Herman Melville Quote
Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
Herman Melville
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Jesse Jackson Quote
Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.
Jesse Jackson
Ice Breaker – Famous Look Alike
Each week on The Stretched Blog, we ask an ice breaker question. The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community. I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments. While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.
After being told that my sick day question last week wasn’t very uplifting, I thought I’d try something a little lighter this week.
Question: Have you ever been told that you look like someone famous?
My Answer: It’s been a few years since I’ve heard this, but I used to hear all the time that I looked like country music singer Vince Gill.
More recently, I’ve heard that I look like Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
There you have it – my answer. Now, it’s your turn. Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response!
Les Miserables – Unmerited Divine Assistance
A couple of weeks ago, Leanne and I went to see the latest edition of Les Miserables at our local movie theater. We’ve seen the story before – once on Broadway, once at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, and several times in various cinematic productions. We thoroughly enjoyed this version of the movie. And while some may say that seeing this movie was like turning in my man card, I would disagree. And I would recommend anyone see it for themselves.
Sure I liked the movie and what they did with the story. I think the actors did a great job – especially Anne Hathaway in the role of Fantine and Hugh Jackman in the role of Jean Valjean. The music was great. And the sets and overall cinematography helped bring the story to a whole new level.
What I liked most though about Les Miserables was the reminder of grace. The theme of grace is threaded throughout the entire story. Les Miserables reminded me that grace is undeserved, surprising, freeing, contagious, and sometimes a little confusing. According to Webster’s Dictionary, grace is defined as:
unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification, a virtue coming from God, a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
In Christian circles, grace is talked about from time to time, but I think it’s easy to forget how amazing grace really is.
We don’t deserve grace. In Romans 3:23, Paul reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our sin separates us from God. It condemns us to death. In Romans 6:23, Paul starts by saying “For the wages of sin is death.” If we stopped there, the story would be pretty grim.
The beauty is that our story doesn’t have to end there. In his letter to the Romans, Paul lays out a pretty clear argument to those who want to escape this death. Simply stated, there is hope and eternal life with Christ found for those who make Jesus Christ the leader and forgiver of their lives. At the end of Romans 6:23, it says “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” A gift. That’s what grace is about. Unmerited divine assistance.
And this is why I liked Les Miserables. The movie reminded me that like Jean Valjean, I have received an undeserved gift. I have been granted grace. We all need that gift and the reminder of grace, so we live in light of that grace each day of our lives.
When was the last time you were given something you didn’t deserve? What is/was your response to an undeserved gift? How does grace impact your daily life? Do you know the grace I’m talking about?
Love Works Wednesday Link Up Week 1
“Love isn’t a feeling but an action, an action by which leaders and entire organizations can experience almost unimaginable success and personal fulfillment.”
Joel Manby – Love Works
A couple of months ago, I read and reviewed Love Works by Joel Manby. (Click here to read my overall review). A blogging friend of mine, Bill Grandi (The Cycleguy), recently challenged readers to consider linking up with him for several weeks with posts related to this excellent leadership book. I thought I would give it a try. To read Bill’s introductory post regarding this series, click here.
For today, Bill and I (and anyone else who’s linking up with us) will be posting about the first two chapters (A Hard Day’s Night and The Jedi Masters). Check out Bill’s take by clicking here.
Since I already read the book, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of the sentences I underlined when I read the book initially:
- “I wanted, in short, to be the same person all the time: at work, with my family, at my church, and when I was alone.” (p. 21)
- “Love isn’t a feeling, but an action, an action by which leaders and entire organizations can experience almost unimaginable success and personal fulfillment.” (p.22)
- “Profits are a product of doing the right thing – over and over again.” (p. 22)
- “Leadership is about the bottom line AND…and loving the people you work with. and making your community a better place. and feeling a sense of satisfaction at the end of every day. and leading employees who can’t imagine working anywhere else…. The bottom line is best served when leaders lead with love.” (p. 23,24)
- “It’s not okay to achieve profit growth and destroy our culture as a ‘great place to work for great people.’ It is also not okay to focus on being a ‘great place to work’ without achieving our financial objectives.” (p. 29)
- “For the culture to survive, it must be defined AND adhered to or the organization could lose its way.” (p. 29)
- “Treating someone with love regardless of how you feel about that person is a very powerful principle.” (p. 31)
- “Agape love is the foundation for the best and noblest relationships that humans are capable of. It is deliberate and unconditional love that is the result of choices and behaviors rather than feelings and emotions.” (p. 32)
I am a leader. I’m definitely in a leadership position in my company as an operations manager. My team members include project managers, engineers, technicians, union pipe fitters, and miscellaneous support staff. I’m in various leadership roles in my church. I’m a youth leader, I co-lead a small group with my wife, and I lead a Foundations class once or twice a year. I’m in a leadership position at home. As a parent, my wife and I have the responsibility to lead our children.
Leadership is an interesting thing. It takes energy, thought, and action. When you hear the word leadership, what comes to your mind? Power? Fame? Notoriety? Influence? Wisdom? Many words probably come to mind, but love is not the word we usually think of when we hear the word leadership. However, when you see how Joel Manby frames love and leadership in the first two chapters and in the quotes above, you get the sense that love is essential in order for leadership to be truly successful.
As we kick-off Love Works Wednesday, I want to challenge you to think about your leadership from a whole new perspective. Whether you lead in the business world, the church world, or in another pocket of the world, try leading with love. Not love the feeling, but with love the action. Lead in a way that puts other first. Lead in a way that represents how you’d honestly like to be treated by others. Over the next eight weeks, Bill and I will continue to explore love based leadership. I hope you’ll read along, jump into the comments, and maybe even change the way you lead. Until then, consider getting a copy of Love Works for yourself, and see how this book might change you and your leadership.
What is one thing you can do differently this week to lead people with more love than before? How you have you been led with leadership by others?
Guatemala Update: What’s The Big Deal About Lunch?
Last week, I shared about our upcoming trip to Xenacoj (see last week’s post titled, Another Leap of Faith). I also shared about an opportunity to build something bigger again in this small town (click here for more details). I shared that for just $0.35, one child can receive a hot lunch in this town. To you and me, this doesn’t sound like a big deal. But it’s huge. Watch this video from the organization we’ll be serving with this summer to get an idea of why one hot lunch can make a huge difference.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtwSTVyjApU]Now, here’s the question. Would you be willing to make a small sacrifice to change the life of one child in the town of Xenacoj? Imagine with me for a minute. Do you go out for lunch at work? Say you go out for lunch once a week and the lunch costs $8.75 (that sounds about right). If you gave up one of your lunches, you could feed one child 5 weeks of hot lunches (or 25 hot lunches)! That is truly amazing!
As promised, I wanted to give you an update on our support to date. So far, we have collected $1,121 towards our $5,000 goal required to go on this trip (this is for our travel, lodging, food, etc. expenses). But we also have a goal to help feed 200 children in Xenacoj. For $8,750, we can feed 200 kids hot lunches for half a year. And for $17,500, we can feed 200 kids hot lunches for a whole year (this is the STRETCH goal). I don’t know how this will happen, but I’m reminded that with faith the size of a mustard seed mountains can be moved.
Help us close the gap on these targets!
If you are interested in giving, it’s pretty simple. To give to the “Stolpe Feeding Program Challenge”, go to goministries.info. At the bottom of the page, choose option 3. After you enter your payment information, enter a special note to the seller. The note should read “Stolpe Feeding Program Challenge”. This will ensure that your donation is counted towards the goal. It will also ensure that your donation is registered as a tax-deductible donation. (You can also give money to us, which we would turn over to GO Ministries towards this target.)
Once we start seeing money donated towards this challenge, I will post a target “thermometer” on the side of my main page to give you an idea of where we stand in meeting the goal (and the STRETCH goal).
To give towards our trip expenses, go to goministries.info. At the bottom of the page, choose option 1. After you enter your payment information, enter a special note to the seller. The note should read “Stolpe Family Mission Trip”. This will ensure that your donation goals towards our GO Ministries expenses. It will also ensure that your donation is registered as a tax-deductible donation. (You can also give money to us, which we would utilize for our airfare or we’ll turn over to GO Ministries to pay for our expenses in Guatemala.)
When was the last time you went out for lunch? What did you get to eat? How much was your bill?
(My answer: I went out for lunch on December 31, 2012 with my wife. We went to Subway and picked up two six-inch subs a bag of chips and two drinks. Our bill was right around $8.35 (after someone gave us a coupon).)
Book Review: A Train Called Forgiveness by Dan Erickson
Over the past couple of years, I’ve met some tremendous people through the blog world. Each person has their own stories and unique perspectives on life. Dan Erickson is one of those people who I’ve met on-line who has a unique story to tell. You can follow Dan on his blog at danerickson.net. (Dan wrote a guest post here a couple of months ago titled Musical Stretch.)
Per Dan’s Twitter bio, Dan is an author, songwriter, musician, teacher, and single dad who saves the best for last. If you follow his story, you’ll soon discover that Dan grew up in a cult. This part of Dan’s story had a huge impact on the book he wrote called A Train Called Forgiveness.
I had the privilege of reading Dan’s book, and it’s a story I couldn’t put down. I received the book for free from Dan as one of his top commenters last month. He didn’t ask me to write a review, and I certainly wasn’t required to write a positive review, but I couldn’t help it.
In A Train Called Forgiveness, Dan tells the story of Andy Burden. Andy is now in his late twenties. The story details a train trip from Seattle to Nashville and from Nashville to New Orleans and back to Seattle. During the trip, Andy burden deals with the personal demons left by a youth tarnished by a religious-based cult. The story flashes back and forth between Andy Burden’s time in a cult and his present reality of trying to move on.
The book takes the reader on a journey that wrestles with forgiveness and judging others. I don’t know how closely the story mirrors Dan’s own experience, but A Train Called Forgiveness definitely left me with a lot to think about. How does our upbringing and previous experiences impact our perspective on life and on others? How do we struggle with forgiving those who have deeply wronged us? How do we get past these wounds? Can there be any hope for healing when we’ve been wronged in such a damaging way?
I’d recommend A Train Called Forgiveness to anyone who is interested in exploring the topic of forgiveness. The story will challenge anyone to open their eyes, arms, and hearts to others. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to read this book.
How have you experienced forgiveness in your life? Who do you need to forgive? Have you every taken a trip that has changed your life?
Mahatma Ghandi Quote
What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.
Mahatma Ghandi
Ice Breaker – Sick Day
Each week on The Stretched Blog, we ask an ice breaker question. The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community. I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments. While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.
Yesterday, I had to take a sick day thanks to the wonderful flu bog that is sweeping across the country. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to take a sick day for being sick. I spent the day sleeping, resting, relaxing, and trying to get better.
Question: When have you faced an illness that has knocked you off your feet?
My Answer: I’ve been pretty blessed with decent health. Thankfully, I haven’t dealt with any major health issues. The last time I was sick for more than a day was last year during my Christmas vacation. I picked up a case of the stomach bug that knocked me off of my feet for a couple of days. I could hardly move due to the aches and pains associated with the fever and nausea. Other than that, I’ve been fairly healthy over the past several years.
There you have it – my answer. Now, it’s your turn. Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response!
(By the way, if you’re going through something health related right now, I’d love to pray for you. I hope you’ll leave a response, so The Stretched Community can lift you up.)