With wife and children directly in front of me and memories of childhood storms in my rearview, I was starting to get a little anxious.  But almost before I could fully think through all the implications and options, we seemed to break through the storm.  As in all the torrential experiences of our lives, even the vivid and visceral ones don’t seem so daunting in the retelling.  What we think we may not survive feels more like a grand adventure as we look back.

The book “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” in not a minimalist manifesto, in fact, it is about the pursuit of a more abundant life where you provide the maximum contribution.  It flies in the face of our western cultural sensibilities that says the only path to “more” is through doing “more.”  It also flies in the face, interestingly enough, in the way we often measure ministry success.

I went to a non-fiction writing conference a couple of years ago.  They took us through a series of writing prompts with the objective of getting us to declutter and simplify our thoughts.  We were shown a simple photo of a weathered house in the middle of an endless field of grass and asked to describe what we saw.

The process was to have us increasingly simplify our descriptions, each time working with less words to accomplish the task.  I was undaunted by the shrinking word count and just started using bigger and more elaborate words (one of the byproducts of reading a lot to escape my troubled reality as a kid).  At one point the leader of the conference got so exasperated with me, that he blurted out: "Just say the damn thing!!"  That phrase comes to mind often.

Our mission with our children has always been that they would be sourcing, well beyond our parenting, the love of their true Father.  That they would know who they are and how loved they are because of Him.  Our job as parents and employers, is to introduce them to the culture of the Kingdom and their King.

If you put it into rowing parlance, out of every ten employees at the average company, 3 are rowing forward aggressively, 5 are along for the ride, and 2 are actually trying to sink the boat!  Before you summarily reject that idea, take a hard look at your team.  Those that are actively engaged (30%) need to be honored, celebrated, and rewarded.  Those along for the ride (52%) need a plan to help them get more actively engaged.  Those actively rowing against you (18%) need to find someone else’s boat to sink.  Things are difficult enough without hauling dead weight around!

Who wouldn’t be anxious?  After twenty years of launching and then fathering a not-for-profit to significant maturity and impact, it was time to find a replacement.  It takes incredible maturity and humility to step aside from all that you’ve created… to believe that ultimate success and long term viability of the enterprise requires another at the helm.  Many founders or entrepreneurs never find the temerity of spirit to reach this point.  Of the few that do, most find it difficult to actually let go.

I used to regularly meet a friend of mine for coffee in a private dining club.  We would sit at a table that essentially offered an elevated view of dozens of planes leaving the local airport.  Watching plane after plane leave to destinations unknown would produce this strange longing that I wouldn’t have identified otherwise.  I was in a challenging season and I think I would have taken a ticket to almost anywhere.  It is not so much about where you are, but what you believe about where you are.  

When I look at the life of Jesus, the only things he said or did are the things his Father directed.  He sought out his Father’s direction in all things and simply did what he was led to do.  For us that simply means living a life that helps encourage humanity to inch ever closer to their true Father.  To glorify Him by living the life so consistent with His intentions and commandments that the truth of our life resonates in some preternatural way to the gospel that is written on their hearts… whether it is acknowledged or not.

I feel close to the Father.  I feel in communion with Him.  I feel alive and exhilarated from the experience and all the earthly wants and desires (The less wild lovers of my soul that John Eldredge talks about in “Journey of Desire”) seem to fade in comparison to being in fellowship with the One I was created to be in relationship with.  Leading and loving well requires a person who is whole-hearted.  Invigorated, fully alive, and operating with all senses engaged.

As much as the deliverable of our faith was always intended to be restoration and transformation, the history of many of our organizations, the culture of our families, and even the experience of our faith journey, has been about everything but that.  That is no accident.  Everything the Father desires is specifically opposed.  And everything the Father ultimately intends, is ultimately opposed.

Bringing real honest-to-goodness change (transformation) to lives and organizations has been the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever attempted.  And you will often find me both signing the praises and shaking my fist at the heavens.

All of us initially came to faith as a child.  I happened to be a 19 year old child, but there was a childlike wonder, a sense of new discovery, and specter of endless possibilities… like a child.  For most of us, something happened along the way to “mature” faith.

I watched an interview between Eugene Peterson (writer of the Message version of the Bible) and Bono (ironically, Eugene had never heard of him or U2).  Despite their intellect, experience, and passion about how they feel called to live out their faith there was a common childlike innocence about them.

I often get the sense, talking to some business leaders;  that they believe there is someone just beyond the horizon that can do the jobs of everyone on the team better than the folks they currently have. That there is a magic pill, program, person, or thing, that will magically solve all their problems and make their dreams come true.  That unicorns exist.

We live in a performance culture.  The one who is thought of best is the one that accomplishes the most things.  Most of us spend a lot of time trying to earn the accolades of others because that is what our culture (and the Church) has taught us to do.  We no longer own our lives.  The paradox is that the way that most of us receive affirmation from the world, finds us bringing home mere scraps at the end of the day.  The people who love us most are getting the least.

How do you break the cycle that our own need for validation, the world’s expectations, our enemy’s whisper, and even the Church encourages?

An inspired vision can be cast that both inspires and motivates a team to reach for more. This is not something an outsider can craft and design, but merely cultivate from the team.  A well defined vision provides the destination from where you can craft powerful strategic initiatives and action steps to make sure it is realized.  With our clients, we commit to work for as long as it takes to get them in a strong rhythm for execution of those plans and any other issues that incidentally occur.

At the end of the day though, company leadership is going to make sure all this happens or not. It doesn’t matter how powerful, comprehensive, or well-defined the processes are, success will still be contingent on the endorsement and support of your leadership. That cannot be outsourced.

Re-filtering the most challenging circumstances of your life through a redemptive filter might be one of the most freeing things you will ever experience.  If you can look beyond the struggle to the redemptive perspective that is there, you go from victim to victor in almost every situation.  I can learn to not lament the rain, but actually get out there, splash around in it, and begin reaching forward to what lies just beyond all that water.

We’ve all heard the concept of the stage dad or mom.  That parent standing just off-stage, off the court, or even outside the classroom.  Their child’s success is somehow attributed to their success in life.  If the little “me” can somehow make it onto that team, make it into that college, or fit into that crowd, it somehow redeems the fact that I didn’t find the same success.  I think it can translate into repressed hopes, dreams, and desires of the heart as well.