LeadershipConneXtions

Thirsty and Foolish

 

It is Not a Good Combination!

The Scriptures consistently expose people as both thirsty and foolish. We long for the satisfaction we were built to enjoy, but we all move away from God to find it. (Larry Crabb)

Maybe the one passage that exposes this most painfully is Jeremiah 2:13:

My people have commiited two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

The language of longing, yeaning and desire is one of the most powerful themes I use in my own spiritual formation journey and in my work of spiritual direction with leaders. Larry Crabb was one of the first people who clued me in to the importance of these "creation embedded longings" that are the essence of our humanity (see his book, Inside Out).

But not only do we long for what we lost in the fall, we mistakenly pursue endless wrong roads to find what we are missing. James Wilhoit calls this, foolish, self-defeating strategies. "Our soul-thirst is powerful and it makes us all idolaters" (Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered).

Of course the wise pastor/theologian/social reformer/prolific author - John Calvin said it simply and perhaps best: "Man's nature is a perpetual factory of idols."

I think one of the most helpful short AND excellent books on this is Tim Keller's - Counterfeit Gods. Well, it is outstanding for naming and exposing these idols. It is not written as the spiritual formation way of resisting idols by means of drawing near to God (Jeremiah 30:31). It is not a prescription for how to drink the refreshing water of Christ (John 6:37-39).

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

This is not simply an evangelistic text that is a once and done.

This is a sanctification, way of discipleship text. For every day we thirst and every day we must drink at the fountain of Spirit generated waters.

Taste the bread of life and see that Jesus is the goodness of God.
Drink the living waters and be find life that satisfied.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
BrianRice@lcileaders.org 

Forgiveness is a Lovely Idea

 Will It Become a Cascading Flow?

 

Every one says forgivenes is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive. (C. S. Lewis)

I would only add/change one word in this and say:

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have someone to forgive.

 

I am thinking of a man (I can't really call him a friend, but rather an acquaintance) who carries around the crippling weight of unforgiveness. This man is an angry man. He holds grudges. He has a long memory of offenses against him. These offenses grow in magnitude the longer he clings to them. For this man - I don't even think he would agree with Lewis - that forgiveness is a lovely idea. He does not want to forgive. He has chosen the darkness of unforgiveness and that unforgiveness is un-making his.

I am thinking of a woman who had the opportunity to practice forgiveness recently. It was unexpected. It was about an old, virtually forgotten issue. It turned out the issue had not been forgiven... merely suppressed and buried, hidden away, out of sight, memory and daily life. Until the one who had sinned against her, from out of "the blue," initiated and asked for forgiveness. A lot of things were stirred within her. And she agrees with Lewis. It is a lovely idea, this thing called forgiveness... until it must be practiced. But practicing it - she is.

 

As a pastor, a leadership coach and a spiritual director I often help people work on issues of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is at the heart of the gospel.

It is intimately woven into the fabric of grace.

It is downloaded into the essence of Christianity.

Scott McKnight says: "That strike of God's forgiving love to us produces in us a cascading flow of forgiveness to others . . ." (The Jesus Creed, pp. 220)

I like that language. 

To be a follower of Jesus is to live with a cascading flow of forgiveness toward others . . .

To be a leader ESPECIALLY means you must learn the ways of cascading forgiveness.

(1) For there will be many people you must forgive.

(2) There will be just as many of whom you must ask for forgiveness.

(3) And in all things, leaderhsip is Modeling the Way. You cannot teach with integrity and authenticity, that which you DO NOT LIVE!

******

So who needs forgiven?

What needs forgiven?

What offenses and memories of offenses must be "let go."

Unforgiveness is a heavy burden to carry for another year. 

Lighten your spiriutal load EARLY in 2013 by taking time to live in the forgiveness that has been given you . . . and then pray for that cascading flow to go forth.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
Brian Rice@lcileaders.org 

 

A Prayer for Busy Leaders

 

From Teresa of Avila
(16th Century!)

Contrary to Public Opinion,
Busyness is Not a 21st Century Phenomenon!

Teresa of Avila was one of the great mystics and contemplatives in the history of the church. She lived in the 16th century in Spain. One of her contemporaries was John of the Cross (who wrote on the dark night of the soul). Like so many of the great contemplatives, her life was full of ministry. She had the active life to an extraordinary degree. Here is how she wrestled with this in prayer.

How is it, my God, that you have given me this hectic, busy life when I have so little time to enjoy your presence? Throughout the day people are waiting to speak with me, and even at meals I have to continue talking to people about their needs and problems.

During sleep itself I am still thinking and dreaming about the multitude of concerns that surround me. I do all this not for my own sake, but for yours. To me my present pattern of life is a torment; I only hope that for you it is truly a sacrifice of love.

I know that you are constantly beside me, yet I am usually so busy that I ignore you. If you want me to remain so busy; please force me to think about and love you even in the midst of such hectic activity. If you do not want me so busy, please release me from it, showing how others an take over my responsibilities.

This prayer is worth a lectio divina meditation that leads you to wrestle with your own vocation that is surely full of divinely led activity, as well as some that is self-initiated; and with the longing for intimacy with God.

In my own journey to find the balance of holy activity and intimate contemplation, I am drawn to Ignatius of Loyola who figured out how to be a contemplative in action, to find God in all things and to practice his presence in the midst of the world. While Teresa struggles with an "oppositional" view of activity and contemplation, Ignatius resolved that Gordian Knot with his own approach to spirituality and service. 

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
brianrice@lcileaders.org 

Adaptive Enemies

 

Adaptive enemies is a term used to refer to terrorists who constantly adapt in response to the latest counter-terrorist measures (The Age of the Unthinkable)

That got me thinking . . .

It seems to me that Satan is an adaptive enemy.

And so is my sin nature.

I may as well add in the fallen world system.

Just when I think I have my counter-Satan, counter-sin, counter-world measurers in place, I find out they have adapted and already have new ways to disorder my life and leadership.

Sigh . . .

I suppose this is one reason why the Bible tells us to be constantly vigilant and alert about Satan, to constantly fight the good fight of resisting sin (and denying the sinful self's desires), and to daily flee the "evil" that is in the world (note - not flee the world itself, for that is impossible and unChristian).

May we all be vigiliant, resisting and abstaining from all that is wrong.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadeship ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

 

The Desert Wisdom When It Comes to Praying

 

Pray Without Ceasing

The ancients guide us with wisdom and love
in to the mysteries of prayer
 

I am spending some time reading the Desert Fathers and Mothers these days.

Sometimes they lived in community (always seperated by gender). Other times they lived in isolation (in caves, in huts they made, and even out in the open).

They are rich in lessons on silence and solitude, love of God and others, spiritual direction, the deadly sins (anger and pride as among the worst), the virtue of humility, and of course prayer.

What is most striking is the incredible diversity of prayer that is found in their lives and their writings. They believed God interacts in different ways according to the makeup and needs of each person. And that inevitably means a wonderful variety of prayer. 

As you read their guidance about prayer, at times, it is seems contradictory… until you remember that they are only illustrating ways of prayer and not mandating any norm for prayer.

Here are the three "rules from the desert."

ONE:
Pray. It is the most vital dynamic of life with God.

TWO:
Pray in the way that connects you with God. And the diversity of prayer is beautiful.

THREE:
Respect the differences in prayer, value each way, do not categorize some as better and others as lesser (a problem some of the later mystics fall in to).

 
 Visit this site for history and photos

Most of us need to learn how to pray. I think most leaders strugle with prayer and it is one of our great inadequacies as leaders.

To learn how to pray, you may have to read a good book or two to learn about prayer. A note of caution - there are some very good books on prayer, and there are some "bad ones" as well. Let me just note one of the very good ones, for those who need a start. 

I have found that Richard Foster's book on Prayer is among the best introductions to this wonderful diversity. Reading a chapter a week and then daily practicing (experimenting if you will) with that form of prayer would be of great benefit for learning to pray.

Another help is to use a prayer book. This is not a book that teaches you to pray. This is a book of prayers that models the way. I use prayer books regularly and they provide language, themes, a vision of God and ways of praying that are outside my typical thoughts. I use a different prayer book every year. I don't use it every day, but on many days I do.

 

Another help in learning to pray is to work with a spiritual mentor. One of the great offerings of spiritual mentors was their ability to teach others how to pray. In this, they imitate Jesus, the Great Master, who prayed so wonderfully, that his disciples simply asked Him, "Teach us to pray." 

In one sense, the prayer books of the church and the books on prayer, are having a distance mentor who guides us through the printed page. 

But whatever you do and in all things . . .

May Jesus be your Teacher of Prayer,
and  may your life of prayer flower in the season ahead.

 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Burnout

 

The 21 Hour Workweek!

It is probably more likely that you'll have
a 21 hour workday before you have
a 21 hour workweek!
Unless you are under-employed! 

Overwork and stress have increased. Downsizing did not mean there was less work. It meant there were fewer people to do the same amount of work that had previously been done. And those fewer people had to get that additional work done.

It is not just more work. It is more responsibility, more pressure, more deadlines, more expectations, more consequences -- and this means MUCH more added stress. You can find this image on this site, along with some good quotes on stress (click here).

 

BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE.
Now to that problem, add this . . .

The proliferation of intrusions via the ubiquitous internet.

We are never unplugged, at least for long. Emails, Facebook updates, twitter, calls, texts. Computers turned into laptops which became notebooks and smart phones. We carry the instrument of our distraction and interruption with us everywhere. You can get this image as a "mousepad" (here) and it might be a good reminder of what constant connectivity is doing to you.

I intentionally put my phone on silence mode. I intentionally do not answer my phone or even look at it for periods of time. I do a lot of work on my computer and it is always a struggle to shut down the internet connection and work undistracted. But I actually do that. And I want to do it more.

If you haven't yet read it, check out: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Your Brain. When I read that book, it led to a half dozen or more posts. Not only are many of us overworking, but while we work, we also experience constant interruption and switch tasking that leaves our brains that much more tired and distracted.

THE RESULT OF OVERWORKED AND CONSTANTLY DISTRACTED:
Here are a few stats quoted in Taking Your Soul to Work.

A study by the Center for Work-Life Policy, found that 8 out of 10 people say their jobs are affecting their health.

New York Times reported that 62% of people say they have had an increase in their workload in the last six months.

More than 50% say work leaves them excessively tired and overwhelmed.

BUT WHAT TO DO?
Here is the fact. Most of us do not have the ability to change our work environments. We don't have the position that gives us the power and authority. Work life has changed in the 21st century. It is not foreseeable that it will change back. In most cases, you don't have the luxury of just quitting, of opting out.

And to be honest, even if you are able to transfer, where you go will most likely be to a similar scenario.

The only way forward is to cultivate rhythms… make certain choices for the reordering of your life… so you have the resources of spirituality, emotion and intellect.

There is no short cut to this. It is going to take time, energy, diligence, patience . . . and some wisdom about the way of formation . . . and a generous lavishing of God's grace. You can count on the last one. The middle one is there for the finding. If you need help, drop me a note. You will have to supply the former. But God can help you with that one as well. 

 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

If God Seems Far Away...

More than once someone has said to me, "God just seems so far away" (or some variation of that). Maybe you've heard the slogan,

If God seems far away,
He's not the one who moved!

With the idea of this meaning, that God is always with you and if He seems far away, you are the one who has pulled away from God. God is not only with you but He is pursuing you. So, if God is distant - guess what? It isn't His fault!
 

Like all slogans and "tweets" these days, it is pretty hard to express complete truth in 140 or so characters.

And since the Christian faith is messy and mysterious and full of wonderful depth and substance, the Christian faith is usually more complex than simplistic tweets can convey.

So, if God seems far away, perhaps it is because God has moved on and you have been blissfully (or narcissistically) unaware that God is on the move.
 

I love the narrative of Israel in the wilderness. When God moves they must move with Him. When God camps out, they too must camp. Of course they had a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day to give them great confidence when God was on the move. Of course, the story is a sad one because they didn't like the way and direction God was moving and so they rebelled. 

By the way, could you imagine being an Israelite who decided to say in Egypt, who is wondering why God seems far away... and you say to them, "God's not the One who moved. Just pray and be attentive and you'll experience Him?"  

In the Gospels, Jesus is always on the move. The disciples needed to move with him.

In Galatians 5:25 Paul says to "keep in step with the Spirit." The image is that the Spirit of God is on the move, not standing still, not staying put... and so you better not either. If you do, it won't be long until God seems far away.

Don't you love the exciting statement by Mr. Beaver in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. "Aslan is on the move."  

Charles Ringma has written a nice devotional book around the theme of the Spirit of God blowing like the wind and our needing to set our sails to catch that wind and go with it.

The language of Psalm 84:5-7 speaks of the pilgrimage nature of the Christian JOURNEY.
 

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
(a place of barrenness)
they make it a place of springs...
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
 
 

 

The Scriptures testify to the fact that God is on the move and if we settle down, if we become complacently situated and comfortably numb (thanks to Pink Floyd for this image) - then, yes, you should sense that God seems far away.

He is far away!

Time to get up and get moving. He'll lead you to where He is.

The life of following Christ always needs:

Radical Readiness 
Ruthless Trust 
Prompt Obedience 
Leaps of Faith

If it feels like God seems far away... He may indeed be far away. He has moved on and you haven't. Don't just sit there. Get on with the journey, the pilgrimage, the seeking...

And He'll draw you to where He is... so you can keep moving on.

Joy on the Pilgrim's Journey...

 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Martin Luther on Diligent Preparation

 

Hard Work or Hardly Working?

Sometimes, when people talk about giving 100%,
this image tells you what they really mean!
 

If you are called by God to do a work, then do it with all your skill, all your love, all your energy and all your time.

That makes sense to me.

For the most part, I have a pretty good work ethic.

I have a developed sense of responsibility.

I have an awareness of the urgency of the day.

I am deeply committed to the purposes of God that He has planned to be done in and through my own life (Ephesians 2:10).

I also am in community with a team of spiritual friends who are passionate and committed to the Lord and His work. They movitave me and inspire me with their ethic of excellence.

Unfortunately, there are some times when I am not so diligent, not so disciplined, not so faithful. 

I recently read an exhortation from the great Reformer, Martin Luther, who had a tremendous work ethic. Being in the style of Martin's blunt and direct speech, he'll get right to the point.

Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. they do not pray; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture. . . . The call is to watch, study, attend to reading. In truth you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, adn what you teach well you cannot live too well.

The devil, the world, and our flesh are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brothers (and sisters), pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be dilgent...

This evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring.

Quoted in The Legacy of Sovereign Joy
by John Piper,  pp 86.

 

Okay Martin - you speak to me.

The goal is not to do as little as we can to get by.

The goal is to be as faithful as we can, as diligent as we can, as disciplined as we can, as hard working as we can . . . all by God's grace. This is the testimony of Scripture.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might . . . (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

.It is also the ethos of one of my favorite leaders, Ignatius of Loyola, who believed in mas, magis, more for the glory of God. In fact, that became the motto for the Society of Jesuits (AMDG).

Ad majorem
Dei glorium

For the greater glory
of God 

If you have fallen off in your steadfastness and diligence in the service of the Lord Christ, and if you are neglecting the preparation you must constantly do so you do your work well, it will be good to spend time in prayer on these things.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Solzhenitsyn on the Line Between Good and Evil

One of the truly great insights that I have often pondered comes from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn spent more then twelve years imprisoned in the gulag prison camps of Russia. Here is how he describes that dozen years of his life.

It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good.

In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments.

It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw, that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either-- but right through everyhuman heart -- and through all human hearts. . . .

That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, "Bless you prison!" I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: "Bless you prison,  for having been in my life."

The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 2, pps. 615-617

Workers at the Gulag Archipelago

Those of us who are called to lead, we have strong tendencies to see our work, our decisions, our actions as good. Others do not always experience us as such. We tend to see those who disagree with us as "bad." The world can easily become a black and white world, good and bad, divided in to those who are "with me" or "against me." 

Solzhenitsyn had the grace of seeing that the world is not divided in to good and bad people. Instead, good and bad is in all people. And good people are capable of being very bad people and justifying it with very sincere arguments.

It is through suffering, and through times of silence and solitude as we reflect on our suffering, AND do this with the guiding Spirit of God, that we discover wisdom, we encounter truth about our selves and the world around us, and we discover the gifts of God.
 

Grace, forgiveness, mercy...

Second chances, fresh starts, new beginnings...

Freedom and transformation...

The opportunity to become instruments of grace, shalom and justice...
 

If and when this happens, we too, may say with Solzhenitsyn, "Bless you suffering, for having been in my life." You became for me, the time and the teacher of grace and true goodness.

May God give you EVERY EXPERIENCE YOU NEED in the season ahead, so you may become his ambassador of grace and goodness in the world around you.
 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

 

Sustaining Grace

Not only do we need Saving Grace daily, but we need Sustaining Grace as well. It is not that God saves us by his grace and then, now it is up to us to run the race, to be faithful on our own strength and to finish well by the effort of our own will.

A number of years ago, a well known speaker told me a story about a friend of his who had followed Christ for many years, been used for many significant ministries . . . and then, in the space of about a month's time, made so many horrible choices and fell into such an abyss of sin, and walked so thoroughly  and far away from God - that the speaker wondered if his friend had ever really been a Christian.

But that seemed silly, for his friend had prayed the prayer of faith, had sacrificed much for God, had a wonderful influence on many through the teaching ministry he had and they had many profound conversations of life with Christ.  But all that had come to an end.

And at the time of the telling me of this story, that friend had not come back to God, but continued on in a hardness of disobedience. 

The great Augustine had this to say:

Who is not aghast at the sudden crevasses that might open in the life of a dedicated man (woman)? When I was writing this, we were told that a man of 84, who had lived a life of continence under religious observance with a pious wife for 25 years, has gone and bought himself a music girl for his pleasure . . . 

If the angels were left to their own free will, even they might lapse, and the world be filled with "new devils."

It is the mystery of sin. 

Augustine didn't have to figure out that mystery to understand that on his own free will, unaided by the grace of God, and apart from the power of the Spirit of God . . . he would also make bad choices, he would disobey the will of God, and he would walk away from the love of God.

The great saints know they are deeply flawed sinners . . . who daily need the mercy of God to keep them close to Himself, to keep them secure in his love, to give them victory over sin . . . and to forgive and restore them when they fail.

The maturing process of the Christian life is not a growing independence from God... rather, it is the exact opposite. It is growing in our knowledge that apart from God we are undone and lost. So it is the hunger of more of God, more dependency on God, more intimacy with God.

As you begin your day, pray for the sustaining grace of God so you may love and follow Him in joy and serve Him in obedience.
 

May today be your Declaration of Dependence on God.

 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

The Real Problem With the Way We Worship . . .

I love to worship.

I believe we are doing a pretty good ministry of worship at Living Word Community Church where I serve as the pastor of leadership development and spiritual formation.

I know our worship leaders (three on staff) have a heart of worship and a longing for God and a desire to have a worshipping congregation.

I am grateful.

I always desire more (mas, magis) for the glory of God and the sake of his people.

So, these words from John Piper stopped me cold and led to some fruitful personal meditation.

If the Christian life has become the path of ease and fun in the modern West, then corporate worship is the place of increasing entertainment.

The problem is not a battle between contemporary worship music and hymns; the problem is that there aren't enough martyrs during the week. If no soldiers are perishing, what you want on Sunday is Bob Hope and some pretty girls, not the army chaplain and a surgeon...

Worship is the display of the surpassing worth of God revealed in Jesus Christ...

Faith-filled suffering is essential in this world for the most intense, authentic worship...

Our problem is not styles of worship. Our problem is styles of life. When we embrace more affliction for ht worth of Christ there will be more fruit in the worship of Christ.

John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God, pp 167-169

Pretty powerful words.

It is the quality and integrity of one's Christian life in the world that shapes what one looks for and needs in the time of corporate worship in the sanctuary.

How you live shapes how you worship and how you need to worship.

Sometimes I come to the worship service and my heart is cool, my mind distracted, my passion for Jesus tempered and my previous week lukewarm.

Pity the worship leader and team... for now I expect him or her to entertain me, pick me up, charge me up... and of course I'll be the critic and judge for lights, sound, style, energy, mistakes...

Other times I come to the worship service and my heart is aflame for Christ, I am in the midst of challenging times and heavy demands, I know my need, I long for God.

Pray for the worship leader and team... for now I need her or him to create a sacred space and a pathway of worship so I, weary and worn from battle and costly service, together with others, may meet with God.

If one is seriously following Christ in the world, passionate about His glory, and devoted to accomplishing His purposes . . . then you are going to have some trial and tribulation, you are going to face obstacles and enemies and then you are going to need a fresh and real encounter with the Sovereign God in worship to sustain you on the journey and in the fight.


 

Worship leaders and worshippers . . .

. . . how are you worshipping these days?

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

 

 

On the Dumbing Down of the Spiritual Life

 

Dumbing Down is Not the Way of Wisdom

or Gaining the Mind of Christ

Richard Foster, way back in 1996, had this pastoral and prophetic word about and for the church.

I am concerned that our reading and our writing is gravitating to the lowest common denominator so completely that the great themes of majesty and nobility and felicity are made to seem trite, puny, pedestrian. . . .

In reality I am concerned about the state of the soul in the midst of all the cheap sensory overload going on today. You see, without what Alfred North Whitehead called, "an habitual vision of greatness," our soul will shrivel up and lose the capacity for beauty and mystery and transcendence. . . .

In this day and age having nothing at all to say does not disqualify a person from writing a book (or a blog). The sad truth is that many authors simply have never learned to reflect substantively on anything.

Heart to Heart: A Pastoral Letter from Richard J. Foster, November 1996

I believe our great need is to connect intimately with the Lord of Lords, King Jesus. We need to see the glory and majesty of our God. We need to see the holy God, high and exalted. We need to experience his mighty, august Presence moving through our communities and our souls.

We need the transcendent God to convict us of sin, to persuade us for the way of righteousness, to comfort us in our affliction, to encourage us in our faithfulness, to sustain us as we persevere.

Your Christian life cannot be any higher, any deeper, any better - then is your vision and experience of God. A shallow image of God, a superficial experience of God, a limited knowledge of who God is, a preoccupation with one little corner of God's chartacter - then you will be part of what J.I. Packer calls a North American Christianity that is "3000 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep."

But see God clearly, fully, deeply, bountifully, in all his manifest splendour and the multitude of his attributes and the manifold ways of his surprising ways - then you will grow wise and strong in the ways of God.

That means we need leaders, preachers, teachers, writers, bloggers and friends who will be possessed and mesmerized by God and the things of God and speak to us powerfully on these things, as well as their own experiences of the Living God. We need to "up the standard" A LOT.

Leaders, if our communities of faith and ministry have become "dumbed down" it is because we have become "dumbed down" ourselves.

May I encourage all of us to a fresh, vigorous pursuit of the Almighty... a renewed passion and commitment for ALL of His Ways... and the courage to chart out counter-cultural followership in a consumer culture.

Some of this may be stirred within you as you choose to read some substantial books, by those authors who read and write well because they think, study and pray well... and in that, they have come to know God. Their writings are a stepping stone for our own deepening. 

We read their profound words... and then we meditate on and soak in their realities, allowing them to sink and settle in the soul.
 

Therefore, since we are receiving
a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably
with reverence and awe,
for our God is a consuming fire.
(Hebrews 12:28)

Choose this day whom you will serve and once you have chosen, then fircely pursue WHO you have chosen.

Tomorrow - a post about worship.
 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Jeremiah, Paul and Martin Luther on Pursuing God

This is a follow-up to the post two days ago. If you haven't read that one, scroll down to read it first and then come back to this.

The Prophet Jeremiah.
Through the prophet, God issues a question to leaders. Here it is.

I will bring him (a leader) near and he will come close to me, for who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 30:21)

Some translations use the language of "dare to draw near." In this case, it is the holy, bold, desperate audacity of drawing near to the holy God.

Dare to draw near!
Personal devotion to be close to God!

Is this the longing of your heart?
And how much time are you spending in this pursuit?

The Apostle Paul.
If anyone was close enough to God, if anyone had arrived, if anyone had the inside track to closeness to Jesus - surely it was the Apostle Paul. Surely he could coast a bit, power down, lighten up, put things on a comfortable cruise when it came to "relationshi with Jesus."

You can tell the "setup" from a mile away - can't you?

I am a part of a group going through Philippians the last two months. Here is the heart of Paul:
 

I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death,
and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this,
or have already been made perfect,
but I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind
and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature
should take such a view of things. 

Philippians 3:10-15

Paul is describing the emotional, attitudinal, passionate heart that is devoted to closeness to Christ. Look at what Paul desires and how deeply he desires it. Imagine how much time Paul devoted to this relentless pursuit of Christ and a mature salvation.

Martin Luther.
Here is a comment from the great Reformer, one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. It is paraphrased (a bit) and comes from one of his volumes of Table Talk.

"I am so busy today that I will never get everything done unless I spend three hours today in prayer." 

Oh that this would be our wisdom also. Our work is so important, our leadership is so strategic, God's Kingdom activity is so precious, the needs are so great, the opportunities are so many - that we will never get it all done and done well - UNLESS WE SPEND HOURS IN THE PURSUIT OF GOD.

For it is this pursuit that establishes in the leader, the heart of God, the wisdom of Christ, the power of the Spirit . . . without which, we will default to our own cleverness, our own skills, our own horses and chariots of activity . . . 

Which is, perhaps why, so many Christian leaders are not finishing well.

********** 

So -- what is God saying to you?
What desires are growing in your heart?
What are you going to do about the pursuit of God?
How will you do this?
Who will help you?

The road to "purgatory" is apparently paved with good intentions that were never acted upon.

If you need help, drop me a note. 

LCI exists to empower leaders for this kind of spiritually formed journey that supports our missional engagements in the world. 

 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

p.s.  I realize that I used three men for this illustration. Evelyn Underhill comes to mind for a woman who had this kind of devotion. I just didn't have a readily on my mind thought from her. 

How Much Time Do You Need to Pursue Depth Friendship with Christ?

Note - this post could be very significant for you. I pray that it is.

Here are a few things that are now pretty obvious to many of us.

A good relationship with Christ is not automatic. It is not natural. It is not easy. It does not happen quickly. 

It takes a lot of time.
It takes a lot of soul searching, hard work.
It takes focused attention.
It will cost you something. 

It needs sound, reliable guidance from those "spiritual masters" of our faith who walked the roadways of a "mature salvation" long ago. 

So - how much time do you need?
And - how much time are you investing in this?

Let's get specific.
Think about the last seven days.
How much time did you give (each day) to quiet, alone, prayerful, reflective times of being with Christ? 

A week ago I did a post on the Paradox of Developing People. In that post I talked about the diabolical irony - that the more skilled we become, the less we depend on God, instead, defaulting to more dependence on our gifts, our strategies, our activities, our busyness...

How much time do you think the average person spends in devotional pursuits that nurture the inner life, that renew the image of Christ in us, that form the fruit of the Spirit (Christ-like character), and above all - that develop a deep sense of God's presence with us?

How much time do you spend in this?

Notice I didn't ask how much time do you spend studying the Bible?

That does not necessarily build intimacy with Christ at all... and in fact... sometimes, the illusion of having much Bible knowledge is a barrier to friendship with Christ. We think we are intimate with him when all we have is a lot of theology in our minds, but little spirituality in our souls.

By the way, the right kind of Bible reading is crucial for forming friendship with Christ. We just usually don't know how to, or give the time to, that kind of formative, reflective, prayerful reading.

Notice I didn't ask how much time to you spend doing the work of ministry?

For many of us, ministry has become the idol. We are good at ministry but not good at friendship with Christ. We can work 16 hours a day and have trouble having more than 10 minutes for prayer. Especially if that prayer is not just a list of intercessory needs. Many Christian leaders don't even know how to pray other than with a list of requests and some occasional praise notes thrown in.

By the way, the life of active ministry turns out to be a vital part of one's spiritual formation... if one knows how to find the presence, work and Word of God in all things - including one's daily service for Him. We just rarely do that.

But let me come back to the "rubber meets the road" question.

How much time do you spend in wise, fruitful, soul shaping, heart forming devotional time with Christ? 

How much time in the pursuit of God and the forming of a "mature salvation."

How much time do you think you need to spend?
 

• What kind of person do you want to become?
• What kind of leader would you like to be?
• What kind of a friend of Jesus do you desire to be?
• How intimately do you want to know God?
• How close are you to becoming who you desire to be?

 

How much time and how long of a time will it take to become who you desire to be (and better - the kind of person Christ died to make possible)?

Is 15 minutes a day enough for you?

What abut 30 minutes? Will that create the kind of friendship and intimacy with Christ for which your heart longs?

Do you ever spend an hour a day in lingering, discerning, reflective, praying time with God?

The older I grow, the more responsibilties I have, the greater the opportunities are that are set before me, the larger the number grows of leaders with whom I mentor and collaborate - THE MORE TIME I NEED WITH CHRIST.

************** 

I don't need less time then when I was young.

I NEED MORE TIME!
More focused, intentional, quiet, private alone time with Jesus...

So I can then engage the world and the missional service to which I am called... doing that faithfully and fruitfully for the glory of Christ. 

For me, in recent years, an hour a day is the minimum, starting amount of time I devote to "being devoted to the pursuit of God."  I prefer two hours and there are times when I am able to have even more. I have to get up quite early for this. And I do . . .

Tomorrow is a follow up on this with a word from the prophet Jeremiah, an illustration from the Apostle Paul, and a comment from Martin Luther.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

 

 

 

The Freedom and Balance of a Well Ordered Spiritual Life

Here are some brief but profound words from Francios Fenelon. Fenelon was an archbishop, a wise spiritual director and an author of some of the truly great spiritual classics. These words are from Christian Perfection and I found them in For All the Saints, Year One, Volume 2, page 850.

 

"When we notice in ourselves eager desires for something in the future, and when we see that our temperament carries us too intensely to all that must be done, let us try to restrain ourselves from hurry, and ask our Lord to stop the haste in our hearts and the agitation of our behavior, since God has said Himself that His Spirit does not dwell in confusion.

Let us take care not to participate too much in all that is said and done . . . thus we shall always keep the depths of our soul free and balanced."
 

For most of the readers of this blog,

your lives are very busy and full...
your ministries are important and valuable to many others...
your opportunities are endless  and varied...
the demands on your time and energy from others are constant...
the pace of your life is fast...
the problems you face are complex...
your passions, dreams, visions are compelling...
and you are motivated, energetic...
and at times driven...

This will be your experience today and tomorrow and all week.

This is the context of your life and it most likely - will not change. It is simply the state of life as we experience it in this cultural season and location of life.

What you can change is the interior attitude with which you engage your context. What you can also change is your choices about all that is presented to you.

As you move into a place of freedom and balance, this will be the imprint you will have on your environment and your colleagues.

May Fenelon's words be the beginning of a new balance and a new posture and a new restfulness.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com 

Diagnostics and The Cure of the Soul

About a week ago, I had a conversation with a friend who gave me a truly profound insight. He is working through the LCI Exercises on What's Gone Wrong. These Exercises are designed to help leaders take an in-depth look at what has gone wrong in their lives.

What is their brokeness, their pain, their sinfulness, their darkside, their dysfunction, their emptiness . . .?

My friend has some serious health issues that has required quite a number of diagnostic tests... probing, prodding, searching out and after what is wrong, MRI's, scans, bloodwork... you name it, he has been going through it.

So, while he is going through the exercises on what's gone wrong with his soul, his heart, his inner world, he is being tested to find out exactly what is wrong with his physical body.

He made this analogy. The exercises on What's Gone Wrong are like God is taking him through a series of diagnostic test helping him see what has gone wrong in his spiritual world.

Now, Jesus the Great Physician does not need to run any tests. He knows exactly what has gone wrong with each of us. But he takes us through these "diagnostics" for our sake... so we may see what has gone wrong with us? 

And when we find out what has gone wrong, then we are positioned to long for the "cure of our souls." Which has always been one of the ways that spiritual direction has been conceptualized - the cure of the soul.

I was deeply moved by this metaphor and by my friend's spiritual sensitivity to the work of God that is going on in him. Even though I haven't named him or his illness - offer up a prayer for the Great Physican to heal all that is broken and restore all that has been lost in his life.

And then, pray the same for your self.

Healing and Cure to each of you.

Your friend

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com 

The Consolations of Theology

A few weeks ago, I finally downloaded (for free) on my iPad, a book that I had long been interested in. It was the Consolations of Philosophy, written in the 6th century by the philosopher Boethius. It was a book on suffering (Boethius was in prison) and how he sought to find help and sustanence in philosohy, so he could endure his suffering.

It became a classic that inspired writers for the next 1000 years!

Pretty impressive when the shelf life of most books is 2-3 years and a great bestseller, perhaps 10 years.

I picked up a book in that genre, The Consolations of Theology. In this book, a variety of authors look to the experiences of suffering that various theologians have gone through and which shaped their writings. The theologians (and their themes) are:

Lactantius on anger

Augustine on obsession

Luther on despair

Kierkegaard on anxiety

Bonhoeffer on disappointment

C.S. Lewis on pain

These desolations, these painful emotions, these debilitating affections are the context for these wise theologians to reflect and write about their story.

Except for Lactantius, I was familiar with the authors and their writings and found these chapters to be nice summaries with worthwhile insights. Each one was significant for me.

As the Psalms show us, the emotional life is the rich context where the follower of Christ meets with God. For good or for bad, these powerful affections shape much of our journey. They certainly guide the prayerful conversation of the Psalmists, and for that matter, all who experience the pains of life and who turn to God for guidance, healing and hope. The angst of Luther was palpable. The anxiety of Kierkegaard is disturbing. The obsessions of Augustine are everyone's experience.

But this is not a self-help book that will be accessible to most.

It is for those who want to think a little more deeply, in conversation with particular theological voices about your shared experiences of suffering . . . and make your way further along that journey, finding the consolation of God (2 Corinthians 1:3-11) in the company of theological friends who were courageous enough to allow their emotional tumult to be displayed authentically before us.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

A Lament

More often than not, I feel out of step… out of sync…  disconnected… something of an anomaly, a misfit, an oddball.

The experience of being anachronistic is uncomfortable. (Note: Not anarchistic, but I often wonder if there is a connection, for me, between these two?)

Counter-cultural is the polite, positive way of describing myself.

I feel deeply, the tension of being rooted in a culture that is not my home, longing for a better country (Hebrews 11).

The conflict of being in the world and yet not of the world (John 17:15-17)…

Contextualized but not syncretistic (in missiological terms)…

Different but not irrelevant…

As Christ was, the mystics, prophets, poets and artists have always been on the periphery, listening to a different song, touched by another reality, moving to a different heartbeat, seeing an alternative way;  restless, discontent, misunderstood. It is a hard way to make a living.
 

I feel out of step.

J. I. Packer says our North American Christian experience is being 3000 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep.  (A Quest for Godliness)

A pancake culture. Spread wide and thin.

Relationally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually - wide and thin!

Out of step, I long for depth of soul, spirit, intellect, relationships and fortunately, I feel I regularly move into and experience what I long for.

My tension and my lament is that I am an apostle of these realities, an artist/communicator of strange tidings to a world that really is not that interested.

We prefer to have a thousand Facebook Friends (really Acquaintances) who know us shallowly, through the surface impressions we offer, the fleeting glimpses, the chattering of our experiences and the disconnected hodgepodge of our being that is randomly displayed in fragments that make little sense.  This image can be found here.

But, to tell the truth, your Facebook Acquaintances really don't care (much), for they are already updating and refreshing their screen and your comments are 15 minutes out of date.
 

I am a deep reader living in the Age of Power Browsers.

Power Browsers who spend most of their time in the Internet world which is an "ecosystem of interruption technologies."  (quoted in The Shallows)

Power Browsers who want to be distracted. T. S. Eliot speaks of being "distracted from our distraction by distraction" (The Four Quartets)" How prescient are his words, who knew not the age of the ubiquitous, interruption technologies of the internet.

Daily I spend leisurely, lingering time in silence and solitude:  reading, reflecting, discerning, praying and encourage others to do the same.

A Sociology report (2005) described such activities as diminishing and now the experience of what was called a minority reading class, who are viewed as the:

"eccentric practitioners of an increasingly arcane hobby!"

 

I love the wizardry of the well turned phrase, but I live in a Twitter World where writing has been reduced to "a means of recording chatter" (The Shallows).

Virtuosity, poetry and word-smithing are giving way to much mindless, chattering ado about nothing. Which is forgotten as quickly as it is skimmed and scanned. All that we really have is the "illusion" of having been connected to the chatterer.

Interesting, isn't it, to think of the images of two birds, one tweeting and one reading!

 

And spirituality?

What can we say of emerging spirituality in this world?

What of the wisdom of the ageless classics, the guidance of past sages and saints, the hard won experiences of the devout seekers of God? It languishes in obscurity in a world that prefers sound/image bytes delivered in entertaining ways.

Distracted surfing and surface skimming has replaced slow, engaging, soaking and immersing in texts…

Jesus asked his followers, if they were unable to stay with him in wakeful attentiveness for extended prayer? Our spiritual attention spans today seem to be 10-15 seconds (really, that is what internet studies reveal). So, in truth, we must say to Jesus - no, we can't be with you in intentional, deep ways of intimacy.
 

So . . .

I am torn…

I am troubled...

I am tempted…

For this is my world, my culture, my context…

And my mission is to engage this world in which I keenly experience myself as a stranger. Engage this world with wisdom it needs but no longer wants.

And I don't want to be a relic or fossil or the latest in the line of technological Luddites.

So I dispense diet soda ideas that appeal to our cultural tastes, when our need is the nourishing, thick, heady draughts of heavenly nectar (but that full bodied drink is now quite beyond the digestive capacity of our malnourished hearts and minds).

So . . . I water down the truth of the ages and package it in entertaining ways.

And I lament . . .

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 This powerful image can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Do You Fear?

I know, it is a pretty pointed question. This is a short post with a few questions that deserve some lingering reflection.
 

*  What do you fear?

*  Of what are you afraid?

*  And why . . . why do you fear that thing?

*  And what do you do when it is present with you, when "fear happens"?

*  How do you find courage?

*  Where do you find courage?

Remember, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is resisting fear and not allowing fear to have the determining word.

Nor is courage foolhardiness... as the penguin seems to understand it.
 

I know this. If you are a leader, God will call you and take you to some places and times where you will be afraid and where you will need courage.

And if you lead others, at times, they too will be afraid (or anxious, worried, nervous, upset - all, perhaps, milder versions of fear).

It is worth your while thinking about fear and courage.

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Today is What Really Matters (A Leadership Lesson That is Hard to Learn)

Kathleen Norris begins her book - The Quotidian Mysteries - with some words from Gregory of Nyssa (335 - 385) who was writing about our prayer for "daily bread."

"Let us remember that the life in which we ought to be interested is daily life. We can, each of us, only call the present time our own . . ."

Is this as hard for you to do as I find it to be?

Leaders, we are so often strongly, dominantly FUTURE oriented.

We long for, live for, strive for, struggle for, sacrifice for - a better, brighter, higher, greater, righter, truer FUTURE reality.

We have powerful, motivating VISIONS about these FUTURE possibilities.

And we (I noticed that I have moved into a first person plural form of writing... maybe because I hope that you share my dysfunction so I am not alone in it) . .. and we are dissatisfied and distressed with TODAY. In this is much of our soul sickness.

For, in loving most what could be, we secretly or not so guardedly, despise what is PRESENT. Our happiness is fixed only on the preferred FUTURE and we wear our PRESENT discontentment like the chains of Jacob Marley (A Christmas Carole).

And the curse of TOMORROW is that as soon as we arrive there, into that preferred bright reality we have labored so hard to achieve, once there we find its luminosity quickly fading . . . and thus the cycle of our discontent begins again.

I, we, many of us - are far too curmudgeonly about TODAY and idealistically naive about TOMORROW. (See Jesus caution on this in the Sermon on the Mount). We fuss and complain, quietly or out loud, about the duties of the IMMEDIATE. They are often seen as interruptions and distractions, detours as we are heading toward TOMORROW.  

And if we cannot live in the joy of the PRESENT moment, when we arrive at the NEXT DAY, we discover we cannot live in its joy either. It turns out we settle for living with the anticipation of FUTURE joy. The Psalmist encourages us to rejoice TODAY not TOMORROW, "for this is the day the Lord has made." If I learn to fully live in TODAY, than when NEXT YEAR arrives, I will be prepared to live in its routines and treasures.

TODAY is sacramental for God is incarnate within TODAY. The presence of God abides in THIS DAY and I am invited to find Him everywhere NOW.

There is beauty waiting in the daily bread crumbs (Macrina Wiederkehr). All activities, since God fills them with His mighty presence - are holy places, spaces and times, if I have eyes that see more than TOMORROW. 

I receive a new grace when I understand that God dwells in all the simple, repetitive, mundane routines of life, as he dwells with those who are humble and lowly of heart, as we dwells in vessels of clay . . . and where God dwells there is glory. 

As it so often happens, I find myself back with Ignatius of Loyola and Lawrence of the Resurrection, and all others who have learned to sit at the feet of Christ who speaks often of lilies, fish, bread and little children . . . and find Christ in all things TODAY.

Perhaps that is the greatest work of leadership. Learning how to be present with Christ TODAY and trusting that He will be present once again - TOMORROW. But that can only be learned TODAY.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 The sunrise picture can be found on this site.

I just found this book, The Present,  on Google and suspect that Spencer Johnson will talk wisely and practically about these matters.

Personal Renewal

While everyone needs to give careful, sustained attention to what is needed for ongoing, personal renewal, I think leaders, especially need to do this.

Here are a few thoughts I've borrowed and adapted from Dick Staub that I thought were right on.

ONE:  Have a ravenously curious intellect. Think, wonder, be curious, be open, hungry to learn, eager to explore the best new ideas . . . Read the best book, converse with thoughtful people, journal your thoughts . . .  Some of the most alive people I know are those who are relentlessly curious about life.

TWO:  Have a warm loving spirit and build a deep reservoir of love.  The pre-eminence of love cannot be overemphasized. Loving God, loving others, loving your self - in the rightly ordered way is the only pathway for personal renewal. Love becomes the flavor of your life and love is contagious and reproductive, it gives birth to still more love, you give it away and you find it strengthened and deepened in the act of giving.

THREE:  Keep on the quest for purity, godliness, and holiness of life. Sin depletes, disrupts and destroys. It is the anti-thesis of personal renewal. It is anti-renewal. So the very subversive activity of saying no to sin and pursuing the way of purity of heart will be renewing.

FOUR:  Live with imaginative playfulness. An interesting combination. We are weak on imagination and slow to be playful. But being innovative and creative about how we "play" is necessary for renewal. We work at so much (that is needed) and we give so much (that is necessary) and we neglect to recharge the life batteries with what is playful. Of course, what play looks like for a five year old is quite different from a teenager and for a 50 year old. What is important is that we be imaginatively playful. How do you do this? How do you like to play?

By the way, when I went "surfing" for images of adults being playful, it was striking how few images there were. Even when I typed in adults playing outside, almost all the images were of children!

FIVE:  Keep your taproot sunk deep into God. All gardeners know that the taproot of the plant is the one that grows straight down. Then, there are other roots that say closer to the surface of the soil, spreading out wide. We need a deep taproot into the presence and person of Christ, for all true nourishment comes only from Him. There is a wide diversity of ways to develop such a taproot. What matters most is that your way is working for you and you are intimately connected to the Source of all Life, the One who said, He is the way, the truth and the life.

Spend some time thinking about how you are doing on this theme of personal renewal. Think in terms of each of the five things noted above. Add any others that are good and useful. How renewed and energized are you now? 

The image of hands and water can be found at this website.

CoachIsabelle.com had this wonderful image.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Vital Optimism

VITAL OPTIMISM...

I first heard this idea from Gordon MacDonald when he spoke at Living Word Community Church a number of years back, at one of our Leadership Summits.

I went and found the reference in one of his books (as I sit here typing, I don't have his books around, so I don't have the exact one for you).

Gordon talked about how the British nation lost its vital optimism after several terrible defeats in World War II when they had a tragic, titanic loss of life.  The British nation lost a vast number of its young men in the war, and that loss seemed to mark a turning point for the nation. The empire, which never had the sun set on it, seemed to shrink and lose its vitality and its optimism.

Vital Optimism!

This is one of the most important qualities of character you will ever have as a leader and as a follower of Christ.

The opposite of Vital Optimism is cynicism, skepticism, pessimism, and negativity.  it is the "woe is me" mindset… the "pity poor me" mentality… the "life is so unfair" perspective.

Vital Optimism is the mindset communicated through the children's book - The Little Engine That Could. I still remember reading that book to my son, hoping to inculcate in his forming mind - this crucial attitude.

Vital Optimism is the mindset that Dr. Suess wrote of in his book, Oh the Places You'll Go (one of my all time favorite books).

Vital Optimism is the mindset that believes God is in control and can be trusted at all times. Even when life is very hard, God can be trusted.  Brennan Manning spoke of this in Ruthless Trust.
 

Vital Optimism is the mindset that believes God is good and that life, even when twisted and tainted by sin, is still a gift of grace… every day.  

This is what Teresa of Avila believed when she said that from the perspective of eternity, even the worst life will be seen as nothing more than an inconvenient night spent at a bad motel. Below on the left.  

Julian of Norwich believed the same thing when she said, "All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well." Below on the right.
 

   
 

Vital Optimism is the wellspring of energy, passion, vision, commitment, purpose and forward moving action.

May God give us all the grace/gift of Vital Optimism in the weeks ahead… and may our own splash over on to those around us.

Brian K. Rice  

Leadership ConneXtions International  

www.lci.typepad.com

Contentment and Ambition

This is one of  those challenging both / and tensions in which we live.

Contentment without ambition can look a lot like laziness and lethargy (rather self-centered withdraw in to one's own little world).

Ambition without contentment can look a lot like driven restlessness (and rather self-centered as well).

But put them together and you learn to navigate in-between holy longing that compels you forward and ruthless trust that knows everything is a gift and grace.

It is a place of tension, a place of mystery, a delicately balanced eco-system of spirituality.

I find this balance enormously difficult to find and sustain in my life. My error will be toward the action/ambition end.  

Jesus told us to find rest in him and also to go to the ends of the earth making disciples. He told us to be at peace in Him and to bear much fruit that lasts (for Him).

Paul told us he relentlessly presses on into the fullness of life with Christ and that at the same time he has learned the secret of contentment in all things. Paul ceaselessly carried out "missionary journeys" taking the news of Christ throughout the Mediterranean world. He also had some "down times" of minimal activity (his usually happened while he was in prison!)

Pretty amazing.

I think life is at its finest and fullest when we are willing to live in the midst of these tensions and resist the siren pull of the either / or.  When we learn how to balance the equal goods of contentment and ambition.

May you have much grace living in that tension this week.

For a short post on this as it relates to "greatness" check out this site, which was also the source for the image of ambition.

Brian K. Rice  Leadership ConneXtions International  www.lci.typepad.com

Pruning

Pruning.
This is an idea I haven't thought about for some time!

Pruning . . . the careful, calculated cutting away of things.

Pruning . . . cutting away, cutting off, cutting back.

Pruning . . . away dead, diseased stuff.

But also good stuff that is not the best stuff.

The thoughtful gardener knows that pruning is essential for maximum growth. Some things must be cut away and cut back FOR THE SAKE OF even more growth and fruit!

For most of us, it makes sense that we need bad stuff pruned away. Or that we need non-essential distractions cut off. That makes sense. It still hurts.

But to cut away good things that have had good results. That is almost counter-intuitive. Maybe even crazy.

 But any good gardener knows - it has to be done. 

We often talk about eliminating the good so we ca do the best. This is just another metaphor to think about it.

Read John 15:1-8 about the Vine and the branches and the Vine-dresser (old way to talk about a Gardner of Vines). In this passage Jesus talks mainly about branches with no fruit on it.

Now, here is the take-away exercise.

THIS IS WHERE THIS POST BECOMES HELPFUL.

Make two lists.

The first list is just stuff (bad stuff, inadequate stuff, distracting stuff, etc.) that needs pruned from your life.

the second list is good stuff that may need to be pruned so you have more time for the best stuff.

Look at those lists and now ask:  jesus, what work of pruning are you going to do in my life and how can I cooperate with this divine pruning.

It is time to start making pruning choices as you are moving into spring.

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lci.typepad.com

HueHue, Guatemala and Spiritual Formation for Leaders (Deb Bell)

My friend, Dr. Deb Bell is headed to Huehuetenago, Guatemala to work at a missions training center for the week. One of the significant missional movements of the last decade is the growing missions movement that is growing in Latin America and which mobilizes Latino missionaries for the 10-40 window. 

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Our friend and partner, Omar Gava (REG) resources these training centers that are found at different places in Latin America and he connected Leadership ConneXtions with the HueHue training center that is led by Jesuel Alves.

Deb wears many hats vocationally and in ministry. Her "day job" (i.e. a lonnnggg day) is she works as a family physician. Her other vocation is leadership training in a holistic way that gives great focus and attention to spiritual formation. (That makes for loonnngggg evenings.)

Deb has been a core part of the leadership/training team for the Leading Edge ministry at LWCC and does work in spiritual direction as well. Deb has also been on many missions trips of a wide variety over the years.

For this course, Deb says, "I will be teaching on the priority of continuing focus on personal spiritual development in leadership. Specifically, I will be covering the Jesus Model of Leadership which involves building an ongoing connection to Christ by Learning from Jesus, Being with Jesus, Becoming like Jesus, and Doing the Work of Jesus."

Deb ask for prayer for the following things:  

• Safe travels
  
• Staying healthy 
  
• Clarity of speech, mind and communication of concepts as I teach and train (for both myself and the translator)
  
• A receptivity and engaged participation on the part of those attending.
  
• For the Spirit of God to lead all the participants (and myself) in an ongoing transformation process.
  
• Building relationships with the participants.
• Being used by God as one more step in their preparation process for their future calling to serve the global purposes of God in the world.

In addition to the HueHue center students, area pastors will be attending the day training. Deb will also have the opportunity to teach and train in some local churches in the evenings.


  

Finally, Deb will be spending time with some good friends who live and work in Guatemala, doing some truly remarkable leadership development (the McCombs) who will be traveling with her and helping with some of the cultural orientation and contextualization of the materials.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com