Oh the fires have been a burning, and the people have been a protesting.

 

Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Oh the fires have been a burning, and the people have been a protesting. 

One of the questions that I continually ask myself is, "How do I lead effectively through chaos?" 

Leading when times are good is easy.

Leading when times are hard is a bit more difficult

Leading in Chaos is the hardest of all. 

We are in a pandemic.

We have political tension that brings people to a place of, "Does one wear a mask or not?"

We have a media that screams at people for gathering at events and not wearing masks, yet at the same time cover protests with hundreds of people not wearing masks and not a peep from the network.

We have wildfires burning homes and communities and people laying blame and others making excuses.

Chaos is defined as, "Complete disorder and confusion." According to Webster's anyway.

We supposedly live in a free country, but as Viktor Frankl writes in Man's search for Meaning, "Freedom is only part of the story and half the truth…That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplanted by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."[1]

Laurie and I have gotten into the habit of watching old gameshows, we find them on YouTube.

We watch them because we are old. 

We watch them because they remind us of days gone by. 

We watch them because we find how people treat each other and the way they speak is so foreign to the way people treat each other and speak to each of today.

This chaos we live in did not happen overnight.

It did not happen after the last election.

No, it was a much slower process. A process no-one really noticed. 

Somewhere along the line it became everyone else's fault. 

Everyone is the victim.

Chaos.

Chaos happens when we take our eyes off our neighbor's well being and place it on ourselves.

Jesus told us about the good Samaritan.

He also told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. 

Chaos happens when we do not help our neighbor

Chaos happens when we do not love our neighbor.

If the Statue of Responsibility encompassed being responsible for our neighbor's well being along with the planet God entrusted us with, then we just might have something.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger  

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[1]Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, (New York: Touchstone Books, 1984), 134.