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Archives for Year 2003 -

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December 29, 2003	I Do	John and Brenda celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary a couple years back with a recommitment ceremony in a friend’s back yard.  Brenda carried a colorful bouquet of pink roses and John wore a gray suit and tie.  I played the role of videographer and this weekend, two years later, I reviewed the film.
December 22, 2003	Let It Snow	I'm into the tradition now.  Every year, the Friday before Christmas day, our community club celebrates with a festive breakfast, the room decorated with a tree and wreath, lights and red bows, checkered table cloths and center-pieces, and our spouses are invited.
December 15, 2003	Flu Season	When Bob went home sick, he figured he had the flu like just about everyone else making headlines this flu season.  He decided to take a day, or maybe two, home in bed, cancel business appointments, make a doctor visit and do whatever it takes to get the unwelcome bugs out of his system in time to make a scheduled trip back East to spend Thanksgiving with his recently married daughter and new son-in-law.  They just bought a new house.  He hadn’t seen it yet.
December 8, 2003	God's Net Worth	There is one more thing I must document.  Stick with me here.  It’s a lesson in vision.  Vision is linked to faith.  Faith is linked to action.  Hope emerges when those three are combined.  Powerful things happen at the intersection of all four.  Miracles, you might say.
December 1, 2003	No Man an Island	Ernest Hemingway won both the Pulitzer and the Nobel prizes.  A prolific writer, from pre-Second World War Europe on well into the nineteen fifties, he contributed to the sense of what is means to be an American.  He was independent.  Straightforward.  Cynical.  Romantic.  He understood the ebb and flow of history, but his characters were not the victims of some fate beyond their control.  He believed that the individual can impact the direction of the events of history.
November  24, 2003	Sifters	When the men assembled in the church parking lot that Saturday, just about a hundred of them with a line-up of pick-up trucks, many of them on lifters, sitting high on hydraulics and monster tires and custom wheels, a troop of boy scouts arrived as well.  They wanted in on the action.
November  17, 2003	Captain Dan	When I walked up to the site, I felt something like an intruder.   This was private property.  The sign said, “No reporters.”   Over my shoulder attached to a strap, I carried a camera.  Just a few days before, in a storm of raging fire, a woman died here.
November  10, 2003	Project Paradise Fire	Early Wednesday morning during our weekly men’s group meeting, it hit Mark like a message coming down from Mt. Sinai.  “We can’t leave town next week.  We just can’t,” he proclaimed with the conviction of a prophet.  “It’s just not right.  We shouldn’t pull sixty plus guys out of their home town, even though it’s a good cause.  We need to consider canceling our retreat plans up on the mountain a hundred miles away, take the energy and resources of these men, and go to work helping to rebuild our community.  That’s what we’ve got to do,” as though we needed convincing.
November  3, 2003	Fire and Rain	On Sunday morning, we stood on the asphalt parking lot of the church property and watched the flames sweep through the valley.  It was a stunning sight.  Hot desert winds come from the east at this time of year.  We call them the Santa Ana’s.
October 27, 2003	Firestorm	Generally, I avoid the use of the exclamation point when I write LeaderFOCUS.  It comes from the conviction that the "!" is a lazy substitute for words that should carry their own emphasis.  The right word should be its own exclamation - pack its own power punch.  Words have the ability to do that, when chosen well.  The exclamation point can devalue the potency of a single word all by itself.
October 20, 2003	Foul Ball	I haven't really been much of a baseball fan - for a long time.  But as a boy, I gobbled up as much baseball as a youngster could.  I donned the pinstriped white flannel uniform, pulled the cap over my head, punched the pocket of my open glove with a clenched fist over and over, playing Little League like most boys do.
October 13, 2003	Salieri	Antonio Salieri as a composer was mediocre.  But his ear for genius surpassed most everyone else, and this became a life-long curse.   He listened to a child prodigy’s majestic work with a smoldering sort of envy, believing that the coddled child’s gift of genius was an incarnation of the divine.  It could only be the miraculous revelation of God himself manifested in a most unlikely, most unworthy (he thought) messenger.  And in the end, the absurdity of it all drove him to madness.
October 6, 2003	Montecore	John Eldredge’s most recent book, Waking the Dead, starts with a familiar thesis.  It reminded me of Scott Peck’s classic from 1978, Road Less Traveled, in which he opens his monumental best seller, perhaps the most widely read self-help book in history, with a now familiar declarative statement.  His starting point, similar to Eldredge’s, is straight-forward: “Life is difficult.” He lets the three word affirmation stand alone in its very own paragraph.  Everything else flows out of that unembellished idea.
September 29, 2003	Carbs and Pie á la Mode	Every year about this time, I reflect back on that moment in time when the idea of LeaderFOCUS (note the unique spelling – it doesn’t pass muster with spell-check) first came to me.  It was a flash of inspiration – a genuine “Ah-hah” experience.  I’ve been posting personal stuff on the Internet for a long time (well before LeaderFOCUS), and even then there was a section on my site called “Musings of a Wannabe Writer;” a sampling of some of my prose.  This revealing little title became the subject of no small amount of teasing and jesting among the family; it embarrassed some of them, I think.  For good cause.  But that’s a part of me.  Like John Boy Walton and David Copperfield, I aspired someday to be a writer.
September 22, 2003	Loving Monday	I’ll never forget the morning I lost faith in Richard Nixon. It wasn’t easy, because late in the Watergate game, I remained a young loyalist.  Like others on my side of the political spectrum, I considered Nixon to be the victim of the kind of nasty partisanship we’ve come to accept as part and parcel of American public life.
September 15, 2003	Survivor Guilt	Two years ago this week, our lives we’re interrupted.  Many (including our President) have reminded us that we will always remember where we were and what we were doing when we got the first alert that something terrible happened in New York City...  right in there with the assassination of President Kennedy (for those of us who were around then).  These national moments are seared into our memories and forever associated with whatever mundane, routine activity we happened to be involved in that fateful morning.
September 8, 2003	Passion and Grace	Mel Gibson (the actor, director, producer) probably high-fived his wife Robyn back in 1990 when PEOPLE Magazine named him as one of the Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World, and then high-fived her again when they named him a second year in a row in 1991... and then once more, five years later in 1996 (when they named him again).  It certainly helped to pave the road towards multi-million paychecks per movie (make that ten to twenty-five million a pop).  Robyn, secure in her marriage, smiled back with every high five.  But while Gibson knew instinctively the benefits of name recognition and general popularity, it was never enough for him.
September 1, 2003	Dotheboy School	When Charles Dickens sat down to write his third novel in 1839, he was angry.  London boiled over in social and economic turmoil.  The young novelist believed in the power of story to effect human behavior.  He knew that fiction could get under your skin.  If he could make you laugh... or cry... or swell with emotion... he knew your mind would open up to new ways of thinking.
August 25, 2003	Flames, Nudges and Close Calls	Sometimes you get little evidences of telepathy.  Promptings come, almost as though there had been a mysterious page alert... But no high tech device is involved.  It just happens. Perhaps God works this way.  He certainly doesn't often get the credit, even though he should.    More often than not, we call it coincidence.
August 18, 2003	Summer Heat, Winter Light	This weekend, sweltering in the summer heat, I’m emotionally spent.  I’ve got so much to tell you, but I need a weekend to regroup.  It’s a good kind of tired.  I picked up enough LeaderFOCUS material this week to keep me going for months.  I’ve got a good set of notes.
August 11, 2003	Arnold	California is all abuzz.  There’s excitement in the air.  Passions are kicking in.  People who long ago gave up on the possibility that our state might ever recover from the debacle of the bursting of the tech bubble and the energy fiasco that drained a monster surplus dry and a far-away State Capital too distant, too removed from the realities of its constituents to ever govern effectively, well, they are beginning to act as though anything’s possible.  Even recovery.
August 4, 2003	A Man and a Maiden Fair	Wisdom literature materialized mainly because life is so mysterious and unpredictable.  The scientist’s primary task is to investigate the unknowns and find there a pattern or a formula that can be postulated into a cause-effect statement: if this, then that.  Careful experimentation tests the formula, and if there is consistency, if the expected result occurs over and over again, voilá – we have science.   But not everything can be treated as a science.
July 28, 2003	Roots	History professors like to begin the first day of class with a “thought question.”  That’s what they called it in my student era, as though other questions didn’t require much of it.  A thought question.  I suppose the idea behind the phrase indicated that there was no simple answer – that the question itself created something of a curiosity designed to push the student deeper into some profound truth that might even lead to authentic insight and some useful reflection.
July 21, 2003	Ambient Noise	Is it just us… aging, or just plain over-heated?  These are the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.  Yawns and the burning desire for a good long nap seem to hit the top of the list of things we want to do on a warm afternoon.  Is it just us - or you, too?
July 14, 2003	The Gipper	When Mr. Reagan, in a post-Presidential assignment, stood on a knoll over-looking the Simi Valley on a clear Southern California day, clear enough to see the blue ocean on the horizon, in winter, when the hills are green and the Malibu Mountains look bigger than they really are, and the old oak trees dot the meadows here and there, he agreed.  A wealthy real estate developer, a Republican, stood with him and offered the over one hundred acres of prime land before them to the President’s Foundation as a home for the yet to be constructed Presidential Library.  The Board left the decision to the recently retired two term President, and in his down home, aw-shucks manner, Ronald Reagan smiled, and nodded, with Nancy at this side, and said, “Yes, this is it.  This is the place.”
July 7, 2003	The Tattered Red Notebook	It was the night before Father’s Day.  Saturday.  My brother-in-law Randy gently placed a tattered red notebook on the dining room table before me.  The whole family was in the room, and somehow that eight and a half by eleven three ring binder caught everyone’s attention.  A kind of hush settled in.  I looked up from my place at Randy, and he looked down at me.  “I don’t think you’ve seen this,” he said, and I wagged my head back and forth a time or two.   I hadn’t.
June 30, 2003	The Left Seat	In a day-long meeting in which half the attendees were jet pilots, I learned something about the second half.  Not that the lesson is new, really.  But the powerful truth of it all was underlined and bolded with an exclamation point or two standing up at the end.  These guys fly dream machines.  One of them captains an airline jumbo jet, two of the guys jockey business jets crisscrossing the nation and beyond – one piloting a Citation, the other a Falcon.
June 23, 2003	Despair, Inc	For more than a year now, as my clients look at me across my desk, on the wall just over my shoulder is a large framed lithograph, a four color seascape at the water’s edge, waves spraying high drama against a rocky coastline, deep blue waters, choppy seas with white foam caps in high winds, thunderheads ominous against a cobalt sky, an invigorating scene for those of us who view life as something of a captivating tempest.  Underneath, across the bottom in clear, bold print the word CHARACTER.  And as a subtitle, The True Test of which Emerges in the Crucible of Adversity.
June 16, 2003	Buckingham Fountain	The Fountain is the centerpiece of Chicago’s great park.  This is no monument to conservation.  Au contraire.  It is a celebration of abundance.  It is a conspicuous public shrine to the basic element that nurtures and refreshes and cleanses the whole world – fresh, clean, clear water.
June 9, 2003	Gratitude	This afternoon, I’ve been asked to speak to the graduating s seniors from our little country church.  These are kids we’ve watched grow up, and it’s time now to recognize their attainment of a new level of maturity.  They’ve reached a major milestone in life’s path, and their lives are about to change in fundamental ways, never again to be the same.
June 2, 2003	Don't Mess with Free Will	When Bruce Nolan is given the reigns, empowered to switch roles with God Himself for awhile, he is given only two restrictions.  First, he can tell no one.  It’s a secret.  People can’t handle that one, according to God, so keep it to yourself.  One of God’s primary strategies is that His activity remain clandestine, most of the time.  Second, Bruce is told that while he can do anything he wants, he may not mess with free will.  That one is off limits.
May 26, 2003	Manila Bay	It has been some time since I last wandered across the campus of a High School.  Our own children have long since left the scene, and even then, they weren’t particularly fond of the idea that their parents be seen anywhere nearby, at least unannounced.  So we appeared only on rare occasions, like Parent-Teacher night and game day and performances and such.
May 19, 2003	Peace Like a River	We are now entering another graduation season, gathering as parents do for the recognition of academic accomplishment and the transition to a next level.   These assemblies will fill auditoriums and stadiums all over the nation, music will fill the air with the familiar strains of pomp and circumstance and the ceremonies will commence (the formal word preferred for moments like these).
May 12, 2003	The Lanyard	When I remember those childhood summer days in Southern Wisconsin beside a deep blue lake in the woods, I also remember the outdoor craft center, rough wooden poles supporting a roof over a concrete slab, heavy lumber tables and benches in the open air, where for a few cents we could purchase little kits, in colors of our own choosing, crafts that would occupy those morning hours with concentrated activity.  Motor-skill development, I think they called it.
May 5, 2003	Balance of Power	While standing in the great marble hall, an echoing antechamber, under a daunting high ceiling with columns all around and sculptured marble busts featuring the likeness of Justices gone before, just outside the inner chamber where nine current justices sit at the bench hearing cases of great consequence, on a weekday afternoon in spring, we waited our turn to enter.  We were told to keep our voices to a whisper, that this was the inner sanctum of equal justice, the highest court in the land, and no photography, please.
April 28, 2003	Unknowns	As you approach Arlington National Cemetery, you are welcomed by a sign reminding you that America’s heroes have been laid to rest in this place, and that a solemn reverence is appreciated.   You would expect this to be assumed, but it isn’t.  This is not a playground or a public park.  The gardens and the trees, this time of year, in bloom, may look like a place for hiking and a Fourth of July picnic, and an informal baseball game, or walking your pedigree, or tossing the Frisbee, or bicycling through the dogwoods.  But it is none of these things.
April 21, 2003	Malchus	He asked me if I had any experience doing drama.  I said, “Yes, some.” Frankly that was something of a stretch.  I’m interested in drama.  I admire people who can take on a character, animate a script and play a convincing role - on stage or on screen.  But while I have a fair amount of experience as a public speaker (I suppose that’s a kind of drama) and many years ago, I vocalized regularly, singing before audiences all over the country (college level concert tours with solo parts), I can’t say I’ve played any sort of role in a stage play or anything you would call acting.
April 14, 2003	Barnabas	This week, we entered into yet another one of those shared experiences as a global village.  As we watched, commentators reminded us that we would be telling our children and our grandchildren that we saw it; a turning point in history.  A watershed moment in the long and bloody history of the Middle East, they called it.
April 7, 2003	Twelve O'Clock High	When General Frank Savage went to England to replace Colonel Davenport as commander of the 918th Bombing Group in 1942, he faced a squadron of young pilots discouraged and battered by long terrifying flights and too many casualties.
March 31, 2003	Fat Ivor	One might think of our little town as the Southern California version of Lake Wobegone.  I remember the first time I heard the name of Garrison Keillor’s make-believe village in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, Minnesota, America’s answer to Scandinavia.  The name itself sets the standard for clever word pay (Woe – be gone!) and it’s just the beginning.  Some of us can’t get enough of the place, and now every episode of Prairie Home Companion is available on demand over the Internet for everyone with a high speed connection.
March 24, 2003	Shock and Awe	Once more, we, along with the rest of the global village, tune into round-the-clock news coverage of a watershed moment for the whole world.  The drama of war unleashed has us all spell-bound.  What will be the end game?
March 17, 2003	Letter from America	When Alistair Cooke came to America in 1932, he was already something of a renaissance man.  A Cambridge graduate (The Jesus College, with honors), he pursued graduate work at both Yale and Harvard.  He was a writer; he studied literature and film (a young cultural phenomena in the early 1930s) and culture language.  But he was most interested in the contrast and comparison of British and American life.
March 10, 2003	Christians and War	In her letter to the editor, Julie Schneider writes, “Why is it that a lot of people who call themselves Christians are the most insistent that America must go to war?  Don’t they honor and respect the Ten Commandments?  It is simply wrong to kill innocent men, women and children in your quest to get Saddam Hussein.  It is simply wrong to put our men and women in harm’s way and to risk their lives in this quest to kill others... ”
March 3, 2003	Offering	A letter went out to our congregation this week from our business team.  It seems that income is not keeping up with expenses these days, and our church is falling behind in the checkbook. It’s a common problem these days, I’m told.
February 24, 2003	The "Q"	There is perhaps no more disturbing example of the disconnect between the public and private person than the sculptured face of Michael Jackson.  Few of us will admit our fascination with the story of how a child prodigy emerged as a pop icon with enough money to make any fantasy real, whose run from the paparazzi and the tabloids drove him behind iron gates that resemble the entrance to Disney World with a bold sign that reads “by invitation only.”
February 17, 2003	Kitchen Cabinets	As the talk of war heats up, and the voices of protest clamor for the media spotlight, once again the old maxim prevails.  The only real certainty in life is uncertainty.  Not even duct tape can hold it all together.  It feels like the whole world is on hold.  On the brink of something momentous.  Waiting for some resolution.  The outcome is impossible to predict.  And we are not sure what it is.  But there is one place where steely resolve remains unchanged.  It’s on the face of our President.
February 10, 2003	Oval Office	One of my best pals gave me a book of prayers for my birthday.  Written by a college president, this contemporary collection, each a kind of short prose, conversational prose, is called “Leadership Prayers.”   Since he gave me the gift (I guess the idea of “Leader Prayers” reminded him somehow of “LeaderFOCUS”) early in the morning, I stumble into my favorite chair with a steaming cup of stiff black coffee (I even have a favorite mug, one of those heavy ceramic mugs, this one from The Black Dog on Martha’s Vineyard), open the little book, and make those prayers my own.
February 3, 2003	Kenny J	The war talk is more than talk for us this week.  More than a headline.  People we know will be personally called up for duty.  They will perhaps be asked to enter into harm’s way in the coming months.
January 27, 2003	Cobra Captain	The war talk is more than talk for us this week.  More than a headline.  People we know will be personally called up for duty.  They will perhaps be asked to enter into harm’s way in the coming months.
January 20, 2003	The Bugler	This is a week of milestones for me.  They are all bunched up on the calendar.  It’s the first month of the year, and like many, we are hoping and praying that 2003 turns up better than 2002.  Last year was a character building year, I suppose.  Some of the lessons were hard.  It was a reality check year.  A rebuilding year.  A year to reconsider one’s purpose.  To sort through the commitments, eliminate some of the clutter; prioritize.  And now, in 2003, it’s time to produce, and live out those new definitions.
January 13, 2003	Abagnale the Paperhanger	Frank Abagnale, the real Frank Abagnale, has been a player in the promotional tour.  When a movie project attracts such an ensemble of major Hollywood names (Spielberg, Hanks, John Williams, DiCaprio) the world takes notice.  But the validation of this ambitious venture is nailed down in a face to face encounter with the real life character, who delivers a high degree of credibility and captures a vast potential audience via media outlets which have become marketing tools for the movie biz (TODAY, GMA, ET, Extra, Oprah, Dr. Phil).
January 6, 2003	The Magi	It’s time for the decorations to come down, and time to face the inescapable reality. The year 2002 is gone.  The new year is here.  The breakdown of Christmas paraphernalia is as much a tradition as the setup.  But it is always bitter-sweet.  As you pull down the lights, and stow away the ornaments and the wreaths and the miniature village and wooden soldiers and candles and the manger scene, as you take down the tree, now brittle and dry, and haul it out to the curb for pick-up, I trust you are in possession of new memories, barely more than a week old, still fresh, and good enough to cherish.

LeaderFOCUS. Let’s make things happen – together.

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