Catalyst

The email read, “We need to meet about…” The issue was neither new nor urgent. Other things are pressing that must rise to the top of the schedule. In fact, the issue had laid on the table for at least 2 years without any action by the leaders in charge.

Would you meet? I chose not to meet…at least not yet.

Meetings are the bane of most people for good reasons.

• Many are unorganized without agenda or purpose.
• Many are too long (usually a function of the first problem).
• Most have people who don’t need to attend.
• Many are nothing but “let’s talk it out” sessions that don’t accomplish anything.

I decided I would not meet with those requesting the meeting until one condition was met. They needed think ahead  and bring solutions to the table, not just the problem. Then, we can refine the proposal.

It has been said that any idiot can find a problem. It takes a real genius to solve one. I’d rather a group start with something to finish than trying to find the starting line.

Before agreeing to meet, ask questions of those requesting a meeting.

• What is this meeting about?
• What do you hope to accomplish?
• Do you have a concrete proposal? (Can I see it ahead of time?)
• How long have you had this problem? (Many times, people are just trying to clear their decks.)
• What do you need from me in this process? (I don’t want to leave the meeting with the monkey on my back.)

Second, ask yourself some questions.

• Does this fit with my responsibilities?
• Does this fit with current priorities? (If we did not meet, would it really make any difference?)
• What will suffer if I meet about this issue?

I go to many meetings, but they must meet one basic criterion–do you have solutions to bring to the table? If not I will not meet until…

A seer warned Julius Caesar to “beware the Ides of March.” On March 15th, he was assassinated. For Americans, it is adapted to “beware April 15th.” That’s the day tax returns are due.

The tax season is also a favorite scamming season for cyber-criminals.

Emails, purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service, advise you to click on a link to claim a tax refund due to you. When you click the link, it takes you to a website asking for social security numbers, names, home addresses, and bank account numbers (so the money can be deposited in the account). It probably also has an IRS logo to make it look genuine. The email address even reads “irs.gov.”

Don’t click on this link.

The IRS does not use email. They do not contact you electronically or even over the phone. All communication from the IRS will come through the Postal Service. (Misuse of the postal service is the federal offense of mail fraud.)

This scam is especially aimed at the trusting, the electronic novice, and those who are older. What should you do if you receive such an email?

First, don’t click on any links. That opens the trap door to your private information vault.

Second, contact the Internal Revenue Service. If you think money is due you, call them (1-800-829-1040) and talk to someone directly. In addition, forward the email to the email fraud division of the IRS. They will investigate.

Pay what is due the government, use what is yours to use, but do not let the criminals continue their electronic crime spree.

Life is a collision of urgencies grabbing you by the collar demanding your attention. After a while, in boxes are stuffed and to-do lists that resemble a train derailment leave your nerves on their last fray.

It’s time to get some rest.

Recently, I took some time off to see my daughter and son-in-law in North Carolina. We could fly but chose to drive. The mountain scenery is a break from the flat-land terrain of Dallas, Texas. More important, it provides me and my wife time to talk without interruption.

In Genesis 1, it said that on the seventh day of creation, God rested. The strange word in Hebrew means “to settle to earth.” Like the leaf that has expended its energy of summer, fall brings a time to snap free of a branch and fall to earth. The tree then regenerates for the next season.

Too many times, we don’t take the time to let is all “settle.” Rest and vacations allows us to see what remains and if it is important.

What does it take to let is all “settle?”

Get unplugged. In a digital society, the smart phone is our short leash. Just because it rings or because a text message comes in does not mean it is urgent. While I do check email and provide 1 minute answers once a day on breaks, I don’t indulge the nag of technology. Whatever happens (outside of a family emergency) can wait or can be handled by my assistant.

Have fun. One thing vacations do for me is gives me a chance to read books that tend to get shuffled to the bottom of my deck. I read biographies, novels, and magazines. Your fun my be white-water rafting or playing cards. Whatever it is, take time just to let the muscles of your face flip into smile.

Have adventures. Different things recharge the mind when drained by the daily drill. On this last trip we had to take a different route due to a rock slide in the mountains. It meant we had to pay attention to routes and look at different places that I never knew existed. Go to museums, baseball games, and out of the way places. The diversion shakes loose the cobwebs.

Get perspective. The adage about the forest and the trees is true. We get caught up in the immediate that we don’t see the important. Rest times provide the time to examine what’s most important, what can be jettisoned, and what should be treasured. Without the time, we get spiritual myopia.

Someone has said that what makes music enjoyable is not the notes, but the pauses between the notes. Take time to listen to the pauses.

What do you need to do to let life settle?

Twenty-five years ago, computers turned my world upside down. The possibilities for easier, more efficient work were endless. Spreadsheets crunched numbers. Desktop publishers (as they were called) made preparing newsletters and flyers a snap (and fun). Word processors allowed words to flow and let me change on a fly. One of my great joys was writing a macro that would compress as many keystrokes into one as possible.

I keep a task list on an IPhone synced to the web so it is available on a laptop, a business center computer, or my desktop. I’m very efficient.

Then why, when you go to my desk, do you find a paper time log? It’s all about the purpose.

While some professions use time logging to determine billable hours for various clients, my use is more mundane–to find out I use my time. I could use a spreadsheet where categories are color-coded and a macro could produce an automated report. It would be easy, efficient . . . and irrelevant.

In my church, our elders want to see a monthly report. It helps them see my work better. It’s an accountability tool.

For that process, I use paper. A few times a day, I take a paper week-at-a-glance planner, enter what I did in the appropriate time block, and repeat as needed. It’s done with a cheap ink pen on paper. On the first day of the month I take a legal pad, write down all the things I did in various categories and then transfer the information to a pre-designed report in my word processor.

Why not let a computer do that? It’s because of what I would lose. They key to using time logs effectively is not the historical archiving of dozens of daily tasks. It’s reflecting on what’s happening in your life.

If I let the computer do the work, I get a pretty report that won’t change my thinking. I need the mental processing, the seeing of tasks, the “ouch” of bad time use.

Imagine the learning lost if I did not have to confront questions such as:

•    Where did I use my time? Was it on important things or did I squander it?
•    What did I neglect?
•    What needs to be eliminated or delegated?
•    What time-wasters grab me by my mental lapels and demand attention?

Einstein observed, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” When you take reflection out of life, you learn nothing.

I still use my computer for so many things. But I don’t want it to do my thinking for me.

Are you reflecting on your time? What does it tell you about your life?

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.