"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." - Author Unknown

According to Mahatma Gandhi, there are seven sins in the world:

1.     Wealth without work

2.     Pleasure without conscience

3.     Knowledge without character

4.     Commerce without morality

5.     Science without humanity

6.     Worship without sacrifice

7.     Politics without principle

Here's an excerpt from Dr. Henry Cloud's book "9 Things A Leader Must Do"

This is not the kind of responsibility that you think of in terms of "doing your duties." We often thing of being responsible as equivalent to taking out the trash or doing your taxes on time. That kind of responsible means that we do what we are supposed to do or perform the task that it placed before us.

Philosophical and psychological responsibility, or existential responsibility as it is called, means much more than that. It means that you and I are responsible not just for duties or jobs, but also for our entire existence. For example, you are not only responsible for taking out the trash, but also for being in the situation which includes taking out the trash, for how you feel about taking out the trash, and for choosing not to do all the other things you could be doing instead of taking it out. If you do not like taking out the trash, that is your problem, not the problem of whoever you think is making you do it. If you agree to perform the task, then it is your responsibility. Not your fault, maybe, but your responsibility.

To psychologists, philosophers, and theologians, who is at fault is not the big issue. That is a legal question. What is an issue is being responsible in terms of ownership. To own my life means that it is mine and no other person's. I can blame no one for what I do with it. I can blame them for what they to do me, but I cannot blame them for what I do with that they do to me. I am responsible for how I respond.

At seminars I often ask attendees whose fault it would be if I left the seminar, walked outside, and got hit by a drunk driver. Everyone understands that it is the drunk driver's fault. But whose responsibility is it to go to rehab and get my broken legs back into shape? Who has to take ownership of that disability? That disability is not my fault; I did not cause it. And the courts would agree about the legal question of fault. But it is my existential responsibility to deal with my life and to work at improving it, no matter how adversely it has been affected.

Received this prayer in an email: "God of the broken, God of the wanderer, surround those in deep need among us and help us hear their cries for aid. We are a people who long for the broken to be mended. We long for justice in the face of corruption. We want to practice hospitality, but we have legitimate fears. Surround us in our trying times and help us reach beyond ourselves. We confess we are bogged down by the great need in the world. Grant us the courage to stand for what is right even when it offends, the imaginations to help create a better world, and the strength of your Spirit to carry on. Amen."

Something to be read and considered, especially for Christians...

As Christian pastors and leaders with diverse theological and political beliefs, we have come together to make this covenant with each other, and to commend it to the church, faith-based organizations, and individuals, so that together we can contribute to a more civil national discourse. The church in the United States can offer a message of hope and reconciliation to a nation that is deeply divided by political and cultural differences. Too often, however, we have reflected the political divisions of our culture rather than the unity we have in the body of Christ. We come together to urge those who claim the name of Christ to "put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:31-32).

1) We commit that our dialogue with each other will reflect the spirit of the Scriptures, where our posture toward each other is to be "quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry" (James 1:19).

2) We believe that each of us, and our fellow human beings, are created in the image of God. The respect we owe to God should be reflected in the honor and respect we show to each other in our common humanity, particularly in how we speak to each other. "With the tongue we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God....this ought not to be so" (James 3:9,10).

3) We pledge that when we disagree, we will do so respectfully, without falsely impugning the other's motives, attacking the other's character, or questioning the other's faith, and recognizing in humility that in our limited, human opinions, "we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror" (1 Corinthians 13:12). We will therefore "be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).

4) We will ever be mindful of the language we use in expressing our disagreements, being neither arrogant nor boastful in our beliefs: "Before destruction one's heart is haughty, but humility goes before honor" (Proverbs 18:12).

5) We recognize that we cannot function together as citizens of the same community, whether local or national, unless we are mindful of how we treat each other in pursuit of the common good in the common life we share together. Each of us must therefore "put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body" (Ephesians 4:25).

6) We commit to pray for our political leaders - those with whom we may agree, as well as those with whom we may disagree. "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made - for kings and all who are in high positions" (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

7) We believe that it is more difficult to hate others, even our adversaries and our enemies, when we are praying for them. We commit to pray for each other, those with whom we agree and those with whom we may disagree, so that together we may strive to be faithful witnesses to our Lord, who prayed "that they may be one" (John 17:22).

We pledge to God and to each other that we will lead by example in a country where civil discourse seems to have broken down. We will work to model a better way in how we treat each other in our many faith communities, even across religious and political lines. We will strive to create in our congregations safe and sacred spaces for common prayer and community discussion as we come together to seek God's will for our nation and our world.

From Sojourners, www.sojo.org

"If I had to name my disability, I would call it an unwillingness to fall...This reluctance signals the mistrust of the central truth of the Christian gospel: life springs from death, not only at the last but also in the many little deaths along the way. When everything you count on for protection has failed, the Divine Presence does not fail. The hands are still there -- not promising to rescue, not promising to intervene -- promising only to hold you no matter how far you fall." - Barbara Brown Taylor

This quote is particularly impacting when you consider the circumstances in which it was spoken. "We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope." - Martin Luther King Jr.

• Whatever I truly learned will stay with me will be naturally reflected in whatever I do next.
• Whatever articles and magazines I saved are old news.  If I need information on a topic there is a world wide web to scour now.Whoever touched my life in a meaningful way is either still in it and/or remains vividly in my memory, my heart and even my pictures.  And thanks to tools like Linked In, Twitter and Facebook, I have reconnected with many of those people this year.
•  Whatever I did not complete or fully let go of, be it relationships, failures, mistakes, regrets, grief, etc. will reveal itself again only to the extent it is in the way of my future.  Then and only then will it support me to deal with it. 

Making the choice to cast off those boxes un-opened was in and of itself a completion for me.  It represents my stand for the profoundly different future I am designing and living into now and my faith that I have all that I need to make it a reality.

So as I say goodbye to 2009 I am thinking about what to put in that “good junk box” next that I will cast off in 2010.  Thankfully this year there will be a lot fewer physical things to put in that box.  I now have a lot more mental space to focus instead on some of the other things that can become baggage in our lives like expectations, beliefs, regrets, etc. that have no place in our future despite how they may have served our past.

My favorite folk artist David Wilcox wrote a song called “Farthest Shore” (track 78) that captures the essence of the power of casting off the “good junk” in this one line: “Let me dive into the water leave behind all that I worked for except what I remember and believe.  And when I stand on the farthest shore I will have all I need.”

What will go into your “good junk” box this year?

May 2010 bring you an abundance of success and satisfaction in your life and in your work.  I am grateful to all who have been reading, sharing about yourselves and your work, and sharing your wisdom and insight here at Random Acts of Leadership this past year.  As I write this I am approaching the one year anniversary of this blog.  Thank you for making my adventure into the world of social media tremendously rewarding and enriching.  Happy New Year!

“There are two questions to our search...what does it mean to be human, to have a soul, to have destiny and eternity within...and the second, is there a God and does He/She have anything to say to me.”

“An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.'' - John Gardner, Excellence

“It is essential to distinguish between hoping and wishing. They are not the same thing.

“Wishing is something all of us do. It projects what we want or think we need into the future. Just because we wish for something good or holy we think it qualifies as hope. It does not. Wishing extends our egos into the future; hope desires what God is going to do – and we don’t yet know what that is.

“Wishing grows out of our egos; hope grows out of our faith. Hope is oriented toward what God is going; wishing is oriented toward what we are doing. Wishing has to do with what I want in things or people or God; hope has to do with what God wants in me and the world of things and people beyond me.

“Wishing is our will projected into the future, and hope is God’s will coming out of the future. Picture it in your mind: wishing is a line that comes out of me, with an arrow pointing into the future. Hoping is a line that comes out of God from the future, with an arrow pointing toward me.

“Hope means being surprised, because we don’t know what is best for us or how our lives are going to be completed. To cultivate hope is to suppress wishing – to refuse to fantasize about what we want, but live in anticipation of what God is going to do next.” – Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor

“Hope is a response to the future which has its foundations in the promises of God. It looks at the future as time for the completion of God’s promises. It refuses to extrapolate either desire or anxiety into the future, but instead believes that God’s promise gives the proper content to it. But hope is not a doctrine about the future: it is a grace cultivated in the present, it is a stance in the present which deals with the future. As such it is misunderstood if it is valued only for the comfort it brings; as if it should say, “Everything is going to be all right in the future because God is in control of it, therefore relax and be comforted.” Hope operates differently. Christian hope alerts us to the possibilities of the future as a field of action, and as a consequence fills the present with energy.” – Eugene Peterson, Like Dew Your Youth

“Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.” - Goethe