Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

swimming

Summer Fun Week 6

We’re leaving in a few hours, and I totally should be finishing the packing and errands, but I’m going to try to squeeze this in, just like I’ve been trying to squeeze in a few more moments of fun this last week together before the middle of August.

After today, our family of four will be split between two states, first, then two continents, and it will be hard. I’m so thankful we’ve had these many weeks in a row to make memories and be together.

Last night we fit in one more family outing–mini-golf, a first for the kids and a first-in-a-long-time for the grown-ups. Pro tip if you’re taking your family mini-golfing for the first time: take a picture before the madness fun begins and don’t bother keeping score. We lasted two holes with trying to score and then I was frustrated and trying to hurry along because other people were waiting.

wpid-20150717_180915.jpgThis photo pretty much sums up everything. We had fun by the time the night was over.

The day before, we spent a whole afternoon at a friend’s house in the pool. It was a much-needed distraction from all the stress and packing and such.

wpid-20150716_150557.jpgAnd though we don’t frequent the pool, the kids loved their time in the water and fancy themselves little fishies.wpid-20150716_110442.jpg

I’m not going to go out and get a pool membership, but I’m more likely to take up swimming lessons again. Thankful for friends who invite us into their space.

We spent a lot of the in-between time at home this week while the car was being checked for problems and having problems repaired. This is the part of the summer I’d sooner forget. Car repairs. Yuck. But at least we didn’t have to repeat our visit to the waiting room when we watched PBS for two hours.

Our first fun thing of the week was a visit to the library to see our reading dog friends. We’ve been visiting them at the library for two years and we love the work the therapy dogs do. Basically they hang out and listen and are so gentle that Corban has overcome his fear of dogs. The bonus this week was that one of the local television stations came to film a segment about the program and all three of us were interviewed! It’ll be a few weeks before we see our pretty faces on TV but we’re looking forward to it!

wpid-20150714_120307.jpgThat same day we also donned our cow attire for free food at Chick-fil-a.

I don’t know when the next summer fun update will be, so thanks for reading along and enjoying our summer fun with us! Hope your summer still has its share of fun left!wpid-fb_img_1436903212551.jpgwpid-20150714_154822.jpg

 

 

 

Swimming in the deep end

Today’s post is part of the second leadership synchroblog by Evangelical Seminary. This week’s topic: How do we define “depth” in leadership? (You can also read my contribution on the topic of “What makes a good leader?”)

I’m not a big fan of swimming. Oh, I can watch Michael Phelps or Missy Franklin or any other Olympic swimmer do their thing in primetime, but to suit up myself and do some laps? No, thanks.

Truth be told, the water sort of scares me. I’m good in the shallow end, where I can touch the bottom, but lead me into deeper waters and I start to envision drowning and dramatic rescues. My lungs start to burn thinking about holding my breath and I get leg cramps and … well, you get the idea. It’s not pretty in my head.

I sometimes feel the same way about depth. Deep people scare me a little. They’re so in tune with who they are and what they’re about. They’re comfortable with their weaknesses and failures and they don’t seem to care what other people think.

Me? I’m over in the kiddie pool of conversation, deflecting questions to other people like a beach ball in a game of keep away. I’m unnaturally curious about other people (it’s the journalist in me) but asking me to go deep is like asking me to jump off the high dive in front of an audience. It’s not going to happen. At least not without help.

And that’s where deep leaders come in.

© Lisa James | Dreamstime.com

If we stick with the swimming analogy, they’re in the deep end already. They’ve faced their fears and forged ahead in spite of them. They’ve been in over their heads, learned how to keep their heads above water without losing focus. They’ve gained strength and stamina from being in a place where few people tread. They’ve made the decision to step away from the easy, shallow waters and make waves in the deeper water.And deep leaders don’t exclude others from the deep end. They not only say, “Come on in, the water’s fine,” they swim back to those in the shallow end and guide the willing into deeper waters, sharing their experiences of going deep. They acknowledge that, yes, the deep end can be scary, but it won’t overwhelm us. Like these words from Scripture:

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.

Some of my deepest moments have come because of others who were willing to share the deep parts of themselves with me first. And they’ve been deep waters I’ve needed to pass through. Without a hand to guide me, I would have been overwhelmed.

Deep leaders have passed through the deep waters of life and are still swimming.

How would you define depth in leadership?