TAUGHT AT THE TAJ

I remember the Taj Mahal rising into the blue sky on the pages of my geography books back in those junior high days most of us love to forget. Balding Mr. Powell was an unlikely romantic, and he impressed on us (over and over) that the Taj memorialized the memory of a great love between two unforgettable people (whose names I do not know, and I'll bet you don't either.) My niece Sara accompanied me there on a 12 hour side trip when we were in India last month.

I'll give you this--the Taj is beautiful. Resplendent marble and stone, massive symmetrical pillars, and exquisite inlaid gemstones. But truly, the Taj trip left me saying "Hmmmm..." and processing thoughts I didn't expect to think on a trip I never expected to take. Here's a half dozen musings that might trigger some thoughts in you.

1) Count on something that looks very simple to occasionally flip you on your head. This trip was "so simple", set up by a qualified travel agent, but add human foibles and sheer life to the mix, and anything can happen. We had a taxi driver who spoke no English and turned a 2 1/2 hour trip into a 6 hour trip, we rode in a taxi all that time with no bathroom stops and nothing to eat or drink. No bathroom stops makes unplanned fasting probably a good thing. This hit and run trip ended up taking so much time that our snapshots became so expensive---that's why everyone on my Christmas list is just getting a 4x6 print of me at the Taj. (Sorry, Charlie, but life calls for sacrifice sometimes.)

2) Successful journeys in life require flexibility and laughter. I hope and pray your traveling companions can always turn on a dime, laugh at the mishaps, and decide every disaster will become simply a good story to tell in a few days. Unexpected stress can either be a relationship killer or a great memory. Fortunately, Sara is the queen of spontaneous wit. We had SO many problems, and SO much laughter that we couldn't breathe for minutes at a time.

3) Rarely does anything take just the time, money, and effort you allot and plan for it. Estimate, and then up it. :-) You'll be glad you did. (The 2 1/2 hour ride was more than 6 hours; the Taj was supposed to take about a decade to build --not a speedy burial at that-- but ended up taking more than 22 years!)

4) Count on it. Some of the people who appear to be so delightfully obliging have bigger agendas than serving you. When it's over, they have their hands in your face for payback faster than you can say snap.  In India, it was tips that were demanded. Sometimes we were indignantly informed our rupees were inadequate, and treated with eye-bulging rudeness within moments of the gracious service. Back in the good old USA, it's not so much tips, but it is surely not unusual for apparent good will and simple generosity to be a cloak for "I am doing this to obligate you to pay me back in in the manner and amount I desire."

5) Beauty is wonderful, but there's a bigger purpose in life than looking pretty.  I was startled to learn that in a country with so many desperately poor ( we saw entire families sleeping on the streets everywhere, and only in a couple instances did we we see actual homes where people lived in relative comfort), a second Taj is being built in Dubai, at an estimated cost of just over $1 billion. It's part of a theme park, glamorous beyond belief. The Taj itself is breath-takingly beautiful. And cold. And empty. And useless.  Made me take an honest assessment of my own values, and how much time and effort I put into appearances that really don't matter, that don't help anyone. Better to be less breath-taking and more difference-making.

6) The most significant lesson was learned by superimposing the Taj visit over our time at Mother Teresa's very humble ministry center in Kolkata (Calcutta). Wow. The contrast couldn't have been starker. All this money and effort expended to memorialize 2 lives---and no one even knows their names or anything significant about them except that they were in love. Mother Teresa's operation since 1953 has been on a shoestring, yet heaven is replete with thousands and thousands of souls who made it there because of her. And the work goes on. She said it well: "There are no great things, only small things done with great love." Mother  regularly argued that small, sacrificial things are where the action is. Jesus felt the same: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Luke 9:24-25)

I'm still thinking.

The Big MO

Momentum is a funny thing.

You have to have it for impact and joy--when you have it, everything you do has a touch of magic, whether the thing in itself is spectacular or not; when you don't have it, you can be superb, but nothing rings the bell. When you don't have momentum, you will lose to someone not nearly as skilled or capable as you; when you have momentum, almost every ball drops through the hoop. Momentum is what makes progress possible, so it is indispensable for any success.

Teams need momentum, and individuals need momentum. Tiger Woods is a public example of incredible momentum and then NO momentum. Currently it seems he can't even buy a good game. What happened to his "Big MO" is a lesson to us. Does he have physical problems? Apparently so. But it doesn't take a psychological genius to figure out his problem is bigger that that. The guy whose touch turned everything to gold lost his Midas touch when a series of moral lapses became public. Sponsors dropped him, his wife dropped him, and the magic Mo was gone. When you are pushing a heavy weight, as long as you keep moving, the momentum will help you pick up speed. But if you stop, the momentum is gone, and it will take heroic effort to get moving again. Tiger is discovering that.

Perhaps you have discovered that as well. In you marriage, your job, your church. It may be that once you had all the momentum in the world--just to be with each other was magic. Everything you tried seemed to work. But now, things are so hard. What used to be joyful and productive is now hard work with marginal results. You seem to have hit a wall and are at a dead stop, or near it. What happens now?

I have discovered in my own life and leadership, the first thing is to own what's happening. Talk about it, get it out. But don't panic. Dan Reiland, writing to a pastor trying to regain momentum says: "There is a significant difference between urgency and panic. At no time do you want to create a sense of panic, but always a sense of urgency. Panic comes from the reactionary leadership of facing problems without solutions. Urgency comes from passion-filled leaders who believe in a cause with so much conviction that there can be no delay in carrying out that mission."

Recover a sense of urgency, and take corrective action wherever you know you have dropped the ball. Have the heart to do the hard things. And, I have found that since we are all spiritual beings, created for a close connection with the One who made us, generally lost momentum has something to do with internal issues--maybe disobedience or neglect of what's most important. So, the most urgent thing is to prioritize the Momentum Maker, the Force behind it all, and follow to the letter what He says. You can get the Big Mo back, and make incredible progress.

God says,"I am going to do something new. It is already happening. Don't you recognize it?" (Isaiah 43:19) Now, THAT'S what I'm talking about.

Wishin' Don't Make it So...

Have you ever looked at someone and wished you were where they were in life? Had what they had, went where they went, did what they did?

Well, the fact is, they didn't do what you'd like to do by wishing for it. They worked, made decisions that took them the direction they actually wanted to go, said yes to many things they preferred not to, and said no to many things they would have jumped at otherwise, if they didn't have a goal.

It's always that way. That "when you wish upon a star" song is rooted in Cinderella, not reality. Glass slippers and mice that become coachmen are splendid inventions for a magical story. So are "ships that come in" and rich uncles. But the truth is, life can be very rewarding, almost too good to be true, when we quit wishing, and start working a plan with focus.

Dreams never come true until the dreamer gets out of bed--early!--and starts mixing some elbow grease in with the stardust.

What are you dreaming about today? Dream with God, and then get to it! "God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." Ephesians 3:20