Fall makes me reflective and nostalgic. I suspect it does so to many of us. For me it stirs to the forefront of my mind the activities I enjoyed as a child during this season- playing in the freshly fallen leaves and hearing them crunch underfoot; the smells of the leaves on the ground and first fires lit and wafting through chimneys. The hours spent outside enjoying the brilliant blue skies and rainbow sunsets, knowing all too well they would soon be replaced by the dreary greys of winter. And who can ever forget the smells and tastes of hot apple cider or cocoa and fresh baked pumpkin pies? These are things that probably 100 of us can relate to and smile at the memories.
For me there's a few more that are probably not so familiar, like taking a day to go to old book stores with my mom and sisters and being mesmerized by the beauty of the written word and the scent that is unique only to an old book store. Or spending weekends with my family with a football game on in one room, a game of dominoes or rook happening in another and a constant revolving door of food through the kitchen. Meanwhile I'd roam from one to another during the day, joining in a few rounds of dominoes or deliberately cheering for the "other" team in the football game. Always at some point I'd find myself outside. Sometimes alone but usually hot on the heels of my cousins who were all at least ten years older than I. Oh the trouble we got into! But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I can credit these cousins along with my brothers for my love of sports and family. We may not always (or ever) cheer for the same team, but we are still going to gather together and watch the amazing plays and hear the clash of helmets and pads while we continue to grow and learn about life. Ya know, there's a lot of life lessons taught between plays that stick long after we forget the score of the game.
Enjoy some fall nostalgia of your own and make some new memories this year.
10.23.2013
6.20.2013
Agendas
By a show of likes to this link on Facebook or comments at the bottom, how many of you are sick of hearing about agendas? I know I am. One of the very core parts of my being requires that people do more to convince me than utter words. In our world today we have the unfortunate reality of being surrounded by people full of empty promises and good intentions. People will very nearly stop at nothing in order to get you on their side.
I'm not so easily convinced and swayed. Many times the people who attempt this approach with me end up frustrated and walking away. What a shame! But it proves to me that they do not know and understand the very thing they want me to join them in; well this or they just want a "yes man" instead of someone who is going to challenge them to be better and more.
So how about it? Do you have the person or persons in mind who drive agendas at you? Good. Now mentally sit them down in a chair where they have to listen to you. Got 'em? I know I certainly do. The mess that comes next you will need to tweak to suit the agenda being thrown at you.
In my world we have an all employee meeting once a quarter at the office. For myself personally it's been a quarterly three hour torture chamber. That being said I didn't go into our most recent meeting with much expectancy of anything different. This is not the part where I tell you that the whole meeting changed my feelings on them. It didn't. I still say it could be condensed much like Reader's Digest condenses all the fine literature. Either way that is of little issue. What the meeting did do was encourage me ever so slightly that perhaps there are other people who actually see some of the same things I do.
Possibly the main reason I have found myself so resistant to these meetings is because somewhere deep within I have not appreciated the agenda driven mindset. My heart has wondered why there was this agenda when we have as one of our main purposes the only agenda we will ever need, the Bible. In my mind it has made no sense to rely on a man-made push when we are telling the world on the outside of our fishbowl that we are people of faith. For the last year to year and a half I have had extreme unrest within my spirit about things inside the office but I have never put it into print in a medium such as this. In some ways I am taking my life into my own hands by even saying it now. So why now? Simple. Now I have peace about it. It is quite plain and simply that I have been concerned that we are more focused on a man-made goal and agenda than we are with our very own mission. I have asked myself many times over why we are relying on the strengths of man rather than God's provision to allow us to simply be used of Him and trust that He will stretch us further than any agenda or goal we can fathom.
I know there's a ton of meat here to chew on already and no doubt there is plenty more that could be added. For this post we will leave it where we are. So what happened in the rest of the last year or so and our most recent meeting that began to change my view? In listening to one of our top dogs share about a committee he is on and how they came to realize that the forward motion we are taking is not about monetary issues but rather about spiritual issues.
My hope and prayer now is that our leadership will grasp the initiative to keep our focus on God and on His goals and the meeting of them via the agenda that He ordained to us, the Bible. So what's your agenda?
I'm not so easily convinced and swayed. Many times the people who attempt this approach with me end up frustrated and walking away. What a shame! But it proves to me that they do not know and understand the very thing they want me to join them in; well this or they just want a "yes man" instead of someone who is going to challenge them to be better and more.
So how about it? Do you have the person or persons in mind who drive agendas at you? Good. Now mentally sit them down in a chair where they have to listen to you. Got 'em? I know I certainly do. The mess that comes next you will need to tweak to suit the agenda being thrown at you.
In my world we have an all employee meeting once a quarter at the office. For myself personally it's been a quarterly three hour torture chamber. That being said I didn't go into our most recent meeting with much expectancy of anything different. This is not the part where I tell you that the whole meeting changed my feelings on them. It didn't. I still say it could be condensed much like Reader's Digest condenses all the fine literature. Either way that is of little issue. What the meeting did do was encourage me ever so slightly that perhaps there are other people who actually see some of the same things I do.
Possibly the main reason I have found myself so resistant to these meetings is because somewhere deep within I have not appreciated the agenda driven mindset. My heart has wondered why there was this agenda when we have as one of our main purposes the only agenda we will ever need, the Bible. In my mind it has made no sense to rely on a man-made push when we are telling the world on the outside of our fishbowl that we are people of faith. For the last year to year and a half I have had extreme unrest within my spirit about things inside the office but I have never put it into print in a medium such as this. In some ways I am taking my life into my own hands by even saying it now. So why now? Simple. Now I have peace about it. It is quite plain and simply that I have been concerned that we are more focused on a man-made goal and agenda than we are with our very own mission. I have asked myself many times over why we are relying on the strengths of man rather than God's provision to allow us to simply be used of Him and trust that He will stretch us further than any agenda or goal we can fathom.
I know there's a ton of meat here to chew on already and no doubt there is plenty more that could be added. For this post we will leave it where we are. So what happened in the rest of the last year or so and our most recent meeting that began to change my view? In listening to one of our top dogs share about a committee he is on and how they came to realize that the forward motion we are taking is not about monetary issues but rather about spiritual issues.
My hope and prayer now is that our leadership will grasp the initiative to keep our focus on God and on His goals and the meeting of them via the agenda that He ordained to us, the Bible. So what's your agenda?
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