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South Africa Journal 2: Never Mind My Luggage; Has Anyone Seen My Character?

August 26, 2010 By 2 Comments

There’s an expression that says, “Character is what you reveal when you think nobody is watching.”

Scott’s corollary to this is that “Character is particularly revealed when you are traveling.”

I have seen airport security lines, Customs and Immigration queues, and waits at baggage carousels reveal some of the most self-centred, boorish and obnoxious behavior known to human-kind.

And I’m not above finding the worst aspects of my own character bubble to the surface when I travel.

Today I’m en route from my home in Kelowna, BC, via London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa. There I’ll be joined by four Canadian pastors and our hosts from World Vision. My friends at World Vision will be guiding us through the work they are doing in some of the most desperately needy regions of this beautiful country.

Total travel time will be over 30 hours, 21 hours in the air. That’s plenty of time for the basest parts of my character to emerge. I know myself well enough to envision my own impatience spilling out in the form of sarcasm, glaring looks, even an audible “This is ridiculous!” as an interminably slow line crawl along. I can even imagine myself muttering, “Don’t these people understand that I’m trying to get to a part of the world where I can be the hands and feet of Jesus?! Let’s MOVE IT people!”

May God grant me the grace to realize that perhaps those for whom He wants me to be his hands and feet are right here in this slow moving airport line. Perhaps the blessing I am to be is to the scowling agent at the counter; the one who has received nothing but abuse from unruly passengers all day.

Less than a century ago this journey would have taken 6 months to a year to complete. Now, I’ll be at my destination in mere hours. May I be less concerned that my luggage has survived intact, and more focused on seeing my character survive the journey.

In what circumstances do you find your character is put to the test?

How do you ensure your character passes these tests?

Filed Under: Action, Discipline, Joy, Leadership, Missional, Tension Tagged With: , , , , , ,

South Africa Journal 1: The Difference Between Looking and Seeing

August 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There’s a big difference between what you look at, and what you actually see. And as I prepare to leave for a two week journey through South Africa, I’m determined to embrace this important difference.

Never was this principle more beautifully captured than in this classic exchange between Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus:

Lucy: If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud’s formations. What do you think you see, Linus?
Linus: Well, those clouds up there look to me look like the map of the British Honduras in the Caribbean. That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor. And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the Stoning of Stephen. I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side.
Lucy: Uh huh. That’s very good. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?
Charlie Brown: Well… I was going to say I saw a duckie and a horsie, but I changed my mind.

Yes, Charlie Brown, there’s a big difference between what you look at, and what you actually see.

When my friends at World Vision Canada graciously invited me back to South Africa again this year, I believe God began to impress this principle on my heart. And my prayer has therefore been to not only look at what is happening in that beautiful country, but to really see what God is up to.

We’ll be traveling with four pastors from churches in BC, Alberta and Ontario, and together we’ll be given a first-hand look at the needs in some of South Africa’s most impoverished regions, and also at what God has been doing in and through World Vision to meet these needs. Based on my travels there with World Vision last year, I know we will also see powerful examples of the gospel changing lives beyond the physical needs of these people too.

But as I prepare to leave I’m very specifically asking God to grant me the grace to experience all of this with His eyes; to see beyond the surface and to perceive what God would have me to understand.

In other words, when I get home and you ask me what I saw in South Africa, I trust I can say more than, “I saw a duckie and a horsie.”

I hope I’ll be able to say, “I saw the hand of our gracious Heavenly Father moving in and through a people He dearly loves.”

May that be true of how each of us perceive our world, wherever we are.

How have you been able to move beyond “looking” and to actually “seeing”?

Filed Under: Action, Joy, Leadership, Missional Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Power of Trusting Your Pilot

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

airplaneMy role with The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada requires a fair amount of travel, and it was on one such trip several years ago that God drove home an important leadership lesson that has never left me.

I needed to fly from Kelowna to Regina, and I found out a couple of weeks in advance that instead of Air Canada or Westjet I’d be flown there in a small, private propeller airplane.

I was not happy about this trip. In fact, I was scared silly. This was a small plane; it was like a Volkswagen Beetle with wings. And just the thought of flying in this tiny plane over the Rocky Mountains filled me with dread.

I talked to one fellow who had flown on this plane before. He told me that one of the biggest differences I’d find flying in this plane versus a commercial aircraft is that, when you fly on Air Canada or Westjet over the Rockies, you’ll look down and say, “Oh look…there’s a river…there’s a lake…” But when you fly in this little plane you’ll look down and say, “Oh look, there’s a squirrel”…

But then an interesting thing happened. About a week before I was to leave, I met the plane’s owner who was also the pilot. His name was John, and I discovered that the more I talked with John, and the more I found out about his experience as a pilot, I found that my anxiety about the trip was slipping away.

You see, not only did I now know the pilot, but more importantly I had confidence in the one who was literally in control of my life. And I discovered what a profound difference it makes when the pilot is not some anonymous person who happens to wear a white shirt with wings on the collar, but instead is someone you know, someone you have personally found to be trustworthy.

That experience has helped me enormously when I’m facing a daunting leadership decision or challenge. Because it reminds me that in Christ we have the most trustworthy of “pilots” who is right there with us.

Leaders face decisions and challenges that can easily cause us to feel overwhelmed. But remembering to have confidence that Christ is in control, it changes everything.

How does the reality of Jesus’ trustworthiness impact your leadership?

Filed Under: Action, Canadian, Discipline, Joy, Leadership, Tension, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Urgency Renewed…at 37,000 Feet

February 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m somewhere over the north Atlantic en route from Calgary to Frankfurt in the middle of the night. The Air Canada A330 lights are dimmed. We’re supposed to be sleeping now. The in-flight entertainment system has crashed. I’ll have to find out later who wins the Frost-Nixon debate.

I should be sleeping. But instead, my mind is swirling.

Strangely, I’m not looking ahead to the three days of Willow Creek Association meetings coming up this week. Instead, I’m looking back over the past five hours of travel. And I’m seeing the faces of the people I’ve encountered today.

The waitress in the coffee shop in the Kelowna airport. She seemed distracted; something worrying her.

The airport security people; sharing some secret joke as I was processed through.

The friendly, talkative guy sitting next to me in the Calgary Airport restaurant.

And these couple of hundred people sitting here in the darkness, making our way together to Germany. Each with a story. Each with a destiny.

I wonder if God is bringing all these faces back to mind to help prepare my heart for these meetings. You see, at this gathering of the leaders of Willow Creek Associations from around the world, we will be praying over and discussing how to more effectively equip churches to reach even more people for Christ.

And I’m realizing that those who need to know the love of Christ are not anonymous people wandering around out there.

It’s the waitress in the coffee shop. It’s the people working in the airport security area. It’s the guy in the restaurant. It’s these fellow passengers.

And perhaps what God is trying to get through to me is simply that His love for these, and all people, is deeper, wider, purer and stronger than I can possibly fathom.

These meetings just took on a heightened sense of urgency.

How do you re-ignite passion when you find yourself heading into yet another ministry-related meeting?

Filed Under: Leadership, Missional, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,