To receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award given for bravery in battle, never having fired a weapon, is a once in a lifetime story.  To watch soldiers who hated him for his beliefs, celebrate and honor him, is the story of all time.  The redemptive perspective found in that story is woven into the fabric of every great story.

Redemption is our intellectual property.  It is the stuff of every great story because it is sourced to the one great story.  It is the foundation for our faith and ultimate deliverable for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Even those that don’t hold to our faith and values, are still deeply connected and affected by that idea.

Unfortunately, most of us are unable to understand what is really happening and are often asking the wrong questions.  As a result, we are trying to address the wrong problems.  The good news is that problems can be identified, solutions can be crafted, and newly inspired futures can be found.  There is a bridge from here to over there.

We were created to be the ambassadors of the one great hope, the reflectors of the Light of the World.  Restoration is our intellectual property.  These may feel like desperate times and that the light might be flickering, but the truth is that this light hasn’t dimmed.  In fact, compared to the despair of the world, it appears even brighter than ever.

I haven’t completely thrown in the towel on the direction of things in our country changing, but I am increasing clear on the role I am called to play.  I am spending all of my vocational bandwidth (heck, pretty much all my time) trying to restore the nobility of leadership, encourage organizational health, and heal this land… one family, organization, or business at a time.

Over decades, couples on different courses personally, can end up miles apart.  With the principal work of raising their children accomplished, they often wake up laying next to someone they don’t have very much in common with and barely know.

We find the same with leadership teams.  Different motives, experiences, and interpretations result in different priorities.  Without a clear and inspired destination for everyone to shoot for that is… 

• Clarified

• Discussed

• Celebrated

• & Regularly course directed back toward

…misalignment is a likely conclusion.

I am not a naturally positive person.  I am not sure than anyone is, but there are some people who predominantly choose to see the good.  They rest in the hope and promises they find in the pages of the book of life.  They root out the cancerous people and the toxic inputs into their life that rob them of hope and joy.  They choose to believe that despite everything in the culture that would encourage otherwise, that there is a King overseeing his Kingdom and the end of our story lands on him setting everything right again.

I listened to a young man on a podcast recently describing his investigation of a monastery on-line.  He was convicted as he read about their approach to prayer.

“We don’t find ways to fit prayer into our regular life.  We actually live a life of prayer and we find ways to fit our regular life into that.”

Before we dismiss that as opportunity that only monastics can enjoy, look at the life of Jesus and the rhythms of his life.  Clearly, Kingdom living looks a lot more like what the monks were describing than the life most of us live.

Core values should differentiate you from all other companies in your field.  It should be the particular set of things you value that shapes your decision making, determines resource allocation, decides who you hire, reward, and fire.  It is the set of things that differentiates you in the marketplace and helps protect and preserve what is unique about your company.  It is also the way you make God known.

The human brain is constantly seeking simplicity.  The more information you try to communicate in a product offering or message, the more confusing it is to the listener.  If our brains have to think too hard to sort through the multitude of ideas or what we’re seeing isn’t very easy to understand, we essentially move on to the next thing.

Think of the potential purchasers of your products and services sitting there with a remote control in their hand.  They are having to sift through an ocean of websites, commercials, print ads, or even personal recommendations or online reviews.  The remote control of our brain is clicking through channels and eventually lands on the thing that is most simple or easily understood.

When you culture is healthy and real, it is not just merely aspirational words on a wall.  If it is healthy and real, it incubates like a greenhouse helping everything and everyone grow more fully and abundantly.  It is embodied by the servant leadership at the top, but felt and rewarded in every employee.  There is evidence of it at every turn and it is played out in both the largest and smallest of tasks.

When you look at our government, many churches, and maybe even your family of origin, it is easy to lose heart.  I have spent a lot more time discouraged than invigorated for the heart.  But there is a sense of urgency rising in me.

I have grown a little, I am very clear on my unique identity, and I am flanked by other awakened leaders increasing my resolve…those choosing the culture of the Kingdom.  I want to play the part I was intended for and awaken as many hearts as possible to the necessary invasion of “companies and cultures and churches and cities and families.”

Supermarkets are giving way to Trader Joe’s.  Starbucks is losing market share to local coffee houses.  Craft brews are pecking away at the big brands.  Mega churches are being replaced by house churches or much smaller varieties.  People want to be known, connected, and feel they are part of something substantial.

“Every organization must contribute in some way to a better
world for some group of people, because if it doesn’t, it will, 
and should, go out of business.”

Knowing what is unique, profound, or inspiring about your organization or idea is the “why” behind how you rally the uninspired and distracted.  It is the essential element in getting everyone to know, understand, and buy into the bigger purpose that their work could provide.

Knowing what is unmistakable about you (knowing why you exist) is the necessary step to defining the unmistakable about your business.  Knowing and living into what is unmistakable about your business is the necessary ingredient for sustainable success and the way you ultimately own the “real estate” that only you can.

It might not surprise you that some companies we talk to simply want a strategic plan.  They feel like that is the ultimate solution to all their problems.  We couldn’t disagree more.  That, in a vacuum, will not solve your problems.  In our extensive experience and research, if you don’t walk through the essential steps necessary to get to this kind of strategic plan, the plan won’t be…

• Owned

• Embraced

• Accomplished

As we prayed through how we are to offer proper stewardship over all these processes, exercises, and tools that lead organizations down a transformation journey, we were left with a very clear conclusion, we are supposed to make it available to everyone.

We defined 3 different paths that lead to the same destination:

• Coaching for Your Team - Hire us to work with you and your team directly.

• Get a Coach - Meet with me or another coach and gather around a table with other leaders.

• Do It Yourself - We’re building a free online database of all the tools, processes, and exercises we use to take a team on a complete transformational journey.

This resolve gets tested sometimes.

So how is all of this a problem?  Because I believe that walking that journey toward clarity and transformation will change an individual or organization's future, it feels kinda weighty to carry around.  Sort of a privileged burden.  That is what calling and purpose feels like… a great treasure that you have both the honor and responsibility to offer to the world.

I am not telling you anything you don’t already know (in your heart of hearts at least).  God created us for a purpose and He is about the business of us finding the life He intends for us.  He wants us to go out on the great swelling tide of his purpose and tilt our bow toward unchartered waters.  

There really isn’t any life worth living outside of the one we were created to play.

The journey our family has been on for the last 5-10 years has come at a cost.  We’ve had to downsize, change neighborhoods, simplify, etc., but we and our children really want for nothing.  There have been a few times, however, where things seemed pretty desperate.  We’ve had to get comfortable with the simple truth that while there may be a lot of uncertainty and not much margin… that things aren’t how we might want them to be… we certainly have everything we need.