Privileged

Vocation (your work or your 'calling') is an unbelievable responsibility. One’s talents and abilities are gifts. It is a person’s responsibility to the world and to society to engage these personal endowments to the fullest and to seek ways in which to develop them. Rather than take for granted that which we have been given, we can view or talents and specialties as qualities that are meant to be explored and expanded.

Often the word “responsibility” can be thought of in a negative light as an action that has to be taken rather than something that one would like to do. Instead of viewing responsibility in that way, try taking the perspective of seeing responsibility as a privilege bestowed on you as a result of your gifts and talents. Taking on the outlook that vocation is a responsibility can present itself as an opportunity. You have the chance to utilize your vocation to better that around you. Choose to see your responsibility as the privilege of using your specific gifting and skills —your unique capabilities—to improve your company, your family, your community, your society or even your world.

'Your talent is a gift from God, what you do with it is your gift back to Him.'

Focused Drive

Vocation is more than a job, it's your calling.

One’s vocation is not merely the title on their business card. One’s vocation is not as simple as the role at his company or the industry in which he works. Rather, vocation is a calling—a purpose that drives a person’s life that they fulfill through sharing their unique, specific talents and abilities with others.  

Taking the perspective of one’s vocation as just their job title can be limiting as then it would only feel as if it applied to the professional sector of life. Rather when viewed as a calling, one’s vocation has the potential to permeate all sectors of life. It can possibly take on the capability of shaping a purpose or establishing a focused drive to one’s life.

Fulfill your life's work, use your talents and make a difference! We need your voice...

Amazing

I talk to them, but they don't believe in themselves. For whatever reason(s), they're not worthy in their own minds...and yet I know that genius resides within them. Genius and creativity has been placed and marked in us all. Imagine how good they could be...

Don't listen to the doubters, the worst of which can often be ourselves. Believe. Not a false belief, but every member of the body has a purpose and you have an amazing purpose too. We all need you to believe, because we need your voice in this world. We need your talent, operating at full tilt. Pedal down. 

Keep blazing and believe. 

BIG

The dream of "hitting it BIG!"

"Here's what I would do if I won $200 million dollars..."

Investing in the next Facebook. Buying the winning lottery ticket. These dreams, if that's what we want to call them, tap into an emotion that must be overwhelming in all of its ways. The reason I know this, is because I see the blinding effects of it in each of these pursuits.

Emotionally hooked. Being hooked emotionally is when we can't see with wisdom, because we stare so closely and hold on so intently onto something, like the dream of hitting it BIG.

Yesterday, I had this really enlightening conversation. Is hope, even false hope, a good thing? These are deep waters to be sure, but let's just put on a snorkel and skim the surface without the intent of touching the bottom below.

Hope is good, hope is tremendous. The lie of it bothers me. My gut is telling me this can't be right, that the truth is better, that believing in a false reality is not ultimately helpful to our lives.

And then my immediate next thought is all of the people throughout history who believed what was ultimately to be true and not reality yet, they were certainly dreamers...flight, space travel, the great explorers, the entrepreneurs, people like Shackleton, Disney, Jobs, Armstrong, Galileo, Carnegie...

But, let us separate those who are dreaming based upon a commitment to a life's work or stretching to achieve an apparently impossible goal, versus those who are falling into a pattern of ignorance. The ignorance is buying the lottery ticket (not making a judgment of right and wrong on this, just bad math). It's been said that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad a math.

'The Pain of truth is better than the bliss of ignorance.'

Another difference, dreaming tied to a lie, is not helpful if it prevents us from doing the necessary work. All of the people listed above, set out to create a new reality and their dream, tied their impossible task to an insane work ethic. Their dream was directly connected to effort and diligence.

The other significant problem is that the mis-placed dreams distract us from dreams tied to our purpose and our calling. The question is not whether to have hope. Let's be bearers of hope, carry that torch with us everywhere. Let's fan that flame in others, in our cities, in our households.

I was just thinking, if I were king...I'd encourage my country to be a country of dreamers, risk takers, and ... hard workers. Imagine a nation filled with dreams tied to dig-in and "make it happen" kind of people.

Foolishness costs us something. It may be a relationship, money, physical harm, spiritual erosion. So, let's dream, hope, and work. Let's not fall prey to the disaster awaiting the simple and ignorant. May we chase wisdom in our learning and try to avoid the destructive patterns that keep many people locked in a false reality.

Dream a little

Everything is impossible before it is created and there will always be doubters. Create anyway.

See the landscape as your canvas.

Dream a little (or a lot).

Start something up.

Stretch yourself.

Do anything spectacular.

Fuel yourself by what others say cannot be done.

More

I saw a special on 60 minutes recently (I feel that I look forward too much to 60 minutes now, but I digress). They did 'tests' on small children to see if they preferred to have more of their own things while having the same as someone else or less of their own things while having more than someone else. The children overwhelmingly selected less for themselves while securing the position of having 'more'.

 It was interesting in the segment how they used a variety of tests to show how we are built with a moral compass at the earliest of ages. And yet, we are also built to compare, to want more than others, even often at the expense of self-interest.

The financial term is 'keeping up with the Joneses.' I teach my kids all the time, that often those that look like they have, in all actuality, rarely have. They borrow money they don't have to buy things they can't afford.

 My kids are also in a similar position quite often when they are faced with a choice of two situations: 1) they don't get anything extra, and no one else does either. or... 2) they don't get anything extra, but someone else does. The second situation really makes them upset, even though they are in the same position in each case. We have problems with being content. It has been a problem throughout history and technology isn't helping. We see what others have right away. We see what they do, where they go, how things look on the outside. This can create huge issues with who we are, what we have and how we think we measure up.

Contentment is ever allusive. We want more. We want what others have and we're often looking for reasons to doubt our identity. I will say this, the photos, the possessions and the experiences don't paint the whole picture of what is really going on or regarding what is most important. Contentment is not an outward facing posture. It certainly involves and reflects gratitude.

May we be fully engaged in what we have both in reality and in our unique opportunities. Be the best you that you can be.

A Message To Start-Ups

Dear Start-Ups, You are setting out to build the next Google, Facebook, Scout-Mob. And why not? Due to new technology and the web, there are less barriers to entry and to building a business than ever before in history. But, as you move forward with passion, also move forward wisely...

 The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that almost 60% of businesses shut down within the first four years. Many reasons exist for failure, but mismanaged revenue and expenses is consistently near the top of list. It will take you twice as long, cost you twice as much to get to the product or launch as what you are thinking. Plan your cashflow and financing likewise. "Be conservative with your financial projections and plan on having adquate funds when you launch to cover all sunk costs (including startup losses) until your company becomes cash flow positive."

 Also, securing funding from investors will take much longer than you think and "commitments" aren't commitments until the check clears. There are plenty of tough moments for the entrepreneur...don't let underfunding, overspending or aggressive projections be your reason for failure.

Be intentional.

In money, time, relationships - capture what you're entrusted with and don't take any of these for granted.

Begin with an attitude of gratitude and out of appreciation, take action purposefully. Think longterm, think legacy, think impact...and at the end of the day, have fun. You haven't been perfect and you don't need to be, because you know you will never be. However, redemption in everything lies ahead and you can easily move past failures and personal defeats. Look up.

Don't let life just 'happen to you'. Instead, happen on life and move forward well.

"Common grace has made it possible for us to participate in the public realm in multiple ways that contribute to the flourishing of the created order." ~ Vincent Bacote

 The World - The City: To be in and not of...we must actually be engaged, connect, relate, discuss, share, influence and even be influenced by the city - the world. Cities are places of influence. Things created in the city make their way out into the rest of the world over time. Whether it be trends, fashion, businesses, thoughts, books, politics, art, religion. education or technologies. In order to influence the future, we must engage the future in the cities. This will cause us to be in that beautiful and vulnerable place of having influence and open to being influenced.

 Considering what it means to be "in" and not of, more specifically the first part of that statement - "being in". How are we in?

 A few thoughts on the ways to "be in":
 * To "be in" we must be physically present (as opposed to living and creating our own bubble) - living, visiting, eating with, enjoying the beauty and creativity of the city. The shift in the last 10 to 15 years of more churches in our cities is a wonderful example of this.
 * Delivering mission in the city is a tremendous way to be engaged. Creating or delivering hope to the disadvantaged and hurting of the city - the world. Helping to make lives better as we consider the greater good. Serve, find out problems and help fix them and become part of the solution. Jeff Shinabarger says (and does) with Suffered Enough, "We will be known by the problems we solve".
 * Engage in Enterprise - Business and work is another sustainable way that we come into contact with the world and show how to be honorable in how we treat others. The entrepreneur is the artist, creating that which others will value & enjoy. Do this with integrity and humility, but also with excellence and focus. Many examples are emerging for Impact Capitalism.

 Do not withdraw, but lean against the wind and go into the cities, into the world to influence and to be influenced by.

"Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil--the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be." - William Jordan

Q Notes

Raw notes (unedited) from two talks today from Q.


ANTHONY BRADLEY - ABRAHAM KUYPER REVISITED
Author & Associate Professor at The King's College of New York
Back to the Garden - where work was given and established (pre-fall) - doing God's work
God is into the Culture making activity of his people
Every area of culture has it's own place in Gods plan
State - Art - Econ - Family - Science
God designed each of these things to participate in the common good
Governments only recognize and allow these areas to exist
Harry Belefonte influenced hollywood
Dr. King in the churches
Pursue justice in each sphere to be a blessing and to spread shalom
How does God seek to use YOU in YOUR particular sphere? It derives it's authority, mission and design from God himself. It is a part of his plan. Christians need to be apart of every aspect in culture, of culture, having influence. What did God call business, education et al to reconcile creation to himself.
Find your space in your sphere, to explode and unlock what God intends. This is all mine (says God)!


DIANE LANGBERG - TRAUMA AS A PLACE OF SERVICE
2 million kids on our streets homeless
Congo is the rape capital of the world
What does Heaven do? Heaven comes down, to the filth, the dungeon, the hurting.
The church goes into the dungeon to make the dungeon the church.
He enters the dungeons of our hearts. He didn't treat us as "them"…but he made us his own.
He's called us as the body to follow him as the head.
Our God leaves the higher and he defends, leaves the pure. Some want to live as untouched by the trauma of this world.
Trauma is perhaps the greatest mission field of our time, or all time. But we prefer to stay in our churches and occasionally we stick our heads out to tell them what they are doing wrong. We are quick to blame those who suffer for their choices.
We have been blind to the fact of the dungeons in our hearts.

You don't want to hide in the chapel, the dungeon is the human heart, there is no rape or abuse without human beings. Our first call is not to places but to people. Hearts that will tolerate no dungeon corner. Stay clean used to be the emphasis, but it avoids the call of our savior. The dungeon is first in us, that is what created those out there. Pride. Pornography. terrified and shattered humanity. We are complicit with the perpetrators if we do not go. Follow our head, jesus christ, into the corners of our own hearts, then into the corners of the world.

MATH

How are we going to multiply?

At some point in life, you start thinking past yourself. Not for everyone gets here, but most people do and it usually occurs when a child comes on the scene. All of a sudden, the decisions and details of our lives go beyond just us and our own desires. We see longer into life - the decisions we make now impact another generation...actually, they always have impacted others, we just see it clearly now.

We begin thinking longer. Our lives and decisions aren't dead ends anymore, we see the ripple of effect.

Then, something else ... something bigger can happen, and I'm not sure how many people see this reality with precision, but our children will have children and they will have children. The implications of our life grows immensely. The decisions we make, who we are, what we do, how we live, will affect multiple generations. People will be impacted in 200 years by our lives...or not.

My mom's parents left a legacy with me that is now, by name, in my son. My kids know about the characteristics of my grandparents and they will learn more in the years to come. My life is impacted distinctly by their devotion and wisdom. My career path can be traced back to their focus on stewardship...and now my kids too - that's four generations that will span over a hundred years. Next thing you know, my children will have children.

We are called to be fruitful and multiply. This call for our lives goes well beyond the physical multiplication. I'm marinating on this idea about the legacy that we will pass down. A longer-term perspective allows for better decisions today. On the flip side, a shorter-term perspective allows for more foolishness. Foolishness hurts and costs. It costs money, time, implications, relationships and on and on.

A decision based on the next quarter - a decision based on the next three years - a decision based on the next thirty years - a decision based on the next hundred years.

How would our decisions be different if we were thinking about the generational impact of our lives?

Think longer. It's basic Math - How are we going to Multiply?

Finish Strong

We're all a mixed bag. Made in the image of our Creator, broken by our wrongs, so easily taken off track and yet blessed by genius by the Spirit of God that is within us ... and we're called to be apart of the redemptive story of humanity. I don't know Joe Pa, I don't know what he is really like. I know this, he didn't do what he needed to at a very important moment. It was more than a 'personal failure' - it was a failure to protect others that will be forever marred (humanly speaking) on more than one occasion. He allowed the worst of human existence to occur under his watch.

We must fight for the young, the disadvantaged, the poor and we must flip the tables over when Money, Position and Power are mis-used and abused. This is the worst of us. May God forgive me if I do this knowingly or unknowingly.

Sometimes our culture likes to self-righteously and publicly execute people as a normal habit without ever giving grace and mercy or forgiveness. I don't pretend to know where the balance is for it all. What I do know is that humanity is in the habit of failures. But our God is redeeming, that is what he does, making all things new and extending forgiveness when it doesn't make sense to us. I hope Joe Pa saw where he failed and I pray he sought forgiveness in a genuine way. I pray for the healing of any that were abused.

Our lesson is this...It is easier to start well than finish strong. May our lives chase after justice - may we be a voice for the weak and the hurting, the young and the innocent who are abused by others and may we, start well and Finish Strong.

(Failure leaves clues...Howard Hendricks breakdown how Finishing Strong can be stolen from us all http://tinyurl.com/7sld7nh)

Implement the Inspiration

When the music stops and the inspiration fades, get to work on the vision and new direction that you've been given. Don't leave the idea in the song, take it with you into life and change the future. The emotions aren't bad, but it would be a shame if you left your life's calling on the shelf and only picked it up to read every now and then. Do something...Get to work.

Implement The Inspiration.

#Winning

Two things to winning.

1) Spend more time on it strategically than your competitors.

2) Approach your time involved more intentionally, by seeking to learn from your weaknesses and understanding your success/strength.

Bring the endurance/marathon mentality to the above and it will be hard for you to lose. Of course, by that time, you've done all the work, paved the way, and paid your dues through preparation. You'll win.

ATTENTION!!

From Abnormal Returns...this applies to trading and to life at large. Be stingy with your attention...

"Attention is a zero-sum game
How you spend your time (and attention) as a trader is a key driver in your eventual performance. We all have a limited amount of time we can devote to the markets, therefore maximizing the impact of that time is crucial. This point was driven home in reading Margaret Heffernan’s interesting newish book Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril in which she writes:

After a decade of experiments by himself and others [Dr. Daniel] Simons, concludes that we see what we expect to see and are blind to the unexpected. And there are absolute hard limits to how much we can take in at any given time.

“For the human brain,” say Simons, “attention is a zero-sum game: If we pay more attention to one place, object or event, we necessarily pay less attention to others.”

Our attention is a limited resource worth shepherding. The question is for traders whether their time is well-spent watching financial television? The problem is that the way television is designed disrupts our ability to think. Heffernan writes:

The bottleneck that characterizes our ability to receive information explains why we cannot intelligently absorb all the information presented to us on TV screens like those displayed by CNN, Fox and CNBC. The scrolling text, sidebars and stock prices don’t make us smarter or better informed; they make us stupid. While we are watching such a busy array, we can’t efficiently think, discriminate or make critical judgments.

Trading is hard enough under the best of circumstances. If you continuously expose yourself to inputs that don’t make you “smarter or better informed” you are doing yourself a disservice."

Better Than Bigger

I recently learned the difference in terms that affects anyone who's a parent, mentor or leader of any kind.

In the effort to raise our kids combined with being responsible for their learning through homeschool, we talk all the time about their development. I'm sure most parents do, and we definitely do especially because it all falls on us we have a bit of extra "fear" that we want to get it right as possible. The difference in terms I read recently was the difference between teaching and training.

Teaching is when you show someone something,

Training is when you've passed along "the will" for them to do it right without your involvement.

So, for example, you can show your kids how to make their bed, but you haven't trained them in it until they can do it consistently well without your input. That is a startling contrast to how most of us take our responsibilities in training. Now bring the idea of training to developing the spiritual foundation of our kids. A question we wrestle with all the time is how to establish a strong spiritual connection between themselves and God so that they seek him, talk to him and know him deeply.

Given the ages of our kids, one of the things we've attempted to do is to keep the basics basic - even while they increase their learning. We thought, if they can just know that God is bigger than anything AND know that he is good...really really good, then they will want to seek him. So, we've spent time just showing them daily or weekly examples of how much bigger and better he is than things they can relate to.

On this journey and knowing enough about how life goes something emerged...most people who don't chase after God, probably don't because they struggle with his goodness. They question his way over their own, their not sure that he has their best interest in mind. In a sense, they question his goodness and his goodness for them.

So know that we've spent ample time conveying the God is Big and God is Good message, we feel convicted to harp on the fact that while he's Big AND Good, God is Better....Than he is Bigger. He's worth trusting and he's worth trusting completely. Hold all of life with an open hand and just listen to him, then act. He has your and mine best interest at heart.

I hope we can not just teach them this, but may we train them as well so that they seek him no matter what.

A Thousand Conversations

We live in a time, when attention is held briefly and decisions are made likewise. Short-term thinking persists our world. The goose is killed for the golden eggs it has now.

But there are those among us, looking longer. Often though, the longer term thinking relates toward activity, results and "Success".

Success becomes the things we do. What is achieved, is valued. Wealth. Position. Results. Well prepared and trained children. A happy marriage. Strong friendships.

Things that are good can become the objective. Achieving takes the pole position.

So what? What's wrong with achieving? ...Nothing. If you're not achieving, scripture has harsh words for not fulfilling your stewardship responsibility with your talents, time and opportunities. But, achieving is not the ultimate end to who we are becoming. Our soul is.

Our soul, that confusing, not easily understood place in our lives that we sometimes call our conscience, our heart. The soul is who we really are. The thousands of conversations and self-chats we have through ideas, brief thoughts, thoughts of others, thoughts of ourselves, thoughts of God. No matter how transparent we are with others, our soul knows us more. Our soul is the reality of ourselves and how we see life, and therefore how we decide to be and act in life.

The soul is our core and our soul has to be cultivated. This IS the end of our lives. More than who we are when no one is looking, the soul is what is in our hearts and mind that no one else will ever be able to to fully discern. The soul is our depth. The soul contains all of our "layers" that make the whole of us.

Living for the soul, brings contentment, joy and a beautiful connection with our creator. We cultivate the soul we have by thinking as our creator thinks, by living according to his way, not just on the outside, but maybe more importantly with every thought that crosses our mind. More than how we treat others, how do we view them? Do we serve them, but secretly see ourselves as more important, more loved, more anything...seeing ourselves as better? Do we lead others and lead with excellence, but secretly and ultimately make sure we're taken care of at the end of the day? When we walk through our day and encounter countless individuals, what are the biases and perspectives of ourselves and others that we hold on to?

For some, their view of their self is an ongoing defeating self conversation where they can never be good enough, be successful enough as they compare themselves to others. This is damaging to our soul because this is a lie as well. When we connect our soul and align it with the way of our God, our perspective aligns and our heart is nourished. When our heart is nourished and our self-agenda is tossed to the side, an amazing beauty emerges from within that is indescribable though it is impossible to mistake.

We have to know the thoughts of God. We have to "take captive of every thought" and run it through the filter of the Almighty. Christ took the "actions" of the Old Testament and then made them applicable at our soul's level, through what we think and feel. If we lust, if we're in wrong anger, then we're damaging our soul. The inner thoughts matter.

I do not say any of this (or anything I ever say) as one who has conquered or as one who has figured "it" out. We are all inspired in the image of our God, but we are broken and living in a broken and beautiful world. I would submit that we are on a journey with God, toward God. He has something beautiful to say about the greatest pain we experience, the normal day to day as well as our mountain top success. God is in our soul and about our soul as well as he is about anything else. He wants to be in those thousand conversations we're having every day. Invite him into your success, your views on everything and even your sin. Let him permeate the very core of who you are, and believe that his way is better. His way gives us life, and life to the full.

This life to the full will not be judged completely from the outside, but it will transform who you are from the inner spaces that no one else will ever see.

Yes, may we chase wisdom, but may we live life from the heart and cultivate our souls by immersing our thoughts in our God.

Possible

The road to anywhere begins with belief, at least a thought that the desired can occur.

I search history for patterns, for ways that success and failure has occurred. In almost every instance, greatness reveals itself with hope, success with belief. From POWs, great adventures of Everest, Lewis and Clark, The American Revolution ... the unlikely, almost impossible continues to occur.

Life presents challenges and others often want you to color within the lines. Greatness in one area is usually accompanied by weakness, even ineptitude in another. Excellence coexists with ignorance and this throws the masses expectations. This causes doubt, even personal questioning. But resilience and belief are called upon.

We need each other. The self made man rarely if ever is. The roles of the Team. The parts of the Body. Experts and various expertise are almost always needed for dreams to come alive. The dreams aren't about you, it's about something bigger. But, you're up for the task, the road ahead needs a vision and perseverance. These two aspects breakthrough the resistance when combined. Motivation and endurance are required for the journey.

Believe in the dream and know that it is possible. Now go to work.

Don't Chase The Train

'The price of discipline is less than the pain of regret.'

Life often seems complicated & difficult. Events sneak up on us & catch us off guard. Many times, it seems the train has left the station & we're working our best to catch up.

The overwhelm of 'the everyday', others' expectations, existing responsibilities & our own hopes & dreams weigh upon us. We spend more time firefighting than truly living life.

We do too much. We stay too busy. We think in terms of others' perspectives. We don't think much. I mean, we think, just not much about how things should be, how we should be in a way that translates to making necessary changes. We think more about the catching up we need to do & not nearly as much about how to get in front of the train to change the trajectory of the tracks.

So we wind up being a response to the world around us when the world around us should be a response to us. Pro-Act is to act in advance. The only way to act in advance, is to think in advance. Think way ahead of time. It's not really thinking that far in advance, but our culture & those around us will make it seem unusual. That's because most of the time, they are living behind.

Behind is normal. Not ready is the usual way. Lack of preparation seems easier on the front end & leads to much more difficulty afterward.

I have this conviction, that if we think about what we want, we think about the right questions to ask, then with counsel, understanding, seeking, learning & thinking, we will determine very good answers. If we think, we can live in front of life. I believe this is wisdom.

So, we must think. Take time to ask the questions in front of the train. How & who do we want to be? What situations should we prepare our children for? What routines do we need to change & alter? What are the values & purposes we need to inject more into the moments of our life?

Those are some questions, there are many many more to be asked. Thinking ahead will make your doing more valuable.

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.
Peter F. Drucker

Who Cares

When you care, you want to help. But, you are responsible to ... not responsible for ... someone. Handle the responsibility toward them with great care, do what you can, but don't try to control the outcome. The outcome is not yours, the journey is. Do your part well and have peace.