It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

PEACE.

As I walk, I often use the time to listen to books, listen to podcasts or sometimes just listen to some great music. I especially enjoyed listening to a Jackson Browne Acoustic Album this week on a long walk.

Since reading John Eldredge's book, "Get Your Life Back", I've been challenged to be quiet on my walks and take in the things around me. In his book, he talks about technology and distraction and challenges the reader to find a time to just "look around at God's beauty" instead of trying to optimize the time by multi-tasking and working through my list while I get some simple exercise.

The other day, I was walking as the sun was going down, and I turned off the podcast I was listening to, and just looked at the sky. The colors were vibrant. The air was still. The sky was magnificent. I just stopped and looked, and the word that came to my mind and heart was the word PEACE.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

HOPE.

It's December 1st. Hard to believe that this 2020 year has finally progressed to the last month of the year. In some ways it feels like it's been the longest year ever, and in other ways, time just continues to move.

I'm thinking about this word, HOPE.

Hope is defined as "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen."

As the Christmas season is upon us, we often talk about the HOPE we find in Christ. We're celebrating the arrival of Jesus as a baby to bring us LIFE. That's a great "feeling of expectation and desire" and we'll celebrate this around the world later this month.

HOPE is also on many peoples minds because of the state of our world over the past 10 months. We've all been affected differently, and every thing each of us feel is real. I hear people saying, "I can't wait to get through 2020..." as if 2021 will start fresh and new without any of the pain and struggles.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

This morning as I watched the daily news on TV, I noticed how many times different news personalities said these words....

"Happy Thanksgiving! It's the biggest travel week in the USA as people go to see family and friends for this great holiday!"

The next line said...

"This year, due to COVID, we encourage you NOT to travel to see your loved ones. Don't gather together in groups, don't be indoors with people you don't know, and stay away from airports!"

What a mixed message!

We're hearing this all over the world as the impact of Covid-19 affects us all in different ways, but one of the biggest ways is in the way we engage in "OUR COMMUNITY".

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

There are different kinds of COMMUNITY in each of our lives, and we have needs for each of these.

This week I was reflecting on a couple of "Coaching Communities" I'm a part of.

Years ago, while doing research for graduate school, I was able to interview leaders from a number of different countries around the world, and I was trying to determine what needs leaders from different cultures had in common. At the end of a pretty exhaustive project, I identified 4 foundational needs. These aren't the only needs they had, but the different cultures had these 4 in common:

• A Need for Quality Training: Training to help them grow in their leadership

• A Need for Applicable Resources: Access to tools to use regularly

• A Need for Ongoing Coaching: Someone to walk alongside them over time

• A Need for Genuine Community: Connection with other leaders

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

COMMUNITY.

That's the theme for the coming weeks, and today I want to simply set the table for this conversation.

I miss people. I don't miss seeing them or talking to them, because I've been able to do that, but I miss hanging out with people in person and being with groups of leaders and friends.

I'm tired of technology. I love technology, appreciate it, but I'm just tired of sitting in front of my screen and connecting virtually to people I care about.

I need people speaking into my life. I think that I, along with others, have used this crazy pandemic as an excuse to quit working on "community". Earlier in the year it was a temporary inconvenience that we could all get through, and as the days and weeks continued to move, I just got lazy and have used so many excuses as to why I can't connect with people.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

People usually are placed in 2 categories:

• Those who HATE and AVOID CONFLICT at all costs

• Those who EMBRACE and MANAGE CONFLICT in a healthy way

Which one are you?

I was one who didn't run from conflict, but I didn't manage it in a healthy way. I was reminded this weekend when our friends Phil & Elizabeth visited us, about a major conflict Phil and I had early in our work and ministry together.

I was out of the country (we were living in Ecuador at the time), and Phil was left to run one of our summer programs. We had communicated and planned for this time, but we had some mis-communication along the way that resulted in a moment of major conflict on a phone call. Our voices were raised, we were disagreeing and arguing, and it wasn't healthy. We were in a crisis situation and each of us had a unique perspective on how we ended up there, but it was bad. Even just thinking about that time this weekend brings up some emotion, and this event happened almost 20 years ago.

We got through the conflict, and each of us made some concessions, and when we came back together we talked about it, we worked through it, and learned from it. I remember asking for forgiveness for my behavior and Phil also asked for forgiveness.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

I want to share ONE THING that I learned from reading one of my favorite books this year, "Small Giants", by Bo Burlingham.

This book surprised me because I thought it was simply another business book that studied the behavior of a bunch of companies, but instead, it challenged me in my thinking. It took reading the book, then listening to the book on Audible, then talking about it with some colleagues for the power to really set in, but I want to share my biggest takeaway from this book:

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

Ken Blanchard is an influencer.

He has been influencing leaders for years and his books, which are written in a way that people can really understand, provide deep leadership concepts with a clear way to apply the principles.

The first book I read of Blanchards was his book co-authored by Spencer Johnson, entitled "The One Minute Manager". It impacted me because he was teaching the concept of servant leadership to business leaders. I recently pulled "The New One Minute Manager" off my shelf, and am still inspired by the power of these words. Today I'll share my ONE THING from this book: