Yesterday during the message I gave at church I referred to The Whale Principle of Leadership: He/she who rises up and spouts off gets harpooned.
This principle is the way things work in our world. Especially now. We love to release the harpoon. I think it results in a lot of good voices refusing to rise up and be heard. It is better to play it safe, we think.
The first half of 2021 I engaged in a course with Seth Godin called The Creatives Workshop. My project was to write. It was in a diverse community of other people seeking to create where feedback and encouragement were shared. Eventually the 600ish people in the whole workshop focused into a dozen people who regularly engaged. There was a point where I made the decision to be transparent, to risk writing about real things that mattered to me in an openness that showed my convictions but also my vulnerabilities. For 115 days in a row I “shipped” (the term we used in the workshop to describe producing for public consumption) thoughts and reflections on life, loss, coaching, leadership, success, failure, ministry and random other things.
At some point we have to decide if we are going to be safe or transparent. There is a mutual exclusivity to the two words. I am going to risk the discomfort I will feel and the discomfort you may feel to make room for some things that perhaps Jesus will use to reshape our lives to more fully reflect his life in us. It probably won’t always be fun but I hope it is occasionally engaging.
Peace and grace,
David
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