just a thought...

i've had some thoughts rolling around in my head today & i thought i would jot them down. i may expand on some ideas or side notes later.

i believe that every one of us has leadership potential built into us it's just a matter of whether we tap into that God-given ability. whether you are a student, front office worker, middle management, or the ceo, leadership can be exercised in our lives.

here's a the bottom line idea. the more time you invest the more trust you earn. as trust is earned influence is gained. and if you have ever read any book or attended any seminar on leadership you have learned that influence is leadership.

so here's the deal: are you investing in your future leadership through accomplishing today's tasks?

Phoenix Frost Day

so it seems like the entire nation has been hit with bad weather. peducah, ky, has been slammed with ice. upstate new york dumped on with snow. maine is looking to measure their snowfall in feet. it's even hit hard here in phoenix. when my wife left for work this morning she had FROST on her windshield! how come memphis calls off school for the day due to unusual snow but Phoenix doesn't because of frost?! we deserve a day off too!

lesson learned

this past weekend i was in austin, tx, visiting my brother. it was a lot of fun getting to see the sights of austin & all the fun things that you can do there. (side note: when ever traveling outside of phoenix, az, in january - bring more clothes than just t-shirts & hoodies!)

on sunday, there was a whole group of us that went out to eat after church at the magnolia cafe for some good grub. one of my brother's friends asked what i did followed by "what denomination?" i answered & was then asked what the Assemblies of God was like. i said that each church has it's on style and flavor... that's when everything went wrong.

i proceeded to say that our churches are not all the same... "unlike the Episcopals." i really wish i could go back to that conversation & taken that statement out. well the lady sitting behind me at the next booth evidently was listening in to our conversation & jumped in to tell us about her church. what was cool was she obviously loved her church & it sounded like they were doing some really neat things. the part that wasn't cool was me trying to rank denominations.

not cool. not cool at all.

free time

have you ever had one of those days where your schedule is suddenly as wide open as the grand canyon? you almost feel guilty for checking your watch & realizing you have at least 4 hours before you have to be any where.

so if you had 4 hours free & didn't want to spend any money, what are 3 things you might choose to do?

anticipation (or "pavlov's dogs")

i recently started reading my 3rd mystery/suspense novel in a row & i am really enjoying how each chapter ends with a big cliff-hanger. it makes it pretty hard to put the book down if the scripted conflict isn't resolved by chapter's end. there's something exciting about not knowing what is going to happen on the next page.

now i remember back during my college years in 1 of my many psychology classes learning about the russian researcher, ivan pavlov. pavlov revealed that we all have conditional responses to certain stimuli. why is it that you're instantly hungry when you smell your favorite food? pavlov taught us that there are different things in our lives that create common responses each time we experience them.

for a musician, when you come to the end of the song, it is most common to end it on the same chord that the music (key) is written in. the song "feels" done. if the writer chooses not to end on that given chord it often leaves the listener wondering if there is more to come.

each of these instances are examples of anticipation. We look forward to the next chapter, our favorite food, the end of the song.

God has a flair for stoking anticipation in my life. i'm not sure of details but i am sure of my foundation. Romans 8:28 (NLT) "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them."

what are you anticipating today?

"like" milkshakes

last night we were on our way home from a very eventful evening when my 10 year old son proceeded to tell us about all of his classmates that "are in love." well right away my wife & i tried to get him to tell us what that meant, what are 10 year olds supposed to do when they "love" so-&-so, etc. after a moment or 2 he finally came up with an answer, "i don't know, they just chase each other around the playground."

after a few more minutes of him telling us of the latest 2 big chases, there came the big question.

"dad, what's the difference between 'like' & 'love'?"

well, i took a moment & came up with the world's greatest illustration in the history of father-son talks. it went something like this:

"son, 'like' is like milkshakes."

5 minutes later, after my wife finally caught her breath from laughing so hard, i continued.

"i like milkshakes, but if i have too many, i'll get tired of them & then not have any for a long time." i went on to explain that when you like something, you don't always need or want to be around it. that seemed to make sense & he thought about that for a while. then came the next question:

"so what's love like?"

any suggestions?

do-over!

i'm an "athletic" guy.  i've always enjoyed different sports, getting in the mix, & having some fun.  i can't say that i'm great at any sport but i can at least compete in a lot of them.  

i grew up in a the stereotypical american home with a basketball hoop out on the driveway.  there were many times that i would go out & spend an hour or so just shooting around, practicing free throws, and the legendary last-3-second-3-point attempt to win the game.  sometimes when my friends would come over we would play the game "around the world" where you have to make a basket from different spots on the driveway before you could move on to the next spot.  the objective was to make your way around to every spot & back before anyone else did.  you had 1 shot attempt at each spot - if you made it, you moved on.  if you missed you could stay there & be "safe" or risk a 2nd attempt.  if you missed that 2nd try, you had to go all the way back to the beginning.  there were many times during those games where 1 of us would miss and quickly shout out "DO OVER!"

do-overs are sweet.  what ever it is that you just messed up, you to get to delete, forget about, laugh at, and then try again.  it's like the dry erase boards or old chalk boards we had in our classrooms in school.  if you messed up, you just erase & do over.

have you ever wondered why people love New Years so much?  i mean, think about this:  people from all over the world show up in NYC to see a giant light bulb slide down a pole for 10 seconds & then once it hits the bottom, millions of tons of shredded paper shower down on a crowd.  why?!  does january 1 have an extra 2 hours in it? or do all mortgage payments drop by 35%?  may it's because on january 1, our family finally forgets all the things that they have been mad at us about.  in my limited scientific understanding, there is nothing different on or about january 1 than any other day in the calendar year... other than the idea of a huge do-over.

we love do-overs.  no matter who you are, where you're from, what your family was like or the education you got, we all love the idea of do-overs!  God has designed that desire for do-overs into our core of what it means to be human.  God offers the ultimate do-over by offering a new life to us through his son, Jesus.

whether you do/did the "church thing" or not, that doesn't matter.  we all love fresh starts & we can have one today.  

do-overs are permitted today.  i checked.