The Seabourns

Leadership

Let God be God

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God just doesn’t fit into any box. We often appear to try to box God in by predetermining how he should work out a solution to my current problem.

I’m reading through Acts. It’s amazing how often God spoke directly with Paul, to warn him, to guide him, to encourage him.

So, why then did God use the son of Paul’s sister to overhear an ambush plot? Why did Paul believe him? (Acts 23:16-18)

It would have been easy for Paul to say, “Thanks, nephew. But I have this communication channel with God, you see. He speaks directly to me. In fact, he spoke to me just last night and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” He didn’t say anything about this ambush plot, so we’ll just let things go. I’m sure God can deal with it.”

No. Paul understood that God uses all sorts of ways to communicate with us. Paul understood a very important principle. Don’t put God in a box. Don’t predetermine how God will speak or how God will act.

Let God be God.

How do you sometimes box God in?

No checked baggage

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I recently returned from a 10 day trip to Asia. I spent nights in 3 countries.

And I checked no baggage.

I lived out of a rollerboard carry-on bag and my computer backpack.

How did I do this?

It has taken me some time to learn and it takes my wife’s excellent packing abilities. And it’s not just a guy thing. Kay has developed the ability to live for a week out of a carry-on bag. Here’s how we do it.

  • Wear the shoes you will use throughout the trip. Extra shoes take up space.
  • Pack efficiently. Roll your clothes. This prevents wrinkles, but also takes less space.
  • Use the laundry service in your hotel. There is a cost, but it’s less than having no changes in clothing because your checked bag is missing.
  • Choose clothes that can be mixed and matched. Every shirt should go with every pair of trousers.
  • This is a personal choice, but I prefer wool-blend trousers, even in the tropics. I’m in meeting rooms with air conditioning most of the time. Wool trousers travel well with minimal wrinkles. They wear well and can be worn more times than cotton trousers. (Pinky Tailor in Thailand makes great trousers!)
  • Be brutal about leaving things at home. You need much less than you think you do. Set out everything you think you need. Then remove everything you can.

Why is this important?

  • Because I was moving every few days to another country, a missing bag would probably never have caught up with me. It was important to have everything with me as I moved from place to place.
  • Because flights are sometimes delayed or rerouted. It’s important to have everything with me.
  • Because I can more easily rebook flights if necessary. On the return trip, we arrived at the U.S. entry airport more than an hour earlier than expected. I was able to change to flights that allowed me to arrive home an hour earlier. After 33 hours of travel, arriving at 10:30 pm rather than 11:30 pm becomes really important! It was important to have everything with me when rebooking or changing flights.

Here are some links that I’ve found helpful

So, what packing tips do you have? Use the comments to share with others.

Two words that change things

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We were in bad shape. Following the wrong course. Carrying out the wrong activities.

But God showed his love for us (Romans 5:8)
But God made us alive (Ephesians 2:4,5)

I may be failing. Ready to give up. Frustrated. Discouraged.

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

They mistreated Jesus. They beat him. They even killed him.

But God raised him on the third day. (Acts 10:39, 40)

His brothers were jealous of Joseph. They dumped him in a pit. They sold him to foreigners.

But God was with him. (Acts 7:9)

But God changes the course of history. But God changes someone’s eternity. But God changes me.

Have you had a but God moment lately? Do you need one?

A great reputation, but looking forward

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Over 19,000 years of helping those far from God connect to him and find a life of meaning and purpose and forgiveness and restoration.

Kay and I were in a reception to honor those serving with Campus Crusade for Christ for extended years. It was a Hebrews 11 moment. I felt privileged to be in the room with modern giants of the faith.

19,000 years of combined experience pioneering new ways to reach people, pioneering new places to reach people. Some of these pioneers walked onto radical campuses in the 1960s to engage free speech platforms to share Christ. Some worked behind the Iron Curtain in the 70s and 80s, then rushing people and strategies into spiritually impoverished countries when the curtain fell. Some moved into eastern Asia in the 90s speaking in code to avoid detection which could result in expulsion from the country. Some lived in places with no electricity or no running water because they wanted to incarnate Jesus. These pioneers found creative ways to live and minister in dangerous, closed, and hard places.

All for the love of Christ. All for the call of being God’s ambassadors. All for the privilege of helping others know Jesus and experience a purposeful life.

This was a summer to re-evaluate, to renew, to reconnect with God’s call on our lives. We choose to not live out of our past reputation. Rather, we choose to be alive to God’s ongoing call on our lives. We’re looking forward, not backward.

Francis Chan speaksFrancis Chan challenged us with Jesus’ warning to the church at Sardis. Jesus warned to not live on past reputation. (Click here then click on the highlighted video.)

Kay and I celebrated 35 years in full-time ministry. I took a theology course to stay sharp. Kay spent time with new staff women doing creative things. We had time outdoors enjoying God’s creation. We had amazing times of worship with 5,000 colleagues.

We are ready to go forward.

What part of your past good reputation are you resting on that might be limiting your ability to look forward?

An Experiment

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Outside the Apple storeI’m sitting outside the Apple store. Stunned. Replaying the conversation in my head.

“You can do without your computer for 5-7 business days, right?”

Gulp! “Um, I thought that if I called ahead, had an appointment, explained the exact problem in detail over the phone, made sure you had the parts, then you could repair it while I waited.”

“Well, we don’t have onsite repair personnel during the day. Only in the evenings. Whenever we need to put a computer on the bench, we allow 5-7 business days.”

“Oh, wow! The ONE thing I forgot to make sure about!”, I thought.

The Apple store Genius at the Genius Bar really had done an excellent job. She had been very courteous. She knew her stuff. She had quickly disassembled my Mac notebook and diagnosed the problem. I thought that the external case was bent preventing the DVD drive from ejecting a DVD. She had realized that the internal optical drive was bent also. AND SHE APPEARED TO BE ABOUT 20 YEARS OLD! How do they train this stuff into their people, I wondered. (But that is the topic of a future post, maybe.)

So, I’m leaving my primary leadership tool with the Geniuses. I lead a large, distributed part of the organization. Almost everything I do is through my computer: email, Skype, documents, calendar, blogging, engaging in discussion forums. I’m what is called a knowledge worker, and my tools are computer-based.

Fortunately, two recent actions make it possible for me to keep leading without much interruption.

My colleague Russ Martin influenced me to move everything I do into “the cloud.” I store all documents online. Dropbox. Google documents. Evernote.

My colleague Ken gifted me an iPad. We need to explore tablets. As part of my forward-looking leadership, I’ve wondered if I could use only a tablet for my work. Io think the Lord is giving me an opportunity to try it out! This blog post is my first action in the experiment!

I also have a very powerful smartphone (Android-based Google Nexus) and use it to read and reply to email, Google docs, Evernote…

With the combination of cloud-based documents, a powerful tablet iPad, and a powerful smartphone, I’ll test out life without a notebook computer.

I think I’m glad it’s the Easter holidays! Although they don’t count as business days, it is a change of focus for a while.

(Note: Perhaps the young Genius saw that my countenance had fallen, and because we have a business account, she declared that my notebook was “business critical” so I’m expedited to 1-2 day service.)

What tools do you use that are cloud-based?