Sunday, May 23, 2010

musing...

every time i am about to hate baseball, the cards grit one out like they are today. today i've woken the baby twice with clapping during key moments and i can't wait to see how this turns out. win or lose, i love games like this!

i'm thinking about watching lost tonight in order to observe my friends' reactions and tweet inane commentary and spoilers. sounds like fun.

lately i've come to the realization that i am a checkers player living in a chess world. over the past three years i have had the privilege of investing most of my hours in social justice, Christian proclamation and various Kingdom related initiatives. since the intended outcomes of my efforts are often quite clear - i.e., help a teen with a disability land their first job, make sure friends and fellow worshipers are well accompanied through tragedy and comedy, let the text win and see what kind of new world God wants to create - i am usually fully invested and engaged in reaching towards the goals i believe that God has set before me.

however, much to my great frustration, life is not two dimensional. as i attempt to measure my life by whether i am moving towards or away from my goals, i am often interrupted by the pressing concerns, valid questions, annoying insecurities, fragile egos, invaluable competencies and divergent opinions of others. my traditional response is to avoid negative interruptions at all costs, subvert those who inspire such interruptions when necessary and rely on chess masters like james wilcox, pastor phil and many other friends and colleagues to successfully navigate any number and kind of sticky wickets.

but, as i grow into leadership in several areas of my life, i am starting to realize that i need to play more chess. a couple of weeks ago a friend told me in the midst of a conflict that "you'll catch more with honey." my immediate response was "honey is not what i bring to the table and it is not something i am interested in bringing. i come at things directly." i still think that reducing the dimensions so that i can directly focus on mission will serve my interests on most occasions. but i'm also going to have to learn to use the rook and employ interpersonal stratagems more often than i would like.

so i'm off to up my e.q. and employ jacob's habits of a highly successful leader.

the cardinals won that grind of a game. so there's that.




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