Are you a Leader or a Lens?

I’ve been working on this post for awhile and I wanted to post the “True Mark of a Leader” first so you would have a reference to who the real “Leader” is as that sets the context for this post. If you haven’t read that first, go read it now. In this post I’d like to introduce you to a leadership concept most people haven’t heard of before and that is the concept of being a “Lens” rather than a “Leader”. Leaders are great but great leaders are “Lenses”! So what’s a Lens compared to a Leader? A Lens is basically a transparent optical device used to focus and/or magnify an object at a distance. Eyeglasses, Microscopes, Telescopes, Camera lenses are all examples of a Lens with Eyeglasses probably being the most common so that’s what I will use to illustrate my point. Glasses help people with degraded or limited vision “see better”. They help us get to where we want to go quicker, more easily, and safer by allowing us to focus clearly on the destination. A Leader performs a similar task by teaching us, guiding us, and helping us find a particular destination. We follow them and trust they know where they are going. But our eyes are often inadvertently on them rather than the destination itself and this is where the danger lies and things get muddy so to speak.

Allow me to elaborate. When I look through my glasses I see and find what it is I’m looking for and I rarely notice the glasses themselves. If I do notice them it’s because they’ve become dirty or scratched. Being a Lens to someone means you care more about helping someone clearly see the Truth they are seeking than  you do them noticing you. You’re work as a Lens is to remain clean and transparent, gather as much Light (Truth and Knowledge) as possible and put that into focus for the person you are serving. Being a Lens is about developing an attitude of humility and a desire to serve in the most humble and honest way possible. It’s not about you, but about helping the other person to see more clearly. As a Lens you do everything you can to give the person you are assisting the best and most honest view possible with the ultimate goal of going completely unnoticed if possible during that process. It serves a natural defense against Pride and keeps the focus on where it should be: living the life of a Disciple and proclaiming the Truth of God and His Creation (see 1 John 2:6).

Seeing ourselves as merely leaders allows for our pride and ego to sometimes get in the way. We can easily fall victim to thinking we’re the focus and what we do and say is what matters most. It can become more about what it is you know, how much you know, and how well you can articulate that knowledge and lead others to it. Those things are just as important to being a good Lens, but the focus (pun intended) and motive behind developing proficiency in those areas is much different. Being a leader also puts a tremendous amount of pressure on you to live up to the person you’re leading and their expectations of you to get them where they want to go. Being a Lens removes that pressure and puts the onus on them to decide their own path and whether or not to accept the Truth you are showing them.

Don’t just be a leader. Be a Lens and be the best Lens you can be! Polish yourself by improving your level of knowledge and wisdom. Enhance your ability to focus others by increasing your ability to articulate through language skills both written and spoken. Remain transparent in your life so that others may see Christ through you because a Lens works both ways. As you help others to see more clearly, God’s Truth and His Love will shine more brightly through you to them. You don’t even need to be in a leadership position to be a Lens to others. It’s a mindset, not an ability, so anyone can do it. Even you!

The True Mark of a Leader

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
(John 15:5-8 NIV)

Look around today and you will find literally hundreds, if not thousands of books and other related materials on “Leadership”. Indeed, “Leadership” and all of its associated training has become an industry unto itself. John Maxwell, Dale Carnegie, Steven Covey, Zig Zigler, and countless others have written book after book on the subject and yet we still have a shortage of true leaders in the world today. Why is that? I would like to suggest it might be because the true mark of a leader is not about being a “Leader”; it’s about being a “Disciple”. Not all leaders are Disciples, but all Disciples are leaders (emphasis mine) and it is precisely the Christlikeness within a leader that draws people to them. Yet the majority of today’s leaders, or should I say the people trying to become leaders, completely miss this fact and that is, in my opinion, largely do to the increasing secularization of our society. It’s no longer acceptable to talk about Jesus or the Bible in public any more, so the people wanting to sell books have taken His principles and stripped out any reference to Him in order to be more marketable with His very message.

I have read many books on leadership and let me tell you this: There is nothing written in any of them that was not first taught by Jesus two thousand years ago. The problem with reading these books is that many people end up idolizing and worshiping the author rather than the source from whom they are getting their material and inevitably all we end up with is a list of techniques for being a leader that sells us short and leaves us still wanting. They are missing the one crucial element for true success as a leader and that element is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the perfect model for leadership, not John Maxwell, not Zig Zigler, and certainly not you or me; and the sooner we realize this, the less time we’ll need to spend reading book after book on the subject of Leadership. Now I’m not condemning the wisdom and principles of leadership that the authors mentioned above have shared in their writings. Some of them are devout followers of Christ, which is precisely why they are such successful leaders. I’m simply saying that we need to keep what they say in the proper perspective and always keep first and foremost in our mind who we should be modeling ourselves after. Leadership exercises, activities, classes, and programs are great, but if that is your purpose and your process for becoming a leader, then that’s all you will have to offer others. If your life however, is about being a Disciple of Christ, a Servant of God, you will not only have the skills and techniques of a great leader to share with others, you’ll also have the Person of Jesus Christ to offer them.

C.S. Lewis once said “Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” If we keep our focus on Heaven and we remain in Him, He will remain in us and we will bear much fruit; and it will be the fruit of our efforts that shows ourselves to be His Disciples. If we miss the example of Christ Jesus and remain focused on the training and techniques of being a leader, we limit ourselves and those we are teaching to what we know, and what we are. When we serve others as Disciples of Christ and train them as Disciples rather than just “Leaders”, the sky is the limit as to what can be accomplished because what we accomplish is done for the Kingdom, in His name, for His glory, rather than for ourselves. As Disciples: “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end we labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in us.”(Col.1:28-29 NIV) Amen.

The Gospel Truth (video)

First, I’d like to thank my friend Sandy for sending me this video. We all, and I mean every person on earth have/has sins and demon’s we wrestle with. Many of us are in all out knife fights with them on a daily basis. In those battles we bleed. We’re scared. We’re left hurt, bloody, laying on the floor, often left for dead because the people around us are not even aware of the battle’s were fighting on the inside. I think that’s why the Apostle James told us to “confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (Jam. 5:16 NASB) He understood that confessing our sins to each other was a matter of life and death and that by doing so, we would not have to fight those battles alone. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:12NIV).

Take your pick. They all boil down to one of these: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and PRIDE (Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.); and all of these things lead to death (Physical and Eternal). But take heart, because the other side of that Romans 3:23 verse is Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” WE HAVE A SAVIOR and a way out! That my friends is the greatest joy of being a Christian. We’re still going to die physically because we live in a world ravaged by the effects of sin. There’s no escaping it. But we (our souls), as believers in Christ, will live on in Eternity with our LORD Jesus Christ; being forever in His Presence and in His Light and in His Perfect Love in a little place He’s gone to prepare for us called Heaven. That is the Gospel. For those who have ears to hear… let them hear and believe. Amen.

Why you should never talk to the police (video)

I came across these two parts of a video today and immediately remembered Jesus’ trial and it always bothered me when reading this story in the Bible that Jesus never spoke up for His own innocence when He was so wrongly arrested and accused. It still bothered me up until today. Now I understand, or at least I understand a little better than I did before. Satan has been twisting God’s Truth from the beginning of Mankind and he continues to do so today if it will serve his interest. Men (and police) will always twist your words against you (even if they’re true) to get what they want in court or in any other aspect of life on earth. It doesn’t disqualify the Truth for what it is. The Truth will always remain. But it can put you in jeopardy if you’re not careful. If you don’t say anything, your words cannot be used against you. It also reminds me of a couple of great and similar quotes. The first is from the book of Proverbs 17 vs. 28: “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue” (NIV). And the second is from Abraham Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

The below videos are from a presentation given by University of Virginia School of Law professor and former defense attorney James Duane and Virginia Beach Police Detective George Bruch. They are EXCELLENT! and clearly show why, if you’re ever arrested, to KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT and don’t say ANYTHING to the police especially if you are innocent. God Bless the Fifth Amendment! It’s not just for criminals after all.

Here’s the first part from the law professor’s point of view:

Here’s the second part from the police detectives point of view:

One Word: Zumba!

I have tried for a long time to drop some weight and get back in shape. I dropped 40 pounds about 4 years ago on the Atkins diet, but it wasn’t livable for me in the long term and after about a year I gained it all back. I have been promising my wife I would lose weight for her, but that hasn’t worked either. You have to want to do it for yourself and it takes a LOT of self discipline. My motivation now comes from the fact that I have a new baby girl coming into my life this July and two other kids and a wife who need me to be strong for them both Spiritually and Physically. Plus… we’ll be having a new family picture taken after her birth and I looked so fat in our last family picture that we’ve never hung it up. This time I want it to be different, so I’m doing something about it.

What am I doing about it? Well I’ve gone and done something that very well may be the start of something that one is effective and two, is livable in the long term. I signed up and two weeks ago began a Zumba class. What it Zumba you ask? Here’s the marketing description for you:

Zumba is a Latin inspired, dance-fitness class that incorporates Latin and International music and dance movements, which create a dynamic, exciting and effective fitness system. Zumba means to “move fast and have fun.” The class format combines fast and slow rhythms that tone and sculpt the body in an aerobic/fitness fashion to achieve a unique blended balance of cardio and muscle-toning benefits.

All I can say is this is one of the craziest things I’ve done in a long time and an hour of this is a LOT harder than it looks. It will totally and completely kick your butt in a very good way. I would personally like to thank my instructor and co-worker Lisa Hoppe for her inspiration and incredible level of energy and stamina. She is a human dynamo! and a blessing to everyone in her classes. As for me, please keep me in your prayers on Thursdays from 5:15 to 6:15 pm. I need all the help I can get to make it through this class and remember… as a child of the King, your body is not your own. It belongs to the Lord and was bought at a huge price. It is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. So take good care of what you have been given in this life and if you like, go Zumba for God!

• “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1Cor. 6:19-20 NIV)”
• “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (1Cor. 3:16 NIV)”

Here’s a little sample of what Zumba looks like:

Here’s another (longer) example:

Today my heart rejoices !

Today June 9th, 2008 is one of those days in my life I will never forget. As a Dad, I have dreamed of this day since the day my daughter Megan was born and I laid eyes on her for the first time: the day when she made the decision, on her own, to publicly declare her faith, make it her own, and be baptized into the Body of Christ. To me it’s one of the most, if not the most, joyous occasions in a Fathers life and I expect that goes double for our Heavenly Father above. I am so proud of her and so happy for her! It’s hard to tell who’s more excited… me or her. She asked me tonight with the biggest of grins… “Dad, does this mean I get to take communion now?” I told her YES it does! Then she asked me all about communion and it opened up so many doors to talk to her about deeper spiritual things that now, as a Christian, she has a lot more interest in knowing about. It’s amazing to see the transformation take place in someone I’m so very close to. It’s been a huge boost to my faith and re-kindled a desire in me to re-discover our Jesus just as she is discovering Him on this new level in her life for the first time. I get to experience as her Dad that same sense of wonder and awe all over again through her new eyes and there’s a really good chance she’ll be seeing things for the first time that I missed before. To be the one to baptize her myself was icing on the cake.

I can’t wait for my son to be old enough to understand what Baptism is about and what it means to own your faith and make that decision for yourself to put your life in Christ’s hands. He wants to be baptized now just like his big sister, and it breaks my heart to have to tell him no, but as his father and as I did with Megan, I cannot let my children just “go through the motions” without fully knowing and understanding what it’s all about. Megan was ready and able to make that decision and I am so thankful and happy that she did and to know that we will be together someday in Heaven!

I’ve posted a short video clip here of Megan’s Baptism if you’d like to see. It may take a few minutes for the video to load especially if you have a slower connection, so please be patient. It’s worth it to see the smile on her face. Praise God!