People waiting for medical treatment at mobile clinic

What does hot, cold, and rewarding have in common?

They are the ingredients of a recent medical mission trip to Nicaragua. For three days, a team of over 20 doctors, pharmacists, nurses and volunteers associated with Health Talents International brought medical attention to the poverty-ridden people of Managua.

The needs were great. Conditions such as parasites, infections and malnutrition drove almost 1200 people to wait in lines for 8 hours a day.

The weather was hot. The showers were cold. With winds whipping over a barren parcel of land at what seemed like the ends of the earth, dirt coated everything.

Why would anyone spend a week of their life in such conditions? For me, I found three benefits.

It elevates my vision. In a culture the massages the message of “it’s all about you” into the soul, a trip like this forces you to look beyond yourself. You see needs more clearly, blessings more thankfully, and others more compassionately. As a pampered American, I need to become less spiritually nearsighted.

It sharpens my wits. The enemy of mental sharpness is the dullness of routine. I, like most people, follow a mindless regimen. Seldom do I get jarred out of my mental lethargy. I just don’t have to think. Nicaragua forces a different diet, enduring cold showers, and long days of doing something besides working in an office behind a computer. The long days of helping people who are hurting shifts my mind into high gear. I come back able to think expansively and with clarity.

It enlarges my circle. Everyone who goes on the trip is a volunteer. The take vacations to give to others. Eating together, working together, praying together, and talking together provides something most people lose–perspective. When I return from Nicaragua, I have had the pleasure of getting to know people whose heart makes my heart purer.

As the team was breaking up on the trip home, we all expressed a similar thought. The trip was not fun (in the way a vacation is) but it is rewarding. That is what gives purpose to the difficulties.

I am grateful to those who went and for the changes I experience.

Sunday started out as a normal day–until the quiet evaporated with the ringing of the phone. At 6:45 a.m. my day shifted dramatically.

The call informed me that our preacher had fallen ill during the night and I was on tap to preach. I now had three hours to prepare and polish a message for an audience of 1000 listeners.

The sermon went well and was well-received. While that may be true, it is difficult to go from 0 to total presentation in three hours. How do stay ready so you prepare effectively when under the gun?

It doesn’t start when the call comes. Someone once asked me how long it took to prepare a sermon. My answer is simple–it took 30 years. All immediate preparation is a reflection of years of training. If you don’t put the hard hours in the cool of the day, you won’t be ready when thrown into the fire.

Yet, you need to do some things regularly to prepare for the last-minute situation. (These are also essential for the routine preparation of sermons.)

Read widely.

Reading is the river that fills the mental reservoir. Reading puts ideas into the mind and into notes. Read novels, self-help books, biographies and books on Bible topics. In addition, find some mind-stimulating blogs and read them daily. All will allow ideas to haunt the mind, reading it for the call when it comes.

Reflect daily.

Sermons take place at the intersection of text and current events. Think daily about what is happening. Analyze the news and think through reading. What do the events mean? What kind of implications are there for living? This kind of thinking is a tumbler turning rock into gemstone.

Write regularly.

One reason I write a blog post is to force me to do focused thinking. I write in a journal, put words into letters and memos, and make presentations. All are the whetstone of thinking. If the knife is not sharp, there’s no time to do it at the last minute. Too many preachers are dull because they don’t sharpen themselves regularly.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t enjoy the pressure of hurry-up preparation. I would never recommend it as a steady habit of life. However, when you take moments to prepare yourself daily, you are ready to prepare a message in a pinch.

King David eulogized his fallen predecessor Saul, with the mournful words, “how have the mighty fallen.” Not all fall of a battlefield wound. Some suffer from the mortal wound of a damaged reputation.

As the ball dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2008, Tiger Woods was a commanding figure. He was the professional golf tour. Tournaments he played gained attention (and money). His endorsement deals were stratospheric. He was the boy next door, the polite and polished young man with a beautiful wife and cute kids.

Then came the wreck, followed by the hushed calls on a cell phone to a woman who turned out to be a mistress. Then came the revelations of more and more women. The image gave way to history and his reputation sank as easily as one of his putts.

The question is always the same. How can someone with so much talent, fame, and money do something like that? Some have said it was arrogance. Some blamed the spotlight. Others mentioned his father’s death. No one really knows the true answer.

Yet, the sad saga of Tiger reminds everyone of one simple truth–your reputation is fragile. It is built over a lifetime and can be crushed in a moment.

How do you protect your reputation?

Know what you really want to be. If you don’t intend to be that, don’t kid yourself. Be genuine and transparent. Too many people want an image. Strive for more than a cardboard cutout of a character. Have character.

Constantly evaluate self. It’s easy to drift off course. Take time to peer into the mirror of your own soul. If you can’t be honest with yourself, find someone who won’t try to preserve your feelings. You need the honest feedback.

Live transparently. Someone has said, “conduct your life in such a way to make any accusation sound ridiculous.” The only way to do that is to be open and honest in actions, thoughts, and dealings.

Confess and change. Confession is not just “sorry.” It’s not a statement of others misunderstanding. It is what you did, admission, specific, facing the music. Don’t gloss over. It requires a bigger person to admit exactly what he did than to hid behind excuses.

Whether Tiger will ever come back is left to be seen. But sometimes the best lessons are learned from bad examples. Take good care of your reputation because you may never get it back.

Technology is a great tool for losing things!

You keep everything on your flash drive–but which one? (I have four of them.)

You want to work on a presentation for an important meeting. Which computer is it on? Which flash drive?

You arrive at a place you are to speak. You have a powerpoint presentation, but the flash drive you brought is the wrong one? What now?

These scenarios are both realistic and scary. We multiply data and files and just hope we can find it. Over the years, I have learned (the hard way) that you need to have everything at your fingertips. To do that you need tools for fingertip access.

Notes

Everyone keeps up with the bits and pieces of life. It may be a grocery list, websites you want to visit, or some notes on a phone call. The problem with notes is they are easy to make and even easier to lose. As I have said many times, “I wrote it down but forgot.

I manage several wireless networks in my church. Each one has a name and some kind of encryption password. I also have a few websites I manage, each with its own log-in credentials.

I’ve used stand-alone programs but the limitation of computer-dependent is the brick wall. I discovered a website called evernote.com. Evernote lets you clip information from the web or enter data from a keyboard. I have computer shortcuts, essential information, logins, passwords, etc. I can access it from any computer with an internet connection as well as my smartphone. (I use an Apple IPhone and, yes, there’s an app for that!) I always have access to important pieces of information.

Evernote is free at evernote.com

Files

Back in the old days of Windows, something called the “briefcase” existed in which files could be synced to a floppy disk. Unfortunately, you always had to have that disk.

When I’m sitting at a coffee shop with a wireless connection and want to work on a file, what do I do? How do I know that file is the same version in my office as well as my home.

Recently, I discovered Dropbox.com. Once you have set up a free online account, you download Dropbox. Dropbox installs a folder called My Dropbox in your My Documents. When a filed is saved to that folder, it is synced online, and to other computers you have setup with Dropbox. (Currently, I have Dropbox on my work computer, my laptop, and my home computer. You must download and install on each computer.)

With Dropbox, you can work on a file wherever you are it stays up-to-date. (I am writing this post on my office computer, will edit it on my laptop, and post from my home.) Even if you are working at a hotel’s business center, your Dropbox content can be used via the Dropbox website.

Dropbox is free and is platform agnostic (available for PC, Mac, and Linux).

Online Storage

It’s always a good idea to have some form of backup storage off-site. Two that work well are Box.net and Mozy. Both have both space for free or for a monthly fee you can get more storage.

I use Box.net to backup files I might need or that I don’t want to lose to a hard drive crash, or even a fire. I have used it to backup files from my wife’s office computer. (Tech support has told her it is a matter of time before her hard drive bites the dust.)

One other thing…

All systems need two key elements–redundancy and simplicity. For instance, I may have a presentation on a flash drive, but before I leave for a trip, I email it to myself as an attachment. That way I can always get it back. Simplicity is settling on a system. Too many (which means more than one) jumps the odds of data loss.

When you need something, don’t wonder where it is. Make sure it is at your fingertips.

Sometimes your life just needs a good “kick” to get it moving. It happened to me at age 45.

That’s a little old to start something like karate classes, but I got the yen to try it. I went to a local karate school and asked about classes. After several seconds of strange looks (like I was had four noses on my face), the teenager at the desk said that the appropriate class met on Tuesday night.

When Tuesday came, I went back to the school, enrolled and looked around at the rest of the class. The next youngest student in the oldest class was 16 years old! Here I was, a graying middle-aged man in a sea of limber, energetic teenagers.

I stretched, hurt, exerted, and sweated. I’m sure I was a sight! I even cracked a rib trying to do a flip that I would do poorly at age 8.

Why would anyone put themselves in such a terribly difficult and embarrassing situation?

I needed the challenge. Routines are both effective and deadening. I needed routine to keep my life together, but I needed a new set of experiences to stir my thinking and my body. Karate had a discipline element in it so it fit with much of my personality. When you do something different, you become something different. Take the challenge to be different.

But the serendipity was that it influenced others. A father brought his 10 year old to the class and watched weekly. He witnessed a crazy grown-up trying to act like a child. (I’m sure there were plenty of snickers.) After about 2 months, he enrolled in class. We struck up a conversation and he told me that he was afraid of looking foolish. He wanted to do something with his son and this was the avenue. He explained that watching me gave him the courage to take classes. I never intended to influence anyone, but all action is on display for examination by others. You never know who you will touch.

I took classes for four months, earning (yes, earning!) an orange belt. I moved to a new job and had to leave the class. But the experience was priceless. While I did a lot of kicking, it got a real “kick” out of the class.

While karate might not be your “kick,” find something that will make you “kick” up your heels!

Twenty-first century life is lived on a tilt-a-whirl. We spin in so many directions, resulting in emotional and spiritual vertigo.

Life gets as knotted as a first-grader’s shoestring. It may not be what you do but doing too many things at the inappropriate time.

The Greeks distilled language into specific parts. They had two words for time. One describes the placement of hands on a clock–chronos time. The other had a different texture. It swirled with the winds of October gently plucking ochre colored leaves from trees. Such is “kairos-time.”

Kairos time lives by the season, not the timetable. A kairos-based life . . .

• works at the right time.
• plays at the right time.
• rests at the right time.

Confuse them and it is like snow on the 4th of July!

We might avoid the work we need to do with gossip over coffee,  sharing our opinions of why the team lost on Sunday, or looking at the latest funny website. We do everything at work but work. Life’s balance beam falls to one side. Long hours drag you from your family and drops you wearily in a bed at night where your demons invade your sleep. Both work and play feel cheated.

Others never “unplug.” The ping of email, the chirp of text messages, and the interesting link of the internet means minds never rest. The Hebrews use a word for rest which means “to fall to the ground.” Everyone needs time where life settles. The mind and soul need the refreshment of the unstrung bow.

Examine your schedule. (If necessary, keep a time log and be honest!) Ask simple questions, such as, “what do I need to be doing right now?” Make plans to work at the right time, play at the right time, and rest at the right time.

It’s Sunday morning and when the preacher steps to the platform, he presents an “ok” sermon. But in another church, a preacher “hits the bull’s eye.” Is one a better preacher? Perhaps, but it may be that one took a better bead on the target.

It takes a small, subtle step that puts the arrow on the flight path to hitting the listener where they live.

I’ve known Robert Oglesby for over 40 years. He trained me as a preacher and I learned a lot. But perhaps one of the things he taught me about communication happened when I started working on staff with him 9 years ago at the Waterview Church of Christ.

The final step (which I omitted for several years) is a “final gleaning.” After hours of preparation, Robert has a perfectly crafted outline typed out and ready to go. But then comes the final gleaning. Robert sits down on the morning of his presentation, with legal pad and pen in hand, and quickly outlines what he will say. This resulted in taking out the chaff and leaving the presentation (sermon or class) with laser-beam focus. The final gleaning takes about 5 minutes but it makes the difference in what the audience keeps.

Recently I spoke at Waterview during Robert’s absence. The lesson just didn’t have the “zing” I wanted. So I did a final gleaning. I ended up taking 10 minutes and refashioning the conclusion. It had drama and movement and the punch it finally needed.

If you have to communicate on a regular basis, don’t ignore this last step. It solidifies your thoughts, focuses your attention, and takes your message to the next level.

One warning: don’t try it unless you really want to make your speaking better!

The promises of the feminist revolution of the 1970’s shimmers as a desert mirage in the heat of 21st Century pressures. While the leaders of women’s liberation claim they were misquoted, the mantra of “you can have it all” stuck with a generation of women  now weary of trying to have happy and fulfilled lives.

Is it impossible for women to find the life they want? Marcus Buckingham, prolific author  and “strength coach” addresses the concerns of overwhelmed women in his new book, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently. In it, he counsels women to discover the path to true fulfillment–using the strong moments of life to forge new beginnings.

Buckingham is well-known for helping people discover their strengths. This book explores two women, Charlie and Anna, who must find the illusive sense of self through different paths.

The  book uses the trifocal lens of “catch and cradle.” The three portions are:

• Search for Strong Moments
• Accept What You Find
• Strive for Imbalance.

The author does an excellent job of defining strengths with a different concept of nine roles. These roles are well-defined but brief enough to catch the attention of the reader. Those who plow through them see themselves in the mirror. (Buckingham further delineates that a person has both dominate roles and supporting roles, a helpful concept to keep in mind.)

The last section of the book is a series of tactical plans for various scenarios such as, being laid or improving a marriage. He organizes these tactics under the umbrellas of career, relationships, children, and future.

Buckingham’s books are always insightful. He organizes his material well, allowing for a quick overview as well as a thorough reading. His sections covering life tactics are especially practical and geared toward action. Many authors are content with ideas but Buckingham really does want the reader to do something.

While written to women, Strongest Life also applies to anyone, whether male or female, navigating the rapids of the doldrums of daily existence.

"I am the luckiest man alive."

 

Those words, delivered 70 year ago on July 4, 1939 ended a magic error in Yankee baseball. Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse, retired from baseball with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Gehrig, whose record for most consecutive games played stood for decades, had been diagnosed with ALS or what is commonly called "Lou Gehrig’s Disease." It steals the nerves from the body and eventually kills. No one in Yankee Stadium that day knew anything about the disease and no one believed that Gehrig would die just 2 years later at the age of 39.

It is Gehrig’s words that remain. How could a man who was having trouble walking from the dugout to first base lucky? He had a disease that killed him.

Yet, its a matter of perspective. I’ve known people who regale you with their sufferings and how they have been cheated by life or others. Their stories grow more grim with each re-telling. (And they are retold, again…and again…and  again…and again.)

Gehrig never dwelled on the pain he suffered. Life dealt him a cruel blow. But he never told the story, never let on about the pain, never showed that h e had cheated him. His legacy are the words echoing through the loudspeakers of Yankee Stadium.

"I am the luckiest man alive."

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Donald Miller

If they made a movie from the story of your life, would you buy a ticket?  Would it even make it to DVD on the “cheap shelf?

For Donald Miller, his adventure into writing a screenplay based on his life taught him one thing–his life was boring. He needed to find a story and develop a character. His book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years takes a Picassoesque approach to the pursuit of meaning in life and creating a better life story.

Miller’s book reads like a rafting trip on a river. It starts slow, picks up speed, and then pumps adrenalin through your heart. When Miller describes life, you find him slipping into your shoes. The routine is familiar. He explains why we sit on comfortable couches, eating chips and mindlessly drinking sodas. We enjoy the comfort but want something more. So the reader follows him as he kayaks down a river to meet a man named Bob. (You want to meet your own Bob one day.) You pant as you make your way up a Peruvian hillside. You feel the ache in your calves as you pedal cross-country with him.  More than that, you feel the tears that comes from living a genuine life.

Miller aptly points out that character comes from overcoming obstacles. Most Americans seek to avoid obstacles. Is that why character slips a little more each day? All need to write an epic story with their life. Try great things. Challenge yourself. Pour yourself out for others. Then you have something worthy of epic.

I came away from Miller’s book with more than appreciation. It sparked a small flicker of desire for more than the routine. His masterful weaving of story blew the embers into flame to be more genuine, more daring, and more creative. Whether I ever bike across America or plant a tree in the Sub-Sahara, I will let Donald Miller have a key to my home any time. He is always welcome.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life is published by Thomas Nelson Publishers and is available online and at bookstores.