Why am I so anxious?

I bought a new car a few weeks ago after totaling my truck… The truck is another story…

I have been having many maintenance issues with this car. It’s a 2006 VW Jetta TDI… I’ll try to post some pics for you later…

This morning I stopped at Panera in Conroe for a morning bagel and a cup of coffee. While I was here I popped open my laptop to try and get a morning DQT (Daily Quite Time) in… I have been trying to spend more time in the Bible as a part of my “Time Audit

Anyway, while on YouVersion I noticed this recent post from daily_devotions

Thanks for posting this Linda this really spoke to me this morning…

DQT ,

TLS09 Session 10: Eyewitness to Power

Speaking: David Gergen being interviewed by Bill Hybles

David: Leadership is a journey.

Bill: How does a leader get better at leading?
David:

  • Become a reflective practitioner. We really learn leadership by doing it AND reflecting on it.
  • Read. Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.
  • Self-educate, yourself

Bill: Disappointed with how few leaders actually reflect.
David:

  • Easy to confuse motion with progress. Not so, best leaders choose their big goals.
  • Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive.
    • At the beginning of a 6-week period write down what you hope to accomplish, then at the end of the period, reflect on where you are at with it.

Bill: when something goes wrong or right, ask yourself, why?
David:

  • When you are on the dance floor, it’s often important to go to the balcony to see how it’s going.
  1. Example: Roosevelt was being pressed for an answer, and he went fishing. As a result he came up with the lent-lease idea, to lend-lease destroyers to Britain.
  • We are more in communion with God when we are reflecting.

Bill: What was the most admirable quality of each president you served with.David:

  • Nixon = Best strategist, to see the world in the future. Someone who can look farther back can see farther ahead.
  • Ford = Most decent
  • Clinton = Quick tactical mind, Resilient, Always willing to get back up
  • Reagan = Best leader since Roosevelt, principle centered, contageous optimisim, great communicator.

Bill: What were some of their weaknessesDavid:

  • Nixion = Had a dark side, he had demons in him that he could not let go of.
  • Ford = Tended to be naive.
  • Reagan = Detatchment. Leaders must keep their hands on the wheel. It is possible to entrust too much. Inspect is important.
  • Clinton = A parallel to Nixon, clear cracks in his character. People are forgiving if you are straight with them.

Bill: Great leaders carry great flaws. David:

  • Not exactly, Christ, but humans are flawed. All people have a bright side and a dark side.
  • How do you come to grips with your flaws.
  • You must have you flaws under control enough so they don’t de-rail you.
  • How do you bring alignment between you public and private life?

Bill: Leadership doesn’t have to be lonelyDavid: The day of the lone ranger is over. Your goal as a leader should be to develop a great team. If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together

  • What is leadership – inspiring others toward shared goals
    • Trust and communications.

Bill: Quoting “Who a speaker is matters the most”
David: Your willingness to listen depends on who the person is.

  • Ethos – Who is this person,
  • Logos – Logic, Reason,
  • Pathos – Emotion.

Bill: Personal Disciplines.David: Churchill, nap, worked in morning and afternoon.

  • Fitness, if you let your body go flabby, your mind will go flabby as well.
  • Build time in your day to reflect.
  • Make time for your relationships

David: Family and friends are great anchors in your life.

  • Be the change you want to see in the world – Gandhi

Next Actions:

  • What actions are you going to take to develop your team

Notes

TLS09 Session 9: Leveraging Your Past

Speaker: Wess Stafford
President and CEO of Compassion International

“I will always protect children”
“I will always stand up for those who are to small to stand up for themselves”
“I will fight for children”

My story is one that Satan intended for evil, but instead God used if for good.

What is your cause?

  • What moves you passionately?
  • Leadership without passion is not leadership at all!
  • So, what is your calling? Does it bring you to tears?
  • What is it that moves you passionately?
  • Nothing? Don’t live like that…

We have worth because of who gives us worth.

You will not forget what you do not forgive

30 second appointment.

  • 30 seconds in front of the mirror
  • Who is this person I am looking at?
  • Who am I?
  • Who do I really care about?
  • What do I believe?
  • What do I value?
  • What am I the way I am?
  • Why do I do what I do?
  • Why do I lead what I lead?
  • What is my leadership story
  • Where did it begin?
  • Is my leadership based on joy and fulfillment?
    • Who do I owe for it?
    • Who believed in me, before I believed in myself?
    • Do they know it? Have I ever thanked them?
  • Am I driven even in success by pain, sorrow, or fear?
    • Who hurt me? Humiliated or discouraged me?
    • Have I forgiven them?
  • What am I trying to prove, to whom, and why?

Will you let God use your story — All of it?Will you let Him redeem it for His glory?

Notes

TLS09 Session 8: Aid vs. Trade

Speaking: Andrew Rugasira
Website: Good African Coffee

What thoughts come to mind when you hear Africa

  • If you ask me, I think of opportunity
  • How should we perceive Africa moving forward

Solutions:

  1. Train farmers
  2. Trade not Aid
    • Many people have offered hand outs to bring about change
    • There is no country in the world that has developed through hand outs
    • Trade is the only sustainable way to help a country out of poverty

Candid talk

  • Integrity is being truthful about what needs to happen in order to get out of a difficult situation.

What is the impact of our compassion?Africa is a continent of consumers, a continent of innovators. The problem is that people have lost faith in themselves.

Notes

TLS09 Session 7: Thinking Forward

Speaker: Dave Gibbons

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.

  • Love your neighbor as yourself

Who is our neighbor?

  • Someone like us?

How do you define success?

  • Up and to the right… Really?
  • Can anyone really live up to this
  • This is really an illusion

FAILURE IS SUCCESS TO GOD

  • Your failure is what the world will connect with you on
  • Your failures are often gifts from God
  • Maybe we need to change our metrics

Do you have time to listen to people’s stories?

  • How many of these people do we really see?
  • Will you walk slowley through the crowd?

Weakness guides us more than our strengths

Is it really about vision?

  • Relationships trump vision
  • You can’t have great vision unless you have a great relationship with God
  • We don’t need more visionaries, we need more relationsionaries

What if your 70% was leadership development?

  • My main task is the equip leaders
  • Best discipleship happens as life on life

Obedience is more important than passion

  • Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross
  • Four acts of obedience
    1. Deeper collaboration
    2. Communal living
    3. Prayer – Do you really believe that you have the same power that raised Christ from the grave
    4. Sacrificial love for one another

Action Steps:

  1. What can you give up for someone else?
  2. What leaders can I help develop?
  3. Whose life can I invest in?

Notes

TLS09 Session 6: Against All Odds

Speaker: Harvey Carey

“I am your expresso” – Harvey Carey

What do you do when the odds are stacked against you?

  1. You have got to believe that God’s Word is true

The fact that we are under an economic crisis, it simply means that God is at work in our lives.

The roll of leaders is to equip.
We are not to staff more people. We need to equip more people.
How many people are your equipping on your team?
How many people are being transformed?

How many binders do you need to do ministry?

Members must take ownership for the work.
Engage them in the work.

We huddle on Sunday, Wednesday, and Sunday night, but when do we break and play the game?

The things we learn, we should actually do them.
We don’t go to the mountain just to look at the clouds. God has called you to action.

GET OUT OF YOUR HUDDLE AND CHANGE THE WORLD!

God can do some amazing stuff when you decide to get out of the huddle.

The thing that cripples us the most is fear. The Bible is all about people who didn’t feel adequate.

Most leaders have the paralysis of analysis.

  • When do we take the promises of God and make them real?

God’s word says I will always provide.

Is today another binder to add to your collection, or do you get the power of God.

Transformation happens not by what you say you’re going to do, but by what you do.

What has God called you to do? What is your dream?

  • You are the salt of the world.

If darkness is present then light is absent.

We need to realize who we are. The God of the universe lives in you. You can walk on water when God gives you a word to do it.

If you think this post is good, check out what Tim Schraeder’s post

Next Actions:
        ❑        What is God calling me to do?
        ❑        What is my boat that I need to step out off

Notes