soundbytes: success

"Success is becoming in middle adulthood what we dreamed of in late childhood.  Everything else is simply evidence of loss of control." 

~ Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes

"Men who really change are the ones who have failed enough that they are broken beyond self-remedy."

~ Ray Ortlund, "How Men Change" (10.may.11)

"Don't waste your life on fatal success." 

~ John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p 46

how revival goes viral

"So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus."  ~ John 12:10-11

"Bet you can't do it twice." The taunt rings in my ears whenever I drain a three-point shot while playing a student in basketball.  I laugh every time I read this passage because it's so much like what the priests said to Lazarus: "So you rose from the dead? Bet you can't do it twice!"

But more interesting is why the priests felt the need to kill Lazarus; simply put, it was because so many people were following Jesus because of him.  What was his secret? 

I don't think it was his ability to lead, or "gather," men.  I seriously doubt that Lazarus was following any sort of growth model - pass 200 people, now do this!  He didn't have Facebook and Twitter to send his cool ideas viral.  I doubt he had laid out a five-year-plan and I doubt that he had a personal mission statement. 

And I don't think he was an exceptionally motivating and moving speaker.  I doubt that he even felt the need to "sell" people on Christ - I can't picture Lazarus laying out the illogical reasoning of atheism or providing a rational defense of eternal life or publishing an existential-experiential account of "two days in heaven."  I've won a lot of arguments, but I've never won a single soul through those arguments. 

I bet Lazarus simply told people he was alive.  Maybe told them his story. He was probably pretty excited.  Most importantly, he knew he what didn't need to do.  He realized the power of what he was saying rather than how it was said.  He knew how dead he had been; he wasn't sharing because he felt he should - the gospel defined him.  Revivals go viral when a man realizes how dead he was, and can't stop sharing it. 

"Our first business is neither to gather men nor to move them, but to preach in the speech of our time the universal and moving Gospel.  Let it gather them, and let it stir them. The first condition of a true revival is a sound gospel."

~ Forsyth, The Church, The Gospel & Society (p. 91)

Thanks to Sean Brown introducing me to this perspective on the text as I walk through the book of John. 

no levels of hell, only levels of hypocrisy

What is the difference between someone who willfully ignores the Bible on moral purity and someone who willfully ignores the Bible on caring for the poor?  The difference is that one involves a social taboo in the church and one involves a social norm in the church. 

~  David Platt, Radical (p. 111)

if you can lead thirty-one 14-year-olds ...

When people see a man who combines high standards with compassion, they know he has grown beyond his personal biases, and they will follow him.

When people see a man who is humble, they know they have nothing to fear from him; he is not out for himself, and they will follow him. 

When people see a man soaked in [learning] and fervent in prayer, they know he is bringing them something from beyond their world, and will follow him. 

~ Ray Ortlund, “The Cost of Leadership” (15.jan.11)

Why exactly is it that our students follow us?  Last night, I watched a wide range of personalities that I have come to know and love walk across the stage at the Teach for America Nashville alumni induction, and I reflected on what makes our movement successful.  I don’t think it is because we’re such great teachers the day we come back from Institute, and I’m not even sure it is because we’ve improved so much over the past two years. 

In fact, I think it’s critical that I didn’t do either of these things; I failed at teaching according to most metrics.  And I think that’s a good thing.  It’s not simply good in some trite “I’ve learned so much” way or because “it challenged me to make myself better.”  Those may be true, but moreover, it’s good that I failed because it showed me that I can’t do it all.  I’m not sure I had truly fallen flat before – or at least I hadn’t worked so hard to do so.  Once I had accepted this failure, it changed the way I taught, and I think my students began to realize it wasn’t about me - it was about them.  From this place of humility, my classroom actually did begin to turn around.  As I approach the end of my teaching career, I am thinking that any future leadership must continue to cultivate this loss of self-importance. 

I think this is what I appreciate most about the Teaching as Leadership model, and will carry on with me; like the quote above, it directs us away from ourselves – and even our development – and towards students, and student development.  “High standards with compassion” … I may never be the smartest teacher, the most interesting teacher, or even be good at teaching, but I can expect greatness and I can offer support; in short, I can’t fix myself, but I can love others.  My students don’t follow a perfect teacher, and they know it.  They follow because, like the third line of Dr. Ortlund’s quote, they see someone modeling growth and passion.  Again, I may not be smart, or rich, or popular, or powerful, but I can grow and be passionate. 

We bring our students a lot “from beyond their world,” but the style of leadership we’ve been taught is beyond any world.  Humility, compassion, hope, exhortation, maturation, passion ... I hope I get the opportunity to continue to fail better in pursuit of it. 

“You don’t have to know a lot of things to make a lasting difference in this world … The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.”

~ John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (p. 44)

ditto for blessings

corollary to yesterday:  

in the same way we need to be careful of exalting a sacrifice itself, and not the freedom for which it was intended, we need to be careful not to take joy in a blessing itself, and not the price paid to make it possible.

"Woe to me if I exult in any blessing of any kind at any time, unless my exulting is an exulting in the cross of Christ"

~ John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life (p. 54)

it's hard for packrats to find Jesus

"The thief comes only to steal, kill, & destroy; I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly." 

~ Jesus of Nazareth (John 10:10)

The common American take on the season of Lent bothers me.  If our view of Christianity is of giving up things, we have it all wrong.  The things we feel we are "giving up" are our idols even in their esteemed absence, and show us that we don't yet understand the joy and freedom of a life lived with Christ.  Like packrats, we keep things to protect ourselves because we fear the worst, hoarding junk designed to prevent or ameliorate loss, death, and destruction.  We think we are living because we aren't dying.  But our protection, fences, and hedges make it hard to run freely after Christ.  He wanted us to live life more fully - or abundantly - in the present. Sure, running means giving up some things - the last guy who tried to run a marathon in full armor died - but anything we give up is for a greater freedom, not just sacrifice for its own sake.  If we're still bemoaning what we gave up, we aren't yet free. 

"When people talk about coming to Christ, they often talk about what they gave up, as if they made a heroic sacrifice.  If it still seems like sacrifice, we don't get it yet - whatever we sacrificed is so much bullshit.  Take the trophies off the mantle, throw them in the trashcan, have a good laugh, and follow the Yes, the Amen."

~ Ray Ortlund (08.mar.11)

We think a full life is all about us and what we've done - or not done.  Christ made the only heroic sacrifice.

more than a ticket

If we would embrace the glory of God, we must embrace the gospel of Christ.  The reason for this is not only because we are sinners and need a savior to die for us, but also because this Savior is Himself the fullest and most beautiful manifestation of the glory of God.

~  John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life (p. 40)