Discerning the way of wisdom is a learned practice that begins with humility. Seeking a mentor. Sitting in the passenger seat. Asking questions of those who know more than we do. Humble pie is sweeter than a bowl of struggle, so it’s prudent to seek counsel when we need it. Guidance1 is better than guessing. […]
Category: Influence & leadership
Seven ways to mentor one another in the local church.
Karl Vaters makes an important point in his book, Small Church Essentials. Many of us learned the basics of our faith in Sunday school or discipleship classes, but it takes mentoring to understand how to put it all into practice. The goal of mentoring is to help us move from knowing to becoming. Here are […]
The personal surveyor.
A nearby city is replacing its sewer mains. They’re excavating entire roadways by employing all the backhoes, bulldozers, bucket loaders, dump trucks and cranes you can squeeze into a residential neighborhood. Between the deep chasms and lumbering vehicles, it’s quite the event. Yet, despite all the screeching, scraping, thumping, and rumbling about, what caught my […]
What work isn’t.
When I was nine, my father built a giant sieve to separate stones from the soil. He wanted a lawn back where the yard was still piles of rubble from a construction project. At dinner that night he asked me to help him shovel one of the piles through the sieve. At nine, my idea […]
The secret of humility.
There’s a quiet presence to humility. It’s gentle. You experience it in butterfly exhibits and hospital rooms. A deference to the other. A gentle touch that affirms dignity. It’s also evident on airplanes when someone stops to help the elderly couple lift their carry-ons into the overhead bin. A fragrance of grace in the urgent aisle. Humility […]