Before you head off into your weekend, here are three things that I have read and been thinking about this week. Hope they are as helpful and challenging for you as they have been for me.
For what it’s worth…I begin renewal leave next week. For the month of July I’ll post some of my previous top3s.
See you in August!
#1
Finally, one other characteristic of discerning people needs to be included in this list: their lives are marked by routine and order, a rhythm to life and work. – Listening to God in Times of Choice by Gordon T. Smith
A recent bank advertisement says boring is good. I could not agree more. Routine. Order. Rhythm. These are attributes that provide a firm foundation. From a firm foundation creativity, risk taking, and discernment trustworthily can flow. Being someone that can be counted on is one of the great gifts we can give one another. Have the courage to be boring!
#2
Vulnerability is not a threshold you successfully cross but a practice you try your best to engage in every day. – Clint Smith
I have never thought about vulnerability as a practice. I have often thought about vulnerability as an end and not a means. For instance, only after a time of relationship building did it even seem possible to be vulnerable. But what a great gift vulnerability could be if we practiced it regularly instead of waiting to see if people deserve it before being vulnerable. Others would no longer need to worry about where they stand with us. As a result, the pace in which trust could be built would quicken exponentially. Perhaps the most courageous thing a leader, or friend, or random acquaintance can do is be boring AND vulnerable.
#3
Whereas the individual is absorbed in the stereotype, the person is conformed to the archetype who is Christ. – Thomas Merton
I sometimes get called “Roger Stone” by a worker at my Kroger pharmacy. (I’ll let you google…not gonna provide a link!) When he looks at me, he sees black oval glasses, white hair, a long narrow face and pale complexion and associates me with Mr Stone. It drives me insane!! (I also get called Mike Pence and Anderson Cooper at times.) I avoid going to the pharmacy at all costs but now I have been seeing him throughout the store. Can’t wait for Publix to open near me soon! Okay…where was I. Oh, yeah. I fit a stereotype, based on my appearance, that for him is clear and compelling. And he calls it out…
What I long for is not to be absorbed into a stereotype but conformed into an archetype of the Lord. For my traits to be so noticeably like Jesus that others call it out even if they do not know him. That they see something of him, or a lot of him, in me. Love is the key. Love leading to humility and kindness in every interaction. Love manifesting itself in sacrificial acts large and small. Love as not just a word I know but a reality I live into.
todd nelson 