Shadows and Light 07: Fear Not

I was up the face of the cliff about 100 feet. I had joined the local Jerusalem rock climbing club for a day in the wilderness. The rocky cliffs in this barren area of Israel are where David fled from King Saul. I was there taking it all in, exhilarated at the...

Shadows and Light 06: Failure

We are all a mixed bag with shadows and light. We want to be light-bringers, but if we are really honest, we don’t always do it that well. Especially when things are not going well. Expectations from others (or from ourselves) put pressure on us to perform. We want...

Shadows and Light 05: Functional Atheism

When I first read Parker Palmer’s phrase “functional atheism” applied to Christian leaders, I resisted it. How can it be that the very ones seeking to point people to God can be functionally atheist?! Until I read further. There can be a disconnect between what we...

Shadows and Light 04: Chaos

Shadows and Light 04: Chaos This is #4 in a series on Shadows and Light in Leadership. We who are trusted with leadership have the power to project either shadow or light. That is a huge responsibility! We’d better make sure we are doing all we can to give light. But...

Shadows and Light 03: Battlefield

Welcome to our mini-series Shadows and Light in Leadership. Last time we talked about viewing life through metaphors.  Metaphors are a powerful way that we interpret and explain life. They bypass our mind and connect right to our heart. We feel it in our gut even...

Shadows and Light 02: Metaphors For Life

“A leader is someone with the power to project either shadow or light on some part of the world and on to the lives of the people who dwell there.” ~Parker Palmer~ Last time we saw how shadows and light are linked to identity. Identity is often revealed in...