ICanLevitate

Leadership Retreat has come and gone. Every year, NCC takes our small group and ministry leaders to a campground in Falling Waters, WV for a weekend where we attempt to pour into our leaders and cast vision for this coming year. It is absolutely a highlight of the NCC calendar.

This was the first year without Dave Clark and David Russell and thus I was set to oversee the truck loading and production setup and so on. Unfortunately, I could not possibly be more disappointed with myself. I dropped 2 or 3 balls on the truck loading leaving us with 1 dead projector, a couple Wal-Mart runs, and a lot of tension. I can’t even express how frustrated I still am with myself over it all. As someone who prides himself on “making things happen,” I really didn’t this year.

However, we blew a power breaker about 10 times as a result of the building’s age and the amount of gear we setup and try to run. This certainly added stress, but was a touch out of my control. We did the problem solving steps and so on, got it up and running, with one exception… the Mac Mini that was displaying our graphics and videos got severely damaged by the power issues.

Like, “literally doesn’t know what a .app file is” damaged. (That’s an application for those unfamiliar. Think .exe file.)

There’s something funny about adversity and greatness. The two go hand in hand. What I mean is that you only ever become great when you’re faced with adversity. Think of some of the greatest sports highlights you’ve seen; each one is founded on adversity. Buzzer beaters aren’t necessary unless you’re losing with seconds left on the clock. No one throws a hail mary when they’re up by two touchdowns in the second half.

I pulled off the video. The “how” isn’t really important, all that mattered was that the videos that Andy Pisciotti worked so hard on would be seen and that the words to the songs that Steph and the band slaved over in practice would be seen and sang by those who didn’t know them.

Last night, as we sat snowed in, a few people carried on about how amazing the job I did was. I smiled and thanked them for their kindness and their compliments, but was internally still deflated from my shortcomings on Friday. There’s another lesson here, I think. Not only does your adversity bring the best out of you, it is those moments that people will remember you by. No one is going to remember Willie Mays by his strikeouts or his errors. They’re going to remember Vic Wertz hitting a long ball to center field of the Polo Grounds and “Say Hey” making a catch that seemed impossible.

What I don’t know is how Willie remembers himself. How did he feel after that game? Was he thinking about “The Catch?” Or was he thinking about going 0-3? Because he did, in that very game. What went through his head that night at home?

I guess that’s what I’m wrestling with.