While we were up in the Krkonoše mountains for our Novy Zivot Conference, I snapped a few pics from the few days on my new camera, and Christmas present, and I wanted to share them with you! Click HERE for the set or click HERE to view all my pics. I don’t know if you know this, but at the bottom of my site is something that looks like this…
When I returned from our Novy Zivot (“New Life,” Campus Crusade here in Czech) conference this week, (while getting a spot of the flu) I caught up on some of my blog reads I missed from the last week, and that meant another ‘hmmmm’ moment from marketing expert, Seth Godin. With this I was taken to this video intreview of Seth from the most recent TED conference.
If I were to do this, or do that, I would turn into a wondering generality. Instead of a meaning specific. -Seth Godin
Hmmm indeed! I don’t know what to do with that, or if I should do anything with it! Nonetheless, it was interesting to me. Maybe it was interesting to me, because I’ve realized that I’m mediocre to marginally good at many things, but not great at one thing. Which is an interesting thought as well. Anyway… What stood out to you from this interview? Anything?
What does it take to be a good leader? Do you have any ideas? If so I would love to to hear what you have to say. I’ve been asking myself this question, as of late, and I have thought about much, but one thought as of late has been sticking. I don’t know that it is a concrete leadership idea/thought, but more of a life thought, that helps one lead. Here it is – a leader, especially, needs not be a blind optimist, nor a fatalistic pessimist, but a hopeful, expectant realist. It’s funny growing up, as soon as a learned the word pessimist, I gave my dad a hard time calling him a pessimist, and to that he would respond with, “No, no, no I’m not a pessimist, I am a realist.” In reality, like my father, I am a realist that has a tendency to lean towards the pessimistic side of things, but God has been doing something over the last 9+ years. Largely, He chased me down with his relentless love, when I was running hard the other way, and with that a new hope emerged in my life.
See upon Jesus bringing me into relationship, hope broke into my life in a new way, afresh, but it has taken, and will continue to take, years to become deeply rooted in whom I am. But I’m up for the journey towards hope! Nonetheless, hope needs to affect the way I live, and lead. You can’t miss hope throughout the pages of the Bible:
But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. Psalm 71:14
Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. Acts 2:26
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? Romans 8:24
Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:7
I think you get the idea. A search for the word “hope” is pretty staggering. It must shape the way we live and lead. If I am, indeed, a Christ-follower, then I must have hope. Hope that transcends the junk of this world. Hope that transcends the sin-wrecked world we live in. In my journey of hope, I cling to the empty tomb. See in the empty tomb we, as Christ-followers, have a hope that can’t be shaken. No matter how bleak, how dark the situation my look, I doubt it can look worse than what laid before the empty tomb – fear, being abandoned, every hope that was once had was dashed, condemnation, hate, ugliness and death. Nothing that comes to your life, or my life, can be worse that what laid on the other side of the empty tomb! So are you struggling today with life, leading or etc.? Look to the reality of the empty tomb. Cling to it, when every part of you screams, “No, no there is no hope!” It gives us hope. Hope.
As a leader, i need to allow this hope to shape me, the way I live and my leadership. I need to cling to hope, when every part of me say, “No let’s check out.” When that my flesh is screaming that, I choose hope. I chose having an expectant heart that clings to the fact that from any dark or ugly situation God can indeed bring beauty, after all that is the essence of redemption! As you lead does hope shape you? Are you expectant? Or do you believe the lies and fall into fatalistic pessimism?
I almost forgot to add my thoughts about the ‘realist’ part of what I said earlier. This in no way, undoes what I just said about hope or being expectant, but it is a reality that we live in a sin-wrecked world, and you and I add to that sin-wreckedness more than we could ever imagine! With this reality, we need to be realist that we are indeed jacked up people, needing redemption and the empty tomb in our lives! What this means, for the leader, is that people will let you down, they will disappoint you and adversely you as a leader will do the same, but this is where the hope comes in. It’s cyclical. I’m a realist rooted in hope and a hope-filled Christ-follower, and leader, that is still grounded and realizes what world I live in. I wonder what my life would look like, how I would lead if this were to really break into my heart? What would your life look like? Here’s to hope!
You might be wondering, “Where did Zach find that quote he used in the teaser video?” Or you may not, but either way I wanted to share it with you. My friends, whom I’ve met in passing, with Avant, used it in a piece they had created at one point and I just had to find the article (thanks for the help Kelly!). The article is entitled, Liberated Czechs find freedom, lose religion, and it’s over at The Age. The opening quote of the article – Saints peek out from alleys. Angels fleck the skyline. In stone and marble, God’s mysteries reside in this city’s architecture. But try finding him in the skeptical Czech soul. – is what I used and it is very fitting of Prague and the country as a whole.
It’s a very interesting article and I don’t want to take the time to blog about all of it, because you should just go read it now! However, I do want to add a little commentary to one portion. The author, of the piece, quotes a woman who previously worked in radio, as a religious programmer,
“What’s lacking here is the aura of Christian morals,” she said. “People have forgotten that right and wrong stem from Christianity.
“People cheat on their employers. They cheat on each other. The egoism is unbelievable. It’s me, me, me.”
First off, (without getting into a huge discussion) “right and wrong” do not stem, merely, from “Christianity” but from God. Who is the source and essence of truth, who has imparted a moral code to each and every human being, because we are each created in His image (see Romans 1:18-31 and Genesis 1:26-27). I think what she was referencing is that this culture, or European culture as a whole, was formed and rose to prominence on the foundations of Judeo-Christian ethics, and now that much of Europe is forsaking Christianity, there is a void there. I agree with that.
I actually hear things like this quote often. Off the top of my head, I can think of two conversations, immediately, that I’ve had, one with a teammate and another with a teammate’s mother. Both conversations (one of which was completely in Czech!!!), hinged on the loss of morals within the Czech culture. Both individuals told me that, my work is valuable because Christian morals are valuable and this place so needs them. It was interesting hearing this from two different generations! One generation, has teenage children and the other generation is that – a teenager. Both were talking about the biggest problem here is the lack of morals and no foundation. The, attempted, ‘removal of God’ from this place has left a moral vacuum, that many, most of which are atheists, acknowledge as terribly dangerous to the culture at large. I was reminded of this last night, as I received a ride home from a teammate, and the joke within the car was that the word ‘verný’ (faithful) doesn’t exist here, or, in their opinion, in many places. Sadly, there probably is truth to that!
It’s a bridge to spiritual conversation for sure, but it is a challenge to help them see past ‘Christian morals.’ This is what ‘Christianity,’ as a system, gets us. I’m talking about more than just a system! I’m talking about God, breaking into the world through human flesh and living a radical life of love and service, that was ultimately in service to me, as God, Himself, hung a criminal’s death on wooden posts! It’s a revolution of the heart. It’s a complete upheaval of the ‘world’s system’ and our lives, not some system of rules or 1+2=3 formula of sorts. It’s vibrant. It’s alive. It blows systems up! Cultural change cannot happen from systems, or laws passed, but from followers of this Radical, known as Jesus, going into the world and being used as part of the revolution, He has already started, through words and deeds! Not systems!
Wow! I got a little fired up there. I hope this all makes sense and it challenges you a bit. I hope it also helps you know how to pray for this place that YOU AND I, TOGETHER, are attempting to reach! Thanks for stopping by….
That’s right and you need to check it out! I was tempted to say “Czech it Out” but I have been hear too long to do that, I think… 🙂 So here you go, you have 3 options:
This is our attempt to try to do the “viral marketing” (I guess, “viral recruiting”) thing with the project. Thus the two newest videos that I cranked out. You can find the full video and the teaser in a number of places too!
Ok, I do need to be honest vimeo, rocks my stinkn’ face off! So much sleeker than youtube and it just has a better feel to is. {insert “arrogant mac guy” comment against pcs here;-)} One of the cool features of vimeo is you can download the video! Check it out, it’s in the bottom right hand corner under the stats area. I also hope to get the two videos up on my podcast feed via iTunes soon, so you can rock them on your video iPod too (click the little dude below to subscribe!).
