Who leads while we wait for the Leader to show up?

I get discouraged easily when organizations stop all forward movement when a vacancy appears in a key leadership position.  I understand wanting to allow the new leader the freedom and ability to chart their own path towards a vision, and sometimes that means holding back on some progress in the interim.

Sometimes, however, those interim periods stretch out to be much longer than you had anticipated.  In the mean time, things are becoming stagnant, and people who wish to contribute toward achieving goals become frustrated.

My friend’s church is without a senior pastor right now.  In the interim, lay people have been filling in behind the pulpit.  This past Sunday, it was my friend’s turn to preach, so we went in support of him.  One of the many things he said that has stuck with me is that he is proud of how well the church has been doing without a pastor to guide them.  People have really stepped up and continued to lead the church.  So often the opposite happens.  A pastor leaves, and the flock scatters, or becomes complacent.  The new pastor then has a lot of rebuilding to do.  I’m confident this will not be the case for my friend’s new pastor.

If an Air Traffic Controller forgets about a plane left lingering in the holding pattern, eventually the problem will work itself out.

The people at my friend’s church have taken over the ATC’s job, and are doing a great job.  They should be proud of their efforts.

Multimedia message

Multimedia message

Originally uploaded by Bradc314

Haley is an Honor Prim!

Haley and Jenna go to a local church on Wednesday nights and participate in MPact, a club for girls.  In her two years as a Prim, Haley has completed all 18 badges, making her an Honor Prim.

I’m a pretty proud dad.

Old Blog, New Blog

I started this WordPress blog on May 7, 2008, and at that time, I mentioned that I had an old blog, but never really did much with it.  Today, I found a tool to import blog posts from Blogger to WordPress, and figured I’d grab my old blog.

I guess I didn’t realize it, but I actually wrote stuff on that old blog that I feel like keeping.  So, that information is now incorporated here.

Yesterday I worked with a friend to test the privacy of this WordPress blog, and I was not happy at all how it worked.  So, I guess I’ll either need to keep this blog completely private, or make it public and just mark certain posts private.  That, of course, will completely change the audience, so I need to mull this over some more.

For now, I’m the only one reading.

Cricket

Cricket and Brad

Originally uploaded by Bradc314

Today is May 23rd, an anniversary. Three years ago today, I had to say goodbye to an old friend: my dog, Cricket.

Back in the late summer/early fall of 1987, my grandfather was very ill, and it didn’t look like he would be with us much longer. My dad and my brother hopped into the car and went to Arkansas to be near Grandpa. It turned out that this was not Grandpa’s time yet, so Dad and Neal headed home. With a passenger.

Cricket was only four weeks old at the time, and probably too early to take from her mother, but the conditions she was living in, she probably would not have lasted much longer. My Dad rescued Cricket and brought her back home with him. Mom was not pleased. At first.

Cricket quickly became a member of the family, and after I moved away, she was a good companion for my mother.

Cricket was with us for 17 years, long enough for my oldest daughter to get to know her and play with her. It was sad to let her go, and a little sad today as I remember her. There will never be another dog like her.

Just trying out a mobile…

Just trying out a mobile blog entry using Jott and WordPress. listen

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Here we go again…

As I write this post, I’m back in the waiting room at Midwest Sports Medicine.  This is never a good way to start a day.  It’s been about four years since I’ve been here, and I’m not real happy to be back.

I’ve had problems with my right knee since High School.  Four years ago I had a microfracture procedure on it to hopefully extend its life.  I’m hoping to get another ten years out of it before I switch to titanium.

My bad knee is not what brings me here this morning, though.  It’s the joint formerly know as my Good Knee.  The other day out of the clear blue sky I started having brief, extreme pain in my left knee.  It feels like something is getting pinched in my joint.  I’m guessing a torn meniscus.

Last night we took Dan to the Weber Grill Resturant for his birthday dinner.  I was supposed to go golfing with my dad and friends, but because of my knee, I couldn’t go.  A mixed blessing, I suppose, because I was able to have a nice evening with Becky’s family.  My knee was hurting a lot, so Haley grabbed my hand and said, “Here, I’ll help you walk, old man.”  The only one who seems to be enjoying my old age is Haley.

As I was writing this post, I was called in to see the Dr.  It seems he’s thinking I have a torn meniscus as well, and scheduled an MRI for Monday.

Mother’s Day, 2008

Becky really surprised me this year with what she wanted to do on Mother’s Day.  She chose the Volo Auto Museum.  Becky’s never been a ‘car person’, but maybe after 16 1/2 years, I’m wearing her down (probably in more than one way).

After church we met Cathy and Dan at our house and drove together to Volo.  We spent a cold, rainy afternoon looking at some very cool cars.  They had a Rolls Royce limo that Princess Diana once used there.  I think that may be why Becky was interested in going.

We saw some very cool cars.  Dan was fascinated with the old Mustangs.  They reminded him of the 1967 ‘Stang he used to own.  I saw a beautiful 1957 Chevy Impala there that I would have loved to drive.  For a mere $50,000, I could have had that pleasure.

It was a fun day.

I have a feeling that we’ll be at the Botanical Gardens for Fathers Day…

522 Devonshire Lane, Hoffman Estates, IL

When I was five, my family moved to 522 Devonshire Lane.  I remember getting off the school bus from Kindergarten, and when I headed left toward the new house, the bus driver tried to correct my path.  I instead corrected her, and told her that we just moved (three houses down).

I ran into our new, empty house, and ran straight for the room of my dreams.  The one with out my brother in it.  I burst into the room and claimed it much as I imagined knights claiming new territory for their king.  Much to my chagrin, that was not the room my parents had picked for me.  I was the third boy; the baby.  I was to occupy the smallest of the bedrooms, the one with the window that was hard to look out.

When my oldest brother, Neal, moved out to go to college, I thought for sure it would be time that everyone bumped up a room, and I would finally get the room of my dreams.  That was not to be.  Eventhough Neal was never home, his stuff occupied “my” room, as he and my other brother, Steve, swapped rooms.

By the time I finally got the room that I had claimed so many years earlier, it was no longer the room I desired.  I wanted the BIG room downstairs.  I had five more years to wait until that one was to be mine.  I never really understood why Neal always got his pick of the rooms, even when he wasn’t at home.  I guess that was his entitlement as the oldest son.

While Neal and Steve swapped rooms, I was the only one who had the priviledge of calling each of the bedrooms (well, except for the master) mine at one point or another.

In the Beginning, there was a Blog…

It’s Wednesday evening, and Jenna is not feeling well.  I took Haley to Missionettes tonight, and while she’s there, I’m hanging out at the Marengo Public Library.  We didn’t want Jenna to feel bad for having to miss church today.

I’ve set up several different blogs in the past, and they never really caught on.  I think that’s because I never feel like I have anything important to say to the world in general.  I think this blog will be different.  This is for me.  I don’t pretend that I have anything important to say, and some, if not most, of my posts will be kept private.  This is just a place for sharing what’s going on in my life.  My kids may find that interesting someday in the future.

My mother is 72 this year.  I’ve often encouraged her to write memories of her life to share with her grandkids when they’ve reached an age of actually caring about such things.  I don’t think she has ever written anything.  I think she feels she needs to have her thoughts clearly organized and well thought out.  I realized some time ago that while I’m encouraging her, I should really be doing the same thing.  I’ve procrastinated long enough.  Please don’t expect these postings to be frequent or chronological.  As I feel the need, I will write.  Hopefully I wll feel like it often.

Okay, that’s enough of an introduction.  Time to start writing stuff.