Category: hmm… thoughts

  • Today’s harvest



    Today’s harvest, originally uploaded by mclanea.

    This is what I pulled out of the garden today. This is a pretty typical daily harvest for us these days. We have a few pounds of green beans to pick tonight, as well.

  • Can’t Sleep

    We have a very loud bird outside of our house. Any thoughts we had of buying the kids a parakeet are now gone. Click on the link and you’ll know what I mean.

    1. Bird noise – This is why I can’t sleep     

  • Lessons from a Fail

    Photo by Cake Wrecks

    Have you ever had a colossal failure in your work? The type of failure that you just want to look around at everyone and yell, “Jenga!”

    I had one of these recently. A project failed so badly– I felt like the kid who struck out in the last inning with a man on third.

    Here are a few things I try to take away from a failure:

    • Failure is statistically interesting. I’m a highly emotional person in my decision-making, but I am also typically emotional when the data backs up my theory. So when something crashes and burns that means that my data was bad. And that’s interesting.
    • Don’t cross that idea off the list just yet. One of the things I’ve noticed in companies/individuals who are failures is that they give up on a good idea to quickly. “We tried that before and it didn’t work.”  That’s a phrase you hear from people who are so afraid of failing that they are only looking for snake oil. Maybe the timing was wrong? Maybe the execution was bad? Maybe your location/placement was bad?
    • Working harder rarely significantly impacts my results. My instinct is… when the plan is going bust to just work harder and longer. But experience has taught me that holding onto a failure instead of letting it just fail is an energy burn. A failure is a failure no matter how hard I work.
    • I need to study the fail in order to get away from the anecdotal reasons to the real reasons for the failure. That typically means I have to beat some stumps and dig through some data before I can really learn from the mistake. It might end up being something simple… and it might be something complex. But until I put on my forensic glasses I’m just not learning anything.
    • A failure doesn’t make me a failure. This is where playing sports teaches you about redemption! There is a good chance I’ll be in the exact same situation again another time… not learning, recognizing, and adapting from that previous failure… that’s what makes me a failure.
    • When a project completely failures to deliver, despite my ability to adapt the plan, sometimes this reveals a God aspect. At the end of the day I can work as hard as I can or plan my best plan but if it isn’t meant to be I need to be OK with that in recognition that I’m not the author of my life.

  • Adventure as a Discipline

    For the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about how wimpy people are.

    There is something strange to me that people allow the most remote possibility of getting hurt, lost, robbed, missing a meal, missing a flight, or even not a clean place to pee define their lives. What a boring life they live.

    I want my life to be full of adventure.

    Not just big adventures– day-to-day adventures too!

    It seems to me that people who like to plan everything, take as little risk as possible, and pre-think too many details are really missing something in life. With an entire ever-changing planet to explore it is inconceivable to me that people like to eliminate discovery and adventure.

    There is something spiritual about adventure. We are hard-wired to explore, discover… and depend on the goodness of others. As children we dream huge dreams! We devour books about adventure. Every adventure we hear about we want to go on. We wanted to go to the moon and mars. We wanted to go Africa. We wanted to live in Central Park in New York City.

    Stepping into an element of the unknown provides an incredible feeling. It acknowledges how God is in control and we are not. When we make adventure the enemy we lie to ourselves– God is in control of every detail all day, every day anyways!

    I love stepping into the unknown with nothing more than a feeling that everything is going to be OK. I even like pressing through the fear of “um, maybe this isn’t safe” and then the joy of laughing at myself when it all works out.

    I like depending on the kindness of strangers when I get lost. I like meeting new people in full recognition that there are no accidental meetings. I like discovering little things and big things. Those that look at these things as failures seem to think that life is meant to be sanitary.

    When we start removing this from our lives we take control. When I hear people tell me that they don’t like to be surprised, that they need to know when they will arrive, where they will eat, and what every detail is– it makes me wonder what is wrong with them.

    A spirit of adventure is not the lack of ability to plan. It is the lack of a need to plan every detail or measure every risk in life’s journey.

    Adventure and Recklessness

    There is a difference between the a spirit of adventure and a spirit of recklessness. It would be reckless to go on a 3 day hike up a mountain with no gear, no food, and no real plan. It would be reckless to jump off of a cliff into the ocean without knowing how deep the water is. It would be reckless to drop off 10 high school students for a homeless experience with no training.

    But embracing life’s adventures is not reckless. There’s always a risk assessment. A general idea of a safety plan. On and on.

    The goodness of others

    I really think one of the things that holds people back is a belief, deep in our soul, that all people are out to hurt us. We think everyone is a potential ax murderer or rapist.

    Hogwash. People are generally good. If you have a smile on your face and an honest question… you can go anywhere in the world and probably find someone who will help you when you get lost, give you a meal, find you a place to sleep, and give you good advice.

    Adventure is an attitude. When you embrace it the world opens to discovery.

    Questions: Do you see a spirit of adventure as a spiritual issue? Do you still dream about the same adventures you dreamt about when you were a kid? What is it in you that draws you to stories/movies/television shows about adventure?

  • The jugglers cup runneth over

    Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Malachi 3:10

    I’ve heard and read this verse a ton of times. And the phrase that has always popped out to me is– “test me in this.” It’s one of those passages of the Bible that you read and think that it can’t literally be true.

    If I trust God with my money will he really pour out so much blessing that I won’t know what to do?

    Sounds like a load of bull spoken by a TV preacher trying to build his version of Disneyland, right?

    As I’m learning– maybe not.

    I don’t often write about things that are happening RIGHT NOW in my life. As much of myself as I share, I tend to let things percolate a little bit and mellow into principle before I try to capture my thoughts in words.

    But the last few days I’ve just come home and looked at Kristen and said– “My life is crazy right now. I can’t hardly explain it. All awesome stuff.”

    Two photos really capture visually what I’m having a hard time processing into words.

    1. The juggler.

    Photo by Andy_Tyler via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    My work life is a constant juggling act. Big projects, little projects, add leadership over one area and support over another. Go on the road to do one thing while keeping everything in order on something else. It’s a good kind of juggling. As my co-workers know, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even when I come home I’m still juggling all sorts of personal and McLane Creative projects. From a thriving garden to the latest social media campaign– I’ve just got a lot of balls in the air.

    Juggling requires constant attention. And when people see a juggler they like to ask you one important question… can you juggle one more ball? Sometimes I shrug my shoulders yes and sometimes I shrug my shoulders no.

    2. The overflowing cup

    Photo by shioshvili via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Is Malachi 3:10 really literally true? It sure seems that way right now. The last month was filled with unexpected showers of awesome. Several people and organizations are asking for quotes for new web designs. Several outlets are looking for me to write for them. Our community group is doing some cool things. In a few weeks Lisa is coming here for the summer. In June, Kristen and I have planned an amazing local vacation capped off by a fun celebration. My second trip to Haiti is coming together and basically full. And in the last 2-3 days a whole new shower of unexpected blessings has come my way– earth shakingly awesome stuff, too!

    If you bump into me these days I’ve kind of got this crazed mad Scientist look going. Buggy wide eyes, haven’t slept, and a scary perma grin.

    OK, not that guy.

    More like that.

  • What you know and how you motivate others

    If you think I made this up, here’s the Wikipedia page about this philosophy. Now you know about it, it’s a known known to you.

    Here’s the original clip. Like they say on NBC, now you know. And G.I. Joe says it best, knowing is half the battle.

  • Facilitating Independence

    Strong opinion warning.

    I’m not a fan of adult children living at home. It’s one thing if you’re on break from school and you’re a temporary visitor. It’s another thing when you’re able bodied. I’d even argue that the best thing for 18 year olds staying local for community college would be to kick them out of the house.

    Trust me. They won’t die of exposure.

    My opinion is that coddling teenagers leads to dependency. From a sociological perspective, I hypothesize adult coddling of teenagers and young adults has lead to an elongation of adolescence. (Some say it ends at 26? Crazy.) Likewise, raising a child from an early age with the goal that they will become happy, healthy, and independent young adults will prepare them for the swift kick that comes after high school graduation.

    Enter Lisa.

    I was Lisa’s youth pastor when she was in high school. She’s the eldest child from a great family. She worked hard in high school, was faithful to God, her parents, and a dedicated student. She’d be the first to tell you that she wasn’t perfect in high school. But something in Lisa’s character kept me investing in her. When she was a sophomore she and a few others started showing up for a 6 am Bible study. I thought they’d come for 2-3 weeks… and to my amazement we kept it going for almost 2 years! After high school she headed off to Grace College where she’ll earn a degree in just a few weeks with an emphasis on criminal justice and adolescence psychology.

    Last November, I was on a flight using the wifi late at night when we struck up a conversation on Facebook chat. Inevitably, I asked the question: “So what do you want to do when you grow up? What’s next?”

    She had some ideas but expressed some frustration. She really wanted to go back home to Michigan but feared that she’d either not find a decent job at all or be forced to give up her dream of working with teenagers. Let’s face it– Michigan is a tough place to be a recent college grad.

    I was afraid for her. My fear was that she’d move home, not find a decent job, end up in  something like minimum wage… unhappy and stuck in a cycle of paying off student loans by doing jobs that she wasn’t passionate about– and living at home.

    I offered a potential solution we both agreed to pray about it.

    What if you moved in with us, watched our kids during their summer break, and spent the summer chasing some of those social justice dreams by volunteering with San Diego-based non-profits?

    Lo and behold after a month or so of praying about it we all agreed it’d be worth a shot.

    Starting in June Lisa is coming to live with us. She has the first 6 weeks of time with us to volunteer for some non-profits. (We’re basically paying her to be a volunteer!) Than the second half of the time her concentration will shift to watching our kids when school ends July 15th.

    We pray it’s a win-win. She gains some experience and exposure to what God is doing in the social justice community in San Diego. And our kids have a sweet nanny.

    The hope, naive as it may be, that this will be a “halfway house” type of experience. We hope that through this experience that she’ll be able to find a permanent job, land a place to stay, and move on at the end of the summer to the next phase in her life. (Probably grad school being in the not-too-far distance.)

    Independence is possible. We just need to facilitate it as opposed to fostering dependency.

    This is how we’re helping a societal problem. How are you?

  • Performance Reviews

    I need to make a confession about performance reviews.

    I’ve never given or received a useful one.

    Another confession. Since going into full-time ministry in 2002, I’ve never gotten a performance review. Ever.

    It’s not that I’ve never had a job which didn’t require them or didn’t promise that I’d get one. It’s that it’s either never happened or I had to write my own and my boss approved it. A self-evaluation is not a performance review… it’s like reviewing your own book for a blog. Useless.

    From 1996-2002, I worked for BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois as a supervisor. Every six months I had to submit a review to my boss of my employees performance, and every six months I received a review of my performance. They were all meaningless. (Except for the annual one which told me how much my raise was.) But I never got or received any advice that changed work behavior. It was really all just numerical performance.

    “During the review period, Adam increased worker productivity by .6% by offering daily bribes of donuts and glad-handing. During the next review period, Mr. McLane shall increase worker productivity by 2.1% by manipulating the tools in which he measures performance so that he can satisfy his bosses incessant desire for increased productivity.“

    So my question is simple.

    If it’s so important that staff people get performance reviews… why is it that the people doing the reviewing hate it so much and why is it that the reviews we get are so lame?

    And when did this silly practice begin, anyway?

  • Plethora

    Plethora is really the only word I have to describe my life right now.

    There are so many things going on, so many amazing opportunities, and so many more things I wish I had time to do. Here’s a glimpse into the madness…

    • NYWC has taken over my work life! Because of the changes we got a late start to planning this year’s convention… but we have a big deadline coming up and every intention of nailing it. So it’s crunch time for the website, the brochure, the video, and a whole lot more. I’m way more involved in all of that than I ever have been.  Which is fantastic and crazy to think about at the same time.
    • PlanetWisdom and the Canadian convention are also about to ramp up their stuff for next year. Yowsers! That’s a lot of websites.
    • I’ve got a couple McLane Creative projects right at the launching point. In the midst of that God is brining me a big vision to expand these side jobs from 1-2 projects per month to 5-6. I have to make a strategic decision about how to either grow or contract this part of my life soon. And that decision is stressing me out.
    • Next week I hit the road. It’s kind of related to NYWC but it’s really a trip where Shawn and I hope to meet-up with and encourage as many youth workers as we can. I’m not a natural detail person. So nailing down all of the meet-up locations, places to sleep, travel plans, and stuff like that has been a bit nutty! We still don’t have a place to sleep in Redding, CA. God… provide!
    • I’m in full-on recruiting mode for the Haiti trip this July. The team will be 20 people and we have 6 confirmed. There are a bunch of folks still praying about it, trying to move dates around, stuff like that. That’s a joy in my life… but there’s a lot of details, too. (We still have room if you are interested.)
    • Kristen and I just booked a beach house for June. Besides a weeks vacation by the ocean, we’ll be hosting a 13th wedding anniversary BBQ and a snarky renewal of vows. It feels good to have a signed contract and deposit in for that. But we still have a ton of planning to do.
    • I’ve got a series of articles to write about social media in ministry. I wish I could do more of this, but I’ve had to say no to some things recently because I’m over-committed.
    • I’m kicking around a book proposal. I’ve had an outline and some starter chapters for a while. I need to decide to go forward or to trash it soon.
    • Some people from our church (not our church, per se) are starting a charter high school in City Heights. I’m trying to gauge what my involvement with that will be. I have a passion for public school education so this something I care a ton about. And, of course, this would be the school Megan and Paul would eventually go to.
    • God’s moving some spiritual mountains in our midst within the high school group, I.O.B. and within our small group. I feel like I just get to witness that stuff and my heart longs to be more intimately involved.
    • In just a few week’s Lisa moves into our house for the summer. She’s graduating from college and.. well… the job prospects in California are actually much better than in Michigan. So, she’s coming to live with us, be our summer nanny, volunteer with some stuff, and hopefully get a clear vision for what the next step is in her life after college. Kristen and I take a long-range view of discipleship and this is definitely part of that. Can’t wait for her to get here.

    I wish that were it. But I know there are lots of other things going on which I just label, “the plethora.”

  • Inspiration: Street Art

    This stuff fascinates me. I love the mystery of public reactions. I love surprise and wonder. I love the feeling of “why didn’t I think of that?“