Ordinary Visionary

New Pages In The Portfolio

I'm trying to keep this site, including my portfolio, more updated, so I've added a few of my most recent projects for STATUS to the design portfolio on this site. So if you didn't know that there was even a portfolio section of this site here's your chance to see what I do in my "free" time.

Here's the link:
http://www.ordinaryvisionary.com/photos/portfolio/

Organic Meats and Little Pink Pills

Several weeks ago I made the decision to go (mostly) organic, restricting all of the meat and most of the other animal products I consume to organic-only. I figured I'd update you here because the journey has been a bit of a wreck and I'd hate for you to make the same decision without knowing what may be ahead of you.

First, eating out is a challenge because suddenly you're The Tree Hugging Vegetarian who can order all of two things on the average menu. But somehow that becomes second nature after a while, right around the time you realize that you're spending on average $2 less than you were on the average meal. You'll need those extra $2 bonuses to pile up for when you go to the grocery store and suffer the sticker shock of buying organic meats. (You may even consider going vegetarian if only for the cost, but you'll come to your senses after a moment and continue on with your shopping.)

I know that every body (two words intended) is different, but the effects going organic has had on my body have been extremely unpleasant. For the first five days or so, I didn't notice the difference. My friend Kate had warned me about hot flashes and cold sweats and fevers, but I figured by this point that I was home free. Around day six, though, I noticed that I was increasingly nauseous after every meal. I started having dizzy spells and hot flashes and breaking out into cold sweats at random inconvenient moments.

And then (around week four) my digestive system just stopped working. I noticed after about four days and took two little pink pills, which was probably the worst punishment I have ever put my body through. After another week, I did it again, the second time taking half the dose but having no less of the side effects. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say I have never come so close to having my eyes dislodge from my skull from my wide-eyed response to pain.

All that said, I'd do it again if given the choice, almost because of the reaction my body has had. The one thing I would change is the little pink pills… I'm pretty sure it's the closest thing I will know to the pain of childbirth without actually giving birth.

One more thing...

Vance and I are finishing Sex God (Zondervan) this week. It has really changed our perspectives on some important relational issues. More to come on that later, but I just wanted to throw it out there now in case you were looking for a book that will challenge your thoughts in that area.

Peace.

"Father God, I feel silly..."

It's Wednesday, the day of the week I have set aside to think my most brilliant thoughts in the three hour time span between eating dinner alone after work and the hazy buzz that settles in my mind around 10pm. I am writing this after midnight, so expect nothing brilliant and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

I suck at taking a Sabbath, the glorious Saturday I read about in the Bible and regard as something only a few Messianic Jews I know get to do. And so Wednesday evenings, between 7 and 10, I don't schedule anything apart from eating and perhaps having a good thought or two to put down in a blog.

I've been sick for weeks in some form or another, and although the post-10pm haze seems to be there 24 hours at this point I have been forcing myself to function at highest capacity. And so I do things like start a prayer in a leadership meeting with "Father God, I feel silly" or write a song on the PayPerPost boards to entertain Posties into the wee hours.

So while I get frustrated with how difficult it has been to maintain my normal pace these past few weeks I'm thankful that I'm surrounded by people who have a sense of humor enough not to notice, or care.

Working on the cure for the pseudo-Sabbath… thinking I might try out the real thing this week. :)

Progressive Bifocals

I have this pair of incredibly expensive eyeglasses. The frames are nice — very thin and (I'm told) very chic — but that's not where the money's at. The money is in the lenses. And while I don't know much about the physics of a bifocal lens, I do know that the the top of the lens by the eyebrow starts near-sighted and, as you follow the lens down toward the cheek, it gets progressively more far-sighted.

A couple of years ago these lenses were prescribed to me to target something strange my eye muscles were doing that I still don't understand. The idea, I am told, was to stop my eyes from over-focusing when they got too close to an object, and smoothly adjust back when I looked away from the object at something in the distance.

For some reason these lenses came to mind the other day as I was missing the connection I had with my ladies every Thursday night. Track with me for a minute, because this made sense at the time…

God made the eyes an incredibly complicated, irreplaceable part of the body. Fully functioning eyes can adjust from focusing on something far away to something nearby in an instant. They can go from light to dark, closing and opening the "aperture" without a thought.

In scripture we're taught to "see" the world with our hearts and minds, not just our eyes. And that kind of sight doesn't move so seamlessly between near (really seeing what is inside of us and what needs our attention in the world immediately surrounding us) and far (taking in both the beauty and the brokenness of the world outside our physical reach — both the "unseen," mystical world and the things taking place outside our neighborhoods).

The girls on Thursday night were like those fancy bifocal lenses, helping me to see and understand the things going on in my heart and in my narrow slice of the world, while at the same time opening my eyes to the world at a distance. To Thailand and China and Africa, and to Downtown Orlando (which sometimes doesn't look much different). In Paul's metaphor of the Church as Body, they were an incredibly well-trained eye.

Sometimes I need help seeing, and sometimes I need help "seeing"…

A Brief Thought on Leadership

I have two regular drinks at Starbucks, a double tall toffee nut latte and an iced venti caramel macchiatto. At first my habit tripped up the baristas at the downtown Starbucks, but eventually they grew to smile when they remember which of my two regulars I am going to order.

On this particular morning, though, the person taking my order was a manager, who was training a new employee. As the barista called out my order I nodded in agreement, and I watched the manager repeat my order aloud without looking at his trainee, type a few keys, and hand me my receipt. He repeated this again and again as I waited for my latte.

I wonder if the manager even knows his apprentice's name.

I wonder if the trainee picked up any of what just happened on the other side of his trainer's back.

Because leadership isn't about showing someone all the neat tricks you know how to do. It's about stepping back and helping someone else to develop those tricks in himself. Watching her make the same mistakes you made, and even a few you didn't. Doing whatever you can to serve him in his efforts at following your example.