Remember that Seinfeld episode where Kramer and the car salesman try to see just how far they can drive the car after the gas light comes on? It made for great comedy, but most of us know that it’s not very funny when we’ve been running on fumes for awhile. It’s easy to get worn down, particularly if you have young children and are trying to balance work and family and church and all the other million commitments that make up daily life. Well, that’s the place where these reflections come from—out of the intersection of work and family, out of the struggle to keep one's head above water and to somehow keep God in the center of it all. Our hope is that it you’ll find some encouragement in these thoughts, or maybe an insight that’ll help you think more strategically about your time or your family. Remember, life is an adventure--a crazy one at times--and we could all use a little fuel for the journey.
Recent Reflections
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The Magic Number "Five"
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Orange Conference, which is a gathering of church leaders concerned with raising up the next generation of church leadership. (By the way, "orange" is the strategy that we have adopted in the children's ministry area -- by combining the critical influences of the light of the church (yellow) and the love of the family (red), the Orange Strategy shows a generation who God is more effectively than either could alone.) As always, I came away from the conference energized and renewed about what we're doing here at St. Luke's.
As is the case with most conferences, I received far more information and ideas in the space of two ...
Posted May 7, 2012 3:09 PM by David Williamson
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Leadership by Imitation
The other day I overheard my children arguing in the next room. Who knows what they were arguing about? Maybe it was a toy they both wanted, or they each wanted to watch a different show on TV, it could've been anything. I've been working harder as a parent to allow them to settle their own disputes, so I stayed where I was and "listened in" on the conversation. Margaret (our oldest) is usually the peacemaker in our family, she will generally give in to whatever makes everyone (i.e., her brother) happy. But not today. Whatever it is she wanted, she was sticking to her guns, which was making Nathan madder and madder. Finally I heard him ...
Posted Apr 18, 2012 12:49 PM by David Williamson
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Reaching the bar
One of the toughest professors I ever had was a man named Dr. Savage. He had high expectations about the work we could accomplish as students; I expect those high expectations reflected also his high expectations for himself as a teacher. I can remember many conversations with Dr. Savage, describing this or that idea I had for a class assignment. He had this look he'd give you, he didn't need to say a word but you'd know you weren't on the right track, you hadn't done enough work refining your idea. And so back to the drawing board you'd go. But when you found the right idea, when you were going in the right ...
Posted Apr 12, 2012 1:06 PM by David Williamson
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Integrity . . .
Before we went on family vacation two weeks ago, a friend here at church loaned me a book called Integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud. It is one of those books that came at just the right time, I've been devouring it ever since, and spending just as much time reflecting on its meaning as I have in reading it. Before reading this book, I would've defined "integrity" the way just about anyone else would--I would've said that a person of integrity is a person who lives by a set of defined principles, who won't break those principles (or compromise their integrity) in order to get ahead or avoid blame or win popularity. And certainly, Dr ...
Posted Apr 2, 2012 8:26 AM by David Williamson
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