Hope

At The Center

There was an old television commercial featuring an owl that asked, “How many lick does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?” It was a catchphrase that became part of the national conscience. I distinctly remember getting my Tootsie Roll pop after my dad’s softball game and trying to count how many licks it took until I struck the center. If I had thought about it for any length of time I would hopefully have realized that it was a unimportant question. After all, why does it matter how long it takes to get to the center? Yet I soldiered on, trying to answer the owl’s query.

Perhaps one of the reasons that this commercial hit a cultural note is because we are all fascinated by that which is central. We associate centrality with importance. Looking at our solar system as an example, we know that everything else revolves around the center. Unfortunately, despite this knowledge, most of us tend to think that the solar system actually revolves around us.  Our conversation is peppered with personal pronouns as we talk about “I”, “me”, and “my.” Seemingly the greatest tragedies on the planet are those that are effecting our daily lives. When we grumble against God, it’s because things aren’t going according to our plans. Our personal history consumes are dialogue, yet it isn’t our story which is of central importance.

As one author reminds us:

History is to be understood as the patient wrestling of God with a stupid, deluded, and rebellious people—stupid and rebellious precisely because they insist on seeing themselves as the center of the story.

When Satan  fell and when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden it was because they wanted to be the most important. They wanted to assume the position that was rightly God’s. And so it is with us.  We think that we are the center, when it fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  History isn’t going to be an aggregate of our stories, but it’s going to be about the story that matters – the story of God’s redemptive work. 

Because despite our arrogance, God loved us enough to send His Son as a babe to die on the Cross and conquer death, so that those who repent and put their faith in Him may have an eternal relationship with Him. For those that know Him, this is the best part of our story. This is what should be central to our lives.

So when people ask us how we are doing, maybe we should talk less about what’s going on with us, and more about how He is at work. Maybe we shouldn’t focus on the trials of this world, but the triumph we have in Him. May we not have to “look for an opportunity” to share the Gospel because we are constantly talking about the work of the Gospel in our lives. May our focus be on that which is truly central – the story of Jesus Christ.

How do you keep Christ central during the holiday season? How about during the rest of the year?

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Relationships

Being a Builder of Teams

When I was younger my dad used to joke that the reason that we had a station wagon was because he was planning to have enough kids to field a family softball team. Since my parents only had 2 children, obviously this plan did not pan out. Still, it illustrates something that was crystallized in a friend’s remark after my dad’s passing –   “everywhere he went he built a team.”  Whether that meant coaching in several different softball leagues, or having an impromptu group work together to accomplish a project, very few things thrilled my dad more than pulling people of different talents, temperaments and abilities together to achieve a goal. It’s one of the reasons that his team at work initiated a leadership award in his honor after he went home to be with Jesus.

Because my dad was so proficient at building teams, it’s little wonder that I learned a lot about doing so from him. In particular, I learned that in order to build a team you need to:

 

  • Be Authentic – My dad was a goof ball. Ask anyone who knew him and they can testify to that fact. In the midst of his extremely demanding and important job, he brought his team the same sense of humor as we got to experience at home. He would tell people why a fire engine is red, or start quoting the lyrics to an off-the-wall song. Even as my dad went up the ranks in the company, he was still the same person. There was very little pretense with him, which meant that his team knew him – his quirks and his foibles, his patterns and his values. Sometimes this meant he had to apologize to them, but if it was appropriate, he was quick to do so. He was who he was – a sinner saved by the grace of God – and he was committed to authentically representing the work of God in His life and being the person that He had created my dad to be.

 

  • Give (and Take) Candor – When my dad was interviewing one of his team members, the prospective employee asked him, “Will I be able to be candid?”  My dad so loved and appreciated the question because my dad valued candor.  He knew that in order to build a team, you have to be willing and able to give accurate feedback – both positive encouragement and corrective reprove.  This is required for growth – and my dad cared enough about his team that he wanted to make sure that they grew – both personally and professionally. And my dad expected the same candor from his team. He wanted them to tell him when he mistepped. He knew that the only effective teams are the ones where the boss listens to feedback too.

 

  • Put Your Team First  – If there is one thing that my dad preached to me over and over about management, and which he illustrated in  his actions, it is that as the boss your most important job is taking care of your team. Your own to-do list is not the priority – it is making sure that you facilitated your team’s success.  This doesn’t mean that you give your team members everything they ask for, but it does mean that you sacrifice in order to help them achieve. Whether that means you put in longer hours at the office or you help coach them through a difficult situation, as the boss it is your job to make sure that your team was cared for, and the way you spend your time should reflect this.

My dad loved teams so it is no surprised that he was an accomplished team builder. And if there are groups of people in Heaven who are working together to accomplish a purpose, I’m sure that my dad will still be putting those skills to use. In the meantime, I’m grateful that I got to have a front-row seat to watching him do so on Earth.

 

Who do you know that is a gifted team builder? What have you learned from them?

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