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Monday, May 9, 2005 Volume VII Number 18
by Ken Kemp
|
I |
didn’t see this day coming. But it’s here. The time has come to bid a fond farewell. Sometimes friends move away. Eventually the mission is accomplished. |
It came to me on a walk with Barnabas. We found a remote spot near our new home that is reminiscent of our beloved Valley Center. It’s a wide country path, around a dry lakebed behind an old earthen dam, one of those southern California flood control projects where horses follow the winding trails and dogs can run free and roam and sniff and chase a rabbit or squirrel into the brush. We spotted an owl perched way high on a branch keeping watch the other day. I’ll release Barney off the leash, and away he flies, and if you look closely, you’ll detect a grin. I’m there every day I can. Carolyn often joins me.
I’ve been doing some of my best thinking on that trail. It occurred to me out there watching Barney climb up on a rock looking out over the valley, head up, tail wagging back and forth, looking over the valley like he was the Lion King: LeaderFOCUS is one of those missions accomplished.
Not that I’m done putting words on a page. I set out at the beginning to develop the discipline of writing. It’s become a life-line. For nearly six years, I’ve made sure some fifteen hundred original words materialized and e-mailed a notice out to you that yet another edition was waiting on the web-site. If you are a writer too, you know the sense of accomplishment. I’d go back and read the words that came out through the fingertips into the word processor and somehow the scattered thoughts and ideas and pictures that float through my mind took shape and made sense and sometimes even touched me on some deep emotive level. Sometimes I’d ask Carolyn to sit and listen to me read, just to make sure my musings made sense, and occasionally I’d choke with emotion, unable to carry on, and my disjointed world of interruptions and distractions and contradiction and chaos for just that simple moment, made sense. Writing can do that sort of thing. I don’t suppose now I’ll stop writing any more than I’ll stop breathing. I’m hooked.
And you, in this writer/reader partnership thing, you have become my close friend. You are on the other end of cyber-space, reading through my meanderings, and sometimes you take the time to let me know what it meant to you. Oh, I know, I’m a little wordy, and it gets a little like reading a novel on Monday morning when there are a ton of other e-mails and phone messages waiting there. But you’ve stuck with me anyway, and let me know that on Monday morning, as a leader, something in there reminded you that there’s meaning and purpose in the day. It’s helped you connect the dots – it’s worth the effort. You’ve got the tools and the gifts and the skills and the motivation to do it… do it well, do it right, with a little flair.
So we understand each other. We read some of the same books. Watch the same movies and newscasts. We think similarly, and ultimately, we share a common faith in a God who has a name.
And as my brother pointed out some months ago, LeaderFOCUS has changed me. It may well be the method God used to bring me my career path to a new plateau. My new work is demanding and energizing. My days are full. I’m writing weekly… picking up on the Sunday sermon passage and challenging a significant number of our people to pick up on the big idea, peal back the layers and look more deeply into the text and then bring home an application that will lead to wholesome transformation. You can keep up with me there if you like. (I’d like to know that you are still with me.)
My mother has printed out every LeaderFOCUS edition since inception. We’re talkin’ thick, heavy notebooks full. (Every human being should have a mother like mine. The world would be a better place.) The archives get hits from Internet searches, and people have found issues worth passing around.
So in one form or another, LeaderFOCUS will live on.
* * * * * *
It’s Monday morning. You are a leader.
In our leadership role, we get ourselves buried under demands, burdened by expectations, annoyed by overlooked tasks, distracted by the non-essential, and rewarded by serendipity. All at once. Today will be the same.
We need colleagues, mentors, friends and family to help us – not just to get by – but to excel. You’ve found them, as have I. Hang on to them. Keep the line open.
Let’s do the same.
You and me.
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Posted in Placentia, California
© Copyright Kenneth E. Kemp 2005
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