22959 Day 37

vision_and_stuff

i read this book, visioneering, much earlier in the year. i thought it would be a throwaway read (i read a book before by andy stanley and i didn't like it, plus i don't usually like leadership books not written by erwin mcmanus). humbly, i must admit that this booked gave me a lot to think about. and it continues to do so.

so, andy talks about at least three "tests" (i don't like the word test because i think christian's generally abuse this idea) or challenges (a superior word) to a leader's vision. i'm paraphrasing, but the three challenges look like this:

a) criticism from opponents

b) circumstances that seemingly thwart the execution of the vision

c) challenges that test (that darn word again) the character of the leader

consider our present situation with this house:

a) some people have questioned (criticized) our ability to raise funds, finish grad school, start a ministry, and buy and rehab an old house, all in the same year (they do have a good point...but these are challenges that can be met)

b) various circumstances have attempted to thwart our progress on this project: finding a place in our price range that could accommodate our vision, communicating between three or more parties, delays, extensions of deadlines, the finagling and haggling over numbers on quote sheets, the ending of leases and finding interim housing, the saving and budgeting of funds, i could go on and on with this category...

c) lying to the bank about income that may or may not magically appear in our bank account in the near future.

as you can see, category C is a little different than the other ones. could i really live for ten years in a house that i acquired based on a lie? my answer to that is no.

andy would say that the challenges in categories a and b could be met in various ways, but if you don't pass category c, well then you don't have a whole lot to offer as a leader. moral authority, he calls it. don't do anything to sacrifice it, no matter the price (and i can give you a dollar amount).

this is a difficult lesson to learn.