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The Inescapable Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life Every leader will spend seasons of life wandering in the wilderness. It’s inevitable and inescapable. There are no exceptions… The wilderness. Barren, empty, lifeless, colorless, solitary, unending hard sand, rock outcroppings, and rugged mountains. Hot in the day, cold at night. Far from the action, from the crowds, from life and what matters. Yet, in the Bible, the wilderness is the place where the action is, where the holy God shows up, where leaders are called, a nation is formed, and a Savior prepared. It is the place of spiritual warfare, the…
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The Sacred Wilderness
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life The wilderness is God’s original temple, His personal dwelling place where He called His followers out to meet Him and be in His presence. It was in the wilderness that God called and commissioned Moses; it was in the wilderness that God gave the Ten Commandments; it was in the wilderness that God formed Israel; it was in the wilderness that God designed and guided Moses to create the tabernacle; it was in the wilderness that God disciplined His people to serve Him and to represent Him among the nations; it was…
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Wilderness Wanderings 2016
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings 2016: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life Happy New Year and welcome to Broken Leadership, the blog of Leader Formation International (LFI). My name is Bill Lawrence, founder and president of LFI, and I want to take a moment to greet you and inform you concerning our early 2016 blog plans. I want to write a series of blogs on the subject Wilderness Wanderings: when a zigzag line is the shortest distance between futility and fruition. If you’re in any kind of leadership position, whether business or professional, educational or governmental, or—the most important—parental, you surely have wondered at times…
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Starting Over
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken January 1, 2016. A new year and a new start. Celebrations and all that fun. Resolutions and all that jazz. Bowl games and all that pizazz. A new slate and all that hope. But what do we do with everything we’ve written on the slate of 2015? Does it all just go away? What if 2015 was a wilderness year for you as it was for me in some ways? The wilderness. Barren, empty, lifeless, colorless, solitary, unending hard sand, rock outcroppings, and rugged mountains. Hot in the day, cold at night. Far from the action, from the crowds, from life and…
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How to Glorify God at School (Part Two)
Last year—at about this time—I wrote about Anna starting junior high and how students can glorify God at school. You can read about it here. What about us as parents? What about those of us who anticipate challenges that will in no doubt bring trials, problems and difficult situations at school? Every year I meet with Anna’s new teachers to talk to them about LVAS, the FM system and the struggles my hard-of-hearing student will have in their class. No matter how much I try to prepare them, problems always arise. It never fails. For us, starting a new school year means dealing with apathetic attitudes, stares and questions. Each…
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Danger in Digital Dust
In our electronic world of texts and instagram, conversation tends to get left in the digital dust. Condensing relationships to tweets and texts often shortcuts the heartfelt encouragement or support of friendship. Yet this is the world we live in and simply dismissing or dissing it doesn't truly address practical reality. Can we capture the convenience of instant communication and couple it with the deep realization that conversations matter because people matter? In the past several weeks two friends entered eternity unexpectedly and I was reminded again that only two things last forever: people and the word of God. People matter to you and me and to God. How we…
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Blind Spots
Check your rearview mirror. Look over your shoulder. Signal. Every time we climb into the car, these simple rules from Drivers Ed help us avoid blind spots and the accidents that could ensue. We all have blind spots—in driving vehicles and in navigating life. When we don't recognize these tender areas, dangerous events ensue. Tires screech. Metal scrapes. People yell. Emotions flare. Conflicts deepen. Friendships fracture. So this year—amidst a month when we make our resolutions and look for ways to grow into our better selves—I plan to address some of these tricky spots in my own life. You too? How do we recognize our blind spots and work on…
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Ducking the Duck Controversy
Bursting onto the season of “peace of earth, goodwill toward men” comes a new conflict bent to destroy the emotion of that peaceful scene. Were there even any ducks in the manger? What about you? How can we respond to this new debate in a way that represents the spirit of the Savior during this of all seasons? Several observations from my perspective: First, I am amazed at the level of biblical illiteracy revealed in this debate. Over and over, in print and image, the words of scripture are dismissed as only the homophobic opinion of Phil Robertson. One newspaper article attributed the reference to the Old Testament. If you…
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Don’t let conflict spoil your Christmas
I still remember the Christmas I let a passive-aggressive comment dampen my Christmas spirit. I made my best coconut cream pie–a Christmas family favorite. As I was slicing it up, I asked who wanted whipped cream. My husband's new step-mother answered back, "Is it real whipped cream or cool whip?" "It's real whipped cream," I responded thinking she would appreciate the extra mile. "Well," she huffed, "then I won't have any." Later I learned that this new member of our family secretly resented any woman who did not work outside the home–I was a stay-at-home mom at the time and my homemade goodies threatened her. That abrupt remark wounded…
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Purge people pleasing, and live for an audience of One
People-pleasing can mess up our lives. It can hinder our effectiveness in resolving conflict, result in burn out, and cause us to waste precious years trying to please people while ignoring what God wants us to do with our lives. Harriet Braiker defines people pleasing this way: The Disease to Please is a set of self-defeating thoughts and flawed beliefs about yourself and other people that fuel compulsive behavior that, in turn, is driven by the need to avoid forbidden, negative feelings. This triple combination of distorted thinking, compulsive behavior, and the need to…