Tim, Here's another one... I had a great one on one conversation with one of my Reps yesterday. This guy has had some really bad luck but he's got a lot of great things going right now, some real progress. I always dig into what changes people are making when their performance sees such a turn around. So we made a logical list of all of the things he was doing to contribute to this turn. I just received an email from him telling me the real reason was that he begged the Lord to help him help people better. He said this should have been number one on the list we made yesterday and then asked me to check out Deuteronomy 8:17-18. This just made my day and proves my calling.

Tim, The Red Head mentioned to me last night that she mentally revisited Sunday's message while she was at work yesterday. It does make life easier when you put things in the proper perspective. A couple of years ago I read Dan Miller's 48 Days to the Work You Love http://post.ly/jd2j and he speaks to this same subject. He says "we fulfill our calling by being excellent at whatever God created us to be." He quotes Richard Foster, "The work of our hands and of our minds is acted out prayer, a love offering to the living God" and St. Augustine, "To work is to pray." Good stuff.

As I began to read this book I started matching the characters to my team members. Then I began wondering if anyone would identify me as one of these five. I hadn't thought about running the team through the book. That's a great idea. If you haven't already, read Death by Meeting. That one helped too!