Why are some professional sports teams always at the bottom of the standings? Most teams cycle up and down the standings, but others stay near the cellar door seemingly afraid of success. Whatever the cause, whether poor management or inferior talent or something else, these teams have an attitude of losing that  is difficult to break.

We can find that attitude in our own lives. When I was a young single teacher, my mentor told me he wasn’t happy in his marriage. He was about ten years older than I was. Then he went on to say he didn’t know anybody who was. And he didn't know anybody who was happily married.

This pronouncement set me back. I looked around at our mutual acquaintances and thought maybe he was on to something. I wrestled with that thought for some months. I began noticing all the unhappily married couples I knew. I got caught in a spiral of negativity. Everywhere I looked I saw people burdened with unhappiness.

When I met my future wife, I began to analyze my friend’s comments from a different perspective. I knew people who were happily married. There were plenty of happy marriages all around me. But I allowed one person to influence my attitude so much that I had started looking at marriage differently than I ever had before.

It’s crazy, but that’s an example of having  a losing attitude. Our behavior is shaped by our attitude, and our attitude's are shaped by those with whom we associate. As we think about our own lives, we can identify times when we’ve been locked into unhealthy relationships with people whose influence on us is harmful.

I’m encouraged by the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector who changed his life around after an encounter with Jesus along a road in Jericho. Zacchaeus had an attitude of losing. In fact, he lived in a culture of losing. The people called him a “sinner” because they considered him to be a greedy thief. After his encounter with Jesus, this “sinner” changed his outlook on life. Zacchaeus turned away from his former self and found an attitude of hope. In fact, through Jesus he joined a culture of hope.

Like Zacchaeus, I turned away from my own attitude of losing and and the people around me who were part of a culture of losing.

Now, my wife and I have been married for more than twenty-seven years. We’ve embraced a culture of hope in Christ Jesus.

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Here's a link to Guy Kawasaki's post at Sun Microsystems' website. In it, Guy gives his five most important lessons for entrepreneurs. As a venture capitalist and personal computer pioneer, he has the bona fides of an expert in the field. The wisdom in his post is worth reading whether you're an entrepreneur or not.

If you find one of these five lessons valuable then you're a step ahead. Wisdom from the trenches is a valuable resource.

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Is hammer dead as a doornail? This line caught my attention on the NBC Olympics website. For me, the hammer is so much fun to throw that I read the article with concern. I love throwing the hammer. For those that don’t know about the hammer, it is a track and field event where an athlete throws a steel ball, weighing sixteen pounds, attached to a 39-inch wire and a handle. The athlete propels the hammer by turning in circles while traveling across a 7-foot ring, applying force to the ball with each circle turned, until the hammer is released at the front of the ring. One slight elbow bend can kill momentum, and the results of the throw show it.

Hammer throwing is so technical it can be frustrating. It takes years to become proficient at the hammer. I remember asking former Olympian Tom Gage, “What is the secret to throwing the hammer?” He looked at me deadpanned and said, “Forty years.” Then Tom went out and threw the 6k hammer almost two hundred feet. He was fifty-nine years old.

While the answer to my question disappointed me, as each year passes, the wisdom of what Tom said sinks in. Current Olympian A. G. Kruger told Joe Battaglia, "You talk about the guys who pioneered the event in the U.S., they all stuck with it for a long time. They didn't hit their best throws until they were in their 12th year of throwing. This is now my ninth year throwing the hammer. I'm still waiting for that moment to come."

Isn’t that how much of life is lived? Waiting, working, hoping, and anxious for our turn, we want it now. When we’re young, we’re sure of what we know and sure of what we can do. As we age, we’re sure that we don’t know and are aware of what we can’t do. The rhythm of doing and waiting lasts a lifetime.

Hammer throwing reminds me of my life’s journey. When I was in my twenties and thirties, I wanted desperately to be in charge; to run things, to have the final say. As I’ve gotten older, I just want to do my job well; to do my best work, to contribute. It’s taken a lifetime to prepare me for what I do now. And I love the moment when it all comes together.

Back to the opening question, is the hammer dead as a doornail? Not in the rest of the world, maybe in the U.S. where it symbolizes a culture of immediate gratification; if it doesn’t come quickly, why bother?

The faithful life isn’t like that. A patient endurance makes our joy complete.

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Watching the Olympic Games this past week in China brought a flood of questions to my mind. During my formative years, China was a symbol of evil because of its communist regime. Slowly, over the past thirty-five years or so, the perception of China has changed even though their political system has not. There have been reforms, but fundamentally the political system remains a single party totalitarian system.

Why then has our perception changed? Why is China viewed in a more favorable light? How might changes in our perception of China help us to view our own situation as Christians?

Let me explain.

The biggest change in China is its openness. As I understand it, during the period after WWII up until the '70s, China was a closed, almost secretive, society. Gradually, over the last four decades, China has allowed more foreigners into their country and more private economic investment from foreigners and the Chinese people.

Over this time period, limited capitalism has grown significantly in China. Despite problems such as human rights violations and worker exploitation, China and the world have benefited economically from this change. The standard of living for millions of people has risen. Not all people have benefited, but millions have. And we still have the responsibility to do even more.

Openness and capitalism have changed our perception of China. Tourists and even missionaries can enter China today, although missionaries still must remain cautious about their activities. People can also leave China. This is significant for a totalitarian system whose objective is to control the collective mind of the people.

It might help us to remember that Rome at the time of Jesus was not a democracy. Israel was an occupied country. Being free meant the opposite of being a slave. Freedom wasn't tied to the right to vote or even the right to govern. Jesus upset the Jewish establishment by saying, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Being willing and able to pursue the truth will free you from slavery. An enslaved mind keeps us from knowing the truth. Pursuing the truth about God brings us to the point of saying yes or no to the reality of God. Yes leads us to the freedom of who we're intended to be. No keeps us enslaved to our own limitations.

Freedom is not about political or economic systems. It's about Christ. Freedom, in turn, means freedom from sin. It is turning away from sin in a conscious effort to follow Christ. Just like the the Jewish establishment of Jesus' day, we too can be distracted by ideology, which carries us away from the truth.

Our perceptions have changed about China because the sources we trust to tell us the truth have changed their stance on China. The news media has moderated its stance on China. Politicians have toned down their rhetoric about the "Reds." China itself has opened its society more to the West. A healthy skepticism remains about China because we don't know the truth, but we know more than we have before.

Sociologist Rodney Stark closes his book, The Victory of Reason, with a quote from a Chinese scholar who spent considerable time studying the success of the West. "The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don't have any doubt about this."

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

At the start of my coaching career, I worked for a terrific track and field coach, Dick Barry. He was an outstanding high school coach and later became the track coach at the University of Buffalo until he retired a few years ago. I learned so much from Dick about how to coach, and my passion for track and field grew. So when it was time for me to make a critical decision about my teaching/coaching career, I turned to Dick.

It was impossible for me to continue in the teaching position at a private school that paid well below the poverty level of the time. Coaching at public high schools helped keep me afloat. But routinely, I had to borrow money from my dad to make ends meet. The real problem with that was that my dad was seventy years old and still working in a factory. He didn’t have much extra money himself.

In trying to find a solution to my situation, Dick took me to meet a man who might be able to help me stay in western New York to coach and earn a living wage. Maury was a successful businessman who lived in a nice house. I remember that because I knew the house wouldn’t fit in well in my neighborhood.

Maury told me the story about how he made his first million dollars. He started the schoolbook cover business. In the 1950s, Maury sold ads to local businesses that would appear on textbook covers given to local schools for students to cover their books. The covers were immensely popular with the schools, and the advertisers were pleased.

The kicker in the story is that Maury collected the money in advance. He had zero dollars of his own tied up in the venture. A couple of years after he started the company, he sold it for one million dollars. That was a lot of money back then.

Before he told the story, Maury asked me a question, “What is it that you want?”

I responded quickly, "I want to be financially independent.”

Maury told me how to make a million dollars, but that's not what I had meant. I just wanted to be able to make it to the next payday without having to borrow money from my dad.

We all define financial independence differently. I learned long ago that financial rewards in life aren't my highest priority. I wanted to use my gifts where God wanted me to use them. It has not been an easy path as I struggled to follow my vocational call. Often, I have identified with Jacob, wrestling with God. Often, I failed to see where the path was leading.

So far, life has been very good and very rewarding for me. While financial wealth has passed me by, life’s wealth through God's blessing has been rich.

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Here's a video clip worth watching. I file it under "what you see is not always what is real." This is just great performance art.

Pilobolus is an American dance company. They are internationally acclaimed and highly creative.

This short video clip is a reminder of the old expression, "believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see."

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Mistrust is a powerful emotion. It eats away at relationships and can erode morale and productivity in the workplace. Once I worked for a man who mistrusted me. He hired me to do a job, and when I did it well, he began to mistrust me.

Daryl liked me, but for some reason he didn’t trust me. It was difficult to see every suggestion I made being totally ignored. By the time Jerome was hired, I’d learned to give my ideas to Jerome and let him pass them along to Daryl as his own. Jerome was uncomfortable with this and thought I was being paranoid.

One day while the team of employees were together, I asked Daryl for a simple permission that would benefit everyone. Daryl didn’t even look up. "No," was his sharp reply. I looked at Jerome who was sitting there with a shocked look on his face. Later Jerome talked to Daryl in private, and I got my permission.

What I learned from that experience carries over into what I do today at my job, in my community, or wherever I have to work with people. The lesson I learned is best summed up in Matthew 6:19-21:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Do what you believe is right. Don’t look for the accolades. It’s not about earthly reward. It’s about serving Christ. Read all of Matthew Chapter 6. Let it shape your life.

1 Comment >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Once more my wife and I are entering the "it isn’t fair" stage of life. Our younger daughter turns fourteen this year. So we’ll begin to hear that whiny protest mantra about how unfair we are and how unfair life is in general. Hopefully, we’ve learned some lessons from our older daughter.

At first, I met every "unfair" complaint with an equally irritating response, "Life is hard." This clever little cliché had zero impact. It was only in her later teenage years that I adopted her strategy. Whenever she protested about how unfair I was being I met her head-on about how unfair her request was and how difficult it was to deal with. This tactic slowed her down. So I’m going to lead with this strategy with her sister.

This is also the prime season for the cries of unfairness from professional athletes. Football players stay out of training camp. Basketball players leave the country for more money in Europe. Negotiations get played out in the press, and we get to judge the fairness of these negotiations. The same type of fairness issues occur in our own workplaces. And there are plenty of other examples of unfair treatment at work.

Even the gospels deal with fairness issues. The parable of the prodigal son raises fairness issues with the older son. In the parable about the workers in the vineyard, the question about equal pay for less than equal work is raised. Even Peter raises a fairness question with Jesus, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"

Jesus uses these parables to illustrate God’s forgiveness, compassion, and mercy. But the issues of fairness are underlying and they attract our attention. Maybe leading with understanding and practicing forgiveness, compassion, or mercy will help us resolve our feelings of unfair treatment. We want fairness. Jesus offers grace.

1 Comment >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

We live one life for Christ. It’s not divided into living a family life for Christ or a church life for Christ. We don’t separate our work life or our play from our life in Christ. When we see our lives as separate compartments, we welcome divisiveness into our lives—like a series of fissures in a rock formation. Fissures weaken the rock structure, and it’s only a matter of time before the rock breaks apart.

Divisiveness leads to conflict. Conflict destroys unity. Unity without uniformity brings us true community while celebrating our individual uniqueness. But divisiveness is not simple disagreement. People can disagree and still live in community. It happens all the time. We can see it in the twelve apostles. We can see it in Peter and Paul. Disagreements happen, but they don’t have to lead to division.

What keeps us together as a community under Christ is our singular devotion to him in all that we do. The high calling of our daily work seeks to foster unity through integration. An integrated life is authentic human existence.

We live one life for Christ. Let’s try to keep it together.

0 Comments >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

Differing temperaments was the subject of my last post. Since then, a conversation with a good friend provided an opportunity to share my “temperament” theory as it applies to the church.

For fun, I tell people that the nature of the churches and the stages of life coincide. Let me explain.

I think children should attend Baptist churches because those churches are so focused on sharing Bible stories and educating through the use of Scripture. Learning trust through Scripture or following the initiative and industry of a young David, Ruth, Esther, or Daniel inspires children as they aspire to do greater things.

By late teenage years, a young person seems better suited to Methodist or Presbyterian churches because of the strong social conscience element at those churches.  As teenagers resolve their identity issues and move into intimacy issues, how they fit into community is important.

As a person ages, more liturgical churches seem more appropriate. Lutheran, Episcopal, and Catholic churches fit here. The connection with symbolism can fit comfortably with the creativity that is incorporated into all aspects of life. Liturgy can bring great depth of meaning at this stage of life.

So there you have my rough theory on temperament and the churches. It’s a simplistic overview about the different strengths of churches. I find it helpful as a conversation starter. Often, in church circles and in other areas of life like work and family, we fall into patterns of expected behavior.  We follow these patterns because they feel familiar or comfortable. We stop challenging our basic assumptions.

Jesus constantly challenged people about their faith assumptions. And I'm not just talking about the religious establishment. He challenged his closest followers as well.  Jesus did this.

So maybe we should challenge ourselves in a similar manner.

1 Comment >  |  Leave a Comment or Tag >

browse all resources from Ramblin' Dan >