Think About It

Last week I was involved in a couple of situations where I felt the need – as a leader – to step up and take some action.  Over the last few days I have reflected on my actions and I am still don’t know if I responded appropriately.  Now, during my own efforts of wrestling with my own personal response, I was reminded of a lesson of leadership.  While leaders will be called upon to make decisions in the heat of the moment, what makes them effective is not in reacting to an incident, rather in responding to the people involved in the incident.  Once the emotional matter is put to rest are we willing to regroup and move forward?  When control has been regained are we committed to practicing forgiveness, building (or repairing) bridges, providing training and providing encouragement?  Often, the toughest job is not dealing with the conflict, it is pulling the pieces together in an effort to move onward and upward. When the Apostle Paul gave some inspired pa...

Last week I saw words written and heard words spoken in public that are an embarrassment to our society.  Now before you think of me as partisan, please hear me out because I am about to paint with a broad bush.  First of all, there was an accusation that a “naughty” word was used in a meeting involving some of our elite politicians.  If it is true and that word was used, shame on them.  Folks, I have heard a lot of bad language in my jobs so it wasn’t my innocent ears that were violated – rather, it was that my consciousness for brotherhood and propriety was shocked.  Sure, I have heard similar language, but it was in bars at 2:00 a.m., not coming from a meeting attended by people who are supposed to be figuring out how to elevate the quality of life for “all men who are created equal”.  Yes, I have heard that phrase used before, but it has no place in a public meeting discussing the living conditions of fellow human beings.  Now, having said that, i...

Martin Luther King was a very charismatic and quotable speaker.  Some of the most memorable quotes from the second half of the 20 th Century came from the man who lead his followers to “dream dreams” and “scale mountain tops”.  We don’t have the time or space to record all of Dr. King’s memorable quips, but, the other day I came across two that struck a chord with me.  On one occasion King challenged, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”.  As I thought about this in light of modern times I was reminded that our effort to bring value to all lives will have peaks and valleys.  Both personally and socially, there will be eras marked by great strides and then there will be periods of struggle.  Yet, no matter where we find ourselves we must strive to do and be better.  No, we aren’t where we could be (and we may not be where we should be), but we cannot...

Where do we place our trust?  Since we live in a free and open society we get the chance to back whoever we believe will give us the best deal.  We can go to work for someone who claims to be able to make us wealthy.  We can vote for the candidate who promises to defend what we believe to be important.  Some of us might even be so distrustful as to think that “I” am the only one I can trust because I know me best or because everyone else has let me down.  No matter who we choose, we cast our lot with someone we think can make our lives better.  The problem with all of these choices is that, at one point or another, everyone (including ourselves) will stumble.  No human is perfect, no man is infallible, all will fail.  While that is the bad news, there is good news.  You see, we do have access to Someone who is all-knowing and all-powerful.  When the Psalmist reflected on God he wrote, “Praise the Lord!   Praise the  Lor...

Are we Christians?  On one hand that may seem like a pretty simple question that can be readily answered with a “yes” or “no”, but since I ask the question, I get to define it a bit further.  To me, this query is based on one important piece of information – what does “Christian” mean?  Does it merely mean that I believe in the existence of  someone named Jesus who was called the Christ?  Is it a demographic designation that separates us out in categories like “atheist”, “Buddhist”, “Jewish”, “Muslim”, etc.?  Is it based upon where we worship on a particular day of the week?  Is it determined by the principles we choose to adopt?  Now all of a sudden the question becomes a bit more complex, doesn’t it? Let me throw one more layer into this discussion – does the question have as much to do with how we act as it does with what we believe?  Sure, we can believe in the principles of Christianity, but is our faith enough to qualify us as a Chri...

As a man was riding along an inner city street in his carriage he looked down to see the poverty that surrounded him.  From his perch he witnessed, first hand, the hardships of the afflicted.  Touched by the plight of so many, the prosperous man summoned his compassion and said with a sigh and a prayer, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.”.  Rather than condemning those who didn’t have, he praised the God who had blessed him with what he had. How close have we come to losing everything?  Whether it was our physical health because of disease or injury … our financial independence because of poor management or a depressed economy … or even our solid emotional state of mind because of stress or crisis many of us may have been closer to losing it all than we would have ever imagined.  Since it never happened we may not be able to look back and identify the specific date and time, but who knows how close we have been to a life-altering hardship.  It was by...

I think it is a common belief that we should judge our success by the way our efforts are received.  In essence, it is tempting to feel that if people applaud us we have done good, but if we are at odds with them, we must be doing something wrong.  While this may be society’s point of view, when it comes to righteousness, acceptance by the majority might not be a good measuring stick.  Now, before we go any further, we need to remember that just because we are out of step with society doesn’t mean that we are walking in the light (there is nothing inherently admirable in just being odd).  However, if we take a stand based on righteousness, we must be prepared to be viewed as weird or even worse, as being wrong.  Everyday life has probably taught us this lesson, but even if it hasn’t, the language of the Bible should prepare us for this challenge.  The word translated “church” comes from the Greek word that means “called out” and indicates that Christians a...