Invest In Others

Keep expanding your footprint. God told Joshua he would give him everywhere he could put his foot down. If you don’t put your foot forward and down you won’t get the land, nor do you deserve to. This speaks of our responsibility to grow, step out and take new ground. Some of our team came into Nashville for an event. The next day we met at the Tennessee State Capitol to work on both spiritual and practical strategies in preparation for the new incoming governor. Senate floor Tennessee State Capitol. August 31, 2018.

Bought these shoes fifteen years ago at an incredible sale; $24.00 at Macy’s in California. They were an unbelievably thoroughly disgusting ugly tan. Immediately switched to blue laces and infused character into the color. Over the years they have mellowed into a naturally subdued yet brilliant harmony of browns and cognac. Now we are like old friends, been so many places together. Eventually life settles in, you become friends with your history. Like an old shoe you have been this way before and it has conformed to you and you have put your mark on it. You can blend in if you choose because you have already stood out.

In this initial season I have the challenge of being both the focus of the shot and the photographer. Here an iPhone can’t capture the true image because it just can’t balance the light and vibrant color. How about you? Finding life or your context just can’t get the accurate shot of who you really are, can’t balance your real inner worth with the color you’re trying to express it through? Well regardless, be true to yourself, be true to your own measurements. After all, if you don’t then your external image as well as your internal one will be not only off color but out of focus and bland as well.

What are people left with when you walk away. Personal presence can have a staying power. Have they been inspired, impacted, challenged, comforted or encouraged? Do you leave fresh color in your wake?

Sometimes if you really want to change your culture, redefine norms, shake up the status quo you will need to be a strange bird and Re-Frame yourself in your own world.

Thanks for all the comments on my first shoe redo from black to blue, from expected to unexpected, originality and going for it. Then there is burgundy. These were a fairly nice brown and that is the point; fairly nice.   Sometimes in life we don’t need the big changes; we simply need a sharper eye for what we have and where we want to take it. Add a little jazz, a tint of fresh dye and some polish and there you go. From fairly nice to present, poignant and purposeful.

I did blue today. It’s so important to find a way to feel and be comfortable in your own skin, even if there are parts of you that you would prefer to be different. Do I like being bald? No. Did I like having to battle cancer eight years ago? No. Some things you can’t change. But then there are things you can. Maximize those. These blue shoes were nice black shoes four days ago, but they weren’t up to my current level of creativity and expression so I redid them. I like them, I like them a lot. I pushed them in private, now they push me in public.

Love this place. Sometimes miles from nowhere can be everywhere you’re supposed to be.   In my lifetime I have probably graphed my life cycles several dozen times. Years of preparation cycles, followed by ramp up cycles that can also take years before you get perfectly positioned for a peak performance cycle that can also last years. Then comes that often necessary but unwelcome season of the scaling back down. Refinement, re-gearing, re-valuing and a new vista of the next mountain to climb, your next era. Sorry to say some of those cycles can take ten years. It all depends on how much social change, etc, you are to produce when you do show back up. It’s not that you’re unfruitful or hidden in the interim (while you may be); it’s just life is about change and changing your world. To do that you need some distinctives, and those on occasion can be developed “Miles from Nowhere”.

Is there a part of you that you keep to yourself? This picture taken in 2012 shows my knack for fashion and love of all things fast.