Faith & Life Inspirational Message

When I find a phrase or sentence in a book that arrests my attention, I feel like I just found a diamond.   Of course, it is not materially valuable, but a great phrase or sentence adds value to my life and the way I understand life.   In fact, I wish I had started collecting these “diamonds” early in my life---maybe from college to today.   I wonder how many of these I would have in my treasury?              I am sure if I were to cull the various things I have written, I would have a minimal list of these phrases and sentences.   They would fill many pages in a notebook and would be a wonderful reservoir of inspiring thoughts.   Even though I don’t have that notebook, I still go in search of the phrase or sentence that stops me in my tracks and lets me exclaim, “Yes!”             I found one of these sentences recently when I was re-reading ...

I have been privileged to be able to see myself as a leader.   I do bring some native talent to the leadership opportunities I have had, but I also have had a helping hand offered by many different people at a number of junctions in my life.   I have had many good leadership models to help me get clear about what leadership style fits my personality and my own Quaker convictions.   I also have watched some leaders whom I thought were not very good and were more of a negative model.   They showed me ways I never wanted to be seen as a leader.             I remember getting some leadership opportunities as early as elementary school.   In the bigger scheme of things, these were miniscule leadership chances.   However, they gave me an early chance to practice being a leader.   Much to my surprise, some other kids followed my lead!   I guess you are a leader if someone follows you.   ...

Recently I was with a wonderful group of people who were thinking about servant leadership.   It is a concept that has rich meaning to me.   As I thought about it, I realized that I have probably been trying to be a leader since elementary school days.   I don’t know that I started out to be a servant leader, but that idea came to be part of my leadership style fairly early in my career.             Part of what attracts me to the idea of being a servant leader is my own personality.   As I think about it, I have always preferred being part of a group and helping a group along.   I certainly have played the role of the lone ranger, but that is not as much fun for me as leading a group.   I also think my own Quaker tradition values encourage a kind of servant leadership model.   Quakers have always felt like the group is more important than any single individual.   I agree with this and have...

Sometimes I wonder when I first encounter a concept that has become important to me and my life’s work.   Sometimes I can remember, but most of the time I have no clue.   Often we bump into new concepts and there would be no way of knowing the concept will become important later in life.   Such it is with the concept of servant-leadership.             The idea of servant-leadership defines how I have tried to be a leader.   A leader is a leader, but many leaders are not servant-leaders.   And there are countless servants, but few would be servant-leaders.   The reason this concept is important to me is simple.   I think it is a spiritual approach to leadership.   I also happen to think most of the major world religions have championed this kind of leadership.   I think this is the style of leadership evidenced by Jesus.   That seems true for the one called the Buddha. ...

Not everything I do originates in religion.   I have a variety of interests and read fairly broadly.   I have done some work in the field of leadership.   I have been a leader, but realized at one point I never read much in that area nor had any real formal training.   Thankfully, a number of the organizations I belonged to when I was a kid provided some informal training.   In retrospect, I can see that many organizations provide some role models for leadership.   Of course, not all role models are good ones. In fact looking back, I can see that some of them were quite mediocre!   But one can learn some things from people who are mediocre or, even, very poor leaders.   Of course, no one verbally announced, “ok, this is a lesson in poor leadership!”   However, everyone in the group would have known.   And I would have learned that you cannot do leadership that way…at least do it that way and be respected and effective.   I kno...

I was not very far into my run/walk yesterday, when I noticed them.   It was a gorgeous fall day.   It was warm, the sun shone brilliantly in the sky and the leaves are turning multiple colors.   It was a good day to be alive and to be outside.   Besides it was more fun than reading and grading papers!   I noticed ahead of me on the other side of the road a bunch of kids and two adults.   They were just emerging from a yard and were coming toward me on the side of the road that has no sidewalk.   It is not a hugely traveled road, but there are quite a few cars and the road is relatively narrow.   From what I was guessing, there were two mothers and five kids as I differentiated the pack unfolding one person at a time.   Naturally, the kids bolted to the front, forming a single line to include the mothers at the tail of the line.   I was not paying close attention as I loped along in my own little world.   But then I heard thes...