GLS day two

For the first time I didn't stay to the end of the GLS. I think I was tired and wanted to get home in order to do some work. To be honest, I'd probably have spent much of the last session thinking more about what I should have been doing than what I was listening to for the last hour.

The GLS seems to have changed. There are now more talks, but some are shorter, two to a time slot, than before. This is helpful because you get a wider range of topics and themes, but the struggle is in the processing of the information. Maybe that wore me out!

Today we heard an excellent talk from Dan Pink about motivation. I blogged about an animated version of one of his talks sometime in June (here it is). It's a really interesting thing to think through, the whole issue of motivation. And what is really interesting to think about  is why people do things that fall outside of the typical expected motivations of pleasure and reward. Why is it, for example, that highly skilled computer software developers would spend their spare time creating an operating system? But if they didn't, we would not have Linux.

We also had a talk from someone whose name escapes me at the moment, and I could go and look at my notes, but I'm tired. Jeff Manion, or something like that. Anyway, he talked about the desert place and what can happen there. Positive stuff about transformation and discipline, but also some challenging stuff about complaining and grumbling.

I remember him describing a day when you've experienced some tough stuff, faced criticism etc., and you come home to discover "Complaint" has moved into the guest room and used up all the drawer space. It's easy to give space to Complaint, and Complaint resists eviction. It sneaks back in. The only way to get Complaint out is to let Trust in. They don't make good room-mates. Trusting God that he knows and understands, that he is working out his purpose in his time.

Then we had a session with two talks, actually two interviews. One with the man who started Toms shoes. If you don't know, and I didn't, Toms shoes gives away a pair of shoes to a shoeless person in the disadvantaged world for every pair of shoes they sell in our advantaged part of the world. The second interview was with Jack Welch, the one time CEO of GE. Very interesting.

What touched my heart most about the second interview was the way Bill Hybels was able, in a non cringe-worthy way, to have a spiritual conversation with Jack Welch. I would say I wish I could do that, but I won't. Instead I'm going to pray that God would give me the gifts I need in order to do that.

And then I snuck out and came home. I bought the DVD set, so I can watch these and other sessions later. But for now, once again I've learned a lot from the two days and there is much to process and apply.