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Quotable: Crowded Life…Inward Rest

October 27, 2010 in Blog, Habitudes with 0 Comments

In The Discipline and Culture of the Spiritual Life by A.E. Whiteham writes,

Here in this Man is adequate purpose…inward rest, that gives an air of leisure to His crowded life. Above all there is in this Man a secret and a power of dealing with the waste-products of life, the waste of pain, disappointment, enmity, death…making a short life of about thirty years, abruptly cut off, to be a ‘finished’ life. We cannot admire the poise and beauty of this human life, and then ignore the things that made it.

As a Christ-follower, I am intrigued by the many facets of Christ’s life—one being how His crowded, demanding life was so balanced, purposeful & “finished”. He spoke about such things here, here and here.

I have struggled with time management and balance for over two decades now. Not because I don’t know how to deal with—I read books, blogs, articles…I try, test, stop, start. I am evening teaching a class (called Habitudes) tonight and the principle is all about how we spend our time as leaders. Funny! (Even before prepped for the class, I again took the familiar dive & swam in more research and wrestling on how I can get on “top of things”.) I plan to unpack what I am learning with you in the coming days. Not to show how much I know; but, hopefully to create conversation on how we can do this better and “not ignore the things that made” His life so beautiful and accomplished.

Taking Inventory

August 26, 2010 in Blog, Habitudes with 1 Comment

Last night in my weekly leadership class called Habitudes, we talked about the importance as leaders to take inventory! Just as any business cannot be successful without taking good inventory on a regular basis, leaders must take personal inventory of their God-given gifts, talents, etc. This will shape our self-image and, consequently, our results. The discovery of the largest golden statue in the world, the Golden Buddha, is a great story that drives home this point. Their is gold inside of us, formed and fashioned by our Creator…we have to look and evaluate what that is.

Over the years, taking inventory through assessments, serving and conversations have been incredibly valuable to me. I promised my friends in my class I would share these today and I want to share them with you as well. Here is a short list of some of my favorite tools to take personal inventory of our leadership potential. I can’t wait to hear how these help you discover how God has formed you for real influence in our world.

Continue Reading…

Value Added

August 17, 2010 in Blog, Habitudes with 2 Comments


Yesterday, I mentioned the Habitudes class I am teaching and our first image of the Iceberg. The iceberg teaches you and as I leaders that the most important part of our leadership is what’s below the surface…our character. One of the most interesting parts of our character is our “sense of identity”. Tim Elmore describes this as “a realistic self-image based on who God made you to be.” Leaders with strong character know themselves and embrace their strengths and weaknesses.

Great leaders have learned and live out daily habits that use their strengths and focus less on their weaknesses. Reading books like Now, Discover Your Strengths and StrengthFinders 2.0; along with, listening to other leaders has helped me realize that I need to focus on the strengths God has given me and not try to fix my weaknesses attempting to be “super leader” in every situation and for every purpose.

Chris Hollomon shared this article with me other day by Casey Ross. Man, this post hit home big time! It is a great read on focusing and living out our strengths to benefit the organization we serve and the people we influence. Here is the question that I am asking myself (even printed out real big and put it above my desk):

Where do I add the most value to my organization?

Sometimes, I don’t like the answer to that question. Many times, the answers give me fuel and freedom. Other times, I need teammates to help me see the answer to this question. All the time, when I live this out honestly and trusting in God’s design of me as His servant, I am effective and empowered to be influential.

The reality is all of us will impact at a minimum 10,000 people in our lifetime. Many of you will greatly outpace that number. So, what are the strengths God has given you? Are you focusing on those? How do you add the most value to your organization, relationships, ministry?

Habitudes

August 16, 2010 in Blog, Habitudes with 0 Comments

iceberg-horz

Last Wednesday night, I kicked off one of our Classes at LifePoint we are offering called Habitudes. Habitudes is a 4 book study written by Tim Elmore who leads a great organization called Growing Leaders. Habitudes is one of my favorite leadership studies I have ever come across and continue to use it in my leadership and leadership teaching. Habitudes takes images from everyday life, connects a leadership and Biblical principle that begins to form attitudes, habits and language for personal and organizational leadership.

We kicked off week 1 by looking at “The Iceberg”. The Iceberg represents our leadership. The 10% above the water is your skill. The 90% below the water is your character. It’s what’s below the surface that sinks the ship.

Of course, the history lesson of the Titanic rises large as an example of this principle. The crew of the Titanic focused more on what they could see than what they could not see. As leaders, we often (and dangerously) focus on what others and we see instead of focusing on what we can’t see…our character. As leaders, the largest component of our life and leadership is our character. I love how Elmore describes our character as the sum total of our self-discipline, core values, sense of identity and emotional security. A great passage that connects to this principle is Luke 6:43-45. In this passage, Christ puts a priority of our “being over doing.” Some great Biblical characters the week 1 class pointed out are Jonah, David and Solomon.

I have already had great feedback already and I am excited about this fall and the Habitudes class. If you were there or are coming, I would love to hear about how you are living the Iceberg out in your circles of influence or this has been helpful to you. How can we continue to make this a great study for you?

If you are around LifePoint, please join our conversation on Wednesday nights. If you aren’t local, I would encourage you to pick-up a copy of Habitudes as a great study for your own leadership or with your team.