June 06, 2014

The Single Story

June 06, 2014/ Ron Hudson

Today I called my dad, and when I pulled up his contact info there is a picture of Dad in a tux from when he went on a cruise several years ago.

My dad is a pretty classy guy, but he doesn't wear a tux every day lol.

This is actually a reoccuring theme. See I have profile pictures of hundreds of people in my phone. Many are of students that I had in youth group 10 years ago.

Some are married, and have real jobs and adult lives now, but I still have their myspace pic of them in the akward stage wearing an August Burns Red t-shirt.

It's easy to see myself as a growing changing person.

I know what I've started, and stopped since last we hung out. I know what books I've read, experiences I've had, and character building pains I've endoured.

I don't know any of that about you unless I see you all the time. It's so easy to label a person based on our last interaction with them. This label becomes the "Single Story" that we then filter all our future interactions through.

It's hard to see others as growing changing people.

I first got this idea of a single story from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who gave a ted talk on this.

http://www.ted.com Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

So who have you labeled with a single story? We must acknowledge others ability to fail, grow, and change around us. Or we become a single story of judgement, criticism, and prejudice.

If you don't allow others to add chapters to their story, then you won't get to add to yours.

June 03, 2014

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) Cover

June 03, 2014/ Ron Hudson

10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) CCLI: 6016351 Authors: Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman

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10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)

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June 02, 2014

Pencil Leadership

June 02, 2014/ Ron Hudson

My son brought his homework for me to sign. I have to sign his homework sheet saying I saw it and it is complete.

So I go to the refrigerator. After learning that our kids will spread pencils all over the house if they can reach them we keep the pencils in a cup on top of the fridge.

I had a problem though. I didn't have a pencil sharpener handy, and I needed a pencil that I knew was ready to write. The problem was that All I saw were a bunch of erasers.

How do you pick a pencil when all you see are erasers? You pick the one with a used eraser. If the eraser is worn then I know somebody has used this pencil. A pencil with a perfect new eraser may not be sharpened at all. A pencil with a worn eraser has seen some stuff. It has written before, and was used to fix and rewrite.

The pencil with the worn eraser may not stand as tall in the cup because it's been sharpened. It doesn't look as clean and polished, but it is ready to write.

Even if the writing end is dull it only takes a spin or two in the sharpener because it's already broken in.

We are often attracted by the newest and tallest leaders in our lives. We want the new guy or gal that has "potential".

In I Samuel 9 we see Saul described before he is chosen king.

1 There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. 2 And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.

Notice he was the most handsome, and the tallest. He looked like a leader. There was one major problem. He had no character. Or more accurately he had bad character.

One indicator a leader has bad character is they never use their eraser. Bad leaders never own and fix their mistakes. It's always someone else's fault. There are always excuses why they didn't do the right thing.

If you read I Samuel you'll see that King Saul fails royally, and even when caught red handed he says to Samuel I've done exactly what God told me to do. He lies, covers up, and makes excuses.