Own It

Current Events, Leadership Leave a comment

Super Bowl XLIX. I slept through most of it. Have mercy upon me. I had just spent 40 hours with fifteen thousand 18-25 year olds expending the energy of a high schooler after 30 ounces of Red Bull and sleeping like a college student (read: not much). I did catch the last quarter and some incredible drama along with it. If I had my druthers, we would be discussing that childish brawl, but most of the world cannot seem to get over that Seahawks pass.

I do not blame them. From the little I understand about football, it was not their most brilliant moment. Perhaps, at least for this season, it was their least. They would have had multiple chances to turn that possession into a touchdown had they run. They had a timeout in their pocket. Marshawn Lynch is on their team.

My head is reeling at the moment as endless gospel truths attach themselves to this scenario. The most obvious of which is, why try to deal with sin by your own methods when Jesus is there. Just get the ball to him. Victory is guaranteed.

As obvious as it is, that is not what I want to examine today. Instead, let us consider the response to the infamous pass.  There are countless articles accessing the situation, placing the blame, giving their professional opinions about why it made sense or why it was the most ridiculous moment of the entirety of football history. I have nothing to add about the value of the play. I am somewhere near the bottom of the list when it comes to having the qualifications to break it down play by play. However, the leadership lessons that are delivered to us through this moment in time are priceless.

Pete Carroll. He’s a great leader, and it has nothing to do with the calls he makes in the game. No, he’s a great leader because he allows the people on his team to do their jobs. I’m sure he offers his suggestions, but then he stands back and lets them make the call. Sometimes, that leads to a mess and a loss. Other times an incredible victory. Can you imagine if that play had been successful?! Everyone would be talking about how amazing it was. Perhaps they would use the word risky. Stupid would not be part of the conversation. But, Carroll let his team make their choices and their choices to run that play, run that speed, pause too long, ended in a win being ripped from their grasp.

I read an article today that took time to explain everyone’s fault in the matter. Lockette didn’t want it enough. Lynch should have muscled his way into the play (Gimme that ball. Argh!). Bevell made the call. Carroll didn’t stop them. Wilson didn’t change the call or pass the ball fast enough or low enough. It’s what we do, right? Our plan didn’t work?!? Whose fault is it? And those of on the sidelines are the worst! We like to talk about how it would be different if, in some alternate universe, it had been up to us.

Carroll had a totally different response. He didn’t tell the reporters how Lockette should have picked up the pace or Lynch would have just taken the ball if he really wanted to win the game. No. Instead, the coach said, “I told those guys [on the team] it was my fault.”  It was my fault…my fault…my…fault. Does that seem to be echoing in anyone else’s head?

In leadership, this is one of the most difficult things to do. When your team makes mistakes that cost you a win, when things go wrong and it reflects on how you do your job, to turn to the watching world, the armchair quarterbacks, and say “It was my fault.” To set aside for that moment, the analytics of who could have done more to make it work, to not give into the knee-jerk reflex to protect self, and to step into the path of the hurling tomatoes and poison-tipped microphones and own it…it takes humility. It takes dying to self. It takes more than what most of us have wired into our bones.

I know that more is happening behind the scenes. I’m sure they have watched the tapes and they will breakdown what each person should have done differently. Lockette will be spiriting his guts out in offseason to make sure that next time he is at the ball first. Wilson will be working on controlling his passes and getting more accurate shots out faster. Bevell will go back to the tapes and boards to develop better plays. Lynch will continue to be a beast. And as a good leader, Carroll will insist on this work. He will not let them ignore their responsibility to do their jobs well. He will expect them to work at it, to improve. But he will not let the world stone them. He will not throw them to the wolves. He will stand in the line of fire and claim until the flames die down, “It was my fault.”

I want to be that kind of leader. I want to expect my team, in whatever realm it may be, to do their jobs well. Then, I want to stand back and trust them. And when things go wrong and victory is snatched from us, when the armchair quarterbacks want a scapegoat, I want to be the kind of leader that says, “Here I am. It was my fault.”

Framework:2015

Holidays, Risk View all 3 comments

I’m a little late on the New Year’s blog post bandwagon, but sometimes you need a few extra days to get your bearings before you can send word out to the masses about your location.

Let me ask you a question. What is your approach to a new year? Do you make resolutions? Set goals?

I don’t make resolutions anymore. I don’t keep resolutions, as is evident if you look at the journal I was going to keep in my 30th year of life. The first five pages are full. The rest would appear that I vanished to that imaginary deserted island and being allowed only three objects, decided that my journal did not make the cut.

No, no more resolutions for me. For the last couple of years, I’ve chosen themes. I know. I know. You are wondering if “theme” is just a fancy word for another unkept “resolution”. Fair enough. But no, it is not. When I choose a theme, it consists of a Bible verse and a word. There are no actual actions or behaviors or habits set in stone.

The verse is usually one that I feel The Lord has given me as a promise, or an anchor. For example, my theme verse for 2014 is hanging next to my desk. Psalm 65:11, “You crown the year with bountiful harvest, even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.” It’s such a beautiful promise, and one that He kept this past year, in both obvious and mysterious ways. I almost hate to change it out for my new verse because I want to just claim abundance everyday.

However, the time has come for a new theme and this year it is Zechariah 9:12, “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.”

Prisoners of hope.

I love that! I chose this verse because, sometimes, we can get bogged down by the past, by mistakes and habits that we can’t seem to shake. But ultimately, we are not captives without hope. Our chains have been broken and when we rely on the Lord, He promises our joy will be fully restored. Anything the enemy has stolen from us, Our Stronghold, Our Father will restore two-fold. We tend to define ourselves, our lives, by our chains. We live into our past captivity rather than into the present and future hope of our freedom in Christ. And the truth is that it is both. As Zechariah suggests, we are not yet completely free, and yet we are. Our chains are part of our story, but our hope is our ultimate story. Good stuff, isn’t it?

On to the second part of my 2015 theme: A word. Since I recently wrote about it, you probably are not surprised that my word is “adventure”. Remember this?

Adventure is not an event. It is an attitude. It is showing up every day, watching for and entering into the risks of relationships, of unknowns. It is giving away your last $20 to someone when you aren’t sure where the next $20 will come from. It is loving your family member that doesn’t know how to receive love. Adventure is asking for help again when the last 10 times you have been burned. Being brave is holding on to the vision that The Holy Spirit has delivered to you even when the voices of logic say it’s crazy…or reckless. Adventure is stepping into difficult things.

And now, with my theme verse and word, I have a framework for the choices I will make in 2015. Am I living into the promise of Zechariah 9:12? Am I approaching each day with an adventurous heart? So, some of those resolutions I used to make… The question is no longer “How long will I last this time?” No. The question becomes, “Does my current choice fit within my framework?”
Would a prisoner of hope, an adventurer sit here and watch Netflix or would she create something, learn something? Would a brave woman who is shaking off the chains that once were shackled to her feet, wait for someone to invite her to something or would she reach out to new people, to distant friends, even to the ones who have left scars? Maybe it’s even as simple as, “Does this framework support my lack of desire to clean the kitchen? I have to check over and over again, because somedays, the answer may be, “YES! Leave the dishes and go be outside!” But most often, I’m guessing, the response I will hear from The Spirit that lives in me is, “No. I know it’s easier to be lazy. But that is not the way a woman of valor lives. And you, Erin, are a woman of valor. Put on some music, dance, and clean those plates. You are loved!” (I think The Spirit always ends conversations with “You are loved.”)

I’m not a fool. I know I will fail at times, but the framework will not. In the same way that a homebuilder assembles the framework of a house and creates a certain space for where each room will be, I have a framework for my year. The furnishings may change. The pipes might even burst, but the framework is steady.

Maybe you are fed up with resolutions too. Right on. There are no rules about how you will define your life in the new year. Maybe you need to be done with resolutions. Maybe, instead, it would work better for you to find a framework. What will it be for 2015? What promise will you cling to? What type of person will you be? And, who will remind you of these things on the hard days?

And remember, no matter what your approach, no matter how long you last or how often you fail, you are loved.

 

A Christmas Eve Prayer

Holidays, We The Church Leave a comment

Gracious, loving, and merciful God. Those lyrics from “O Little Town of Bethlehem hold so much meaning…The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Just as it was at the first Christmas, this is a time for many filled with heartache. We have seen division, hatred, darkness this year globally and for many, personally. And so, Christmas is marked by pain, loneliness, fear, and confusion. But, you are familiar with this sorrow. At the time of your arrival as a baby, the world was full of these things. Parents were losing children because of a government that was threatened by the promise of you. A young girl was facing rejection because of her choice to be obedient. Her family was turned away because their presence made people uncomfortable. Your people, The Israelites, had been waiting for a word from you for 400 years.

And your answer to their heartache was for The Word they waited on to be wrapped up in flesh. The one who had been the agent of creation, who had been and still holds all things together, left his throne to become man. We are grateful that you never gave up being God, but that you did see fit to also become like us, to step into skin, into the mess we made of your perfect creation…and by being both God and man, you created the possibility for us to be reconciled with our Creator.

This is the beauty of Christmas. That, at just the right time, according to Your plan, Father, you sent your Son, to become like us. To walk among us. To feel pain, loneliness, fear, confusion. Not to fix our mess from afar but to walk with us in it. The story of Christmas without the context of Easter is lacking. We have hope not only because you put on flesh and came as a little baby, but because you lived a life we had no hope of living, you chose to face death on our behalf, and you conquered death when you rose again. Your birth, life, death, and resurrection, gave us hope and it continues to give us hope.

We pause now and ask that you would breath hope into the hurting places we carry with us tonight and pour your light into the darkness that seems so heavy in our world right now.
….

Thank you that joy is possible even in sorrow because we have a high priest who knows what it is like to walk this road. Thank you that joy is possible because you have defeated the power of sin and are still offering new life to those who believe. Thank you that there is reason to celebrate now and every day because you came to reconcile, you came that we might have life to the fullest. And that life is only found in you.

Just as you, Christ, came to dwell among men, all those years ago, You, Holy Spirit, dwell among us now. So when we seek satisfaction in things that will not satisfy, when we search for solutions that will not bring peace, remind us, that our satisfaction, and the ultimate solution invaded this world as a baby…and all authority rests on HIS shoulders. We can cease striving because He is sovereign. And while our God is not tame, He is good.

And Lord, we confess that all too often we find ourselves wrapped up in defending your character rather than reflecting your character. You have asked us to live out the beauty of Christmas in our lives, to follow your lead as we step into the hurting world around us. To love others, not because they value the things we value, but because we find common ground in our inability to rescue ourselves. We find common ground in our need for a Creator who became the creature so that we might find a place in the family of God. Help us, as your people, as a church, as individuals, to echo the beauty of Christmas all year long. The hopes and fears of all the years are still met only in you.

Amen