I was recently on a speaking engagment and working late at night in my hotel, and believe it or not, my channel surfing took me to C-SPAN. I know, you’re thinking, “Were you in a coma?! Bored out of your mind? Or, was it the only station working?!?!?!?”

Actually, I was caught by an unexpected event. Leaders of some of the nation’s largest lenders, and the Chairmen of the Compensation Committees of those institutions were being put under the gun. They were being grilled in an accusatory fashion regarding the sub-prime debacle. “Why,” they were being interrogated, “were the CEO’s paid large salaries and bonuses when lending practices exercised under their leadership caused a lot of problems to so many?” The tone was one of attack from many of the congressional sub-committee and there was no doubt left that many wanted to “barbeque” those who sat in front of them.

Now, I personally don’t claim to understand all of the nuances of the sub-prime lending issues. Nor do I hold a naive belief that everything that was done was perfect or even the best decisions. But as I watched I was reminded that leadership today has become a place where leaders are often presumed guilty until proven innocent. And, that it is hard to argue–or even hold your own– with those who print attacking reports by the score things were flying high and going great. No one was asking accusatory questions then, that I am aware of. These leaders were seen a great men allowing many to acquire properties they otherwise would have been unable to get. Whether it was the best approach and methodologand by ink by the barrel.

It interested me that I didn’t hear a lot of criticism about these leaders wheny is not the focus of this entry.

What is, is how fast people are ready to accuse, demean, berate and criticize those in leadership when there is a hiccup. And the arrows start flying…with one significant target–leaders who take risk. And after all, these leaders–while well compensated–also were in the role of large risk. Whether it was the exact right risk is not for me to say, that is the arena of financial experts.

But I was reminded that when you lead, and take the risk of trying new or different things, you had better be ready for the arrows that are likely to start flying! I know, I’ve been on the receiving end of some of these type of experiences. How about you?

Recently, a friend sent me some interesting information on sending Valentines. For us, it’s a nice tradition. For Valentine, it really was a heart-felt passion! Valentine, the priest who Valentine’s Day is named after, was martyred for the godly institution of marriage.

The emperor of Rome, Claudius, passed a law banning marriages. His reason was simple: men would not volunteer to join his Roman army with wives and fiancées to leave behind. Valentine knew that God instituted the family and His will included marriages. So, he kept on performing marriage ceremonies - but in secret. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.

One night, he did hear footsteps. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown into prison and sentenced to death.

Valentine remained cheerful while he was in prison and many people came to the prison to visit him. He even continued to perform marriage ceremonies while he was in prison! The jailer’s daughter would often visit Valentine in his cell and they sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing ignoring the Emperor and performing marriage ceremonies.

On the day Valentine was to die he left this girl a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine”. That note, written on the day Valentine died – February 14th, 269 AD – started the custom of exchanging love notes on St Valentine’s Day.
Valentine was truly a man of courage.

I like what the theologian Karl Barth wrote: “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” Let’s be as courageous as Valentine himself and bring about change to a world that’s hurting. Simply by serving as channels of God’s healing love we can inspire more change in people than we might ever imagine.

Recently, a friend sent me some interesting information on sending Valentines. For us, it’s a nice tradition. For Valentine, it really was a heart-felt passion!
Valentine, the priest who Valentine’s Day is named after, was martyred for the godly institution of marriage.
The emperor of Rome, Claudius, passed a law banning marriages. His reason was simple: men would not volunteer to join his Roman army with wives and fiancées to leave behind. Valentine knew that God instituted the family and His will included marriages. So, he kept on performing marriage ceremonies - but in secret. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.
One night, he did hear footsteps. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown into prison and sentenced to death.

Valentine remained cheerful while he was in prison and many people came to the prison to visit him. He even continued to perform marriage ceremonies while he was in prison! The jailer’s daughter would often visit Valentine in his cell and they sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing ignoring the Emperor and performing marriage ceremonies.
On the day Valentine was to die he left this girl a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine”. That note, written on the day Valentine died – February 14th, 269 AD – started the custom of exchanging love notes on St Valentine’s Day.
Valentine was truly a man of courage. I like what the theologian Karl Barth wrote: “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” Let’s be as courageous as Valentine himself and bring about change to a world that’s hurting. Simply by serving as channels of God’s healing love we can inspire more change in people than we might ever imagine.

One of the passions of my life is to work with Christ follower’s in the workplace to help them discover and live out a calling, rather than merely settle for a career. After all, a career is something we choose, but a calling chooses us through the providence of God! And that makes all the difference.

I was fortunate recently to speak to buisness leaders in 4 very significant cities through a wonderful ministry called Lifework Leadership. I asked them some survey questions and the results were interesting.

63% said if they were around church as a teen or college student they recall at the
most one message dealing with God’s calling and placing His people to be On Mission
in the workplace.

24% said they were not sure they had sensed any call by God to the particular
vocation they were currently pursuing (almost one in four)

Yet the good news was that 73% felt as though their pastor was improving in understanding the stresses and pressures, as well as the opprotunities, of the work place. That is important if Billy Graham’s prediction in correct. He believes that the next great movement of God may well come through the Christ followers in the work place.

What do you think?

Michael Medved recently wrote an unnerving perspective in USA TODAY. Titled “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times” medved points out that recent polls show that our populace gives a 78% disapproval rating to Congress and 68% believe we are headed in the wrong direction nationally. Yet a Harris poll shows that an amazing 94% say they are satisfied with their personal life. What a disconnect!

But then that perfectly describes our compartmentalized society. Put everything in neatly hermetically sealed compartments…keep life detached…and be more focused on what is happening to us personally than concerned about the corporate whole. Medved sums it up
by declaring…
“In other words, Americans seem to embrac the odd conviction that each of us dwells
upon some sun-kissed, optimistic island of happiness and advancement, while the rest
of the counrty marches dramatically toward catastrophe and collapse.”

This is nothing new. In the Old Testament God’s people were constantly dealt with on an individual basis but in view of what it would mean to the corporate whole. An example was that each follower of Christ was called and gifted by God, but in view of what that would contribute to the corporate whole. A perfect example is Bezalel in Exodus 31 whose God-given gifts were to be used in the making of a place of worship for the benefit of the whole. The individual was a key part of the corporate whole and not to be separate and compartmentalized.

Medved points out that this compartmentilization extends to our view of institutions close to us (local government) and those removed from us (federal government). We have much higher confidence in the former than in the later. The same with small business close to us compared with big corporations headquarted a distance from us.

So we would do well to focus on good news, rather than what’s wrong with everything. Remind ourselves that we aren’t isolated islands, but interconnected individuals who need each other, and whose lives are amazingly intwined. And we can’t neatly separate and compartmentalize life. It’s all integrated. Just like God meant it to be.

I have taken some time away…a little for personal time but most for busy traveling and speaking. The Fall has been great and very busy. But I’m been with some great people. Just this last Sunday in a church I was privileged to speak in we saw an adult man whose mother has been praying for him for a long time turn his life over to Christ and step forward to get involved in Christ’s church. A couple who were living together and knew they needed change responded to Christ’s call with tears…and smiles, and set out to get their lives in order.

Wow, it never loses the wonder to me to see lives changed by the power of Christ. It’s what make life worth living!!!!!!!!! and ministry worth doing!!!!!!! What has God done around you lately?

And one wonderful serendipity….the MADE TO COUNT JOURNEY, a 50 day personal/group/or church-wide study which Randy Singer and I wrote just got a great mention in an article by OUTREACH magazine and got picked up by CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Isn’t that great. They mention two of the many churches it’s been done in pastored by Coy Arnold and Danny Wood. Take a look

http://www.christianitytoday.com/outreach/articles/campaigntrail.html

Thank you to the churches, people and groups that have made use of the MADE TO COUNT JOURNEY. You can find more about it if you have interest at www.totallifeimpact.com

HAve you ever noticed that regardless of what some say they tend to walk another way?

Let me give an example. I entered into participation in vocational ministry I had many who were years ahead of me tell me that my priorities should be “God, your family, and your ministry…in that order.”

But as I have watched through the years, I noticed that many (not all) who told me that seemd to pratically do it something more like “God…ministry………………….and then family, and sometimes ministry seemed to creep into #1″. It probably wasn’t intentional, but it still happened.

And I have to admit, while I didn’t want to admit it, there were times when the priorities got out of order for me.

Maybe they have for you too, whether you happen to be in vocational ministry or God has posted you in the work place, or as a stay at home mom, or some place else according to His plan. It’s a battle isn’t it?!?

That’s why I’m going to shut down for a couple of weeks and focus on my bride, Cheryl, and I’m looking forward to being with her, special friends, and NO WORK!!!

Maybe you ought to carve some time out to do the same soon. After all, we will give an account fo where we really invest our time…so let’s invest it well.

I’ll talk to you again in a couple of weeks…and in the meantime I’m going to hang with my best friend, Cheryl, a just do what she wants to do. See ya.

Being one who travels thousands of miles a year, and experiencing all types of challenges in flight and scheduling, you can imagine how excited I was to read that there are changes coming. The new direction will be to use GPS rather than radar to guide planes. That will bring a lot of changes.

With radar planes need to keep 5 miles apart due to the fact that radars spin around every 12 seconds and a jet at high altitude can travel a mile in that brief time. But with GPS it will reduce to 2, speeding up landings and takeoffs.

In addition, planes which can’t see where each other are will be able to with Automatic Dependent Survelliance-Broadcast systems. Presently only the ground can see where all of them are. In the future pilots will be able to moniter other flight from his own cockpit, choosing his own route if needed or desired.

In addition the new system will provide much more information on weather allowing pilots to make better and earlier course corrections. This will be combined with a whole host of new data, according to reports, through high speed data links between both planes and the ground.

That will be great, when several years from now, it is in place.

But, it made me stop and think. God has provided each of us with guidiance systems that put even these modern inventions to shame in comparison. God Himself has promised to guide us with His eye upon us, to tell us when we are going in the right direction, and that even among our best laid plans God still directs our steps. And that is even better news…because I’m making daily decision a lot more than I’m in a plane. And as good as controllers are, they are not infalliable. And the One willing to guide you and me is!

So, amidst the new technologies and innovatios, I remain thankful for the Ancient of Days!

How about you?

With Fall within view, and school just around the corner, that means hunting can’t be too far behind! I just finished an article for the CHRISTIAN SPORTSMAN’S MAGAZINE. The focus is how important the “aim” of our life is…and what happens if that “aim” isn’t accurate. Read it…and then let me hear from you.

EVEN THE BEST OF AIMS…

I was fired up. It was finally deer season!

My trusted .270 with a new Zeiss Conquest 3-9 X 40 scope was in my hand…and my wife’s hand was in the other. This was the first day with the scope and the first day Cheryl had ever gone hunting with me. It would be a day to remember, of that I was convinced. And my wife would see first hand the hunting skills I had honed to perfection (feel free to smile)! I hadn’t had time to shoot since we had arrived late the night before, but the gunsmith had assured me the bore sighting he had done should be sufficient.

Being an elegant woman, Cheryl looked as comfortable as Laura Bush would be in Realtree camo. But who was trying to make a fashion statement here, anyway?

The dark morning was crisp and the frost hung in the air. Our breath created suspended crystalline vapor as it exploded out of our mouths. The morning was still and the anticipation high. I was intent on a BIG buck, and my wife would be there to celebrate it with me.

Making our way by flashlight down the log road we headed to our predetermined blind area on the edge of a large wooded area. We had scoped it out the day before. Nestled into the wood’s edge we would have visual sight line of the woods behind us and a large food plot in front of us. We had shot lines in approximately 320
degrees. And a big buck had been spotted in the area over the previous weeks.

So you can imagine my heart pounding when just as day broke when out of the woods from across the plot came two does. And then two more. Creeping out into the plot they kept looking back over their shoulders to the woods. Suddenly, approximately 45 degrees to their left another doe…all looking back to the woods.

My finger began to twitch. I could sense it. Even my wife was glued to the unfolding drama. And suddenly, the movement from across the field caught my attention. Squinting through the dusky dawn I saw the 8 point buck strut out. Barrel chested, he came across the field and about 85 yards away stopped and stared right to where we were nestled in the brush.

Quietly, slowing—and excitedly—I raised my rifle into position, sighted through my new Zeiss and laid the cross hair on the buck’s shoulder. Squeezing the trigger, I knew I had him. And when those seconds cleared and I refocused to see my buck on the ground …there he stood! Staring at me!! It was impossible. I knew I was a better shot than that.

And then he snorted…I swear I heard him snicker! Then he pawed the ground, looked at where I was ensconced, and I fired again. And again he stood unphased. Then slowly, majestically he snorted once again, turned and looked back once again and plunged into the foliage.

My wife’s eye’s said it all, “How could you miss at that distance? Even I could have hit that!!”

And to add insult to injury, another buck would come out two hours later, turn broadside, and invite a take down shot. You guessed it; I took the shot…and missed.

Dumbfounded I headed back to our agreed on meeting point where I knew Richard would be waiting. My hunting buddy was as dependable as the dawn and a crack shot. He would have the answer. Shoving aside the embarrassment, I described the morning to him. “Let’s see,” was his only response as he grabbed my gun, set up a target and went out 50 yards and rested the rifle on a shooting brace he zeroed in and fired.

14 inches wide right. He adjusted and took another shot. 10 inches low. Adjusting several clicks he took aim and fired once more. 11 inches low and to the right.

And so it went for a full box of shells. What in the world was wrong? Were we both blind as a bat? Should we give up hunting?!
And that’s when Richard said, “Maybe I should check the mount.”

If only he had said that 15 cartridges ago! He found that the mounting was loose and regardless how well we thought we were aiming, the loose mount moved just enough to throw every shot off…and in a different direction!

Lesson learned, at a high expense. You can think you’re aiming well. You can be careful and intentional in you aim of where you’re headed and the action you’re wanting to take. BUT, if there are loose points in your life, when you “fire,” no matter how we intentioned you aim, you’re likely to miss. And the cost could break your heart.

So, before you take “aim” in life, be sure your convictions, values and beliefs are screwed down securely. Don’t worry as much about what you “feel” as what you know God’s word says. Be sure that nothing is “loose” in your life that could throw you aim off, regardless of how well your “aim” might be!

SO, HOW WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND TO BE MOST HELPFUL IN KEEPING THE AIM OF YOUR LIFE ACCURATE? AND WHAT ARE THE GREATEST DANGERS YOU’VE THAT CAUSES LIFE’S AIM TO BE MISSED?

Cheryl was scanning through an article recently from TODAY’S CHRISTIAN WOMAN and came across a wonderful article by the title I have given to this article. The writer was Penny Schlaf Musco. Its focus was all about “what is full time ministry?” Is it relegated to seminary graduates? Is its location only on the foreign mission field or within the church walls? And are those who stand on the church’s platform every Sunday the only one in THE MINISTRY?

Thank God for those called to vocational ministry and missions. Scripture makes it very clear that they are key in God’s economy. Those called voacationally are there for a specific purpose: to equip the rest of the followers of Christ to DO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY “right where they are!!!!” And “starting NOW.”

That is why my dear friend, Randy Singer, and I penned the book MADE TO COUNT. We desired to return to the wisdom of our forefathers who did not see a division between the sacred and the secular. For them, God meant for all of or life to be integrated with the effects of our faith. Compartmentalization was not an option.

That is how Benjamin Franklin could call the Continental Congress to prayer, and our nation’s first colleges have God reflecte consistently through their founding documents, or why government of the people, by the people and for the people was based on Scriptural foundations of dignity of every person and the freedom of every individual with a responsibility to the corporate whole.

As I shared in the previous entry, the Puritans saw God to extend a General Call to a personal relationship with Him, and a Particular Call to a misison along side Him–right where a person lived and worked. The Reformers referred to Primary Call being “from God and to God” with a Secondary Call “to a particular work, occupation, or station in life.” It was not meant to be either/or but rather both/and.

I was thrilled to be quoted along with my friends Os Guiness and Angie Tracey who are making a wonderful contribution to God being busily at work in the work place.

Where do you see that happening? And how?