Take 5

In my first blog as “Take 5” I wrote about biking and the importance of focus.  Navigating bridges, gates and narrow sections requires focus.  Where your eyes go, your bike will follow. I know this from personal experience after some close encounters with bridges, trees, and fences. A fact I was reminded of yet again as I jumped on my bike after many months of not riding.  I so easily get distracted by the scenery and wander off track. If I eye up a narrow entrance onto the bridge, get nervous about it and my eyes fixate on it – yep, I hit it every time! Ouch! "Just look a little ahead, Kathy, watch what you focus on!" I mutter yet again. Right now, in the middle of the Covid-19 drama, there are so many competing demands, complex issues and very real human dramas. In crisis how do you lead? We have watched global leaders do well and some, do poorly. How do you determine the important from the urgent, or where to focus and the right way forward?...

It’s exciting to see something you have read about in a book with you own eyes. It is a “pinch me” moment!  I had one of those moments when I watched a canal boat make its way up a canal in Birmingham. I watched it go into a lock, waited as the water filled up bringing the boat up to the level of the next segment of the canal and watched as the lock at the other end opened to let the boat out.  Suddenly, what I had read made tremendous sense.  Waiting, being locked in, is part of the journey. For a time, the canal boat is locked in.  It cannot go back, and it cannot go forward, it must wait for the water to lift it up or down depending on which way it is going.  Being “locked in” is not in our psyche though. We see being “locked in” as a negative, as a prison but if we are trusting God to lead us and guide us, being locked in is a ‘natural’ part of the plan. David caught this concept in Psalm 139:5 “ You hem me in behind and before,   and you lay yo...

Through this COVID 19 lockdown, I have been deeply impressed by the power of teamwork. I am seeing it among my staff team  at Church Unlimited as they work together to "do" church in a new and shifting environment. More importantly I am watching "team" at work in our nation.  In the NZ Herald, Saturday 11 April, there was an article on Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the Director-General of the Ministry of Health.  This man has risen to prominence in the midst of the crisis showing calm, wise leadership. It was a great background article, but it was this comment by professor David Johnston, an expert in disaster management, that caught my attention " – leadership is not just an individual. “Leadership is a system as well. It’s a ministry that’s doing it – it’s the team that’s wrapped around it.”   Dr Bloomfield, when questioned about his leadership, speaks of the team he has. This is not a one person task, there is a whole team of dedicated, talented men and women ...

The jigsaw is scattered over the table and shouts "holiday time". Its become a ritual when work stops and life stops between Christmas and New Year. I indulge in the luxury of being captivated, well maybe obsessed, with a jigsaw puzzle. Nothing too difficult you, understand, just a small puzzle – a 1000 pieces perhaps.  At first it always looks easy and I am convinced I am going to knock it off in a few hours.  I never do. I spend hours poring over the thing – manipulating pieces, finding pieces, looking at the picture on the cover, trying the corner, then the middle, back to another corner.   I am not systematic and for a long time the puzzle looks chaotic.   I get frustrated and walk away, only to be drawn back again for another go. I can’t let it go.   It needs to be finished! There are times when it seems life is like a jigsaw puzzle – scattered and chaotic – nothing making sense. A few pieces start to make sense and could possibly fit together, ...