There’s a story told about Frank Szymanski, a Notre Dame center in the 1940s, who had been called to testify in a civil suit.

The judge asked him, “Are you on the Notre Dame football team this year?”

“Yes, your honor,” he replied.

“What’s your position?”

“Center, your honor.”

“How good a center?”

Szymanski hesitated for a minute, then said, “Sir, I’m the best center Notre Dame has ever had.”

Coach Frank Leahy was in the courtroom at the time. Szymanski’s statement surprised him because the player had always been modest and unassuming. Leahy asked him about it and the center replied, “Coach, I hated to say it, but I had to. I was under oath.”

THE BALANCE FOR LEADERS

There is a balance for leaders to maintain between overestimating your strengths and underestimating the value of your contribution. I think Paul was referring to this when he said…

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)

It takes wisdom to maintain this balance, to evaluate yourself without false humility and without ego-stroking pride, to view yourself as only one part of the body of Christ, but an essential part, with something to offer the whole.

Take some time today to consider your gifts and graces with sober sober judgment. Think about what you do well. Think about what you add to the team. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Don’t be afraid to participate. Remember, you’re under oath, too.

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[note: The Szymanski story was first told by David Casstevens, a former sports writer for the Dallas Morning News. It's also in one of the Chicken Soup books, and it can be found on Szymanski's wikipedia entry.]

I remember a volleyball game played with friends a while back. (Actually, this is one of my older stories; the game was a few years ago.) My team won the game, but not because we were better. We had an unfair advantage: Clark, who played for the other team.

Clark is actually pretty good at volleyball, and that’s the whole problem. Since he’s a little better than the others on his team, he tried to play all six positions at once. He wanted to serve, play the net, guard the backline and cover the middle all at the same time. He tried his best to save his teammates the trouble of having to make plays on their own — after all, they probably would have made a mistake. And though he managed to get his hands on the ball with every volley, he wasn’t good enough on his own to beat an entire team that was, for the most part, working together.

Winning is rarely this easy. Clark’s teammates were afraid to play the ball (knowing Clark would try to play it) … and in spite of his own sense of indispensability, he couldn’t be everywhere on the court at once.

STAND ASIDE AND LET THEM DO IT

I know a lot of leaders, like Clark, whose strategy for ministry is “stand aside and let me do it.” They’re convinced no one will do the job quite as good as them. Why delegate when others are bound to make mistakes? Why delegate when you can do it all yourself?

We forget, those of us who are task oriented, that finishing the job isn’t the point. Not completely. Especially in ministry. God’s idea is that in the process of doing his work we will build community. He wants us to learn to work together. He wants us to be a team.

Look at the areas in which you lead. Are you trying to do it all yourself? If so, your teammates may wonder why they’re even on the team. And they’re probably just waiting for you to take a vacation so they can finally get a chance to make a play.

Let your players play their position. Don’t try to cover the whole court. They might make a mistake or two, but they’ll also surprise you with some good plays.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body…Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12, 27)

I recently came across this twist on the serenity prayer…

Grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change,
the courage to change the one I can,
and the wisdom to know it’s me.

We need to remember that our work involves helping others, encouraging others, inspiring others, and leading others … but the change part isn’t up to us, it’s up to them. The only person you can change is the one looking at the computer screen right now.

Here’s the paradox. When the people you lead see change in you, they begin to see possibilities in themselves. When they see God’s grace at work in you, it gives them hope that the can experience the same kind of transforming grace.

I encourage you, then, to lead first by this simple sentence: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) Do you want to see change in others? Let them see it first in you.

In the 1920s, someone bet Ernest Hemingway ten dollars that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. Hemingway came back with:

“For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

He won the bet.

Last year Smith Magazine (smithmag.net) asked readers to sum up their own lives in just six words. The results are now a book called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.

Here are some interesting entries:

• Head in books, feet in flowers. (Heather Thomson)

• Trust me, I did my best. (Ray Kemp)

• Married childhood sweetheart. Two kids. Content. (Steve McMullen)

• Partner, pension, motorhome, life is good. (Bob Lindblom)

• Wasted my whole life getting comfortable. (Richard Merrington)

• Worry about tomorrow, rarely enjoy today! (Richard Rabone)

• Four Weddings, Three kids, then cancer. (Gillian Johnson)

• Not quite finished, tell you later. (Dave Nicholson)

• Really should have been a Lawyer. (Gules Fallan)

• Bored, so bored, so very bored. (John Doyle)

• Ditched the map, found better route. (Gillian Smellie)

……………………………………………..

Following this same idea, Jesus might have summarized his life this way:
“To seek and save the lost.” [Luke 19:10] or …
“To give abundant life to all.” [John 10:10]

Paul might have summarized his life:
“Tough fight, long race, won both.” [2 Timothy 4:7]

Peter might have said:
“Took chances, failed often, experienced power.”
[Matthew 14:29; Mark 14:71; Acts 5:15]

King David might have said:
“The Lord is all I need.” [Psalm 23:1]

How would you summarize your life? How would you summarize your ministry?

Thomas Carlyle said, “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

Vision is essential to leadership, as is seeing the big picture—no doubt about it. But great leaders also have the ability to see and do what is necessary today.

It’s the principle of first things first. Solomon said it as simply as it can be said: Develop your business first before building your house. (Proverbs 24:27)

This is what great leaders do. Where many flounder week to week, effective leaders make sure that, before anything else, top business gets done each day. And they do this every day.

What’s your business? I mean your real business? What matters most to you? Is there anything on your agenda today that reflects this priority? Long term vision is great, but we also need to make a habit of taking care of today’s business today.

See if you can complete these two sentences.

1. My real business is __________.

2. I will develop it today by doing this: _______________.

If your real business is following Jesus, then do something today that makes you more like him. Give. Love. Serve. Forgive. Show mercy. Develop your business (your real business) first, before doing anything else.

In football, if you’re good, chances are better than 90% that you’ll finish the season with a loss.

Each year 12 teams make the playoffs, but only one wins the championship.

Champions spend the offseason reveling in glory and reliving the victory. The other 11 teams often spend the offseason rehashing the mistakes and reliving the disappointment.

It’s actually different for the not-so-good teams. They have time to come to grips with their mediocrity. Midway through the season, most of them knew this wouldn’t be their year.

But the teams that make it to the post season keep their hopes alive until that final loss. And it’s often a last-minute, heart-breaking loss.

THE COST OF  BEING GOOD

That’s the price you pay for being good. Great teams and/or great players can’t win every championship. But they often get close, and those are the losses that really hurt. Those who reach for greatness suffer losses that the run-of-the-mill can’t fathom.

It’s the same with you.

If you seek to be among the best, you will also suffer setbacks bigger than the rest.

Which do you think hurts more: losing the contract you worked so hard to win … not getting the promotion you worked so hard to earn …  failing to reach the out-of-reach goal you set for yourself … or … watching your favorite contestant get voted off the island? Which hurts more? Which one do you aspire to be?

You’ve heard all your life that only those who dare to dream big can achieve big. That’s true. The flip side is that those who dare to dream big also get hurt big. You face bigger setbacks and feel bigger disappointments. It’s all part of the quest to accomplish something worthwhile with your life.

WHEN THE SEASON ENDS TOO SOON.

If you feel like your season has ended a little earlier than it should have, remember the words of Micah…

Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. (Micah 7:8)

In the verses that follow, Micah talks about bearing the brunt of our mistakes, receiving forgiveness, and experiencing restoration. And he says once again about the God we serve: “He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.”

Maybe once or twice you’ve had a season end too soon. We all have. The good news is that there’s always a season to come. God is bringing it your way.

Brennan Manning tells this story.

One day GK Chesterton was approached by a London reporter on the street, who said, “Sir, I understand that you have recently become a Christian. May I ask you a question?”

“Certainly,” Chesterton replied.

“If the risen Christ suddenly appeared and stood behind you at this very moment, what would you do?”

Chesterton took a moment to look the reporter in the eye, then said, “He is.”

Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. (Luke 23:31)

There’s an ancient proverb that says “The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.”

We’ve all witnessed signs and wonders at various times: miraculous healings, divine provision, supernatural interventions — things that can only be attributed to God. These are miracles, it’s true. But the greatest miracle is that God can take your broken life and put it back together.

The greatest miracle is that in spite of trouble or hardship or persecution or danger … “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)

The greatest miracle is that he gives us the power to live … the power to walk on the earth, in victory, day after day.

2011 is the 400 year anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. Even though the version we read is the Oxford standard text edition from 1769, the year 1611  marks the date of its introduction. It is without a doubt the most important Bible translation in history, and even in its fifth century of existence, still profoundly eloquent.

Here’s an idea. Reintroduce yourself to the King James Version this year. It may take some getting used to, since the Elizabethan age prose can be unwieldly at times. But it’s also eloquent beyond description. There are certain texts that the King James Version expresses better than any other. Exploring the KJV can help renew your passion for God’s word.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

December 1863, during the height of the Civil War, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow received news that his son had been wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church. Longfellow had struggled much of his life with depression, and having had lost his wife only two years before, the news of his son’s wounds was difficult for him to bear.

On the morning of Christmas, as Longfellow sat down at his desk, the bells of a nearby church began to chime. Longfellow listened, and as he thought about their significance, he wrote these words…

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,
God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

This poem was put to music and has been sung by just about everybody. It was Johnny Cash’s favorite song. Here’s a video of him singing it on a Billy Graham special.