Leadership decisions: Risk, Confrontation, Reward

Thoughts 1.  You stop and listen when someone on your team speaks in reference to a core value. You don't change things when they speak a personal value. 

2.  Risks are worth taking, the question is how and when do you take risks. You take risks when a.  You set up its success as best as you possibly can. B.  when the reward is so big it's worth the risk. C.  If God clearly says risk it. 

3.  Valuing team members is worth the risk as long as it's not in conflict with the vision. 

These may help in your decisions. 

Also:  I think a step of leadership is when your willing and able to confront another with your frustrations with their best interest and the interest of the team at heart. Something to think about. 

Life From a Different Center!

If the point of life is to avoid suffering then whether you like it or not you have adopted a philosophy that allows for no impact, no community, no innovation, no new possibilities, and ultimately no life.  The words of Solomon in ecclesiastes paint a picture of a world that makes no sense. And I would echo his rants if my philosophy of life centered around safety and comfort.  Life looked at through this lens is not fair, is not just, doesn't make sense and is not mine to change.  So my conclusion would be as Solomon's, let's just "eat drink and be merry" and not own anything.  Sounds like America doesn't it. 

Paul has a great response to this. It's a response that looks at life from a different center, that breeds a different motivation.  Check out what Paul says. 

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:7-14 NIV)

Knowing Christ, his heart, his motivations, his way of looking at life, his love, his grace, his wisdom is my total pursuit.  That changes everything!  No longer is everything meaningless. Because my focus is not corporate advancement, it's not fiscal achievements, it's not influence supremacy.  If that is my whole gain then Solomons study of everything under the sun becomes the only possible conclusion, "everything is meaningless."  Why?  Because eventually when it all catches up to you (for some sooner than others) we all wind up right back at the same place, empty!  

Instead, my focus as Paul's, is making whatever is in Christ's heart my own, matching my heartbeat to His.  Making my mission his.  Its about discovering real life that is not found here on this earth but in the kingdom of God where virtue, character, love, integrity, honor, courage, and every other great virtue lives and reigns.  My whole goal in life is to know this surpassing glory that is Christ and to partner with it and bring it to be on this planet in my world, in my relationships, in my space; That the world I inhabit and live in, the space I occupy becomes an increasing reflection of the place where God lives and Christ died to ensure for us.  

So eat, drink, and be Merry,  Yes!!!  But as a celebration of that coming reality both now and upon Christ's return. 

But we all get to choose.  We all get to decide what life we desire to live. Decide yours. 

Two non-expendables for every leader.

Revelation and Wisdom:

Perhaps the difference between the two is that wisdom is the compilation of revelation lived out. Revelation is Gods speaking in the moment. It is the verse that "man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the fathers mouth.". I have experienced this as life giving.  A word from God, when scripture jumps off the page and makes sense.  It's as if God is right there in front of me leaning in from across the table taking my hand and speaking truth, direction, vision.  It's as if life makes sense all in a moment. That which is unknown becomes known and I feel on top of the world.  Those moments feed life. They propel me out of the mundane and forward into destiny and future. 

Wisdom is a living out of now the new knowledge revealed by God.  The ability to see through the lies of the world and it's inhabitants to see what is really happening in you and around you. It's the ability to slow the world down to see what otherwise would be moving too fast to notice. Both are life giving. One opens life to you and the other allows you to live and remain in it not swept here and there by life's foolishness. 

Every leader needs both.  It is an investment of significant time in the word.  It is a remaining there long enough where the world can shrink down and all that now exists is God and his truth. That place becomes the center, the beginning of which we think, contemplate and interact with God.  All direction flows from this place. It is a forming of the heart that does not move from the world to scripture but from scripture to the world. Then and only then can it interpret life.