Pushing Up!

So eventually we must take a leap. We must literally move our feet in the direction of our dreams, even if we can not know the outcome. We must be willing to live in a state of ambiguity. No guarantees.

That leap is the necessary risk every business or humanitarian effort had to make. It starts with one person, willing to lay aside their own comforts, even their own futures, for the sake of a dream birthed in faith.

Even when the path is hard.  Or it seems like the wrong choice was made. Or especially when discouraged, unsupported, even neglected by the very people we committed to serve.

Right around the corner is a break.

Not all breaks are pleasant ones, but all lead to increased clarity. And clarity is ultimately what we are after. But we can’t get to that next point of clarity without serious determination.

So keep climbing.  Realize the struggle for life is life itself.  There is no better way to live, no greater use of our short time on earth, than to struggle on behalf of others with our gifts. 

There is nothing more worthwhile to do.

Though certainly we need times of recovery and rebound, we must fight.  The struggle against entropy is the best life available, for now.  Fighting is who we are if we have dreams to realize. 

Eventually reality will catch up. If we keep pushing.

Anyone who has ever pushed against reality with a dream knows this concept.  At some point in the pushing you hit the top of the hill.  Once you roll over that peak the natural momentum of your work starts to carry you down the hill. There is nothing like that free fall down hill.   Nothing!

To get over that hill you will have to say no to many other hills.  We only have so much time.  Trying to push up too many hills, especially at the same time, only wears us down.  Focusing is part of the fighting process.   

Rest, in the form of deliberate, temporary withdrawals, is almost part of the fight.

This is where most leadership books fall flat.  They minimize the brute reality of leadership. The constant not-knowing, decision (or guessing ;-) fatigue, hoping without knowing. It wears. In fact it kills. Without consistent withdrawal that onslaught only leads to pure exhaustion and a near-permanent state of anxiety.

We need wisdom!

But wisdom seems to slip out of the room when we need her most.  And anxiety makes it impossible to find her. 

The tension reveals the poignancy of the Pauline nugget: “peace is better than [transcends] understanding” (Phil.4.7). The two are deeply and hopelessly connected.  Yes!  But one comes before the other! We NEED understanding.  Of course.  But we can’t find it with anxiety (without peace).

If we approach our growing needs in a reactive almost spastic decisiveness, we miss wisdom.  Withdrawal is essential, even if leadership seminars won’t admit it.  Without it we sink into despair. Fact.   

Only in removing our focus from the source of our stress (in proactive withdrawal) can we hope to find the peace we desperately need.  It’s not escapism.  Or running away.  It’s finding peace.  First.

Because only then can we find and actually hear from Wisdom.

Yes we must take the leap.  But not into darkness; into the arms of Wisdom.  Trusting what is yet unseen.  Knowing we are not alone in our deliberate, temporary withdrawal.  Peace first, then wisdom.

We can do this! But not without her.