Easter's answer to terrorism

     The current situation of terrorism has many on edge and fearful of what will come next. That encourages us to give in to messages of safety through attacks and restrictions on others. However, there are lessons in the gospel against these types of reactions. You see, the Jews were under two different and powerful threats: the Romans who could take their freedom and their lives and the Jewish establishment who could take away their identity and their soul.
     Jesus first disarms the Jewish establishment of their power through the forgiveness of sins, a restoration of those formerly outside of their religious tribe. His healing of the sick began with a pardon of sin. When questioned,  he answered which was more, important, not the physical healing but the spiritual one. As we can atrest, it is the psychological scars that wound us greater than the physical ones.
    Then he confronted the Roman power of life and death. He modeled the courage of facing the cross that his disciples in turn followed. It was not the pain and death, it was and is the fear of pain and death. The conquering of the fear in the Garden of Gethsemane was the preface to the conquering of the social status quo.
     In the miltary, a sizable percentage of the training is the overcoming of personal fears. At the outset of our involvement in the Second World War, the admonition was that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. In scripture, Paul clarifies that our war is not of flesh and blood but one of spirit. Will we allow fear to turn us away from being the better people, the more loving, the more faithful, the more hopeful people that we can be?

Your Brand of Leadership

It has been amazing to watch the emergence of the power of brand to the national race for the nation's leader. Obama was famous for establishing and using his brand to propel him to the White House. Now, we see a newbie in political races use his mastery of brand cultivation and management to vault to the lead in his party. Each candidate has their own identity and brand in this election, whether it's feel the Bern or young Marco, each candidate is attached to their brand.

What about you? What is your identity? What do people think when they think of you? Do you know? How have you contributed to it? What can you do to shape it? What kind of brand do you want? Whose brand do you admire? Why? Is it written down, concrete, or amorphous?

These are questions that can help focus you on what qualities you admire and value. That can help you more effectively know why you lead and what you want to change. It can also help your followers understand your brand and work to support it to improve the organization.

We are influencers in our groups, not controllers. As organizations become flatter, the skills at influencing rather than commanding become more valuable. It helps others to know where you're coming from to align to where you want to go. A clear brand helps others do that and gives them an expectation of things to come. In this era of uncertainty, clear expectations are welcomed.

A Bright Hope For Tomorrow.

I am so excited that a goal and dream I have been pursuing for almost 10 years is coming to fruition. I have been selected to be the middle school principal at New Diana middle school. They want me to start as soon as possible. We just started Spring Break but I feel like I need to hit the ground running. I have been focusing on building my leadership skills and I want to take advantage of all that preparation. This is my last semester before I become a Doctoral candidate. I take my comprehensive exams the last week of March and my oral exams the first week of April. I will also be presenting my research on April 7th. That is quite a couple of challenges all at once but I can do it. And once I do it, it is done!

I have been at this for quite a long time. My first interview for principal was a few years ago. That is when I was getting started with my superintendent certification which led me to the Doctorate program. I have read, researched, and written more than I can remember on different areas of educational leadership which is unfortunate, because I am going to have to remember them all here in a few weeks!

We had a timely sermon on living by faith this morning. It was a fitting message as I have been feeling like the extra time, money, and effort may be for nothing. Live by faith and not by sight. Fear not, for I am with you. In research terms the word is self-efficacy. I don't believe in self-efficacy. I have seen well trained people lose out to bad luck. I believe in God-efficacy. He sees us, has plans for us to prosper and have a future. We just have to have enough faith, patience, hope, and persistence. Pray for me and both the school and district I am leaving and the one I am going to be serving. For if God is not with us, we work in vain. But, if we wait on the Lord, we will rise up, as if on wings of EAGLES!