Healthy Aspirations

One of the great words of energy in life is the word, “Aspiration”. Our aspirations, when connected in a healthy way with the aspirations of others are two sides of the same coin. An article I read this morning, written by Chris Creegan of the National Center of Social Research, had the following points regarding the dangers of excessive individualism:

• During people's lives, opportunities can be truncated: lost, limited or wasted through circumstances and events that they have varying degrees of control over.
• Truncation of opportunity prevents aspirations from being realized. The relationship between opportunity and aspiration is a more level playing field for some of us than for others.
• We need to reframe the relationship between opportunity and aspiration – thinking not only about the opportunities and aspirations of individual citizens, but also of society as a whole.
• We cannot achieve this without listening to people whose voices are not usually heard, including those directly affected by the inequality caused by truncated opportunity.
• Truncation of opportunity can take many forms. For example, opportunities can be lost in old age, limited by caring responsibilities, or wasted through drug or alcohol misuse.
• The reality is that, whether loss of opportunity is caused by imposed constraints or individual choices, if you are disadvantaged through poverty and inequality the limitations imposed are greater and the escape routes fewer.
• While poverty of aspiration is a serious problem, impoverished aspiration can also fuel excessive individualism, consumerism and greed, which exacerbates inequality.
• Reframing the relationship between opportunity and aspiration must include listening to those with experience of truncated opportunity.
• Democracy is becoming deeply eroded. Making sure everyone votes provides a democratic safety net and is one important way of eliciting voices which are often unheard.
• We need a society where individual aspirations for a better life and shared aspirations for equality are not mutually exclusive, but two sides of the same coin.


It seems to me that I need to be careful to not be truncating the aspirations of others by forcing them into compliance with my vision. I will do better to find shared aspirations and find ways to make healthy connections with biblically based vision. Let’s press toward the right things today.

Philippians 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Significant Contributions

“The most significant contribution leaders make is not simply to today’s bottom line; it is to the long term development or people and institutions so they can adapt, change, prosper and grow.”

From the book “Leadership Challenge” by Kouzes and Ponser

The contributions we make in life many times have purposes and results that go far beyond what we see in the here and now. Many of the important issues of our personal lives have been influenced by the contributions of people many generations back. If your great grandfather had not married your great grandmother, you wouldn’t even be here. Many of the great works of art in the world today were contributions by artists who did not live to see that their work would be acclaimed as a masterpiece by the world. I read this week of a church that made a commitment to have a prayer meeting at a particular time every week for one hundred years. History shows that that church recorded more impact than any other in that area. The founders of that contribution had long been gone but their investment was still paying off. There will no doubt be things that my children and grandchildren will have and do because of investments made by us today. The key to this value is long term vision. My integrity today is of great importance to my great great grandchildren who I will never meet this side of heaven. John the Revelator wrote about long term vision:

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
~~~~~~~~~~~~REVELATION 21:10~~~~~~~~~~~~

Called to grow

A quote from my early morning reading today:

“God never gives us small dreams. If your dream doesn’t scare you a bit, it’s not from God.”

I am reading a book by Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius entitled “Go Big”. In it I found that God prepares us for leadership by growing the church and watching us catch up. If I am so concerned that I make a mistake that I quit trying new things, I will not find that one new thing today that will cause me to grow. The vision that has been planted in my heart is to cast out rather than held in. “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the Lord means safety.” (Proverbs 29:25) My vision includes making disciples. It includes personal growth as a life long learning process for me. It is interesting that Nehemiah kept reminding the people why they were building the wall. I find that if I am a listener, God will constantly bear witness (remind me) about why He has called me to my place in ministry. It is not about me it is about Him. If there is one area I have nearly perfected, it is the art of making excuses. Today would be a good day to quit making new excuses and launch or cast out into new fishing spots. When I was in the army, we were not allowed to list excuses as to why we did not follow an order. I should not be offering excuses to God. If He says to jump through the wall, it is my job to jump and His to make the hole.

“Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full” – Luke 14:23
I think I’ll invite a few more than usual this week. Out of a hundred invitations, some will come.

Which is bigger, Your dreams or your memories?

Some thoughts from last night's meeting:

We are at our annual council meetings in Des Moines this week and are being challenged to be willing to "shift for the new day". Our organizations will not grow beyond their leadership. Our dreams need to be bigger than our memories if we want a future that is bright. Any organization whose memories are bigger than their dreams is on the way out of significance. When we lose vision we become self-centered. As long as we figure out that everything belongs to God, we will be willing to let loose instead of greedily hanging on to stuff. We only worry about stuff we have not given to God. If it is His, He takes care of it.

The difference between Success and Significance

From Bill Johnson’s book: “When Heaven invades Earth”

It’s time for a revolution in our vision. When prophets tell us , ‘your vision is too small’ many of us think the antidote is to increase whatever numbers we’re expecting. For example: if we’re expecting 10 new converts, let’s change it to 100. If we’re praying for cities, let’s pray instead for nations….vision starts with identity and purpose. Through a revolution in our identity, we can think with divine purpose. Such a change begins with a revelation of Him.”

Pretty good stuff to start the day, I think. I have the need to be a revolutionary, at least in the ways talked about above. Certainly Jesus was a revolutionary thinker. If I am to be like Him, I too need to think outside the normal thought process and start visioning in bigger ways. It is the difference between success and significance.

The Frog in the Well

In the book, “The externally focused church”, Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson share the following story:

There is a Taiwanese fable about a frog who lived at the bottom of a well. When the frog was thirsty, he drank a little bit of water from the well, and when he was hungry, he ate some of the insects that flew into the well. When he was tired, he lay on a little rock at the bottom of the well and looked up to the sky above him. To the little frog, the sky was a small circle of blue. He was very happy and satisfied, for this was the only world he had ever known.

One day a bird perched on the edge of the well. The little frog looked up and said, “Hello! Why don’t you come down here and play with me? It’s so pleasant down here. Look, I have cool water to drink and countless insects to eat. Come down!” But the bird responded with stories of an endless expanse of beautiful sky. The frog listened in disbelief then argued that the sky was small and round, for he had never been outside the well and seen the entire sky. The bird tried to coax the frog out of the well so he could see the sky, but the frog sat on his rock, convinced he was right. Eventually the bird flew away in frustration, and the frog was left alone to continue pondering his little patch of sky.

The story has a good ending. Eventually a yellow sparrow swooped into the well, put the frog on its back, and flew out of the dank well into the sunlight. For the first time, the frog saw flowers, trees, animals, mountains, and rivers. Finally the bird placed him on a lotus leaf in a beautiful pond where the frog enjoyed his days-never again to return to the well.

To a frog at the bottom of a well, the sky may only be a small circle of blue. But to a bird, the sky is vast and wonderful. In some ways they are both right.

This fable is about perspective. In a world filled with other frogs, occasionally we need to listen to the birds.

The Heading

Part of my daily regimen is mental visioneering. It has been awhile since I have written a blog about it. Vision clarity is a foundational need if we expect to excel in life. Striving for excellence is biblical. A writer once wrote that “Vision is more like a compass than a roadmap”. When I read that this morning I started to think about the importance of not only being on the right road, but heading the right direction on that road. We have all learned direction by reference point. When I was a child I learned that the barn was to the south , the garage was to the west, the field was east and town was north. To this day, if I need to reference direction, I relate it somehow to where the barn sat from where I am. The analogy has worked for me all over the world. My older brother, the thinker, ( who has a birthday tomorrow) challenged my understanding one day by telling me that if I were standing on the north pole, every direction from there would be south. I think as a young child, I decided that day that I was never going to take a trip to either pole because I would not be able to know which way the barn was. How ya gonna do your chores in life if you can’t find the barn?

Clarity of vision

The age we live in requires discernment to have clarity of the vision that drives us and clarity of the sounds that we need to hear. That clarity requires the commitment of our total being. In C.S.Lewis’ book “ Mere Christianity” we find a key to finding God. “…while in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself ( things like microscopes and telescopes ), the instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred – like the moon seen through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have horrible religions, they have been looking at God through a dirty lens.”

The world has lost the sense of the need for clarity. Seared consciences and constant bombardment by smoke and mirrors has dimmed the luster . It takes a miraculous prescription from God to keep our eyes and ears on the right things.

God’s prescription:

1.Speak the Word, It is the truth
2.Follow Jesus, the real leader, He is “The way”
3.Enlist in God’s army, It is The winning side
4. Catch the updrafts, They will lift you above your problems
5. Choose life, it is the Best

Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!
- Deut. 30:19


The prescription above will give clarity to your life. It’s the only way that makes sense.