Category Archives: illustrations

What if there is no box?

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Photo by Marcus S. via Flickr (Creative Commons)

I think outside the box.

I’m told that a lot. And I guess it’s true. I mean, if people tell me it’s true at some point it is true.

Adam McLane is a man who thinks outside of the box.

When I hear that I think outside of the box I’m always thinking…

  • What if we’re working on the wrong box?
  • What if I’m in the wrong box?
  • What if our box is too small, too big, or too made of cardboard?
  • Why does the box have to be shaped like a box? I mean, is there a person who decided that boxes have to be cube-like? Can’t we build a box around who we are and not start with a box-shaped box?
  • How did we get in this box in the first place and why are we all just here wanting to get out of it in this meeting? Why don’t we just open the box and leave?
  • When did all of this crap get in the box? I think someone is using the box as a recycle bin.
  • Will lunch be served in the box? Because I’m getting hungry.

What if there is no box?

What if the box is just a metaphor for feeling trapped by our problems?

Literally, there is no box. It’s a metaphor. The box isn’t real. You don’t need to think outside of it because the box doesn’t really exist.

The box is your problem.

Having your company, brand, ministry, organization “in the box” is the end of creativity, joy, and freedom. When faced with your next dilemna you don’t just need to think outside of the box. You need to get outside of the box. Why?

Because the box is suffocating you.

  • It’s stealing the creativity you had as a 6 year old with a box of chalk, an empty sidewalk, and an endless summer.
  • It’s stealing the joy you had when you first started at this company.
  • It’s stealing the freedom you experienced as a kid who was just getting started, the one who wanted to conquer the world, and change things.

Haven’t you seen Toy Story 3? The whole point of the movie is don’t get put in the box.

Leaders Take You Where You Would Otherwise Not Go Alone

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This is the story of Corporal Sidney Manning of Butler County, Alabama

July 28th, 1918 - Near Breuvannes, France

When his platoon commander and platoon sergeant had both become casualties soon after the beginning of an assault on strongly fortified heights overlooking the Ourcq River, Cpl. Manning took command of his platoon, which was near the center of the attacking line. Though himself severely wounded he led forward the 35 men remaining in the platoon and finally succeeded in gaining a foothold on the enemy’s position, during which time he had received more wounds and all but 7 of his men had fallen. Directing the consolidation of the position, he held off a large body of the enemy only 50 yards away by fire from his automatic rifle. He declined to take cover until his line had been entirely consolidated with the line of the platoon on the front when he dragged himself to shelter, suffering from 9 wounds in all parts of the body.

Source

You aren’t a leader because of your rank, Corporal Manning had none.

You aren’t a leader because you went to school, he only went to basic training. You aren’t a leader because you write a book on leadership. Or because an organization calls you its leader. Or because your daddy was a leader. Or because you aspire to be a leader.

You are a leader when you take people where they would otherwise not go alone.

When the plan falls apart. When the bad news comes. When fear takes hold. When the enemy is advancing. When there is no where to go but the scary, dangerous place. When what needs to get done is dangerous.

Only then will you find out who the leader is. He or she looks you in the eye and says, “I will take you where we need to go.”

That’s a leader.

Accept no imitation.

When the Panic Button Goes Off

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Photo by Mikel Manitius via Flickr (Creative Commons)

When chaos arrives on the scene panic changes everything.

Every person has a freak out mode. Rumors spin out of control. People are jumping ship. Like Jonah, there’s a moment when the sailors cast lots to figure out who angered God. Fingers are pointed. Cuss words are muttered under their breathe. Biting words aren’t far behind. Everyone is doing whatever they can to fix the situation. Yet at the same time, in the back of their minds, they don’t know if they are making things better or making things worse.

Photo by Ira Machefsky via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Some situations turn the best of us into hyenas with a bad case of fleas.

It’s one thing to steer a ship on open seas on a calm day. That’s easy and anyone can do that. But it takes a captain to calmy guide the ship into harbor on a windy day with high waves. When the crew freaks out the captain takes over.

That’s when you discover who the leader is.

One day the panic button will go off.

Chaos will appear.

And then you’ll know.

Weeds

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The last couple of weeks have been stressful. Work stuff piled up as an ever growing to-do list was at war with two very firm deadlines. Stress built, tension built, and I was an emotional wreck. One day last week I started working at 6:00 am and largely sat in the same place steadily working until 10:00 pm. And I didn’t feel any closer to being done than I did before.

I’ve learned that one of the ways I relax is to spend time in our garden. Life can be going a million miles per hour and it all slows when I crouch or kneel next to a bed of vegetables.

The chores of having a garden are fairly simply and repetitive. Fertilize the soil. Plant things at the right time. Water when its dry. Pull weeds. Harvest. Repeat.

The back-to-basics simplicity is what brings me so much joy. Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables are merely the by-product of the primary benefit.

Each weed I pull it releases a little bit of tension. In the past couple of weeks, the warmer weather arriving forced me to water more… which resulted in weeds springing up everywhere. That was perfect! Because I had plenty of tension, frustration, and anxiety to pull out with each weed as well.

Pulling weeds has a strong tie to my life with Jesus, too.

Here are a few things I’m reminded of as I weed my garden:

  • You can’t just weed once per week.It’s better to weed a little bit each day.
  • Weeds like fertile soil just as much as crop producing plants. Where there is growth there will be weeds.
  • Sometimes you have to be gentle when you pull out a weed. It’s roots my be intertwined with roots of a good plant.
  • Some weeds have thorns and smell bad. But others are pretty and you’re tempted to keep them. Don’t.
  • Bugs eat your fruits and vegetables. For some reason they leave weeds alone.
  • Even the best gardeners pull weeds. You never get above it… you just get better at it. And some just get better at hiding the evidence.
  • Weeding the garden is work. It’s an easy skill but it is always going to get you dirty and always going to make you sweat.

What are some other parallels between taking care of your garden and your walk with Christ?

Put up or shut up

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Photo by Cindy Seigle via Flickr (Creative Commons)

I’m from Indiana. A big part of my childhood involved playing basketball in driveways.

From the time the ice melted until we could hear the band playing and crowd cheering from Notre Dame stadium all we did was play basketball. We’d get off the bus and play 21. We’d have breakfast on Saturday then play 21 until lunch… followed by 15-20 more games of 21 until dinner.

When we could get 6-7 people together we’d play half court, make it take it to 10. Usually, it was 3-4 guys playing 21 until our fingers cracked or palms were white and the rest of our hands were black with dirt.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone else’s moves. They knew who to guard from outside and who to push to their left hand in the lane. We knew who had an unstoppable jump hook. And we knew who couldn’t make a layup. There was even a kid so good at free throws that we had to make a new rule, after 7-check-up.

But the biggest rule of them all? Put up or shut up.

Photo by DonkerDink via Flickr (Creative Commons)

It never failed that the kids who didn’t play very much ran their mouth the most about how good they were. You’d hear them in the hallways at school trying to convince everyone that they could play. And you’d hear them on the bus all the way home.

Then we’d all get off at their stop, take their ball out of their bushes, roll it to them and say… Put up or shut up.

We’d call their bluff. Maybe they really could play? But usually not.

What does that phrase mean? Simply put, let your actions speak for themselves. It’s easy to run your mouth and tell people how good you are. But can you deliver?

In my neighborhood the best players didn’t have to tell people how good they were. They let their game speak for itself.

And chumps like me? We just kept out mouths shut.

All talk, no show

This same principle applies today.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to someone running their mouth about something. They know how to do my job better than me. Or they know how to do someone else’s job better than them so they are just trying to prove how smart they think they are to me.

They know how to minister to my youth group better than me. They know how to parent, to budget, to garden, to _____ [insert verb] better than I do.

And sometimes I just wish we were back in middle school so I could follow them off the bus, go fish the basketball out of their bushes, pass it to them and say “Put up or shut up.”

Looking in the mirror

My dad says a phrase that I think about all the time, “Don’t write a check that you can’t cash.” I think about that a lot. Especially when I run my mouth about what I can do, want to do, or should do.

I need to make sure that I’m not just talking about things for the sake of talking about them but that I’m willing to “cash those checks” with my life.

Church leadership culture is quick to celebrate the person with the loudest megaphone who says the quote worthy thing that gets retweeted all over the heavens.

That’s a whirpool of “put up or shut up”  that I want no part of. Eventually, someone is going to ask them to cash that check.

Instead, I’d rather just keep my mouth shut and do my best to let my game speak for itself.

The Innovation Gap

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“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” ~ William Arthur Ward

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~ Sir Winston Churchill

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” ~ Steve Jobs

I don’t pretend to know what today’s problems are for you.

But this much I do know–

  • The best ideas comes from those on the front lines. That’s the great joy of innovation. Today’s heroes count their riches while tomorrows heroes work all night.
  • Avoiding failure is a failure in itself. The trick to creating new stuff is to fail fast. Risk isn’t the enemy, comfort is.
  • Celebrate every milestone. A step towards your ultimate goal is still a step forward. Plus, moving forward will gain you momentum.
  • Every person has a creative mind. Don’t sell anyone short. Rarely are the best things innovated alone. Your best idea might come from listening to another person talk about the same problem.
  • Look at your problem from every angle. The best putters in golf walk all the way around their shot.

Book Cover: How to Share Your Faith on a Plane

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How to Share Your Faith on a Plane (Printable PDF book cover) (460)

I have a knack for getting an empty seat next to me when I fly Southwest.

On more than 60% of my 2010 flights I sat in the window seat and had an empty middle seat. In January 2011, I flew with Southwest 11 times and had an empty middle seat 7 times. (The other 4 were completely full flights with no empty seats.)

As I bragged about this to my friends, they began to wonder: How in the world is Adam doing that?

I’m not going to share all of my tricks. (Here’s a blog with some decent tips) But one thing that definitely helps looks like this:

  • Make sure you are in the A boarding group
  • Sit in a window seat, then place a book or your iPod/headphones in the middle seat.

It’s the book detail that my friends bring up and eventually resulted in the graphic you see above. More often than not I am reading a non-fiction Christian book like Kenda-Creasy Deans Almost Christian or John Ortberg’s Faith and Doubt. For some reason those types of titles tend to cause on-coming passengers to continue moving towards the back of the plane more than the latest issue of Sports Illustrated or Wired.

That’s the genesis of this fake book cover. My friends and I hypothesized, “If people won’t sit next to me because I’m reading a book with a Christian title, what would happen if I made a fake book cover with an overtly Christian title AND made the book about evangelism?”

That’s how this was born.

How to Share Your Faith on a Plane: 25 Scenarios for Converting This Flight from Transportation to Transformation

Instructions:

  • Download the pdf.
  • Print/cut it to the size you need. (The original size is the size of a standard hard cover book with a jacket)
  • Replace the jacket your book came with and follow the tips on the back cover.