It's about the people

We had a full weekend. It was my wife's birthday, I had a leadership retreat at church, and then there was the regular stuff you do when you're not working.

Then, there was an extra event at church on Sunday night. It was called "Just Duet" where people who did't usually perform together, collaborated and provided entertainment for the gathering (there was ice cream).

It's not my cup of tea. I'm not one who typically sits around and watches others perform musical arrangements. I had a good excuse. I asked Lisa if she would be upset if I didn't go with her (she likes sitting and listening to music like this). She said, "no, of course not". Instead, I was going to hang out with our son, who was over for the weekend.

Then, at some point before the program, it hit me. The point of the program wasn't the music. The point (including these 2 sub-points) were 1) get people, who didn't know each other very well, to work together and make something pretty and 2) to get people together to spend time and fellowship...in a nutshell, the point was about building relationships.

That's when I changed my mind and decided to attend. The music was great, but that's not why I was there.

It was about the people.

Checking in

It's been a long time since I've written -- about 5 months. I posted pretty much every day for the 9 months before that. At first, I wrote because I had things I wanted to say and it was therapeutic for me, especially when I was between jobs. Then, I wrote because I'd made a commitment to do so. Finally, I was writing more posts than I had ideas to write about.

Really, how many times can you say the same thing about leadership and service? Sure, you can come at ideas from different directions, but at some point you run out of angles. There were other blogs I read pretty regularly, blogs by people much more talented and prolific than me. I even saw them struggling to write worthwhile pieces that would speak to others.

I think if I'd ever had any regular kind of following, I might have continued to write. If people had come to me for advice (and a few did), I might have kept it up.

No, I just ran out of steam.

Even though my blog never took off, there are some pretty good posts in these pages. I'm proud of them. Maybe, some day, someone who hasn't heard all these ideas from my perspective, will find a few useful.

At any rate, there's never a shortage of need for good leaders or servants. We can never study or practice enough in these areas. That's where I'm trying to go with my life...and I'm finding opportunities.

Hopefully, you will, too.