Believe or make believe?

It is that time of year where we have a lot of fun pretending to be things we are not. My wife and I for example went to a halloween party at a friends house and got all dressed up. I was actually pretty impressed by our outfits. (By the way I don’t normally dress that way, I was acting like a tourist.) I was figuring that we would just end up doing something lame, but for us the end product was pretty darn good.

So what does this all mean? Well I have been challenged this week to actually live out my beliefs. Rather than acting like I KNOW something, I need to live as if I BELIEVE something. What’s the difference? Well I can know that a light is red or going to turn red, but that may not alter my behavior. If I believe that the light is red and then I will be more likely to stop. To me belief stirs our hearts. While knowledge enlights us it does not necessarily motivate. Is that a good distinction?

How do you know you are living out your beliefs?

All Apologies.

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to attend the first screening of a new documentary focused primarily on the survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot and their failed attempts to attain reparations. If you are not familiar with the Tulsa Race Riot then you should go back and read these posts here, here, here and here. You can find the official state historical report on the race riot here.

The documentary was very, very difficult to watch on many levels. Recalling such a painful event and the blatant disregard for human life and decency is but at the surface and surprisingly not even the deepest of emotion. The evidence of a conspiracy of silence that essentially tried to ignore the event and even blame the event on the victims themselves brings even more turmoil to the issue. This leads us to the long history of attempts by survivors and victims to attain compensation for lost property.

And now the remaining survivors, most of whom were mere children at the time of the riot, are dying off with no official legal recourse left in our judicial system. But what can I do? I’m not a lawyer. I’m not a rich man. I’m not a powerful man in a powerful position. But in my heart I felt there was one thing I must do. So as I left the theater this Sunday afternoon and with two of the survivors sitting directly behind me. On my way out I made a point to stop, shake their hands, look them in the eyes and say “I’m sorry.” Of course, I had these visions of how deeply impacted these individuals might be. Perhaps they have never had a white man apologize to them. Self-centered thinking on my part. Instead I was treated to some very powerful words. Words of encouragement and words of hope. As one of the survivors held my hand in an extended handshake, he spoke those words to me. And I was amazed. His hands on that day back in 1921 were held high in the air as they were marched off to internment camps. Yet his hands now were extended again, but to me in a gesture of hope and peace.

These survivors deserve a tribute. They haven’t soured themselve sulking alone at home thinking thoughts of revenge. They have moved on. With out the assistance of a just judicial system. The best we can do is continue that spirit and learn from our past and move forward TOGETHER!

Random Thoughts.

I have a vivid memory from my childhood. It involves hearing my sister’s alarm clock wake her (and subsequently me) up every morning. She usually had it set to awake with the radio. I can still here Olivia Newton John mournfully singing “Xanadu”. There’s this weird childish emotion that I have tied to that song and that memory. The feeling that I had to get up and go to school. It is a feeling of “homesickness”. 

Weird. I know. But that’s how I roll.

And you? Any weird memories triggered by obscure music?

Books and Friends. Friends and Books.

No I am not starting my own book club. I’ll leave that up to Oprah.

This past week my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the Catalyst conference in Atlanta, GA. This was my fifth year to attend this conference. It has meant a lot to me in terms of spiritual and personal growth especially when it comes to leadership ability. This year it took a completely different twist for me. This year I was so excited to meet a variety of people that I have grown to know but have never met. People like Anne Jackson and Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite and Craig Groschel. I spent about the last six to nine months subscribing to their blogs and commenting and listening and watching any video. So in many ways I felt as if I had already known these guys. It was so nice to be able to introduce myself and to have each one recognize my name and to feel a common connection. And despite the fact that I only got to spend a limited amount of time with each of them face to face I can say that even in those settings each one seemed as genuine and sincere as they do in their “online” communities.

I tend to swing between the extremes on the pendulum when it comes to dealing with “famous” people. Particularly within a church context, it feels wierd to point out certain people and recognize them as “different“. But I beleive that the biblical record is pretty clear about this. Jesus spent his time on earth ministring and impacting thousands (the first megachurch), yet he focused much of his time and directed alot of his attention to only 12. And in the establishment of the early church I seriously doubt that Paul was THE only church planter successfully planting churches. But he is the one that much of the focus is spent on. Why is it that way? I don’t know. But appareantly God works in the lives of individuals and then blesses them as a way of example for others to see how this journey of faith should impact, inspire and drive us to serve God. And I don’t think that it’s simply because these individuals are “better” than anyone else, though certainly obedience and stewardship are at the forefront.

So what does all this mean. Well, there is the particular example of Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite. These guys are seriously best friends and have become for me an example of what one should look for in a sincere friendship. They opened up to us and shared some insight into the depths and transparency of their relationship and how that friendship inspired them to write a book about character. I honestly believe that if I lived in closer proximity to either Mike or Jud that we’d hand out more often and maybe over time develop that close relationship. But for me here where I am at, I am inspired and challenged to develop that kind of friendship here and now.

Who has been influencing you lately? What things have they been challenging you to?

FAILURE

[feyl-yer] (n) : state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success (from ninjawords.com)

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about failure lately. Perhaps it would be more apt to say that I’ve been feeling the emotion of failure a lot lately. One of those seasons of despair because it seems that in every aspect of life I am falling way short. I really like this definition from Ninjawords.com for failure. But as I have thought about it I have become certain of a very powerful and important aspect of failure. I think the best way to describe this insight is to simply drop the last phrase from the above definition. Here is how I am now viewing failure: a state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. That’s right, I’m dropping the part that mentions “the opposite of success”. Why? Because I am coming to believe that failure is an essential part of our learning experience. In fact, failure IS the learning experience. To take it even further I would say that to not fail or to not admit to failure IS failure.

Now I’m just playing fancy word games and I am truly sorry for that, but bear with me. We tend to view failure through the lens of win-lose; failure being a loss and success being a win. But what if we looked at failure as a delayed win or perhaps better stated an overtime victory. History is full of stories of underdogs nearly upsetting a dominant power or force only to be defeated in the end. Whether it is in sports, military history, the business world, etc…There is story after story of a winner overcoming the odds to pull off a win. The key to each of these victories regardless of the arena in which they occur is that the winners recognize that they are losing AND that they learn from their mistakes. It is only after this recognition and subsequent change in strategy that victory is now possible.

History is also rich with stories of winners who subsequently were defeated. Why? Usually because the failed to recognize that they were losing and as a result refused or failed to make necessary changes to their strategy. So like I said earlier, failure IS the learning experience; to not admit failure is THE greatest of all failures.

 

How is your strategy working? What failures do you need to admit?

FRUIT

This morning I read a pretty neat quote:

    “Personal faithfulness results in Godly fruitfulness.”

How is your faithfulness?