart.
Right now I am drafting my annual “New Years Resolution (Goal Setting) and Year In Review” post on my personal blog. (Yes, 3 blogs is a lot, though segmenting areas of my life helps.) This post is directly related to that, as well as externalizing some big things in my life. Today I did discover my theme for 2010 will be “Venturing into the Wild Wild“, which is a mix of the wild wild west and the wilderness.
Why I am “Silent Eagle” and why this is relevant
This isn’t the story behind my Frontiersman Camping Fellowship name (aka my Indian name), rather why people have identified my spirit and being as such. I also go by shevdog, a nickname I have had since high school. (I’ll explain the story behind my nickname “shevdog” another day.)
I bike and run through and nearby James Audubon’s Pennsylvanian homestead just outside of Valley Forge National Historical Park, where a bird sanctuary resides. As with many of these safe havens for birds, they are kept safe, cared for, and restored to health. Often when I visit bird sanctuaries I see magnificent birds, such as owls, hawks, and sometimes eagles. To see a bird of prey like an eagle trapped in a cage, recovering from injury touches me with various saddening and empathetic emotions.
In my life I only have witnessed eagles in fight 2, maybe 3 times. Hawks in mountain flight are a thing of awe, yet nothing like an eagle. I can posts photos and videos, yet nothing can compare seeing my favorite animal of all animals, the eagle, in flight.
So if my soul is like that of an eagle (also too of a wolf), then it makes perfect sense… the recovery at such a place as this at such a time as this… the soon release into the wild wild. I am built with such presicion to thrive in the wild, I am not the man-creature designed to be trapped in a bubble (VFCC) or even a cage (as I have been for 3 years). I look forward to the wild!
I don’t get it, what are you saying Shawn, I mean Silent Eagle?
Sorry you don’t get it. If it matters to you, it will come to you eventually. (I mean that in a respectful way, not out of sarcasm.)
Pretty much there is a lot I won’t disclose publicly about the transformation of my life that has occurred in the past 3 years. As I’ve stated, there are bubbles and cages that I’ve dwelled in for the long term. I consider these things I have let myself be trapped in, regardless of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Not so much that the places God has placed me were bad places to be. On the contrary, for the most part most of these places were exactly where I needed to be. God has used me to effect and impact quite a few lives. There have been a lot of situations and circumstances that have provided a lot of mutual impact in my life and the lives of others. Regardless of all the hardships, pains, and trials, I am forever grateful to seize those moments (carpe diem). May God and others forgive me for my wrong attitudes and actions.
Battles in the cage
Can I be transparent in openly telling you that I have been very frustrated? Ok, very frustrated is an extreme understatement. Doesn’t make me feel any better proclaiming something that should be obvious to anyone who really knows me or who at the very least has been keeping tabs on me. I am thankful that my frustrations have not been combined with stress in recent years, where God for some reason has taken stress out of my life as part of the healing process. The obvious follow up question is “what have I been frustrated with?” Won’t exactly answer that, rather will write a paragraph or two more on the battles in the cage.
Relationships have been my top frustration and battle, not just in the cage, yet in my life. (I mean relationships in a broad social context, including family and friends.) I call it my Achilles heel. I can rant all day about relationship frustrations and I am sure we all could too. Go figure that a very independent person like I am has such a problem, where you’d think I would be fine on my own. If anything, this is a top reason why God put me in this cage.
True, God has isolated me as such for some personal time with Him. And I can recall some of the best moments in resent years between God and I. All along God saw in my eagle’s eyes that I’ve been thinking and dwelling intensely on that wild world outside the cage of the sanctuary. God knows I am allowing my restlessness to effect my relationship with Him, while also knowing the time is nearing to release this silent eagle into the wild. One look into God’s eyes shows that I need to surrender my restlessness, my frustrations, my self to God regardless and mend the relationships with the nature/people that surround me in such a place as this.
Echoes from the wild
I so want to talk about the future, these non-fitness goals ahead of me, that path before me. How can I disclose such things? Regardless of the little God has given me any sort of heads up on, I don’t know what tomorrow, next week, next month, or even next year brings. All I have are these echoes.
I don’t dwell in the past as I regard some people I know think I do. I am a futurist, stuck in perceiving of what’s to come. If anything my analytical mind analyzes the past just as much as I do the present and future, thus any of my verbal or written rants. Disclaimer out of the way, there is not much with my past that I would say that haunts me. There is however some relationships that have effected me down to the core of who I am, which I guess would sorta be a qualifier if we’re using such haunting terminology.
I’ve always wanted a son, even better sons. Never cared much to have a daughter, aside from having a gender balanced American family. As many know, I am good at helping turn boys into men, which is all the reason I want sons, less the reason for carrying on my name.
God is active in this world, aside from how we all experience and perceive this world. In God’s action, God is constantly reaching, constantly speaking, constantly communicating in so many ways, mostly basic and logical ways as anyone would healthily use to communication to others. Regardless if I believe this or not, God is also creative in his communication to people. This may be mysterious and miraclous to us, but honestly not really. I just think we’re too distracted with our clouded realities to tune in.
Speaking of too distracted, I think that often when I am sleeping, that’s when I am most open to hear and receive what God is sharing with me when He’s communicating. I have awaken several times throughout my life knowing God has spoken to me. How do I know? I sure do know when God isn’t, where God makes it known clearly when He is speaking. (This is coming from a big time skeptic, aka me.) I will never ever forget awakening from my sleep on September 27, 2005, well before my life was forever changed. It was not my son God showed me that morning, rather the awesome joy that was my daughter. Her eyes, her look, her face, her voice, all the same down to every detail in every dream I ever had of my daughter. This is all I will share publically on this, yet am willing to share more privately.
Ending on Psalm 23
I am grateful that this Psalm is written on my heart. I don’t speak publicly about this, nor will aside from what I am about to say. Last Wednesday the youth pastor at my church asked in his sermon “what does your name mean?“ Shawn means “God is gracious” and Paul means “humility“. Because the Lord is my sheppard, leading me through those dark valleys, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strenght. God does not empower me for my will, yet God guides me and empowers me to walk that path, especially when it goes through such dark valleys.
No details here, yet in 2007 I walked through dark valleys, as I was emotionally emptied after a 7 month long relationship. The silent eagle I am, I often am just there, still, watching, with only my eagle head and eagle eye leaking out any sort of emotion. That emotion is there and sours like an eagle. Ok, maybe a good illustration, maybe not. Regardless for me to be emotionally emptied and exposed after such senseless drama, I honestly would rather experienced a relationship that was more normal, more sane, even if a breakup would have been just as normal as the typical breakup.
Sorry for being vague. Before any of that, I didn’t ever really trust people. I still don’t, yet even more so I don’t. If anything it effected my transparency with people, where I likely would disclose much more of my experiences of that horrible year of my life. Though with the deepest strength of my heart I have forgiven her (and her family), she is the only one I can say is dead to me. The dream of my daughter did not die with her, only grew stronger. Those who are in my inner circle know of the other God dreams too, dreams that are still alive today.
My Lord, my sheppard, rescued me into this cage. Though I am restless and frustrated, I shall not want, God has and is actively providing all my needs: food, water, shelter, good jobs, friends/family, health, fitness, even some of the desires of my heart. (God is gracious, I am humbled.) Not a bad cage at all to be trapped in. Yet my the deep desires of my heart is to fly into the wild, to one day hold my daughter maybe even my son in my arms, to see these God dreams come true.
Though trust is difficult for me to give, I trust fully in God. I long to venture into the wild wild!
It is about time I do a simple post on some web development stuff. Here’s something I commonly share with people when it comes to the elements of a website for organizations. In short, these elements are the parts you’ll likely need, regardless of the scale of your organization.
Content Elements:
About
News
Calendar
Events
Contacts
About
As with any conent element, you can rename it to whatever suites your organizations needs, as well as duplicate it over and over again. An “about” content element is a page or section of pages that gives information about your organization or a part of your organization. For instance, in for a Royal Rangers website, we have have either the home page or another page give general information about the Royal Rangers group. Then there may be sub groups, such as the age groups in Royal Rangers. Events can be treated the same way.
News
Blogs are the best way to present your news, yet that is whole set of methods I won’t get into on this post. The last word in the first sentence of this paragraph use the word “post”. And that is exactly what you do with new, gather the content and post it. Again, using a blogging system makes it easy for your content providers to post news with minimal technical skills.
Calendar
This is different, yet directly related to events. This method is dependent on calendar methods, such as Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal, Facebook events, etc. Once you have you method set up, you manage your calendar from a central location, such as Outlook or gCal. On your website is a listing of events, where there should be functions for your users to add events to their calendar. Depending on the system you use, you can even send out invites and people can rsvp with a “yes”, “no”, or “maybe” reply.
Events
Pretty much this is an “about” for your organization’s event. It gives all the details for your event, along with other optional elements, like an “event registration page” and “directions”.
Events: Registration Form (optional)
Separate, yet directly related to calendar and events is an “event registration form”. This is very different than an event invitation, where that only sends an rsvp. With an event registration form, you have a form that gathers all the information you need from people and groups registering for your event. These forms can even include processing event payment.
Events: Directions (optional)
Every event has a location, even if it is online. Where is the event? When? How does someone get there? If online, which site and how do you join in?
Contacts
Such a simple element gone so wrong due to spammers. Pretty much this element gives your contact information. It could also be a contact form or even a directory of some sorts (staff, members, etc). If your organization includes other organizations, such as several outposts/churches in a Royal Rangers section/district, then this information would likely need to be included. Like with events, you may need to include directions.
That’s it!
Sometime soon I’ll cover some methods and web publishing systems. I’ve been doing a lot of work with Wordpress, Wordpress MU, and Buddy Press, solutions I think are winners for most organizations, even businesses. (Free too!)
I love when people say “you can’t do that!“ Oh yeah, well just wait and see. Ok, I’m not an anarchist or anything, I just don’t like limits and ridiculous conformity.
The above image is two climbing routes up K2, which is the world toughest mountain to climb. There are lots of mountains in the world to climb, but the mountainman that exists in outdoorsman like me deep down want to climb the highest and the hardest mountain. Is climbing K2 or Everest on my “Bucket List“? Sure is, though not as high on the list as you’d think.
So what is? Well, I’d like to climb at least 2 American prime summits. I also would like to bike/backpack Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Yet I think if I had to pick between those options, aside from wanting to do them all, I’d opt out and would want to have enough time to backpack the entire Appalachian Trail, starting from Maine and ending in Georgia.
But I just can’t and neither can you!
Why?
Have to work to pay the bills?
Not enough time; Timing?
Not fit enough? (well not me right now)
Can’t do it solo and have no one to join me?
Don’t have the skill require? (not in my case)
Family?
Commitments?
Can’t take risk?
Insert countless other reasons…
I’ve talked about risks here and there over recent years. Now one thing I won’t encourage anyone to do is blow off their top priorities, such as God, wife, kids, work. But here is the tricky part, priorities can eat you alive and enslave you. So there has got to be some smart risks that allow us to do what is right in keeping priorities, while taking a hold of moments that just are not going to land on target in our lives. That’s what I call taking smart risks.
Sometimes you just need to jump!
Aside from honoring your God-given priorities, you need to jump. Yes, I mean you need to live life, get back to the roots of who you are and explore the God given wonders of this very brief life we have. Sure, the eternal destination always tops everything, yet when we trap ourselves, don’t take risk, conform, sell out, etc, we become zombies. I see way too many Christian zombies, let alone zombies in general. Just living life without the spices of life.
Moses couldn’t speak to Pharaoh since he stuttered. Now I’m not going to say that he overcame an obstacle. Honestly I don’t think very highly of Moses. Sure, leading million of people is tough stuff, yet so what?! Maybe at some point I’ll cook up some sermon notes on Moses to analyze Moses strengths and weaknesses. Regardless, even though Moses caved into his inner “can’t do” attitude, somehow with the help of others, like his brother, Joshua/Caleb, etc, he ws still used of God.
I’d love to point out some other that I think did pretty good, like King David, Daniel, Rack/Shack/Benny, Peter, Timothy, etc…
One thing I can’t do
I’m not athletic. I can’t play ball sports very well. I can’t run fast. Even though I have some good hockey skills, I can’t skate. Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t…
In college around my Sophomore year for the first time in my life I got a gut. Wasn’t too big where I could suck it in. So I started to run and work out in the gym. My gut never really went away, yet for the most part at least a year after getting my degree, I kept in decent shape. I ran short distances here and there, while also biking short distances, walked a lot, worked out sometimes. Then a desk job and a shift in my lifestyle made me less and less in fair shape. I got fat.
I stopped running because it hurt. I didn’t bike as much, since I finally got a car and didn’t have a bike mount. I didn’t go to the campus gym much, since I didn’t want to work out unless I was with a friend. When I got home from sitting, I felt like sludge and felt too tried to do anything. I can’t, I don’t feel like it, I won’t.
So years later you get a gut you can’t suck in, you are trapped in a lifestyle that isn’t healthy. Stress makes things worse for your metabolism. Yes, I got a new bike, I had some attempts here and there with running, and I tried working out again. But I didn’t make the full lifestyle change.
Here I am facing a lot of other things I just can’t do that before I won’t even consider my ability in that area in training to do triathlons in 2010. I just found out the other day I can’t swim, rather I can swim, yet I can’t do laps swimming in particular styles. I have 8 months to remedy that. As for running, 3-4 months ago I could barely walk since my quad were so swollen after a 2 mile run. Yesterday I ran 7.5 miles and felt just fine.
I haven’t signed up for any Ironman event (half or full) yet, though I am training for that. I realize it could take me a year to get my distance and speed up to that level. When I see how slow I run and swim, I do my best to follow the expert training advice from book, websites, and zines. I know smart training over the long haul will yield a less than 17:00:00 Ironman finish.
I’m not athletic. So what, gear up and hit the trail anyways. I’ve been amazed how far I’ve come. And I’m shrinking in the process too!
Btw, all this training is going to help me summit mountain and backpack all these trails and national parks! I’d like to bike these places too!
Things I don’t like that I think are (very) unhealthy:
1. When everyone is the same (be)
2. When everyone is doing the same thing (do)
3. When everyone is on the same system (be + do)
Things that need to be put into place:
1. Diversity
2. Creativity
3. Dynamic tribe building
4. Building open dynamic connected systems
I have a lot of thoughts that will eventually turn into posts at some point related to these points.
I’m an IT Systems Engineer. If you take the digital and computer side of my job out of the analytical focus, you’ll find a lot of work in the realm of systems concepts, design, and systems inner workings.
Apples, Windows, and Penguins… lol!
Closed systems are secure and if designed right, they work well. But humans don’t work in closed systems very well. Maybe they do within a smaller context, yet not so much in a larger context.
People want to belong or opt out of belonging. Question is “to what”? Systems, tribes, interest groups, work groups, belief groups, etc.
Jumping over to another side of this brief rant…
In Royal Rangers, or youth group, or your local church, or anything non-church you belong to, what are they dynamics of that tribe/group/ministry/whatever you belong to? Are there a lack of dynamics? If not, what are they and why?
Without explaining much, in my experience I’ve found that when we’re in closed system and/or systems lacking healthy dynamics, there is this trap that takes hold in may ways, shapes, and forms. Some times I’ve found the “Matrix effect” of being saved from the trap of such groups, church, systems, ministries, organizations…
So how do we build healthytribes, organizations, ministries, churches, cultures, gov’ts?
I am not going to repost the list of 16 items here, yet will highlight a couple. I do think that this list should be refined, then turned into a quiz, with some points and pointers. <sarcasm>Dedicated leaders all have the crazies, since they want to lead people.</sarcasm>
#2 – He begins to blame the problems on people or circumstances rather than actually seeking out what the problem might be.
Yes, this is too easy to do. I do it by default before my analytical mind kicks in, (which happens rapidly).
Hopefully some of my blog posts here analyze the root of some problems and takes the right approaches. Even so, call me a pessimist when I do often say when people get involved, that’s were the perfect is stripped away and the problems come into play. Even so, we do need to get to the root of the problems, rather than just play the blame game.
#3 – He refuses to listen to the team assembled around him.
Let me throw a curve-ball… There are a lot of leaders (not all) that do not know how to build a team. They don’t now how to work with team dynamics, social concepts, tribe building, leadership development, leadership delegation, etc. And when there are 1 or more control freaks in the mix who don’t yield to all these team dynamics, that’s the breakdown.
Then there is the communication breakdown #3 points out… A topic of a great deal of my rants on this subject.
#4 – He fights every idea that isn’t his own, thinking his originality is what must keep the church afloat.
Now, I’d expect a church or a ministry team to plan things out ahead of time. Is the year, season, month, week, day outlined? Is there a plan? Is there servant leadership in place to execute the plan. If so, good. But the issue addressed in #4 is our agenda verses God’s. As a congregation or ministry, we need to be seeking the face of God. God will reveal his will. And yes, this can apply directly to how services and meetings are planned out. God is a God of order. I’d say we’d want to match up with God’s order, so that God doesn’t do some manual overriding of our own agenda. Trust me from my experience, it isn’t very pleasant at all.
#6 – He is unwilling to make the necessary changes because it would be highly unpopular.
Do I really need to explain this? It matches up perfectly with #16. The masses are not always right. Besides, you are a leader to these people, not the other way around. Sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do, yet also the most necessary. This is where you need godly wisdom, this is where you need the Holy Spirit. Seek prayer, the Bible, and seek God’s face. Don’t be a puppet to people.
#7 – He tries to listen to what everyone has to say about every situation.
This would be something I’d be guilty of, since I am all about feedback and having everyone involved. I’d say there is a fine balance where we need to be somewhere between closing people out and including everyone. I’d always mix things up, having wise counsel, along with the feedback of the mass middle, and of outsiders you are reaching out too. But as #7 suggests, making things so wide open will make you lose your mind. Last point is be careful when dealing with difficult people, where they will drain you. Learn to cut the line.
#15 – He doesn’t seek fresh revelation from God and often goes back to what has been done instead of seeking direction for what has never been done.
Are we playing the numbers game? Are we obsessed with our own vision? Are we humbling ourselves regularly in prayer, Bible reading, and seeking God’s face? Our agenda always fails in the end. God never fails. Enough said.
#16 – He stops taking risks and becomes obsessed with playing it safe.
Sounds like a topic I’ve covered a lot as of late. So look back at recent entries and you’ll see what I have to say about risks, fear, failure, and frustrations. These all are part of servant leadership, and like the pains of a runner, cyclist, and swimmer, you need to train to expand your threshold and improve upon your endurance and strength. Trust me, the Holy Spirit will stretch you over and over again!
And if I could suggest a #17: He/she holds a title and does nothing with it.
People “in leadership” who are sole title owners will do what it takes to keep their title. They will put up a front. They will smile in front of people, cameras, etc, showing they are playing the role that comes with their title. Maybe they are like mob bosses that have others do all their work? Maybe they work break/fix? Surely they are guilty of most of the previous 16.
My thoughts on that is an Ironman Triathlete doesn’t just one day decided to swim/bike/run, they are continuously active in what they do that leads to the Ironman. There are a million little, medium, and big tasks that go with any leadership title, even a seasonal leadership position. You just don’t show up and make it happen. You then are the problem and need to resign your title to someone who will be that person to continuously do the tasks that come with that role.
And my own #18: He/she lacks balance, doesn’t rest, can’t say no.
Burnout is real.
Back to the triathlete example… If you do long distances all the time, you will fatigue, plus you are a higher risk of injury. I know this personally both ways. Leaders need balance in their life.
When the flood comes that will overtake the lands of your leadership, brace for what you can, but know you can’t stop the waters. In other words, learn to have faith and trust in God, don’t try to save your own little piece of the world on your own, because you can’t. Only God can.
I frequent “Seth’s Blog” on my Google Reader. Likely I stumbled upon Seth Godin via one of my former pastors or college pals. This is more a marketing website, yet one where Seth challenges people to think outside the box. Lots of ministry applications, as well as real life applications too.
Here are some recent posts of note from Seth’s Blog:
Fatty is one of those gems you stumble upon on the internet. As his screenname suggests, he’s one that fell in love with cycling, like most of us not Tour de France worthy. (He’s not really fat, btw). Fatty has a great sense of humor and puts a humorous spin on the realities of both cycling and life.
Of course he’s know most for his family’s fight against cancer, a la Livestrong. Fatty’s wife, Susan, recently “won” after a hard fight battle with cancer. Fatty has inspired me, having a challenging August, with his wife’s passing, a crash at Leadville 100, and tuffing it out on the rolling hills of Montgomery County for the 2009 Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge! $277,000+ raised alone by Team Fatty Philly for the Livestrong Foundation!
Here are some recent posts worth the read (even if you don’t bike)…
1. Don’t Say She Lost
Written the day Fatty’s wife passed away.
2. Crashed Out
A rough end to a tough bike race, just a week or so after “Susan’s Win”.
3. 2009 LiveStrong Philly Report: Day 2 This Utah cyclist bikes almost literally in my backyard, soon after his crash in Leadville for the great cause of “Livestrong”!
4. A Scientific Explanation of Why Cycling Hurts Fatty nails the pains of us cylists dead in a fresh and humous new way!
5. Stuff that Flies I laughed so hard after reading this, sharing similar thoughts and feelings!
Lastly, have you read “The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus”?
I like reading stuff that “thinks outside the box” and is somewhat counter culture. For me it is less about being a rebel and more about zooming out to get a broader outside perspective on things. Too easy to get trapped inside a bunch of boxes in life!
Now I don’t agree with all the points of view in this comic strip blog, yet I appreciate the different perspective. Whenever I read a post that upsets me, I stop to for a second to get the point and try to absorb the broader context. There are plenty of comics here that I’ve used to share some things that is hard for me to express, as far as my frustrations with people, the church, culture, and religion.
