If I follow you on Twitter, if I friend you on facebook, if I meet with you for coffee, if I shadow you for the day, if I spend time with you on the weekend, where will you lead me?
We all want to lead. We all desire followers. But where are we leading them? What vision are you leading me into? And can you describe it in one word or one phrase?
In a book I'm reading, one man said, "reconcilation". Another said, "the poor". When I asked my friend he said, "the fear of not being known". His wife said, "brokenness". I thought about it and said, "emotional poverty".
What would you say? What vision are you leading others towards?
If you don't know how to answer that question, start with this one, "What pain do I most closely identify with?" Because the best leaders will lead out of the places of their own pain.
Maybe it’s just time to go out and do what you’ve been dreaming instead of waiting for that magic moment. You don’t have to do it all at once but start doing something today. Then at least tomorrow can build on today.
Sometimes I find myself guilty of being more fascinated with learning and knowing about Jesus rather than actually following him into those truths. I think many of us prefer to talk more like Jesus rather than be more like Jesus.
There’s a difference between giving someone dignity and affirming someone’s dignity. The former seeks to identify that person and subscribe to him a name. The latter allows him to find his own identity and rediscover his own name.
People aren't looking for someone to come and save their world, but simply for someone to come and join them in it, share in their pain, and therein find healing.
I was in the car riding back from Hueston Woods State Park with a few housemates. We had spent the night camping out by a lake just outside of Oxford, Ohio where I was in my third year of studies at Miami University. We vaguely picked it up on a radio station that something was happening in Manhattan as we drove back into campus. Something about a plane flying into one of the towers. It was really beyond comprehension so when we got back to the house, we ran inside to flip on the television and there it was…
I remember sitting at the edge of my seat for the next several hours watching it all unfold in our living room. No one could understand the gravity of what just took place. It was surreal. Even the University didn’t seem to truly understand as I found myself sitting in a 3:30 class that I knew I shouldn’t have been in. Our country was unraveling. We were under attack. The Twin Towers had fallen. The Pentagon had been hit. A plane had gone down in PA. Untold lives had been lost. And to the shock of the student body, classes were not cancelled on this day.
It was September 11th, 2001
A group of us gathered together within the upcoming weeks to plan a trip to NYC. We didn’t know why but we just needed to go there. We needed to see Ground Zero. We needed to be part of what had taken place. So we did.
I remember arriving to Ground Zero and taking in the somber atmosphere. It felt like you were walking around the outskirts of a graveyard. People simply stood in silence and stared in through the fenced off area at wildly bent pieces of giant steel. Nobody in New York was ready or willing to talk about it. We stopped trying to engage locals in conversation. Our nation was still grieving. NYC was still grieving. I was still grieving. So silence spoke best.
I watched grief turn to anger. Anger turn to revenge. We were bloodthirsty as a nation. I was bloodthirsty as an American citizen.
But I was ignorant. America was oblivious. Washington was blindsided. We didn’t know why someone would do that to us. We didn’t know much about these proclaimed Muslims that actually represented a small radical sect of Islam. We didn’t know much about how the other side of the world saw us. The world was not America, but we hadn’t cared to notice as a nation.
There are many lessons that have been learned in the past 10 years. But one thing is certain: Everything has changed. Like those who lived through the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the assassination of JFK, we all remember EXACTLY where we were on this fateful morning back in 2001. And it forever changed the way we live.
A small magazine was being distributed in downtown Manhattan that called people to remember this fateful day and never forget the victims. May we echo those words as we reflect 10 years later. They were fallen but not forgotten.
I stumbled upon this book a week ago. (Thanks for the recommendation Phil!) I'm only a few chapters in and its one of those books that's a whole lot better reading if you have others sharing in the process.
Most of you may know Shane Claiborne. But you need to know the other man who writes, John Perkins. The book is about leading and following. So if you considerable yourself one of these two...I think you should join me in reading. Kindle, IPhone, and IPad people, you can start reading it right now with an immediate download. Everyone else, BUY it now! Click here.
So let me know if you want to join me in reading and we can begin a conversation. Just facebook me (Luke Parrott) or shoot me an email so I know you are in (luke@campkivu.com)!
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