Rest and Relaxation
I’m taking a break from this weekly blog for rest, relaxation, and restoration.
When was the last time you had a break from your routines?
Here’s a hint at what I’m probably doing while you are reading this….
Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley
Taking the Mystery out of Leadership
Archive for the tag “leadership thinking”
The 24 Hours of Life
The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Moses – Psalm 90:10,12
Some time ago I was meditating on these verses and thinking about the length of life. It is but a mist that appears for a short time and then vanishes (see James 4:14). To help me gain some perspective I created the chart below and review it regularly. It helps remind me of my mortality and of the brevity of life. It is a comparison of a seventy-year life span to a 24 hour day.
At 66 years of age (I was born in 1951) you can see that the vast majority of my life is now in the rear-view mirror. This does not mean that life is over, for no one knows their span of years. But whether it be seventy years, eighty years or more, we are to ‘number our days’ and make the most of them for His glory.
Reflect on these things and make the most of every opportunity. For this life will soon be past and only what is done for Christ will last.
YEAR AGE TIME YEAR AGE TIME
1952 1 00.20 1987 36 12.20
1953 2 00.41 1988 37 12.41
1954 3 01.02 1989 38 13.02
1955 4 01.23 1990 39 13.23
1956 5 01.43 1991 40 13.43
1957 6 02.03 1992 41 14.03
1958 7 02.24 1993 42 14.24
1959 8 02.45 1994 43 14.45
1960 9 03.05 1995 44 15.05
1961 10 03.25 1996 45 15.25
1962 11 03.46 1997 46 15.46
1963 12 04.06 1998 47 16.06
1964 13 04.27 1999 48 16.27
1965 14 04.48 2000 49 16.48
1966 15 05.09 2001 50 17.09
1967 16 05.29 2002 51 17.29
1968 17 05.50 2003 52 17.50
1969 18 06.10 2004 53 18.10
1970 19 06.31 2005 54 18.31
1971 20 06.51 2006 55 18.51
1972 21 07.12 2007 56 19.12
1973 22 07.32 2008 57 19.32
1974 23 07.53 2009 58 19.53
1975 24 08.14 2010 59 20.14
1976 25 08.35 2011 60 20.35
1977 26 08.55 2012 61 20.55
1978 27 09.15 2013 62 21.15
1979 28 09.36 2014 63 21.36
1980 29 09.57 2015 64 21.57
1981 30 10.17 2016 65 22.17
1982 31 10.38 2017 66 22.38
1983 32 10.58 2018 67 22.58
1984 33 11.19 2019 68 23.19
1985 34 11.39 2020 69 23.39
1986 35 12.00 2021 70 24.00
The Learning Cycle Applied – 3
Experience is not the best teacher. It is evaluated experience that makes for truly developmental learning. For those of us who seek to intentionally develop others, especially leaders, helping them to evaluate their experiences will maximize the developmental opportunity.
David A. Kolb, an American educational theorist, captured a model on how adults learn. Later Peter Honey and Alan Mumford adapted model for use with a population of middle/senior managers in business. Here is their Learning Cycle with minor adaptations.
The Adult Learning Cycle
4 Phases of the Adult Learning Cycle
- Experience – The circumstances, people, responsibilities and opportunities that make up the reality of life.
- Reflection – People need to reflect on their experiences. Questions need to be asked about what happened and why it happened.
- Conclusion – Having reflected, the learner draws conclusions that form applications for future activity.
- Application – Applications form the basis of ongoing activities and experience.
Too often busy leaders fail to stop and reflect adequately upon their leadership experiences. One of a leader developer’s tools for helping others is the ability to cause busy leaders to stop long enough to adequately reflect upon their experiences. We do this by asking them questions. Becoming a good questioner is key to helping other adults learn from their experiences. But many fail to probe another’s experience by failing to ask. Why?
One of the greatest obstacles to overcome is the desire to talk about yourself and your own experiences. This self-centeredness flows from an inflated ego and an assumption that my experiences are more important than yours. We can ramble on and on about ourselves without seeming to take a breath and the listener, though hopefully polite, has really not benefited. You may feel good about the time, but it is a wasted opportunity for them to reflect upon their own experience because you lacked the self-control to shut up about yourself and listen to them.
Jesus asked hundreds of questions to those around Him, especially The Twelve leaders in training. Not one time was He asking for information! It was all for their benefit.
So, are you a ‘teller’ or an ‘asker?’ How you answer can determine how well you develop other leaders.
The Learning Cycle Applied – Five Questions for Reflection – 2
Experience is not the best teacher. It is evaluated experience that makes for truly developmental learning. For those of us who seek to intentionally develop others, especially leaders, helping them to evaluate their experiences will maximize the developmental opportunity.
David A. Kolb, an American educational theorist, captured a model on how adults learn. Later Peter Honey and Alan Mumford adapted model for use with a population of middle/senior managers in business. Here is their Learning Cycle with minor adaptations.
The Adult Learning Cycle
4 Phases of the Adult Learning Cycle
- Experience – The circumstances, people, responsibilities and opportunities that make up the reality of life.
- Reflection – People need to reflect on their experiences. Questions need to be asked about what happened and why it happened.
- Conclusion – Having reflected, the learner draws conclusions that form applications for future activity.
- Application – Applications form the basis of ongoing activities and experience.
Too often busy leaders fail to stop and reflect adequately upon their leadership experiences. One of a leader developer’s tools for helping others is the ability to cause busy leaders to stop long enough to adequately reflect upon their experiences. We do this by asking them questions. Becoming a good questioner is key to helping other adults learn from their experiences. Here are five of my favorite questions to ask leaders about a recent leadership experience.
- What did you learn about yourself from this experience?
- What did about your God from this experience?
- What did you learn about leadership from this experience?
- If you were to repeat this experience, what would you do again and why?
- If you were to repeat this experience, what would you not do again and why?
These simple questions will cause a person to stop and think carefully about their life and leadership and help them arrive at good conclusions. They ‘why’ part of the final two questions is most insightful as it helps us understand their reasoning and values.
So, are you a ‘teller’ or an ‘asker?’ How you answer can determine how well you develop other adults.
The Learning Cycle Applied to Leader Development – 1
Experience is not the best teacher. It is evaluated experience that makes for truly developmental learning. For those of us who seek to intentionally develop others, especially leaders, helping them to evaluate their experiences will maximize the developmental opportunity.
David A. Kolb (born 1939) is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning, the individual and social change, and career development. He was first to identify this model of how adults learn. In the mid 1970’s Peter Honey and Alan Mumford adapted David Kolb’s model for use with a population of middle/senior managers in business. They published their version of the model in The Manual of Learning Styles (1982) and Using Your Learning Styles (1983). Here is their Learning Cycle with minor adaptations.
The Adult Learning Cycle
4 Phases of the Adult Learning Cycle
- Experience – The circumstances, people, responsibilities and opportunities that make up the reality of life.
- Reflection – People need to reflect on their experiences. Questions need to be asked about what happened and why it happened.
- Conclusion – Having reflected, the learner draws conclusions that form applications for future activity.
- Application – Applications form the basis of ongoing activities and experience.
Too often busy leaders fail to stop and reflect adequately upon their leadership experiences. They complete one responsibility and ten more await their immediate attention. They move forward with impressions from past experiences, but not having taken the time to reflect well, these impressions are half-formed thoughts or wrong conclusions that then lead to even poorer applications.
One of a leader developer’s tools for helping others is the ability to help busy leaders to stop long enough to adequately reflect upon their experiences. We do this by asking them questions. Becoming a good questioner is key to helping other adults learn from their experiences.
So, are you a ‘teller’ or an ‘asker?’ How you answer can determine how well you develop other adults.
Curse God and Die!
Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:8-10
Job and his wife had suffered the tragic death of their children, the destruction of their home and wealth, and now Job was afflicted with oozing sores over his entire body. Oh, the heartache!
It seems like it all was too much for his wife. Her anger laden invective to him was simply, “Curse God and die!” How sad! How depressing! How real!
As he sat on a pile of broken pottery shards, Job scraped at his sores and reflected upon his lot in life. Certainly it was not a journey that he would have chosen. Certainly he would have desired that it never had happened in the first place.
But tragedy had befallen him and his house. And now he must reason. The inner man cries out for an answer to, “Why?” But Job was not a typical man. His simple statement of faith and trust was this, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
It’s easy to thank God when life goes well. We express grateful hearts for his mercy and goodness to us. But, what about when things are not so good? Can we thank Him when life does not feel good or seems anything but good? Job did. And we can follow his example as well.
Last year we suffered with our young granddaughter as she was diagnosed with kidney cancer and then endured 8 months of chemotherapy. There were some dark days on that part of our journey. But God in His mercy restored her. This April we suffered the sudden death of our first-born, Michael at the age of 40. There continues to be a sense of great loss and missing him.
But today we say by faith – we trust Him who is the Blessed Controller. Nothing that touches us is outside of His good and perfect will for us. By faith we say we trust Him and all that He has done. We do not trust our own feelings, logic, or demand that He explain Himself. For His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. (see Isaiah 55:8-9).
The Lord is our strength, our shield, and our defender. He comforts the grieving and gives hope to the discouraged. We trust Him!
Have the lines fallen to you in pleasant places? Rejoice!
Have the lines fallen in difficult places? Trust!
Dependence or Independence?
“And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
In Congress July 4, 1776
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…
Tomorrow is the celebration of Independence Day in America – when America’s Founding Fathers declared the 13 colonies’ independence from Great Britain. For Americans this day reminds us of our country’s heritage and the fact that many risked and sacrificed much for the freedom that we now enjoy.
But for those who claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ there is no personal independence day. Rather we celebrate our total, moment-by-moment dependence upon Him. For God does not want independent children. He wants dependent ones.
Independence is a mark of standing upon your own two feet – saying that you are capable of governing your own life without the guidance or help of others. This type of attitude is found in the world, but not in the Kingdom. For citizens of the Kingdom of God know that we are Created beings who draw our very breath because our Creator wills it. We are constantly leaning into Him who made us for strength, help, protection, guidance, and provision to live each day.
Therefore, we boast in our weakness, for then the power of Christ is evident in our lives (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). This attitude is counter-intuitive to the world’s values. The reality of our dependence on Him causes us to celebrate for He is faithful and will never leave us.
So, how is your attitude towards Him who made you?
Your Reactions are Showing
Sometimes that click you hear under your foot really is a landmine!
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6 NIV 1984
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… 1 Peter 3:15 NIV 1984
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV 1984
How many times have you done or said something that you think immediately afterwards – Oh, no! Ooops! Wish I could rewind that tape! Thinking before you speak or act is a mark of maturity and self-control. It is a sign of Kingdom wisdom.
The authority that leaders carry by position or reputation can leave behind wreckage in the lives of many if we are not careful in how we act or speak. While we have the right to have thoughts and opinions about all things, it is not wise to share or act upon them without first realizing the potential impact on those around us. You will be imitated and quoted!
I’m not talking about political correctness here. There are times when Kingdom leaders must stand for what is right and go against the cultural tide. What I’m referring to are the unfiltered, knee-jerk responses that unintentionally wound others simply because we don’t stop to think before we act or speak. Someone put it this way, “Your reactions are showing!”
Paul’s exhortations to us in the passages above are to, “be wise,” “be prepared,” and “be very careful” with respect to our speech and actions, especially as we relate to an unbelieving world. We would do well to heed these reminders.
How are your recent interactions with others – family, team members, or outsiders?
Are your reactions showing?
It Is Well With My Soul
Horatio Spafford had known peaceful and happy days as a successful attorney in Chicago. He was the father of four daughters, an active member of the Presbyterian Church, and a loyal friend and supporter of D. L. Moody and other evangelical leaders of his day. Then, a series of calamities began, starting with the great Chicago fire of 1871 which wiped out the family’s extensive real estate investments. When Mr. Moody and his music associate, Ira Sankey, left for Great Britain for an evangelistic campaign, Spafford decided to lift the spirits of his family by taking them on a vacation to Europe. He also planned to assist in the Moody-Sankey meetings there.
In November, 1873, Spafford was detained by urgent business, but he sent his wife and four daughters as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Harve, planning to join them soon. Halfway across the Atlantic, the ship was struck by an English vessel and sank in 12 minutes. All four of the Spafford daughters—Tanetta, Maggie, Annie and Bessie—were among the 226 who drowned. Mrs. Spafford was among the few who were miraculously saved.
Horatio Spafford stood hour after hour on the deck of the ship carrying him to rejoin his sorrowing wife in Cardiff, Wales. When the ship passed the approximate place where his precious daughters had drowned, Spafford received sustaining comfort from God that enabled him to write, “When sorrows like sea billows roll … It is well with my soul.” What a picture of our hope! [1]
Author: Horatio G. Spafford
Composer: Philip P. Bliss
Tune: Ville Du Havre (Bliss)
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like the sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
‘It is well with my soul.’
Tho’ Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious tho’t!—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
‘Even so,’ it is well with my soul.
Chorus It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Yes…. it is well with my soul! How is your soul state today?
[1] Osbeck, K. W. (1996). Amazing grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (p. 202). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
Living Peaceful and Quiet Lives
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thes. 4:11-12 NIV 1984
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim. 2:1-4 NIV 1984
Paul urges us to aim to live peaceful, quiet lives that shine as beacons of godliness and holiness to an unbelieving world around us. For this to happen, we must be prayerfully interceding for kings (political leaders) and those in authority that the Lord might grant us favor in their eyes. For, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases (Proverbs 21:1).
It is interesting to note that in Thessalonica and Ephesus Paul had caused riots and civil upheaval. It was for the sake of the gospel that he was in these cities and we also note that in both cases it was not Paul who instigated the disturbances. It was the enemies of the gospel who stirred up the crowds, drawing the responses from the civil leaders. See Acts 17:1-9 and Acts 19:23ff.
Paul did not want this type of upheaval to be perceived as ‘normal’ for those following Christ in the respective cities. Rather, the goal, as he reminded them, was to live peaceful and quiet lives; living such counter-cultural lives that they would win the respect of those who did not yet know Christ.
Our turbulent times call for us to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). And in the midst of this turmoil, we are to be praying for our political and civil authorities – asking that the Lord would cause them to show us kindness and favor. The result will be the advancement of the Kingdom and the gospel in the lives of many.
Are you praying for those in authority over you?
Tom Yeakley
Developing Kingdom Leaders - Tom Yeakley 