Another Roadtrip

We are in for Branson, Mo for the weekend. A nice drive to visit some friends, hit a great church at Telos Bible Church on Sunday and a meeting at the Kanakuk Institute on Monday. Only regret is that we are not going to be able to spend more time with the men and women attending the Institute this year.

Oh, well. You cannot have it all, all the time.

As usual, I am enjoying a road trip, it seems to be my favorite mode of travel these days. We have the CD series, The Best of Prof, to listen to. It is a collection of talks by Howard Hendricks, collected over 50+ years of bible teaching by one of the best. Really looking forward to spending a few hours with the Prof on the road.

Flat Stanley is also coming with us. He arrived from our great-niece in Virginia for some time in Texas, and he gets a bonus trip out to Branson as well.

So, a lot planned for a short road trip. But we are looking forward to it.

Knowing, Listening and Following

My wife gave me great advice today, let go of my ideas about my education and ministry and just let God take me there. Smart woman. ( To paraphrase Howard Hendricks, I married so far above my station it is immoral).I have been struggling the past few days, getting ahead of myself, getting behind myself and sometimes just getting in my own way.

Sometimes our greater strengths are our greatest weakness. I am very organized, I have things planned out to the nth degree (at least in my mind-which can be a terrible place to be). Projects, meetings and the like neatly platted onto the calendar of my mind. Oh, so organized and in control. Uh huh.

And then stuff happens and things do not go according to my carefully laid plans (of which I am both mouse and man). At these times I can be like a broken machine, trying to perform the programmed function or activity, but things are not lining up like I planned them too. Picture the movie scene ( I think it was in Back to the Future) where the breakfast is set up to make itself. But there is spilled coffee on the counter, a pile of burnt toast on the floor and a whole mess of broken eggs everywhere. The pity is that I know, deep down in my core, that it does not have to be that way. I know it.

I need to let God move me at His pace, not at mine. I need to listen more for His loving voice in my life. Somehow I got very hard of hearing this week. I need to recharge, reset myself, listen and follow His lead. Why is it so hard some days to do that? It isn't like my plans are actually a viable alternative to His. I know that as well.

May it start today.

The Leader Board

Yesterday I had the privilege and opportunity to attend the latest session of The Leader Board. These 5 half day sessions are an excellent chance to get some great bible teaching as well as hear from Christian business leaders.

This latest session included:

• Bible Study - Dr. Howard Hendricks led us through Titus 3:1-15 covering three aspects of a Christian's life style. The Christian's Obligation, Motivation and Reaction to life.

• Keynote Speaker - Carlos Sepulveda, President & CEO of Interstate Battery System International gave a great talk on personal and team effectiveness beginning with the individual. He gave us much food for thought: there are no business ethics, just ethics, why do some people not have them?; all of life is two activities-resource allocation and conflict resolution; you should pursue and lay hold of that which is good and identify and flee that which is bad. I do not do his talk justice.

• Panel-Along with Carlos Sepulveda, Andy Horner (Founder-Premier Designs, Inc.), Lee Roy Mitchell (Founder-Cinemark USA Inc.) and Dave Ridley (SVP, Southwest Airlines) handled a Q&A regarding such things like living a Chrisitan walk in business, managing and coaching people, and learning from biggest failures. The panel had some great ideas: God call us to love people unconditionally, not emply them unconditionally; You build up people, they build up the company; Blarney is taking something uninteresting and making it interesting, my mother called it lying.
  

There was ample break time and breakfast beforehand for networking. I enjoyed it thoroughly, I hope I get to go again in 2009.