Every Monday, I try and spend at least an hour or two out at a park riding my bike. I may not always make it out there but I try to go out and ride. It is a great time for me to decompress after a busy Sunday. It is a great time for prayer. It is always cool to ride up on some deer and just stop and watch them. It is a great workout and a great opportunity to think. I was riding the other day when I had an epiphany about riding. It can be seen as a great metaphor for leadership. Lot’s of great metaphors for leadership can be seen in riding.
I see them all the time. Good riders don’t look right in front of themselves. Good riders will look about 30 yards ahead so they can prepare for the things that are coming on the trail. Good leaders are in the same boat. You have the vision to prepare for the upcoming trail. Last Summer, I had the privilege of dedicating my nephew to the Lord. I decided to go ride the Saturday morning before everyone arrived in town for the Sunday event. I was meeting a buddy at a park and was running late so, I got my bike ready jumped on and didn’t think about putting my helmet on (1st mistake). We took off riding and I thought, “This is a familiar trail and I will take it easy”. Famous last words right? We got to riding and I ran across this spot that really didn’t have any danger. It wasn’t a hill. It wasn’t a jump. It was a cactus. I got completely focussed on missing the cactus that was coming and didn’t even see the tree branch that was overhead. I focussed on just one thing and as it got closer I missed something that was important. I ran into the tree overhead. Putting a 6 inch scratch across my forehead. Then, I still ran into the cactus. Leaders have to look ahead. Leaders have to see everything going on, the big picture. They don’t want to get popped in the head by something they didn’t see coming because they were so focused on something 5 feet in front of them.
Riding with people gives some leadership examples too. When you are leading a group, you pace the group. You determine how fast everyone goes. You decide when to stop for water. If you get out to far in front, then you may lose the entire group. If you follow it gives even more examples. If you ride to far behind you get separated. You may come up to a fork and head the wrong way. If you ride to close you may not be able to get stopped in enough time causing you to run up on someone. It is an important balance to have just like following a leader. Guys that get separated lose track of the leaders vision many times. Making it hard to follow. Many times people will try and overtake a leader with they push to hard causing friction with the leader in life. Riding with someone though may not always be the best workout but it is usually the best experience cause you can take time and spend it with someone. I think God intended us to be in situations where that is the case. He didn’t intend for us to take off on our own all the time.
If you ride by yourself, it can be a great experience still. Like I said before, it is a great time to pray. It is a great workout. It is time with nature. It can also be dangerous. I have to make sure and tell someone where I am going before I go. I was riding a couple of months ago on a trail I have never rode before. I saw a massive bolder that I needed to go over. It is common in San Antonio to see this. The whole town, I think, is on a big chunk of limestone. There were multiple step ups on this rock. I hopped up on the first 4 without problem. Then, the 5th came and I was a little late getting my tire over it. It stopped my bike where it was at. I went over the handlebars onto my head. I somehow managed to stab my arm with the little teeth on the crank. It was an epic wreck that I wished I could have put on youtube. It certainly would have been my double rainbow. I immediately texted my wife and one of my buddies because I knew I was hurt. I was going to ride out but you never know when you fall on your head how anything is going to work in 10 minutes. I still knew even though I fell that I had to get up and keep going. That is what we all have to do, get up and keep going. Many times we have epic crashes but we can’t let them keep us down. We have to keep going and get back to our car so we can go home.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Get Out!
This past Saturday, I had a great day. It started by having my friend Scott Berkey speak to a bunch of Kidmin leaders at my church through the day. He taught on leadership and I believe everyone there came away feeling better off hearing some great leadership stuff from the book of Joshua and really seeing Scott being very transparent. I was blessed for sure.
Then, I went home for what I thought was the evening. I sat around and watched the Baylor bears eek out a win in the tournament. I know they won by 15 but with 4 minutes left in the game it was still in doubt. I tend to have the same fear with Baylor Basketball as I do with football that the defense is gonna give up a slew of points at any time. I just thought I was done for the evening though.
About 9pm a buddy of mine shoots me a text of hotel prices in Austin. It was like 225 for a 1 star hotel in downtown. I asked him when it was knowing Austin hotels don't cost that much. It was for that night. It is a South by Southwest weekend in Austin. That is why all the hotels have prices that are ridiculous. I texted back, Why are you looking at hotels for tonight? His response he wants to go see a band. Evidently, when my friend was younger he used to be a groupie for this band and hadn't seen them in a long time. I was half joking and half serious when I responded to him and said "Let's Go!"
Many of you know, I tend to go to bed at 9 on Saturday nights because I get up and try to go into the church early on Sunday mornings. I never leave the house that late much less decide to leave the house that late. We made sure our wives weren't joking about letting us go. Actually, we think they were relieved that we were not tugging them along. After a little bit of discussion and trying to figure out if we were either man enough or dumb enough to go, we left my house at about 10:30 for a 1 am show in downtown Austin. It was a great experience. Thousands of people were scattered all throughout downtown Austin. You couldn't walk without bumping into someone. Streets were blocked off. Music was blaring out of every building we passed. Every kind of music could be heard from reggae to rap to rock. Laser lights were shooting up and down the streets. It was a blast. I had never heard the group but they were good. Show was over about 2 and we walked back to the car and left for home.
I took away a couple of things from this trip that I feel are very important. First, I realize many of the thousands of people need Jesus in a big way. We were down there to see a show and go home. Many, I am sure, were not down there with that intent in mind. I pray that the God calls and the church accepts people that are called to people in that scene. I am pretty sure that jumping up and preaching on a soapbox in the middle of the group would not really do the job. Maybe, if the job were to have a beer thrown on you. I don't even know what an outreach to that demographic of people would even look like. It isn't like they were a certain age or color or gender. It was a massive group of people that were just having fun listening to music and watching movies.
The other thing, I am glad I went because I saw stuff that I would have never seen other wise. When you do that, it helps creativity. I challenge everyone to do stuff that is out of their comfort box, things they have never done. It doesn't have to be in the middle of the night but it is always good to try something new or do something different. I had another children's pastor tell me once that his pastor told him he should get all of his inspiration from the Bible. If that is the only place we look for inspiration how do we tell people how to apply the Bible. We have people in our churches that see things like a massive crowd at sxsw or sunrise at the beach or anything that you haven't done. If we can do something that doesn't compromise our belief in Jesus Christ and it can show us something we have never seen then take the opportunity. It will make you a better person. How did I do the next day in Kid's church? I think I mixed up the words on one part of a story I was telling. My wife tells me that is probably less than I normally do.
So, get out and do something new.
Then, I went home for what I thought was the evening. I sat around and watched the Baylor bears eek out a win in the tournament. I know they won by 15 but with 4 minutes left in the game it was still in doubt. I tend to have the same fear with Baylor Basketball as I do with football that the defense is gonna give up a slew of points at any time. I just thought I was done for the evening though.
About 9pm a buddy of mine shoots me a text of hotel prices in Austin. It was like 225 for a 1 star hotel in downtown. I asked him when it was knowing Austin hotels don't cost that much. It was for that night. It is a South by Southwest weekend in Austin. That is why all the hotels have prices that are ridiculous. I texted back, Why are you looking at hotels for tonight? His response he wants to go see a band. Evidently, when my friend was younger he used to be a groupie for this band and hadn't seen them in a long time. I was half joking and half serious when I responded to him and said "Let's Go!"
Many of you know, I tend to go to bed at 9 on Saturday nights because I get up and try to go into the church early on Sunday mornings. I never leave the house that late much less decide to leave the house that late. We made sure our wives weren't joking about letting us go. Actually, we think they were relieved that we were not tugging them along. After a little bit of discussion and trying to figure out if we were either man enough or dumb enough to go, we left my house at about 10:30 for a 1 am show in downtown Austin. It was a great experience. Thousands of people were scattered all throughout downtown Austin. You couldn't walk without bumping into someone. Streets were blocked off. Music was blaring out of every building we passed. Every kind of music could be heard from reggae to rap to rock. Laser lights were shooting up and down the streets. It was a blast. I had never heard the group but they were good. Show was over about 2 and we walked back to the car and left for home.
I took away a couple of things from this trip that I feel are very important. First, I realize many of the thousands of people need Jesus in a big way. We were down there to see a show and go home. Many, I am sure, were not down there with that intent in mind. I pray that the God calls and the church accepts people that are called to people in that scene. I am pretty sure that jumping up and preaching on a soapbox in the middle of the group would not really do the job. Maybe, if the job were to have a beer thrown on you. I don't even know what an outreach to that demographic of people would even look like. It isn't like they were a certain age or color or gender. It was a massive group of people that were just having fun listening to music and watching movies.
The other thing, I am glad I went because I saw stuff that I would have never seen other wise. When you do that, it helps creativity. I challenge everyone to do stuff that is out of their comfort box, things they have never done. It doesn't have to be in the middle of the night but it is always good to try something new or do something different. I had another children's pastor tell me once that his pastor told him he should get all of his inspiration from the Bible. If that is the only place we look for inspiration how do we tell people how to apply the Bible. We have people in our churches that see things like a massive crowd at sxsw or sunrise at the beach or anything that you haven't done. If we can do something that doesn't compromise our belief in Jesus Christ and it can show us something we have never seen then take the opportunity. It will make you a better person. How did I do the next day in Kid's church? I think I mixed up the words on one part of a story I was telling. My wife tells me that is probably less than I normally do.
So, get out and do something new.
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