Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Three Obstacles to Vision

I found some comments interesting yesterday in Carson Pue's book, Mentoring Leaders.  He mentions three characteristics that sometimes blur a young leader's sense of vision (82).  Putting them in my words:

1. Too many things they are able to do.
If a person only has one gift or area of interest, it's pretty easy to have a clear sense of direction.

2. Too many things they are doing.
The more involved you get, the more your life runs on autopilot and you don't stop to focus on a vision.

3. They proceed without self-awareness.
So they do not eliminate things that hold them back or mistake personality for God, etc...

P.S. I think Pue's preface is a cop-out.  Alternating between masculine and feminine pronouns is only "distracting and confusing" (12) if you do not fully see them as interchangeable.  Masculine pronouns are no longer generic to modern readers.  When I see "he," I think "he" and not "she."  If you really believe women can be leaders, it hurts nothing to vary your pronouns.  It's hard for me not to think his decision to go with all masculine pronouns is simply a move to placate the typical reader of this sort of book, despite his preface comments to the contrary.

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