Epiphany #7: Letter to My Son – Baptism Day

Evan – my one and only son;

God once said of his only son, Jesus, as he was baptized, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. I can’t help but look at you and feel much the same, as a father. I also realize that as deeply as I love you, I’ll never fully comprehend how painful it must have been for our Heavenly Father to send his one and only Son away from Him to die in our place for our sins, even though he never sinned. He loved you deeply to do that just for you.

God’s most important gift to you, which you’ve accepted, is Jesus as your savior. He is now and forever will be. Jesus has to be your savior before he can be your Lord, and I pray that as you grow up and draw closer to Him, in faith, that you’ll continually give Him the gift of sitting on the throne as Lord of your life as well as being your savior.

God blessed your mother and I – and entrusted us with you as stewards. You’re His child too – do you know that? He’s given you so much energy, ability, and potential – and it’s a joy for us to help and watch you grow and learn every day.

We love you and we’re well pleased with you. This is the best decision you’ll ever make.

Love,

Dad

Epiphany #6: Ask and Ye Shall Receive

I had lunch with a dear friend and mentor last week, and mentioned to him over our lunch that I felt lately my prayer life had been lacking – that it had felt “unproductive, like a desert – dry and sandy”, and that feeling had really had an impact on my desire and the regularity of my prayer time. His counsel to me was that sometimes God entrusts us with His silence and space. He also recommended I acknowledge how I felt to God, and simply ask: “Lord, teach me again how to pray”.

That seemed to be pretty sound and simple advice, so I took it to heart and have done so over the past few days. Still silence – seemingly only echoes of my own voice have been present as I asked God to again teach me to pray.

Enter last night… our first Ambassadors 2011 group meeting. (Great meeting, great people – I felt stretched and pushed; enjoyed it tremendously.) The big take away for me from the night turned out to be the book that was handed out as our first month’s book study/homework ["Too Busy Not to Pray", by Bill Hybels]. The first chapter, talking about how unnatural prayer is for hard-chargers like me, and how Bill overcame a similar dry spell really spoke to me in a huge way. How could our group leader/mentor have possibly known what I have been going through? He didn’t. He couldnt have; I’d never met him before!

Major take away for me is that I should never be surprised that when I ask God for something, and that something is a request prompted by the Holy Spirit, he will absolutely deliver. Coincidental? I highly doubt it. It seems more than a little suspect that there would be so much “coincidental” stuff going on these days.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive. God promised it. God delivers on His promises.

Epiphany #5: Taking the Occasional Leap (aka: “I can’t believe I just did that”!)

Last spring I decided to put my passion for the game of baseball into practice, serving as assistant coach for my son’s t-ball team. I didn’t think much about it, as I was responsible for just showing up, following the lead and the program of the coach – teaching and encouraging the little guys. It was great fun, but I saw the amount of effort and commitment the coach invested in our team. It was no small feat to make it all work like a well-oiled machine.

Fast-forward to today… I took the call from the church recreation league office – “we don’t have a head coach for several Pee-Wee league baseball teams, including your son’s team”. Well, it’s not like my life isn’t already absolutely jam-packed with trying to run and grow a business, trying to contribute meaningfully at home with the kids, helping get the house back in order after our little flood disaster from earlier this summer, trying to stay fit, trying to spend time in the Word, trying to basically (arguably!) stay sane…

Despite that, I am totally thrilled to coach the team – with a few fears and reservations, I’ll admit – but I had more than a couple of great coaches playing ball as a kid, and a fantastic coach (Paul Jenkins) with whom I had the privilege of working last season. Each of these great experiences had to have been for a purpose – and maybe that purpose was equipping me for this opportunity. Developing young professionals and budding little Albert Pujols wannabees are both areas I am passionate about, so I guess wearing an additional hat for a season as “coach” won’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

If anything, I’m reminded that when I ask God for opportunities to stretch, grow, serve, and influence others for Him, not to be surprised when He gives me the opportunities to do so, and to be sure to recognize those opportunities for what they are! Henry Blackaby wrote, in “Experiencing God” that the most sure-fire way to know where God wants you to be in order to do His will is to look around you, see where He is at work, and position yourself squarely in the middle of it. So as I wonder where I’ll find the energy to tackle this latest “calling”, I’ll remind myself that doing His work is a SOURCE of energy, not a DRAIN of energy. I look forward to the opportunity to spend even more meaningful, memory-making time with my son and hopefully leaving a lasting impression on the next generation of little sluggers and servants for Him.

PLAY BALL!!!

Become a fan of the

Royals

Epiphany #4: Being Challenged is a Great Thing

I am so excited about having been nominated for appointment into High Tech Ministries’ Ambassador program. This is a year-long and rigorous commitment for Christian IT leaders in the Atlanta area who are committed to being spiritually mentored/trained/challenged, to scripture memorization, and to personal and group Bible study, with the purpose of being equipped to be a better example of Christ-likeness in all areas of life, and “paying it forward” with others within our sphere of influence.

HTM is so serious about participant commitment to this program that nominees are required to formally apply (quite an application, including a short essay and writing a brief self-obituary) and sign a covenant of commitment before even being interviewed and submitted to the selection committee for consideration. Spouses also have a covenant to sign acknowledging their support for their husband/wife making this time commitment for a year!

I truly feel called to (and love) developing other young/up and coming professionals and potential leaders, and am ready to be challenged further in my faith and to become a better steward of those precious opportunities that God always seems to lay in my path.

A special thank you to Lisa LaRoque from my Intellinet family – who recently completed this year-long commitment herself – for caring enough to realize that this would be a great and special opportunity to take my game and walk with Christ to another level!

- – - – - – - – -

8/9/10 – UPDATE: It’s official! I heard over the weekend from Rusty Gordon, who selected me into his group to mentor, that I’ve been accepted into the program – I’m excited and looking forward to the journey!

Epiphany #3: The Importance of Joy and Purpose

I’ve recently come to realize/reinforce the importance of staying true to what REALLY ignites my professional passion – through work I’ve been doing with a current client of ours.

Our client is a company who has developed IP/custom business processes that are unique, deliver extreme value to their clients – ultimately that value is delivered through professional services – but that delivery mechanism isn’t very scaleable and it limits their growth potential. They have come to realize that to really crack open the value of their expertise and unleash it to the benefit of their clients, they need to “productize it” and offer it as a SaaS (Software as a Service).

This isn’t the first, second or even third start-up or venture-backed client I’ve worked with under similar circumstances. Nor will they be the last – because I have really rediscovered that for me, the essence of Joy and Purpose, professionally is found in exactly this kind of an opportunity. The convergence of a client’s vision and passion that involves an acute business/technology pain, met by my experience (and that of my firm and our team), colliding to create REAL VALUE in a market where there are unmet needs… That’s powerful stuff.

That, for me, is the ultimate in finding “Joy and Purpose”. I have discovered (or rediscovered) what really makes me (and my firm and team) tick – and this is it! I challenge anyone reading this post who feels stuck in a rut, uninspired, or simply unfulfilled: take a hard look at what really ignites that sense of “Joy and Purpose” in your life – professionally, personally, spiritually – and go after it like a runner seeking the prize.

Epiphany #2: Device Dependency – Yep, it’s a Problem!

My name is Chris, and I am an addict…

I’m one of many thousands out there who are, simply put, addicted to a gadget. My Blackberry, specifically - so  multi-functional it’s like having my laptop strapped to my hip 24 x 7. It’s my digital Swiss Army Knife that I can hardly remember not having – how’d I manage to function for all those years before they became so mainstream, anyway? While my Blackberry is a necessity for me in my work, if it weren’t already painfully clear to me through the stern looks and occasional word or two from my wife or kids, the misadventures of the past two weeks have clinched for me the severity of my problem.

My Blackberry became unholstered last week while helping my son practice catching and throwing a baseball and met its demise on my driveway. I was one lost puppy for the next day and a half as I awaited the overnight delivery of a replacement, which cost me a mini-mint, as always. After an evening and a morning of struggling through activation and restoring sync with our network at Intellinet, I felt “whole” again, and my endless fiddling with it once again earned me a few comments from home and also my boss in a board meeting (oops)!

Well, here it is a week later, and half of my brand new Blackberry’s touchscreen keypad has stopped functioning – rendering it useless. Again, that vacuum of an empty feeling is creeping  in while I watch email hit my inbox – but I can’t access it to read it. Reminds me of old irony-drenched Howard Jones song from the ’80s, “No One is to Blame”

“You can build a mansion but you just can’t live in it
You’re the fastest runner but you’re not allowed to win
Some break the rules
And live to count the cost
The insecurity is the thing that won’t get lost
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame“

Pretty sad state, huh? So, onward to go fight the battle with my mobile carrier about another replacement, THEN resume my battle with device addiction!

Some ideas I’ve had around limiting my use of the Blackberry:

1. Stop checking it at meals, even when I hear the “trumpets heralding the new email arrival”
2. Set it to “stun” and keep it pocketed during meetings
3. Turn off wireless sync at 7:30pm each evening and leave it off until morning – same goes for weekends. (If it’s really that important, call me!)
4. Recognize that if its bad enough that I have to be chastised for it at home or in a meeting, I’d better make sure I’m sticking with 1-3 above!

Anyone out there share the same struggle, and if so what are you doing to get the upper hand?

-CAS

 

Epiphany #1: “Righteous Leverage”

This post is probably more for me than others, it officially being my FIRST!   But here goes…

I have always felt the need to be “on the grid” to make sure things are getting done, to keep all those plates spinning, to out-pace or out-last the competition or the situation. That doesn’t scale at all, and gets really old over time – after 16 years of professional life, blissful marriage, and parenting, I’ve come to understand I need to change my “M.O.”

I‘ve recently committed to being more consistent in creating and cultivating “righteous leverage” – in business, in my personal finances, in taking on causes I believe in, and in getting the upper hand in the battle of work/life balance so I can enjoy the many blessings God has given me.  (Notice I qualified “leverage” with the word “righteous” – we’ve all seen the news and/or experienced the problems associated with “over-leverage”, or abuse within some of our financial systems and institutions – or pyramids and Ponzi schemes).

Webster’s dictionary provides several definitions for the noun “Leverage”, the most relevant being:

  “the use of a small initial investment, credit, or borrowed funds to gain a very high return in relation to one’s investment, to control a much larger investment, or to reduce one’s own liability for any loss.”

From my perspective, truly “righteous leverage” is the art of achieving more – exponentially more – faster, better, more sustainably – with integrity and for the benefit of all involved, not just me.  It’s achieved by making small, targeted investments in the right people; equipping and empowering them to do more than they’ve been expected to do in the past, with the purpose of achieving more meaningful results –  then rewarding  them and charging them with repeating that exact pattern themselves, to achieve the desired multiple effects.  

I expect that both I and those I invest in will make mistakes along the way – the PM and realist in me knows that no plan is infallible. We’ll treat mistakes as “teachable moments”, and will seek to limit failures so that when they happen, they happen quickly and inexpensively. I’ll also use the “4 Rs” as tools for correction of mistakes :

(1.    Reflect – be honest – what really happened and why?

(2.    Recalibrate – make sure the target is still clearly in focus – if not, make on-course adjustments

(3.    Reinforce  - reassure those who’ve failed or fallen short that the goal is worthy of the failures along the way

(4.    Repeat – until success in achieving the desired results becomes routine

Wish me luck – hopefully I’ll start seeing results soon, and I look forward to posting the successes (and “teachable moments”) along the way.

-CAS

About Steel Horse Epiphanies

I’m a follower of Christ, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a business leader – and I see life blurring past like the scenery when I’m on my cruiser - there’s so much to see, to learn, to experience and to pass along.  I’m weary of  the race from point A to point B… This blog’s all about slowing things down a bit, taking in that scenery of life a little more keenly, and learning while I share my own perspectives along the way.

-CAS