Have you ever wondered what a dog sees in a mirror? I think I know. I think they think they are seeing another dog. I think when people take a close look at themselves that’s what we do. We say, “Why that can’t be me!” But it is.
Rainer Maria Rilke (author of Letters To A Young Poet) said, “I have never been aware before how many faces there are. There are quantities of human beings, but there are many more faces, for each person has several.”
I think leaders have many faces. And hence many creative leaders are complex people. I don’t mean they are unhealthy or deceptive. They just have many sides. Well, nearly all people do. But leaders have to be so many different things while being true to themselves it’s one of the exhausting things about leadership.
I have as one of my life goals to write a top 40 hit. I told my friend George that’s what I was going to do. He didn’t respond. But I am serious. I have learned when you shoot high you always hit higher than you would have otherwise. I know George just can’t put my being a church pastor talker guy with a top forty-song writer. But when I look in the mirror I see that as a possibility.
People always surprise me. They are usually far more intelligent that I am prepared to see. And at the same time more idiotic than I could imagine. It’s just the way it is. The major step into maturity is to accept that about you.
I was thinking about the power of love to change things. I have to admit that if you want to change me the shortest distance from here to there is to love me. I asked myself do I offer that same pathway often enough to others. Sometimes I don’t. It takes so much patience. And its hard work. You have to work through fatigue, irritability, and all that good stuff to get there. And love in its nature doesn’t allow you to dictate outcomes. Love is always an act of surrender to God’s outcomes.
I have a couple situations now that I know intuitively are likely to end well. But I also have to admit that fear is always the devil lurking in the bushes. Perfect love casts out all fear. I see clearly today that I am to love and let love determine the journey as well as the outcome.
I looked in the mirror just to see what I saw just now. I am pretty sure that’s me in the mirror. One thing I know whomever it is they could do a better job taking care of themselves.
