Posts tagged as:

Compassion

To Touch and Be Touched

by Andy Wood on March 15, 2009

called-to-loveApril 1 is coming, and with it is the release of Kaye Miller’s new book, Called to Love – Stories of Compassion, Faith, and God’s Amazing Grace. I was privileged to work with Kaye on it, and can tell you, it’s a must-have book.  Kaye masterfully gives love a face, a Name, and a set of instruments with which to express it.  You can pre-order called to love at Amazon here, or at Barnes & Noble Online here.

The following is a composite description of one of the most profound love-related experiences Kaye walked through.  On some level, I think you’ll be able to relate.  Enjoy!  And order the book!

Most of us will not be required to love to the extent that it costs our physical lives.  But we will have to love enough to be willing to give up our own desires, our time, our preferences, our schedules and much more.  But that is a small price, knowing that we were loved by someone named Jesus Christ, who thought we were worth dying for.

This came home to me in a particularly poignant way in my responsibilities as an intensive care nurse.  I heard God’s call loud and clear as He called me to work with the leprosy of our day.  I will never forget the first time I cared for a patient with AIDS.  I thought, “God, I can’t so this!  I have a family – small children who need me.  Please don’t ask me to do this!”  I stood outside the door to the room of my first AIDS patient for what seemed like an eternity, just praying:  “Lord what do I do?”  Then I remembered what Jesus did, and what my father did.  They willingly, lovingly, touched the lepers of their day.  I could do no less.

I took a deep breath and opened the door – [click to continue…]

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Seven Ways to Tell Who the Leader Is

by Andy Wood on August 15, 2008

“Who is the leader?” Dad wanted to know.  His son was watching cartoons, and Erwin McManus was asking him to explain the characters and tell him what was going on.

The boy, with great delight, began to tell all about his cartoon heroes.

Erwin thought he’d ask him a simple question about who the leader was, and his son gave him an astonishing explanation.  Pointing to one of the characters, he said, “Well, that’s the leader.”

“How do you know?”

He said, “The leader always stays in the back and only gets involved when everyone else is about to die.”

There you have it:  what McManus describes as the Marvel Comics Theory of Leadership (more here).

True, leaders are often perceived that way.  But that’s not how leaders emerge, or how they last in the world where characters actually breathe.  If you’re looking to:

  • Hire/elect/promote a person to a place of leadership,
  • Strengthen your own leadership abilities,
  • Identify the extent to which you or someone else are actually leading people, or
  • “Find the parade and get in front of it,”

then consider leadership from the front.  Here, from followers’ perspectives, are seven ways to tell who the leader is.

[click to continue…]

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