A Brief Explanation of the Financial Crisis

There is enough for everyone's need, but there is not enough for everyone's greed.

-Gandhi

The Space Between the Trees

I'm doing the Jailbreak Triathlon this weekend with my wife. It's a team relay. We'll both canoe, I'll mountain bike and she'll run. Last year we finished one spot out of the rankings so I've been training a little extra. Yesterday I was riding the trail and going entirely too fast for my skill level. The trail is tough with hills, dips, roots, rocks and narrow spaces between the trees. Amazingly I didn't crash. I keep thinking about something I read earlier from Craig Groeschel.

In writing about worry, Groeschel explains how we always tend to focus on the "worst-case" scenarios. We never imagine something great happening to us. We only imagine something bad. That creates negative images which dominate our thoughts and ultimately affect our behavior. In other words, if all I think about is crashing then I will eventually crash. He encourages us to turn that concept on it's head. Instead of focusing on all the bad things that could happen, think about all the good things that could happen. Focus on the opportunity, not the obstacle.

As an example he points to Kim Reichhelm. Kim is an extreme skier. It's similar to mountain biking but with snow, skis and real mountains. The participants fly down the hill at full speed over rocks and through trees. They're usually the guys you see on sports highlight videos flipping out of control with arms and legs flailing. In short, they crash a lot. Although Kim Reichhelm doesn't. She's one of the best in the sport and has miraculously escaped serious injury. Someone once asked her, "How do you keep from crashing?" She said, "I look at the spaces between the trees."

That's what was on my mind at the mountain bike trail. Instead of thinking about where I didn't want to go (into a tree), I was thinking about where I wanted to go (the space between). Why hadn't I thought of that before?! I was looking at the obstacles, not the opportunities. In doing so, I was making the obstacles appear larger than they actually were. Have you ever noticed that whatever you focus on becomes bigger? When I focused on the trees, the space between them seemed narrow. When I focused on the space itself I suddenly found more room.

That's a principle that obviously crosses over to other areas of our life. Our work. Our families. Our faith. How many of us focus on the opportunities and not the obstacles? Maybe it's time we start re-thinking things. We start focusing on the "best-case" scenarios for our lives. The opportunities. The possibilities. The hopes. The dreams. The space between the trees.

A cappella Makes a Comeback

I read this in USA Weekend today...

A cappella is a campus hit
The ancient form of singing gains a bigger voice across the country.

Anne Hathaway, John Legend, Diane Sawyer and Art Garfunkel all hit a high note -- in collegiate a cappella groups, that is. A cappella, Italian for "in chapel style," is an ancient form of singing without the accompaniment of instrumental music.

The Yale University Whiffenpoofs, which formed in 1909 after a boisterous night of song at a local supper club, are widely recognized as the first formal collegiate a cappella singing group to capture the ears of Americans. Notable Whiffenpoof alums include composer and songwriter Cole Porter. The group has even appeared on "Saturday Night Live."

For decades, collegiate a cappella singing remained a "frenzied subculture" of campus life, writes Mickey Rapkin in "Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory" (Gotham, $26). Then, in the mid-1990s, a cappella singing boomed on college campuses, growing from approximately 200 groups to more than 1,200, according to Rapkin.

"Now, it's bubbling up in pop culture," Rapkin says. [Read the rest here]

Looks like I need to dust off my old Acapella tapes.

Everyone's a Critic

My Dad sent me this a while back when I was dealing with a few of my critics. It's from the Maxwell Leadership Bible.

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. Numbers 12:1

Leaders can bank on two truths. First, they will be criticized. Second, criticism always changes the leader. Unhappy people tend to attack the point person. Moses' own family criticized him. Notice what God and Moses teach us on how to handle criticism (Numbers 12):
1. Maintain your humility. (v. 3)
2. Face the criticism squarely. (v. 4)
3. Be specific about the issue. (vv. 5-8)
4. Lay out consequences. (vv. 9-10)
5. Pray for the criticizers. (vv. 12-13)
6. Restore them when appropriate. (v. 14)

Beyond that, consider ways leaders should handle criticism:
1. Understand the difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism.
2. Look beyond the criticism to see the critic.
3. Guard your own attitude toward the critic.
4. Keep yourself spiritually in shape. Associate with people of faith.
5. Wait for time to prove the critic wrong.
6. Concentrate on your mission; change your mistakes.

Criticism Fast

Yesterday I challenged the congregation (and myself) to a criticism fast. What's that you ask? Well, it works just like a regular fast only instead of depriving ourselves of food we're depriving ourselves of criticism. For a full week we're attempting not to criticize, gripe, complain or grumble about other people. It's a commitment to radically live out the words of Philippians 2:14--do everything without complaining or arguing. To help us I passed out stickers with the verse printed on them. We're supposed to stick one where we'll see it everyday and be reminded of the fast. This is only Day One but I've already learned a few important lessons...

1) I can be a fairly critical person. I'm less than 24 hours into the fast and I've already faced numerous temptations (and at least one failure). I'm surprised at how easily and readily I criticize others.

2) A week is a long time. Maybe I should have challenged everyone to fast for a day? Or an hour? Seriously, it's tough to be positive and look for the best in others.

3) Keeping God's Word before me, changes me. The sticker is still in my Bible but I've had that verse on my mind all day. More than once it's caused me pause or changed the way I react.

It should be an interesting week. You're welcome to join us on the fast. You can listen to the sermon and challenge here.

Read this.

Positive People

I don't enjoy hanging around negative people. The ones who grumble and complain about every little thing. The professional critics. They wear me out. And unfortunately, there's a lot of them within Christianity. Those with the spiritual gift of tearing people down. I'm not referring to any specific incident, just thinking about how negative church folk can be sometimes. And about how it shouldn't be that way. We should be the people who look for the best in others. The people who build others up. The people with a positive outlook on life. The encouragers. Occasionally I run across those people within Christianity and it lifts my spirit. An example...

Last Sunday our service went long (one hour and 25 minutes to be exact). Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it was really bothering me. I want to be respectful of people's time and not trample all over their schedule. So the last 10 minutes of the service all I can could think about was "we're going over, this is bad." It tainted the whole service for me and I started feeling like it hadn't been a very good day. I know that sounds a little petty but that's how I felt. I like for people to go home on Sunday with just a few ideas (one or two things they can apply), but we'd thrown a boatload of ideas at them this Sunday. So I was driving home worrying about this and thinking about how those extra minutes killed the whole service.

I stopped to get a paper at the c-store. On the way out of the parking lot I saw a friend and pulled up to say hello. When I rolled down the window he said, "Hey, I thought we had a great service today! Everything was great from top to bottom." "Yeah," I replied, "It just went a little long." "That didn't matter," he said, "what was said needed to be said and it was great! It was a really good Sunday." I drove out of the parking lot and said "Thanks God. I needed that." And I did. I was obsessing over the one negative detail and my friend was pulling out all the positives. I need to be more like that. We all need to be more like that.

I have an idea that might help but you'll have to wait until after Sunday...

Blogs

My apologies for the silence last week. Just too busy to blog and honestly a little burned out on blogs in general. I can't understand why people get so stirred up about a post on a blog. I'm not necessarily referring to this blog, although a few people have gotten stirred up about my posts. I'm referring to some other blogs that I read on a regular basis. Last week several of them were dealing with anonymous comments that were were rude, arrogant, and downright ugly. Of course, these were Christian blogs and the people writing comments where Christians themselves. So why do we treat each other with such hostility? Of all people, shouldn't we (the followers of Christ) be able to discuss our differences with grace and respect?

Apparently not. Especially in the anonymous world of the Internet. We're much more polite and courteous with one another in face to face conversation, but hiding behind our vague Google IDs we'll tell you what we really think. So a question...are we being less than honest with each other in actual conversations (i.e. holding back out how we really feel) or does anonymity just bring out the worst in us? Do hidden identities encourage us to think things that we never would otherwise? After all, anonymity strips us from taking any personal responsibility for the words we use. Or does it? Are there still not consequences to our words? Just because we say something anonymously does that somehow excuse us from God's commands about kindness and wholesome speech?

Just something to think about.