Getting Down to Brass Tacks…
What is it about being in a church leadership position that seems to make someone so vulnerable to failure? Why is it that failure seems to come upon those in leadership suddenly and without any (apparent) warning?
Of course there's always the obligatory answer of "when you're in leadership you're a bigger target for spiritual attacks," but if a leader is really being a leader and is as "leader-ish" as they appear, why are they not better prepared for those attacks when they come?
I think the root of the problem lies in appearing so "leader-ish" in the first place, and all the baggage which that "appearance" might entail.
This isn't to imply that all church leaders suffer from my forthcoming observation, but that all are vulnerable to falling into a very common and very dangerous trap, especially when they haven't been adequately prepared for it.
I think it's all about the "game-face." It becomes hard, or impossible, to turn off. It becomes easier and easier to hide all the problems of our lives behind a veil of leadership and "keeping up appearances." It's easy to become so focused on being a good leader, that we cease "being," and simply start "looking like" a good leader. When problems come up, we have our trusty game-face to show how tough we are or how "together" we have it.
We must take pause and check ourselves, because we can very easily slip into a role that leaves even us believing the lie.
An inescapable pitfall of this all-to-common scenario is that it's laced inside and out with pride. Pride pushes us to paint a picture of ourselves in leadership that portrays us as perfect or infallible. Pride pushes us yet again to reinforce that picture by carrying it everywhere we go (with a likely exception being behind the closed doors of our home). From that point it's just a slow fade to the point at which we start denying the possibility that we're anything but perfect.
When mountainous problems arise in our life, but all we can see are the pictures of ourselves that we've created as an illusion...a perpetual game-face...that is when we fall. The failure often appears sudden, and is usually deep.
The truth at the end of this process is that we've been failing for a long time, and we have simply been too blinded by our own lie to believe it.
Take a moment and think:
- "Am I as infallible as I believe?"
- "What am I addicted to?"
- "Is my family-life really in order, and when's the last time I really checked?"
- "When I'm 'leading,' what percentage of my thoughts are on what other people are thinking about my 'leadership?'"
- "Do I really know how my words and actions affect those close to me, or do I just assume I know?"
- "How much time do I think about advancing (in rank) beyond where I'm currently leading, whatever that advancement may look like?"
Think of this last question as a barometer for pride: "Do I perceive some point in life or leadership as 'arriving,' and how much stock do I place in that perception?"
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." 1 Cor 10:12 (NASB)
Pics of Progress
I took some pics of the new lights and stuff that I installed on Saturday, so here ya go:
Felicity's new light:
New light over the sink (still not sure what I think about this one):
New laundry room light:
(Note the great job Sydney has done of scratching the crap out of the garage door...)
New ceiling fan in the office:
You can see more pics in the 2010 Renovation album.
Saturday Standup
Got lots done today! Took care of a bunch of the around the house junk that I've been putting off.
Cleaned the grill from top to bottom since it was nasty. Used it a bunch since we got it.
I replaced the ceiling fan in Filly's room with a pretty white chandelier covered in glass beads. She is obsessed with it. Cinderella would be jealous. I replaced the light fixtures above the sink and in the laundry room. Also replaced the ceiling fan in the office with a new one.
Also fixed the latch on the gate into the back yard and repaired some metal edging on the step down from the porch into the yard.
While I was putting up all the lights and stuff Misty mowed the yard and got the house spotless. Way to go wifey!
I'm gonna put up some more pics of the changes and the house probably tomorrow or late tonight, but we only had one lightbulb that would fit the light in Filly's room, so I wanna get bulbs for that before I start taking pics of everything.
In the future we want to replace the big fluorescent light in the kitchen with a prettier one, and replace all the doors in the house because they're cheap junky doors which Sydney has scratched all to bits. Gotta find something to do about that scratching first though. Anyone have any ideas?
I'll probably post again pretty soon with some updated pics of the house stuff.
Fabulous Foto Foray
Misty, Felicity and I went on a road adventure on Saturday for picture taking and fun. You can see the full album of pictures by clicking >here<. Here are a few preview shots:
Wakin’ up!
So, I went to the Doctor yesterday and it turns out I had tonsillitis again. They gave me a steroid shot for the swelling (which is amazing stuff, btw) and put me on some uber dose of Clindamycin four times a day. I think the last antibiotic was too weak or something and it never got rid of it. In any case, I can swallow today without it feeling like someone is taking a dagger to my throat. In fact, my throat hasn't felt this good in a month or more. Woohoo! The Doc had made a comment about how if we didn't get rid of this this time, they were going to send me to an ENT and see if I needed to get my tonsils out. NO THANK YOU.
I also slept weird last night and have some annoying crick in my neck, which isn't any fun. I'll survive...
Gonna grill some food tonight on the new grill. Kabobs, burgers, corn on the cob. Should be delicious. Never done kabobs before, so wish me luck! Gonna put steak cubes and jumbo shrimp on them. Yum yum! I learned how to do corn on the cob from some grilling geniuses at Church. It comes out SOOOO good when it's done on the grill. Now I just need some of Danny's famous steak rub to put on the burgers and kabobs... (Hint Hint?)
James and Linda are starting to get their house ready to sell in preparation for building a new one out at their land. The old house looks like a new one after they did some renovation to it to get it ready to sell. Makes ME wanna buy it! Gotta be a good feeling to get started on the process of moving out there. They've been waiting a long time and they deserve it.
That's it for now. Sorry, no fancy pictures or anything today. Might snap a few after work though.
Late Night Delight
So, I stayed up really late tonight to do some work required for a deadline. Problem is, I drank too much coffee and now I'm wired at 2:30 AM. So here we are!
We've been making some renovations around the house lately. We're making it feel more like home and generally sprucing up the place. Got some back yard solar lighting, a fire pit, a new grill (my first "real" one), got lots of plants and landscaping, and misc other stuff. Here are some pics of some of the changes:
So there ya have it. Misty did all the landscaping, and it looks fantastic. Huge transformation in the front flower bed. I'm in the process of replacing the last few ceiling lights that I haven't already replaced, so I'll stick up some pics of those when I get it all done.
Kari Jobe has a her first music video out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbSMfL5LuSo It's a phenomenal song. I highly recommend you check it out.
OK, that's it for now. 
Life is Like a Box of Chocolates
I've never really thought about the future. Well, at least not about more than a day, a few weeks, a month or two... I realized that while I was driving today. Actually I've been realizing it for weeks now, but today I realized what I was realizing. Er...yeah.
It's amazing how when you live that way, you miss a lot of the present. Thinking about the future really makes you examine how you're living your life right now, and what kind of future that life will make for you and your family. I'm not implying that ALL you should think about is the future because that's a trap of it's own, but unless you realize that the future is coming, it's gonna get here....and it won't be a thing like you hoped it would be.
It's some sort of weird paradox really. You think about only today, but in the back of your mind you think you're building some kind of great future. Something to prove. Something that'll show "them." But really it's all about concentrating on "me, me, me." And you miss it. You miss everything but the struggle to keep progressing.
Misty and I started this thing a week and a half ago that forced me to think in terms of future. We started what will become a series of notes in spiral notebooks to each other. Love notes, thoughts, etc. The rules are simple. One writes a note. The other writes back. The notes can be about anything relating to us. Good, bad, sad, happy, thoughts, fear, hope, etc. We have a maximum of three days to write back to any note written to us. If we don't write back on time, we have to do something extraordinarily loving and memorable to make it up.
The key thing here that we both had to realize going into it was that we were doing something that's long term. Yeah it sounds simple at first, but when you think about it....we'll be doing this for years. It's something that we both have to commit to doing at least twice a week, and not something we plan on stopping.
That's the future.
Well, here it is…
Yup, I've made a blog. Not really gonna post too much at this point, but just making everyone aware that I'm here!
I've added a big, fat photo album with lots of pics of us. It's linked on the right side of the page.
Let me know if there's anyone in particular that should be added to the subscriber list to get email updates.
TTFN.