What could happen if men across the world pursued God given dream in the context of two questions:
Who do you want to help?
How do you want to help them?
And what if men of vision met on a regular basis to share those dreams with the understanding they would receive one of three responses from each of the other men in the room:
I don’t know how I can help you with your dream, but I’m behind you 100% and will pray regularly for your dream.
I don’t know how I can help you with your dream, but I know someone who can – I’ll connect you.
My strengths, passion, and resources relate directly to your dream – I’m in!
Take a look at the kickoff meeting for a Dream Builders group that started yesterday in Orlando. Listen to the vision of Kennan Burch who has seen God accomplish dreams beyond what most of us can ask or think:
All day all night, read it right, such a sight;
HighPhone, Crackberry, keeps me buzzin’, makes me merry.
Twenty more Twitters and I’ll start to sing;
Ears all tuned for the Pings and Dings.
Can’t, nope, not, you won’t take my phone away from me;
Peeps have got to know that I’m three clicks away.
Even if I’m under and in surgery.
Tweeters gotta know what I gotta say.
Focus is for slackers, I’ve got plates to spin – even though my reflection’s wearin’ thin.
Why should I reflect on life when I am King – ruler of a realm called the Pings and Dings.
Vibrates, side aches, pocket rips from all the reaches;
Thumbs swell, joints yell, lookin’ like a pear of peaches.
Walkin’, talkin’, punchin’ keys – drinkin’ java doin’ these.
Never felt so wigged, never felt so free.
Focus is for slackers, I’ve got plates to spin – even though my reflection’s wearin’ thin.
Why should I reflect on life when I am King – ruler of a realm called the Pings and Dings.
“Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
T.S. Elliot
If supply affects demand and vice versa then the scarcest as well as the most valuable commodity these days is “reflection”. I heard a fascinating interview this week from Mars Hill with Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Jackson described that today we live in a 24/7 climate of “pinging and ringing” from Blackberries, iPhones, TVs, video games, computers, and a host of other devices that creates continuous distraction and prevents even a nanosecond of reflection. Our lives are an ever increasing frantic race to keep “balls” in the air and “plates” spinning…
Obama’s brilliant campaign produced a mountain of support using multiple virtual venues. Our new president built a “fan base” of more than 13 million with a next-gen marketing model through networks like Facebook, MySpace and of course the new “jargon juggernaut” – Twitter.
With the tsunami of Social Networking traveling underneath the surface at 700 mph, we can only speculate when the wave of distraction will crest. We do know, however, that our youth sleep with their phones and eat Adderall like candy. Finding time to reflect on God’s word and wisdom is harder for them to find than an 18k nugget in a mountain stream.
Certainly we should take advantage of the technology that can accelerate our productivity and effectiveness. But we should also continue the good fight to prevent “Technological Fluency” from becoming our children’s second language. Detach your son from his cell, surgically if necessary, the next time you take him on an outing. Do a pda-ectomy on yourself while you’re at it.
I will cultivate bravery and trust in God.I will break out of my comfort zone by seeking to conquer my fears.I will learn to recover, recover, and recover again.
Honor
I will honor God by obeying and acknowledging Him as the complete source in my life, both now and through eternity.I will treat my parents, siblings, friends, and acquaintances with respect.I will appreciate the strengths and accept the weaknesses of all my “team members.”
Attitude
I will cultivate a disposition of humility.I will assume a correct and hopeful view of myself as a member of God’s family.I will improve my ability to manage anger and discouragement.I will develop an appropriate sense of humor.
Mental Toughness
I will allow God to direct my thinking toward gaining common sense and wisdom.I will use discernment when making hard decisions.I will desire respect from others rather than compromise my convictions for acceptance or approval.
Purity
I will train myself to keep the temple of my body and mind uncorrupted mentally, emotionally, and physically.I commit to avoid and flee sexual temptation.
Integrity
I will seek to acquire a clear understanding of who I am in Christ so that I may have a deeper comprehension of what I believe, what I stand for, and how I can live out those convictions in the most difficult circumstances, whether I am alone or with others.I will allow trusted friends to hold me accountable to standards of excellence.
Ownership
I will apply effective stewardship by using my life and the resources God entrusts to me – including my possessions, time, and talents – for His glory.I will seek contentment in God’s provision for my needs.I will learn to practice delayed gratification.
Navigation
I will allow God to chart my course by accepting my mission from Him, and I will complete that mission by trusting in Him.I will study the Bible; God’s Word, so I can know Him better and gain His strength and direction for my life.I will become goal-oriented by learning to focus my attention on completing worthwhile short-term and long-term objectives.I will also maintain flexibility and awareness at all times so that I can respond to the opportunities God offers me to help others.
There is a true story of a family who owned a cottage on a lake in Michigan. One day the father and his two young sons (one 5 years old, the other almost 3) enjoyed a great boat trip together. Upon returning, they docked the boat and headed for the house. The man did not notice that the younger boy had stayed behind, stretching over the water to get back into the boat. Suddenly, the father heard a splash and he realized only one of his sons was with him.
He rushed back to the dock and frantically looked around; but saw nothing in the dark water. He dived in and swam around underneath the dock searching for his son. Finally, he burst to the surface, took another deep breath and dove back down. He found his young several feet under the surface, desperately gripping one of the pilings. The father helped his son release his grip, and then pulled him to the surface. The youngster was frightened, but unharmed.
The father carried his son around and held him close for the remainder of the day. After some time he asked the boy, “What were you doing down there?” The boy looked up and replied, “I was waiting for you, Dad.”
Our sons are waiting for us to dive into their lives and help to pull them through the dark, uncertain waters of adolescence. They want to grow and embrace independence from our authority, and yet they still need our guidance and involvement in their lives. Regardless of this tension, we as fathers must keep reaching and taking the initiative to help our sons prepare for the years ahead.
I have long admired the Jewish tradition of the bar mitzvah. As a Jewish boy approaches his teenage years he engages in a program of rigorous academic training based on Jewish tradition and beliefs. At the end of his training the boy recites some difficult Hebrew passages and reads a speech he’s prepared describing why he is ready to become a young man. Then a ceremony occurs.
At the ceremony the boy’s father formally acknowledges to his friends and family that his son is a young man. In essence, the father communicates to everyone present that the boy is ready to assume the privileges and responsibilities that come with his new stage in life. It’s a powerful moment!
The more I thought about the richness of tradition involved with the bar mitzvah the more I wanted my son Casey to experience a transition like that. I wanted him to enter young adulthood with a sense of direction and purpose. The description of Jesus in his early years provided the ultimate example for my son: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” (Luke 2:52)
According to this passage of scripture, Jesus set the pattern for us to follow as He grew in wisdom (mentally), in stature (physically), in favor with God (spiritually) and in favor with man (socially/emotionally). As Casey entered his early teen years I also wanted him to establish a foundation of skills and principles to utilize in the years ahead – socially, mentally, physically, emotionally, and most important, spiritually. Finally, I wanted Casey to experience a formal celebration of his young adulthood. I also wanted him to have a “memento”, much like the Navy Seals or Green Berets to remember his training and transition (see below).
Not that he would become a man at 12 or 13, but that he would recognize that he was not longer a child and that he must start learning what it means to be a godly man.
My call came in 1995 when I paused momentarily from the normal frantic pace of life to experience one of those, “When in the world did this happen?” revelations. I glanced across our living room to see a mature-looking 11 year-old boy. He was 5’6” tall, with feet almost as big as mine. His voice sounded a little lower than I remembered. It seemed like yesterday when he rode a miniature fire truck around the driveway, yelling at me to watch him. Now he was reading novels, taking more showers, and excelling in basketball. My son, Casey, was becoming a young man.
I didn’t see it coming. Wait a minute, I thought to myself. I’m not ready for this! In two years Casey would be a teenager. What had I done to prepare him for such a major transition? Did he have the foundation of knowledge and skills to enter young manhood? Had he heard me verbalize my priorities and values? Was he ready to face the inevitable temptations that society and his peers would offer him?
It happened for me in June 1995. At the time, my life was probably a lot like yours. Day after day I hit the floor running, spending my working hours responding to the “Noisemakers” of society. You’ve heard them before, haven’t you? The noisemakers are those “urgent” messengers that pummel us from all directions and at all hours. They try to tempt us away from important priorities, and throw us headlong into a frantic, perpetual treadmill of busyness.
I have heard that workers in some parts of Asia during the early 20th century were sent into the fields and jungles, tasked with an unusual objective. They positioned themselves under a group of trees filled with birds, and then began banging noisemakers together until the birds flew away. After a while the birds cam back and attempted to light again on the branches; but the noisemakers sounded again and the birds scattered. This cycle happened over and over. Eventually, the birds dropped dead from exhaustion.
Does this sound familiar? The noisemakers of society hit us three ways: hard, fast, and continuously. They bang away and we fly from the “branch,” away from our important priorities. Every time we get to a position where we can evaluate our personal mission and subsequently make wise, long term decisions, the noisemakers immediately try to get us back on the treadmill:
Have you heard the noisemakers lately?
“What do you mean you’re going home at 5:30? I can call your cell tonight, right?”
“Have you checked your Tweets in the past hour?”
“Why haven’t you responded to my last email? I left it ten minutes ago.”
“CNN just said there’s been another 100 point drop – turn the tv on.”
“Have you checked Facebook tonight?”
Even though we’re not supposed to burn the candle at both ends, we spend a lot of time trying to do it. But there’s a price to pay for that kind of “dance til’ you drop” type of living. Like the birds in Asia, we often experience fatigue and become preoccupied to the point that we forget, or postpone, those things that are most important to us. That is, until we get a wake-up call.
If given the choice, we would prefer to keep whatever happiness we’ve already found. Like the child who never wants to grow beyond the wide-eyed excitement of Christmas morning, we like to remain naively happy…
With adolescent maturity we declare that God is good when we ace the physics test or finish law school with honors, when our son is offered an unusually good position or the biopsy comes back negative. “Of course, we say, “God is good!” Without putting it quite this way, we assume God is pleased and grateful that we think so – and maybe just a little relieved…
Above quote from Dr. Larry Crabbe, Shattered Dreams
I find it interesting that my focus in life seems to be moving towards a consistent theme across several categories. Kevin McCarthy wrote an excellent book several years ago titled The On Purpose Person. He devised an exercise where the reader could drill down on his/her life mission into two words. After much brainstorming, prayer, and circumstance – I’ve come up with “Rescue Adolescents” as my answer to the two Dream Builder questions; “Who do you want to help?” and “How do you want to help them?” I’m currently living that mission on separate, but parallel paths:
The CHAMPION Training Institute – www.tinyurl.com/ChampionTrainingInstitute
What started as an exercise with my twelve year old son (now 24) eventually became Teknon and the CHAMPION Warriors (www.championtraining.com) – a process for fathers to transition their adolescent sons into young adulthood.
Economy Heroes and 4M Navigator – www.tinyurl.com/EconomyHeroes; www.twitter.com/EconomyHeroes
Studies and research have proven that only 5% of growing, emerging companies survive the “adolescent” stage of business. Adolescence by definition is a time of self-discovery, acquired discipline, and difficult transition. Corporate adolescence often produces agonizing battles between the habits of a lonely entrepreneur and certain immutable laws of growth. The result is often confusion, frustration, stagnation, and loss of employee morale.
These Economy Heroes fuel 70% of the net job growth in the U.S. and employ over 50% of America’s workers. They take risks that change our lives. They are not “rock stars” like Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates. Their stories are not as legendary as SouthWest, FedEx, or Walmart – yet. Economy Heroes are more important now than any other time in our history. Currently less than 10% of their ventures survive the first few stages of growth. They need attention, not bailouts. Economy Heroes is about thanking and honoring these courageous pioneers as the bedrock of our economy that will turn the tide in this downturn.
“Naïve happiness” is often a hallmark of the adolescent transition to the next stage of growth. This inability or unwillingness to embrace the brutal facts reminds me of one of my favorite fictional characters in the video clip above.
I’m involved with a third category of adolescence, although it’s more personal than public. Larry Crabbe does an excellent job at describing the naiveté of “Spiritual Adolescence.” To the Spiritual Adolescent, God is good when “I am good.” Obedience should result in abundant blessings in this paradigm. The brutal facts, however, are that “Spiritual Adulthood” is more about the Stockdale Paradox than it is about what we call the good life:
On the one hand, we stoically accepted the brutal facts of our reality. On the other hand, we maintained an unwavering faith in the endgame, and that we would prevail.
Admiral William Stockdale, highest ranking POW in the Vietnam War
While we, as fathers, help our sons transition from adolescents to young adulthood, we should make sure we have crossed the gap from “naively happy” to “stoically accepting with unwavering faith” in our spiritual life so that they can learn early what it often takes us too long to embrace.
Posted by Teknon 
Posted by Teknon 
Posted by Teknon 
