Leading With a Limp

Years ago I had the pleasure of seeing Dan Allender speak before a group of men. He is unassuming on stage. He does not gesticulate, he does not roam around working the crowd, he does not vary his pitch from a whisper to a shout to prove his point like other pastors do. Instead he sits mildly on a stool, hands in lap, neck craned toward the microphone and yet he is the most engaging, edge-of-your-seat, can't-wait-to-hear-what's-next speaker I have ever seen. He is a masterful storyteller with a dry wit and impeccable comedic timing. He had us rolling in laughter one minute then still in reverent silence the next. Several of the stories and principles he shared with us that day stay with me even years later.

With this memory of him in my mind I gladly borrowed "Leading with a Limp" (2006) from a friend. (by borrow I mean I said to my friend while in his office, "this looks good, can I read it?" as I placed it in my bag over a year ago...sorry Russell, you'll get it back shortly)

Dr. Allender uses his storytelling abilities and adventures as the president of Mars Hill Graduate School to add life experience to the idea of leadership. His premise is that unlike what we see on TV and imagine in our minds the greatest leaders are the ones who fully embrace their weaknesses and are blazingly, unashamedly open about it with their family, staff, friends and colleagues.

He uses a grid that shows the typical challenges of a leader and the typical ineffective responses.

The responses are: Cowardice   Rigidity   Narcissism   Hiding   Fatalism
The challenges are
 Crisis
Complexity
Betrayal
Loneliness
Weariness

He says that a leader will experience all of these challenges. Depending on the kind of man/woman he is he/she will be tempted to respond to varying degrees of the above mentioned responses. The good leader will consciously choose to respond with the following instead:

Effective solutions: Courage   Depth   Gratitude   Openness   Hope
Now imagine all the Bold lettered words in a grid with the responses on the horizontal axis and the challenges on the vertical axis.

Using personal stories and examples from the Bible Dr. Allender takes the reader through the challenges of leadership and shows how we can choose courage over cowardice, depth over rigidty, gratitude over narcissism, openness over hiding and hope over fatalism. I was personally challenged by his insights and admonitions throughout the book and was forced to reflect on myself and my leadership tendencies both as a husband, a father, a friend and a co-worker. Do I respond with courage or cowardice? Do I respond with hope or fatalism?

The book was not a gripping read and some chapters seemed unnecessary, but overall it was an excellent answer to the typical "Be Better, Smarter, Effectiver*, Awesomer* Leader Just By Reading My $20 Book". Allender shows us that God's way is often the opposite of our ways. Rather than looking for appearance he looks for character (Saul/David), rather than looking for results and numbers as criterion for a leader he looks for the meek and mild (Gideon). Rather than defeating Satan as a conquering hero with an army at his back he came as a baby and died a condemnable death. God's ways and means of leading are quite different from ours. Allender's admonition is that we embrace that way, embrace our limp, stop hiding and begin living and leading as God made us, warts and all.

I would say read this, especially if you've read one too many books on leadership and are looking for something different.

(* These are not real words)

A Tale of Two Cities

A Book Review of "A Tale of Two Cities"

Usually when people find out that I was an English major they ask who my favorite author is. I hem and haw and name a few safe bets like Dostoevsky, Hemingway or O’Conner, because really, I don’t have a favorite. It’s like asking who is your favorite friend or which sibling do you like more - I can’t pick just one. Then the next question is usually, “what about Charles Dickens?” My typical response is “I don’t care for him much; his economy of words is rather superfluous.” Which is a pedantic way of saying that he is too wordy for me.

That position has changed since reading a Tale of Two Cities. He is still wordy - that has not changed - but the story makes the verbosity bearable. My wife read it a year ago and really enjoyed it. Another friend who has pretty good taste in books told me it was her favorite and even now after having read it several times she still cries at certain parts of the book. With those two recommendations in mind I decided to approach it with an open mind.

The fun thing about reading a classic like Tale of Two Cities is that despite it being written 150 years ago, it is still a page turner and tugs on the heart strings. I found my heart beating in suspense several times throughout and a couple of times I felt that odd lump in my throat that I think causes people to cry.

The story - like all good stories - is one of loss, redemption, triumph, defeat and the testing of one’s character in such situations. If it were published now it would probably be accused of being filled with cliches and unrealistic dialogue. Yet, those are defining characteristics of the Romantic and Victorian Periods, hence it was a hit in it’s heyday.

Dickens uses the cities Paris and London and the main characters Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton as a juxtaposition to form the base from which the story lines unfold. Paris is the volatile hornets’ nest before, during and after the French Revolution. London is the peaceful yet sometimes oppressive contradiction. Darnay is the French nobleman who has renounced his position to live modestly in England while Carton is the brilliant yet self-destructive English barrister. 

The story unfolds over the course of many years and minor characters who seemed an oddity at the beginning come back to make all the difference in the world later on. Dickens plots the story like the master story-teller he is known for. What begins in whispers crescendos to clamor. Shifty characters met in dark alleys and noblemen presented regally swirl together then drift apart then again together like leaves tumbling down a river. 

What I enjoyed most was his use of light and darkness to change tones in the story and his use of scripture to anchor the final act. The verse quoted is probably one of a few that the character knows, yet he clings to it with his life. As he marches through the final chapters the quoting of scripture grows louder, stronger, more confident in the character’s voice and it becomes clear what he is planning. I won’t give it away by quoting it. However, Dickens’s use of scripture and application to the character helped me to turn the experience of reading the story from one of entertainment to one of worship. Dickens’s tale became for me a dim reflection of the beautiful thing God did for his people. 

If you are looking for a classic that will entertain and bring you back to a different time and a different world I fully recommend a Tale of Two Cities. Sure, Dickens is wordy and a bit preachy, but that’s part of the experience of reading something from that era. The excitement, triumph and humanity of his story is what is timeless. This should definitely be on your list of books to read before you die.

Unbroken

Unbroken

Last summer I asked my friends for a book recommendation on facebook and the majority of people who wrote back said that Unbroken was an amazing read. My wife had spent a large part of our vacation reading it so I was intrigued by its story and the bits and pieces she had relayed to me in her excitement. My friends and my wife once again came through in a great way – Unbroken really is an excellent book.

For those of you who haven’t heard the story yet or browsed the pages of it here is a basic synopsis.

Louis Zamperini is a rebellious kid growing up in southern California in the 30s. The son of Italian immigrants he is different, tough, and picked on a good bit. He’s also fast and extremely strong-willed. Meanwhile his older brother Pete is the golden boy of the high school. A good-looking, smooth-talking track star everyone knows him and loves and wonders why his kid brother is nothing like him. But Pete sees potential in his brother and begins to channel his strong will and natural speed into something that will change his life forever. Under Pete’s tutelage Louis becomes a track and field sensation in southern California and begins to break more records than noses.

His athletic prowess takes him places he could never have dreamed of as a child. He participated and performed well in the 1936 olympics. Eventually he set his sights on the Summer Olympics of 1940 with the realistic hopes of taking home the gold. This is where the story takes a turn and becomes even more unbelievable.

He joins the Army Air Corps shortly after Pearl Harbor and becomes a bomber. His strong will and fun-loving, devil-may-care attitude make for a great officer and friend in the Air Corps. After several missions, near-misses and heart pounding stories Louis’ military career seems almost legendary. That is until his plane goes down in the pacific and he and two other officers are set adrift on two small rafts with no food, no water and a sliver of hope for rescue.

From Olympic glory to a Japanese prison camp to the unlikely but amazing denouement Louis Zamperini’s story is that of a man who was unbroken. I found myself staying up later and later each night wondering what on earth could happen next to him that would be a better story than what had just happened. The author, Laura Hillenbrand, tells the story so naturally that the reader is mesmerized. Her voice is that of an articulate, aged member of the greatest generation sitting at a camp fire retelling the stories that defined them. In a time when our world is deeply divided on several issues and the men and women we’ve placed our hope in to be our heroes do nothing but disappoint us Unbroken tells the story of a unlikely, rebellious kid who becomes a hero simply because he refused to give in.

It is a thoroughly American story with a hero, a villain, a girl to rescue, a cause to fight for, narrow escapes, moral victories and a happy ending. Perhaps that’s why I liked it so much and why so many of my friends liked it. If you’re looking for a good summer read and haven’t read this yet, then go get it.

Book Review: The Fields of the Fatherless by C. Thomas Davis

God makes it abundantly clear in the Bible that he cares deeply for the alien, the orphan and the widow. His love and zeal for the justice of those that live on the margins of society resonates throughout both the Old and the New Testament. 

Unfortunately, many Christians today don’t look at the margins of society. The marginalized don’t go to their churches, they don’t work with them or play little league with their kids. To many Christians the least of these are unseen and unnoticed. Sure, when asked many Christians will say they are concerned for the poor and want them to be helped, but they just don’t know how they themselves can help. 

This is the connection that Tom Davis seeks to make in his book The Fields of the Fatherless: Discover the Joy of Compassionate Living. Far from a scathing critique on the lack of social action in the church today Davis’ book is more a gentle introduction between one person who can help and another who needs it. 

Davis begins by comparing concern for the poor (a.k.a. social justice) to discovering a hidden treasure that was right under your nose. He tells the reader to imagine that the book is “a treasure map that unlocks a marvelous treasure chest of truth about what matters most to God - and should matter most to us.”

He begins with showing the biblical mandates to care for the alien, the orphan and the widow and the Old Testament promise of blessing (not necessarily material blessing) that comes from it. He then shows us real life stories of the fatherless today. They are the single-mother next door working her hardest to make ends meet, the widow/widower at church who just lost her/his spouse of 40 years, the unruly boy in your child’s class who gets passed from one foster home to the next, the orphan in the orphanages around the world, the migrant worker looking for work at Home Depot or the lonely foreign exchange student looking for a taste of home. The fields of the fatherless are all around us, we just don’t know they are there.

Davis then gives some practical steps we can all take to reach out to the least of these that are in need of help. Steps like volunteering to be a foster parent, helping out at a soup kitchen, running errands for a single-mom or writing letters to orphans. He recommends a few ministries to get in touch with as a means of practicality. The rest of the book is filled in with principles for serving the poor and personal stories of heartache and hope to educate and inspire.

The writing style wasn’t superb and I was curious about the basis for some of his finer points about God’s promised blessings (I’ve been reading a lot of Larry Crabb recently so that might have influenced it). The book left me wanting for more; whether it was a simple challenge to do this, this and this or a notion that what he is positing is achievable.

Overall I would say it is worth the read. It’s not an exhaustive approach to social justice or a manifesto on how to save the world as Christians, nor is it about proper ethical positions toward the poor. It is a focused and compassionate appeal to Christians to look up and see that there is a harvest field of orphans waiting to be cared for and loved by those whom God has spiritually adopted himself. I was inspired by it and thought constantly throughout the book about what I could do and was encouraged and challenged towards the end to remember that I was spiritually an orphan and yet God took me in and loved me even though I seemed unloveable at first.

Recommendation: Read it.

A Better Hope for a Serious Man

One of the marks of a good movie is that days after seeing it questions about it remain with me. I’ll be doing the dishes and just as suddenly as that microwaved cheese stuck to my plate is scraped away the mental pathway of artistic clarity opens up and an epiphany will strike me. Or I’ll be in the shower washing what remains of my once full head of hair and I’ll ask under my breath “is that what that scene meant?”

Recently I watched a Coen brothers film entitled “A Serious Man”. When it was over my friend and wife and I contemplated its meaning and were lost for words, there seemed to be no real meaning to the film. I asked the world of facebook for its thoughts and heard nothing except for a lone, distant “like”.

The movie is set in the 1960s in suburban Minnesota. The Protagonist, Larry Gopnik, is a Jewish physics professor who suddenly sees his world imploding around him. Every relationship in his life is suddenly and suffocatingly strained. One thing after the other begins to crumble and his life is seemingly headed toward ruins. In a panic he goes to the local Rabbis and his lawyer for counsel. He talks to one and then the other but their counsel is more confusing and depressing than helpful.

As the story unfolds and the hope of redemption slims he asks angrily “Why is this happening? I have tried my whole life to be a serious man. I am a serious man, why is God doing this to me?” I won’t give away the denouement, but I will say that the directors do an excellent job of asking the question “why do bad things happen to good, or at least decent, people?” However, in typical Coen brothers fashion they don’t give an answer, just a mischievous wink.

A few weeks later I was reading through the book of Job. As I was reading it my mind flashed back to various scenes of “A Serious Man”. When I read about Job sitting in sackcloth and ashes bewailing his situation while his misguided but concerned friends looked on I saw the scene where the man who is trying to steal Larry’s wife is also trying to comfort him. Then I read about Job defending himself and saying “I haven’t done anything wrong, if I had then let punishment come, but I haven’t, I promise.” That’s when I saw Larry proclaiming he is a serious man to his Rabbi. Yet again, Job laments that God is not even hearing his complaints, he is castaway, floating in an ocean of accusation with no accuser to confront him. I read this and I saw Larry practically pulling his hair out yelling “How can he ask us to field these questions if he doesn’t give us any answers?!”

In the book of Job and the film both characters ask why bad has befallen them if they have done nothing wrong. They both believe that there is an unspoken contract with God that if they do A then God gives them B. If I am moral then I live a comfortable life. If I’m good to my family then I will have a happy family. If I follow your rules, God, you are obliged to provide for me as I wish. This is the law in linearity...and it leads only to disappointment.

I’ve also been reading the thoughts of a different Larry. Larry Crabb. The ideas in his book “The Pressure’s Off” have begun to resonate more clearly with the images of the film in my mind and the sympathetic emotions I feel for Job in my heart. The thesis of Crabb’s book is that we think that God operates on the law of linearity, but this not so, God is calling us not to a better life, but to a better hope.

Crabb points to the new covenant proclaimed by Christ. It used to be that as long as God’s people obeyed his commands (the Law) then he would bless them. As New Testament readers we understand now that the Law was put in place to show that none of us could ever live up to its standards, we would always fall short. Therefore, when Jesus came, lived life perfectly under the law, then was sacrificed on behalf of a people who could not live perfectly under that law, he ushered in a new era, an era that points to a better hope, rather than a better life. Hebrews 7:18-19 tells us that “On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.”

God is saying he is not as concerned with us being happy as he is with us knowing him. Yes, he wants to give us good gifts - he is a good father after all - but the greatest gift he gives is himself, and that is the better hope.

Job complained because the law of linearity states that he lived well, gave generously and was a good father and husband, therefore he deserved a good life.

Larry Gopnik complained because the law of linearity (and as a physics professor he knows that laws are logical and cannot be contradicted) states that by all accounts he is a serious man and should not be suffering the way he is.

I complain because I try to be a good man but things often don’t go my way and my life is not the one of bliss, triumph and far-reaching effective ministry I believed it would be when I signed up for ministry. I’ve done all the training, completed all the steps, did what needed to be done yet I’m still unsatisfied and restless.

Why? Is it because I, like Job and Larry Gopnik, believe that God owes me? Is it because maybe I love God for his stuff rather than for himself? Is it because I’m like the prodigal son and want my father’s inheritance more than I want my father’s presence?

The promise of a better hope is something that is missed in “A Serious Man”. The ending is unclear as to whether it is a comedy or tragedy, and God remains a mysterious, unknowably powerful force. He is that indeed, but he is nearer than he is farther and this truth is hidden in the book of Job. At the end of Job’s lament, after God asks him where he was when the world was made Job realizes his place before the Lord. God responds to him, not with an answer, but with his presence, and that is enough for him.

I wonder what this new way of living would look like for Larry Gopnik. I wonder what it looks like for me.

p.s. I recommend both Larry Crabb's book and the Coen brothers' movie, though parents be warned this isn't a movie to show the kids, it's rated R for a reason.