June 2008 - Posts
On Saturday morning I attended the Edmonds Arts Festival awards presentation. Dylan O'Neil, a recent graduate of King's High School won the award for the 2008 Student Poster Artwork, an acrylic entitled: The Burdens We Carry. This means his acrylic painting was chosen to be made into a poster for the art festival. We have one on display in our lobby. I love going to events like this and helping in a small way to acknowledge significant achievements. It is also a great way for me to get to know the people I serve with and hear about CRISTA from their perspective. Achievements like this usually do not happen through the efforts of one person. I met Dylan’s art teacher, Mrs. Riley, his sister, his parents and his grandmother. This is the team that obviously loves and roots for Dylan. And what a great team it is. This reminds me that none of us succeed without people who want us to succeed and set the stage by loving us, teaching us, giving us affirmation and encouragement as well as constructive criticism. I am very grateful I have a group like this at CRISTA! Working toward the goal of establishing a support network such as this around everyone at CRISTA is one of the best things about serving here. 
Lunch with the President and his wife at his office was the prize in a drawing at a recent event at CRISTA's Senior Living Residence. So yesterday Kathleen and I hosted four delightful women for lunch. Of course the food was great and my office is a very cool place. It was the residence for Mike Martin, the founder of CRISTA, and his family. It has been remade in to a beautiful place for me to come to work (a true privilege, stop by and see it).
We each went around and shared a short version of our life stories. These people are a rich resource of history and God's work and love among His people. In their advanced years they are all still alive and active living out the purpose of our senior ministry "bringing joy and purpose to the lives of seniors." One is an accomplished artist and judge at art shows, one leads the pray chain at CRISTWOOD, one has 12 great grandchildren (that ought to keep her busy). This is a wonderful and encouraging place to work, partly because rubbing shoulders with these great saints instills in me energy to keep on the track. Have a great day.
Webster’s has 34 definitions for the word change. I like the first one it lists: to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one's name; to change one's opinion; to change the course of history. As leaders in Christ's redeeming work in this world we are called to change the course of history. Of course we can't change the whole course of everything, but every one of us has influence over that area of responsibility that God has given us. My experience is that change is incredibly hard for most people. For some reason the difficulties of the situations we find ourselves in, but which are familiar to us, are often times more comfortable than heading in the unsure direction of a future we do not know. So we settle for what is, blame ourselves or others, speculate or dream, but initiating change is very difficult. Why is that?
People tell me I am a question asker. I hope I am a good question asker. I would like to be a great question asker. I thought about this today when I had a chance meeting with one of our staff at the Arbor deli on campus today. She thanked me for a presentation I gave that she had recently attended. I asked "what was it that you liked?" She gave me a good answer, but I followed up with "I am not sure I fully understand what you meant, tell me some more?" We had a great discussion which was encouraging to me and I hope helpful to her.
I have given some thought to what prevents me from asking great questions. Asking questions requires being able to do certain things. It requires focus on the other person. Some times that is hard to do. I'm busy, I'm really interested in getting on to the next agenda item for me! After all, isn't MY agenda what's really important to me? Yes, asking questions and being genuinely curious about the answer requires I get outside of myself and look for God's agenda. It requires that I am not only curious about what others have to say, their experiences, thoughts and feelings but a genuine curiosity about what God is doing. When I actually muster up enough humility to pull this off, more often then not, I am thrilled with being part of what God is doing in the lives of others. That is a good feeling. It is also what being a leader is all about.